Showing posts with label Economic plunder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economic plunder. Show all posts
August 02, 2012
Catalonia wants independence, not Spanish austerity
Spain's dual crises of social and economic unrest,
paired with an unprecedented loosening of the bonds that tie it together
as a nation, make it perhaps the most apt microcosm of today's European
Union - warns think-tank
Thousands of miners entered Madrid
last week, singing loudly, setting off fireworks and waving signs and
banners. Some walked as far as 250 miles from the mining regions along
Spain's northern coast. The marcha negra - black march - ended with a
violent clash with police in front of Spain's Industry Ministry
building. Over the ensuing days - labourers and civil servants rallied
throughout the city, blocking streets and railways. Some women wore
black veils as though for a funeral. The target of these protests was
the austerity package passed last Wednesday, by the embattled government
of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy - whose future, the miners
reminded him, was "darker than our coal".
The €65bn package
consists of European Union-recommended tax increases, public sector
spending cuts, city and regional government overhauls and the
liberalisation of the transportation sector. The hope is that these
measures will help the country, having recently requested up to €100bn
in European aid for its banks and avoid an international state bail-out
along the lines of Greece, Ireland and Portugal. With government
revenues and housing prices falling and debt on the rise though, it may
well prove to be a doomed effort.
And yet as workers from
throughout the country converge on Madrid for protests - a second,
altogether different, movement is gathering strength in one of Spain's
wealthiest autonomous regions - Catalonia. There, thousands have
gathered throughout the summer in towns and villages to call for much
more than an end to austerity. Their goal is complete independence for
their region of over 7.5 million from the Spanish state. Catalonia, like
the Basque Country, has a long and complicated history with
Castillian-dominated Spain. But the crippling economic crisis,
resentment over transfers of roughly 8 to 9 per cent of Catalonia's
gross domestic product to poorer parts of Spain - and incidents such as
recent Spanish Supreme Court opposition to Catalan language-immersion
programmes in the region's pre-schools has combined to form a
three-layered gift for the independentistes.
According to recent
polls conducted by the Centre d'Estudis d'Opinió, 51 per cent of all
Catalans would vote for independence from Spain in a hypothetical
referendum. This represents a six-point percentage increase in the past
four months alone. When asked the broader question of what Catalonia
should be vis-à-vis Spain, 34 per cent said "independent" - a 20-point
percentage increase since the pre-crisis days of 2006. Following the
release of the polling data, Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz
de Santamaría called on all Spaniards to understand that with the
country's other concerns "now must be a time for stability". Catalan MP
Josep Antoni Duran sought to downplay the results, arguing that a
majority of Catalans would still prefer increased autonomy over outright
independence.
Yet between now and September, more than 200
pro-independence rallies and marches are scheduled to take place across
Catalonia; building up to a massive demonstration on September 11, the
region's national holiday. The plan from there, according to the Catalan
National Assembly - or ANC - will be to organise a referendum on
Catalonia's status for the following year and proclaim full independence
in 2014. "For us, independence is a question of dignity," says Carme
Forcadell, head of the ANC. "We don't want to live on our knees within
Spain when we could stand on our own feet in Europe."
Spain, with
unemployment rates of close to 25 per cent, youth unemployment over 50
per cent, increasing emigration and expectations of long-term recession
and austerity - should be watched very carefully by policy-makers in
Brussels and Washington. Its dual crises of social and economic unrest,
paired with an unprecedented loosening of the bonds that tie it together
as a nation, make it perhaps the most apt microcosm of today's EU. As
the country drifts towards a possible state bail-out - the tightening
screws of la crisis are threatening to drive fissures through every
aspect of its social, political, and economic life; and push it into the
uncharted waters of possible, although still unlikely, disintegration.
During
the recent Euro 2012 football tournament, the uglier side of
pan-European tensions was often on display. "Without Angie, you wouldn't
be here," chanted German fans during the game with Greece, referring to
German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "We'll never pay you back," replied
the Greeks. At a wedding I recently attended in Catalonia, I found only
one fellow guest tracking the status of the ongoing match between Spain
and France and he was quietly rooting for France. "We Catalans are tired
of seeing our tax money go to Spain," he said, cringing as news of
another Spanish goal popped up on his phone. "I guess you could say we
understand how Germany feels."
Nicholas Siegel is a senior
programme officer at the German Marshall Fund of the United States
think-tank, which originally published this paper as part of its Transatlantic Take series
April 22, 2011
Former IMF Chief Economist says Catalonia would be "one of the richest countries in the world" if it were independent
CNA / F. Javier Rodríguez Baena Barcelona (ACN).
“Catalonia, as an independent nation, would be one of the richest countries in the world”, stated the former IMF Chief Economist, Kenneth Rogoff, in an interview to Capital magazine, in which he reviews the Spain’s economic situation. Rogoff, currently professor at Harvard University, defends that Spain “has many strong points” such as “excellent companies and regions like Catalonia”, but he thinks that “there is a high probability that Spain may have to be rescued”. This would be the case, as “Greece, Ireland and Portugal would have to reorganise their debt. And when this happens, markets would go crazy” and the rescue would be almost unavoidable, explained Rogoff. If Europe did not rescue Spain in that case, the entire Eurozone would be at risk and even France could fall.
The interview with Kenneth Rogoff at the 'Capital' magazine (by ACN / Capital)
Rogoff said it is “unimaginable that Europe would leave Spain to go bankrupt without lending any help”. But, “if it was to suspend payments, things would not end this way. It would spread to Belgium, Italy... and France”. The prestigious economist warns today the Spanish debt is already at “a dangerous level to deal with but if it increases another 30%, then it would not be able to be governed in any way”. Rogoff warns Europe that it should set a “red line” in the case of Spain. The former economist says that the Spanish Government has not reacted fast enough, but admits that recent reforms have strengthened the country.
March 30, 2010
The misery of being a colony
There has not been three years since the power cut that affected Barcelona in summer 2007. Then, the interruption of power supply lasted for three days and it evidenced the actual mistreatment to that Catalonia is object, not only from Spain but from the private companies managed from Spain. In that occasion, a wave of anger and protest was started on the digital media and blogosphere. Now, only a snow storm is enough to knock down electric posts in Girona and leave a big part of the North of the country in the dark for more than a week. On the third night, Vicent Partal qualified it as Intolerable. What must be it when the time doubled? The prejudice and the consequences are already more important than the ones suffered in Barcelona, and they go beyond the economical loss -said to be millions. A hundred people have been intoxicated by the fumes of generators and at least one has died due to that. The reaction, however, from the media and the blogosphere, has been notably minor. Is it because there is tiredness and resignation, or is it because the main affected is not Barcelona but the region of Girona?
To see how thousands and thousands of people have to spend their days and nights without electricity and below zero temperatures, due to lack of maintenance of the towers for many years by Endesa and REE, results with a pathetic image, more seen in a Third World country than a developed one, and that not long ago saw itself as an European economical motor. Colonist politicians have tried to centre the debate in the need for Very High Tension line (MAT, in Catalan) which only pretends to play in the interests of those companies and evade their responsibilities in no guaranteeing the maintenance of those infrastructures giving public services managed from Spain and divert the public's attention from the real problems of the people. Only direct information from citizens who see this situation from the spot allows us to have an approximate idea of the reality; experiences from elderly or infants being cold, fishermen emptying the petrol tanks of their ships to feed the emergency generators of the Hospital in Palamos, isolated families without enough food or water, people looking for a hotel or asking other relatives for somewhere to sleep or take a shower. The numbers of the thousands of consumers without electricity are watered down because always hide that with every consumer, more people from the family, from the firm, the hospital or school are affected.
In the reports by VilawebTV "Apagats" -"Switched off"- and "Passen les hores i no torna la llum" -"Hours go by and the power is not back"-, we can see the adventures that people have to imagine to carry on without electricity. On Facebook, the affected have set up a group, where the indignation for the abandonment to which these people are subject is very noticeable.
Economic plunder and the colonial condition of our Nation is manifested with all cruelty in emergency situations like this, but is a permanent practice more or less disguised. Because there is no difference in mentality between a public or private manager when there is a Spaniard in front of a Catalan consumer: the latter must pay or vote, and keep their mouth shut. It does not matter whether from the public powers or the private companies, the asphyxia to our economy and our decision capacity is an identity symbol. Spain grows and Catalonia sinks, while we allow this with our work and the taxes we pay. The incompatibility of wanting to live in Catalonia decently and defending dependency is progressively increasing. All this is another symptom of the severe decadence to which Spain is leading us, fully consciously and premeditated if we do not act urgently. The solution, as pointed by Enric Canela in his weekly article on Deumil.cat, has to be rebellion. A democratic rebellion that has already begun and that has more people reacting by adding themselves to the cause of recovering the freedom for Catalonia.
Published at "Es Poblat de'n
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