Forty-one Spanish Civil Guard raids on Catalan government-related buildings and private homes on September 20 led to the arrest of 13 high-level Catalan government officials and harvested a lot of āsuspect materialā for the prosecutors charged with stopping Cataloniaās October 1 independence referendum. However, the raid have provoked a mass revolt in response.
The haul included 10 million ballot papers stored in a printery warehouse in the central Catalan town of Bigues i Riells.
In 1713-14, it took the troops of Spainās Borbon monarchy 14 months to take Barcelona and end Catalan self-rule. Three centuries later, Catalonia is again under siege, this time from the central Spanish Peopleās Party (PP) government.
Under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish state is concentrating all its firepower on stopping the Catalan governmentās October 1 independence referendum, where Catalan citizens will be asked to vote on whether āCatalonia should become an independent state in the form of a republicā.
Half-a-million people marched in the Catalan capital of Barcelona on August 26 to express the profound desire in Catalan society to stay tolerant, open and un-militarised in the face of the August 17-18 terror attacks on Barcelonaās Rambla and in the seaside town of Cambrils.
This was partly because the attacks ā claimed by Islamic State and causing 15 deaths and up to 130 wounded ā coincided with the tensest moments to date in the fight between the Catalan and Spanish governments over the planned October 1 referendum on Catalan independence.
Cataloniaās regional government has declared it will hold a referendum on October 1 over whether it should become independent from Spain. In response, Spainās conservative Peopleās Party (PP) Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has vowed that the āunconstitutionalā referendum will not take place, setting the scene for the biggest crisis in the Spanish state since the 1978 transition from the Franco dictatorship.
Quim Arrufat is a joint national spokesperson for the Peopleās Unity List (CUP), an organisation that he has likened to āurban Zapatistasā ā in reference to the insurgent indigenous movement based in Chiapas, Mexico ā that is committed to Catalan independence and socialism. Ā
As the battle for the right of Catalonia to vote on independence rages between the Spanish government in Madrid and the independence-oriented Catalan parliament in Barcelona, major developments have taken place in one of the most famous struggles for independence on the Iberian Peninsula ā the Basque Country.
āFearless Citiesā was the name of the inaugural international municipalist meeting that took place in Barcelona on June 9-11. It was hosted by Barcelona en Comu (Barcelona Together, the radical citizen-based coalition which runs Barcelona Council in alliance with the Party of Socialists of Catalonia).
Nothing alarms Spainās establishment more than the prospect of the unity of the Spanish state being threatened by the desire for self-determination of the peoples that live within its borders.
The struggle to build a united left force with enough support to implement real social and environmental change took a crucial step forward in Barcelona on April 8.
On a bright spring day, the new Catalan āpolitical subjectā provisionally called Un Pais En Comu (āA Country Togetherā) held its founding congress.
The group, whose definitive name will be decided by membership referendum, is the third Catalan left unity project with āen comuā (ātogetherā) in its title.
Hundreds of thousands of people overflowed the streets of central Barcelona on February 20 in the largest ever European demonstration in support of refugee rights. The city police estimated attendance at 160,000 people; the organisers ā the āOur House, Your Houseā campaign ā put it at half a million people.
All along the vast march, its thematic sea-blue placards stood out in the light of the bright winterās day: āEnough excuses! Letās take them in now!"
The sloganĀ āWe Want to Welcome Themā rang in the streets as up to half a million people demonstrated in Barcelona on February 18 to demand their government accept more refugees. It came after Spain accepted just 1000 of the 17,000 it had promised.
"It is very important that in a Europe of uncertainty where xenophobia is on the rise for Barcelona to be a capital of hope," said Barcelona'sĀ mayor Ada Colau, who took part.Ā
This year will be the year of the showdown between Catalonia and the Spanish state over whether the Catalan people have a right to vote on self-determination in relation to Spain.
The year starts with the final battle lines already drawn in the contest between the right-wing Spanish-patriotic Peopleās Party (PP) government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the pro-independence Catalan government, headed by Carles Puigdemont.