‘Every people has the god-given right to mismanage their own
affairs’
Margolis Law #3
I’ve always been a rebel,
revolutionary, iconoclast and all-around bad boy. Naturally, I have
sympathy for most revolutionary movements.
The problem is, many
revolutions don’t make political or economic sense, but they do make one feel
good – at least for a while. Revolution is the natural habitat of the
young.
So the growing revolutionary
fervor in Spain’s Catalonia region finds much sympathy, even fascination, with
this writer. I’ve been going to Barcelona, capital of Catalonia
region, since I was a teenager in the Franco era. My late godfather,
Count Ilyas Toptani, a soldier of fortune and noted horseman, married Spain’s
eccentric Duchess of Valencia. I used to visit them at their medieval
castle in Avila, and then go to Barcelona to recover.
Barcelona,
Spain’s industrial powerhouse, has always remained one of my favorite cities
along with New York, Paris, Rome, Istanbul and Tokyo. With its
glorious Gothic quarter, beach fishing village of Barceloneta, gorgeous girls
and wonderful food, Barcelona is unrivaled for fun and culture. American Raj: America ...Best
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The 7.5 million Catalans have
long been one of Spain’s feistiest peoples. With much of Spain’s industry
and arts, many Catalans often look down on the rest of Spain, and regard the
ultra-proud, snooty Castillians from the national capitol, Madrid, with unlove.
Spain seems from a distance a
solid national entity but, in fact, it is a collection of provinces that often
lack a sense of national unity and dislike their neighbors. Secessionist
movements have flared for decades in the Basque region, other parts of Galicia,
Catalonia, Valencia, Andalusia, and even the distant Canary Islands.
Most of these regions have
distinct dialects. Catalonia uses both Castilian Spanish and the Catalan
tongue which is part of the Provençal/Occitan/Gascon linguistic group.
Until 1860, 39% of southern French spoke Occitan. The French rightwing
leader Jean-Marie Le Pen told me his parents, simple fisher folk from Brittany,
could only speak Breton, not French.
Interestingly, Catalan, which
looked to be dying out, has made a lusty revival. I much like it because
I can understand and read a lot of Catalan which is not too far from
French. I’m ashamed to say I have an easier time with Catalan than formal
Castilian Spanish.
I’ve watched for decades as
the old languages of southern Europe – Gascon, Occitan, Provençal, Basque,
Piedmontese, Romansche – have come again to life. As is often said,
Spain, like Italy, is a group of languages in search of a national state.
Speaking of language,
Britain’s great writer and guide to sane thought, George Orwell, wrote an
entire book, ‘Homage to Catalonia’ about his experiences in the 1930’s
with Barcelona’s ultra revolutionary Trotskyita/anarchist/anti-Stalinist/
Marxist party, the POUM.
Having slight anarchist
tendencies myself, I’ve always been fascinated by the POUM which heroically
battled Stalin’s grip over Spain’s so-called ‘Republicans’ during the bloody
civil war. Stalin’s NKVD secret police eventually crushed the POUM but
were, in turn, defeated by Gen. Francisco Franco’s rightwing nationalists.
Spain was lucky to get Franco instead of Comrade Stalin.
The feisty Catalans are at it
again. Last week, they staged a referendum on independence from Spain
that the conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy foolishly
disrupted by sending busloads of national police from Madrid to beat Catalan
protestors. This turned a political squabble over autonomy and sharing
national payments into a major crisis that enflamed Catalan separatism.
Even so, many Catalans are against independence.
Rajoy
is an unloved right-winger who has often been accused of financial
irregularities. Spain’s new king, Felipe VI, who is supposed to remain
apolitical, joined the fray, denouncing the Catalan independence-seekers, thus
bringing the wrath of the Catalans on his head. Felipe should have been
mediating, not criticizing. War at the Top of the ...Best
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The national government in
Madrid now threatens to block any further votes, dissolve the Catalan
government, the Generalitat, and lock up many independence leaders. Doing
so would be very dangerous. Spaniards are a courageous, hot-headed people
who are not to be bullied. No one wants to even think again about the
awful 1930’s civil war whose echoes still reverberate today.
I like the idea of an
independent Catalonia. But what is it good for? Modern Catalonia is
not an oppressed nation though its taxes are too high. Its biggest
problem these days is being utterly swamped by armies of littering foreign
tourists. It could stand on its own economically but to what benefit?
Catalan
independence would surely enflame separatist movements in Canada, Scotland,
Wales, France, eastern Europe, even Switzerland.
The French say, ‘the heart
has reasons that reason does not understand.’ That’s the story with
Catalan independence.
Catalans…cool down.
Madrid, stop lording about and acting like an imperial capital. While
you’re at it, ban primitive bull fighting (Barcelona did so). Why not
move some important government ministries to Barcelona. Let the
hot-headed Catalans blow off some steam.
Spain is a wonderful country.
Por favor, don’t muck it up.
Eric Margolis [send him mail]
is the author of War at the Top of the World and the new
book, American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the
Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World. See his website.
Copyright © 2017 Eric Margolis
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