Close to 1 million people took to the streets in Spain to call for the release of Catalan political prisoners—but this historic gathering has fallen in line with a series of unprecedented protests in Spain, which have been virtually ignored by the mainstream media.
“Look at all the people here! The independence movement is still going strong,” Pep Morales, a 63-year-old protester told reporters as he marched with Catalonia’s main grassroots independence groups and called for the release of their movement’s leaders from prison.
As a report from The Guardian noted in October, the Spanish government “took control of Catalonia, dissolved its parliament and announced new elections after secessionist Catalan MPs voted to establish an independent republic.” Then in November, a judge ordered eight members of the deposed Catalan government to be arrested pending charges for their involvement in the declaration of independence.
The blatant and ongoing corruption within Spain’s government has been both ignored and even justified by the mainstream media. As WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange noted, while the crowd of protesters reached nearly 1 million people, it was portrayed by the local media as an insignificant, regular protest.
“Watch this video of last night’s protest of around a million people calling for Spain to release Catalan political prisoners,” Assange wrote. “Then follow this link to see how this vast crowd was depicted on the front pages of Spain’s biggest ‘newspapers.’”
Watch this video of last nights protest of around a million people calling for Spain to release Catalan political prisoners.
Then follow this link to see how this vast crowd was depicted on the front pages of Spain’s biggest “newspapers” https://t.co/qT1s6l2Q0A pic.twitter.com/GWyktzvXvB
— Julian Assange ? (@JulianAssange) November 12, 2017
In addition to using photos that failed to show the sheer magnitude of the crowd, the Spanish newspapers referenced by Assange also used titles such as “Catalonia Must Recover the Law, Coexistence and Truth,” “End of the Process,” “The Decapitated Separatism,” and “Most Catalans Support the Advancement of Elections.”
When one Twitter user questioned how there could possibly have been 1 million protesters, another user responded with a map showing where the protests occurred and wrote, “Yes… More than a million.”
Si Carmen, si….más de un millón… pic.twitter.com/iV67S0gECS
— Frederic Bosquerol (@Fredebosquerol) November 12, 2017
While the protest did not make headlines as it should have, multiple outlets were quick to report on the latest comments from deposed Catalonian President Carles Puigdemont, who reportedly is now saying “a solution other than independence is possible.”
Another Twitter user documented the hypocrisy by sharing a photo of the streets filled with protesters, next to a photo of the front page of a local newspaper, which documented just a small number of the protesters.
But this is the spanish press. No air pictures. pic.twitter.com/6yKEGrspmj
— Raül Sabaté ?️ (@RauldeFlix) November 12, 2017
While mainstream media outlets in the United States focused on anything but the massive protest, it is should be noted that if such a protest had occurred in Syria, with citizens protesting the actions of President Bashar al-Assad, both CNN and Fox News would have provided relentless 24/7 coverage.
As was shown with the latest protest, the more the citizens of Catalonia stand up against their government, the more the government will attempt to oppress them, and the mainstream media will work to cover it up.
The fact that the media continues to do the bidding of the government, even when it is supposed to act as a “Fourth Estate” holding the government accountable for its actions, is nothing new. But with the prevalence of social media, regular citizens have the ability to make their voices heard and to raise awareness about the blatant hypocrisy shown by governments such as the one in Spain.
Incredible scenes in Barcelona now as 100,000s of people are in the streets to demand the release of the Catalan political prisoners. pic.twitter.com/rC6VnClZkB
— The Pileus (@thepileus) November 11, 2017
Rachel Blevins is a Texas-based journalist who aspires to break the left/right paradigm in media and politics by pursuing truth and questioning existing narratives. Follow Rachel on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This article first appeared at The Free Thought Project.
It is very good indeed to see the shear magnitude of Spain’s citizens protesting as they did. They must not stop but continue to do the same. Power corrupts, and the people in power will do anything they can to keep their power. I hope the citizens succeed. History in the making here folks.
In some ways I’ve hope we can see a international general strike. Break the spines of corruption by taking away the currency it alleges is money. Feed yourselves, feed the people but don’t sell the food to grocers or wholesalers. Grow the food as as organically as you can, don’t use a lot if any chemical pesticides.
Continue paying taxes until they can tax no more and then keep with the people and not the Pharisees. Trading, barter can serve as great aids. No killing, no stealing and no being against any religion, gender, sexual orientation.
There are no more political parties. There is the people and that is all. When you grow or produce do so in multiples of three. One part for yourself and family, another part to trade, another part to donate to your locality be it village, tribe, city. Let the people do what is needed for the people.
Do not go into wars for the Pharisees. We no longer have any need for war save to protect those you love or yourself from physical harm or killing. If that is required do so with mercy and grace and not wars lasting generations. Break the Pharisees’ spines.
There were approximately 1.5 to 2 million of us that went to D.C. in Sept 2009 the ‘news’ reported 70,000. I have a poster to prove my numbers.
The media knows full well how far and fast this would spread if the world was able to watch. My fear is that the US, a beacon of resistance around the world, has fallen asleep. As we are programmed with Fluoride, anti-depressants, media, drugs, porno……………….sick, over weight and sprayed like bugs, we should expect nothing, not even a fake attack like 911, to awaken us. In the eyes of the world, we have become irrelevant to the cause of erasing tyrants and their political system.
For clarity, this was not in ‘Spain’ as the author alludes, but was in Barcelona, capital city of Catalonia. Counter protests by ‘Spanish nationals’ in Madrid sided with the authoritarian heavy-handedness, while the EU parliament looked the other way, said/did nothing all along. Same with all other independence-related movements around the EU region in recent years.
*Spain Imposes Military Rule in Catalonia to Preempt Independence Bid*
The Spanish Senate formally voted 214-47 on Friday to authorize the implementation of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, suspending parliamentary rule in Catalonia. It handed Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy full powers to suspend the Catalan regional government, proceed with punitive measures outlined in Rajoy’s Oct. 21 speech, and impose an unelected Catalan government answerable only to Madrid.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/spain-imposes-military-rule-in-catalonia-to-preempt-independence-bid/5615426
Back to the brink All of this comes as Spain is recovering from a painful economic crisis.
Things could get worse if its credit rating goes down, which the ” IMF” warns it will. On Thursday, Spain’s borrowing costs took the biggest leap they have done in seven months.
“Definitely it will have an impact on Spain’s credit rating,” adds Wolff, “including on the issue that Spanish debt is Spanish debt and not Catalonian debt.”
Independence supporters have long complained that they pay too much in taxes and they get little in return.What would happen to Spain in case of Catalonia’s secession? In terms of the debt sustainability parameters laid down by the Treaty of Maastricht, it’d be the Eurozone debt crisis 2.0. As Spain now maintains the second year of 3% GDP growth, an even bigger, immediate fiscal threat is looming. After multiple ineffective referendums in the previous years, this time the Catalan government is likely to finally assert independence. What will it look like against the background of the Maastricht financial requirements?
Debt to GDP ratio
The Treaty of Maastricht says it should be 60%. Spain’s debt to GDP ratio was 39% in 2007, but after the financial crisis it gradually rose to 99.4% today. Should Catalonia leave, there are two possible scenarios:
Catalonia agrees to take a share of the Spanish total debt, as a “divorce bill”, because after all it benefited from the government spending in Catalonia itself;
or
Catalonia leaves without taking any share of the total Spanish debt.
In the first case, nothing would change, assuming Catalonia would agree to take the share of Spanish debt equal to its share in Spain’s total GDP. In that case, Catalonia accounts roughly for 20% of the Spanish GDP, which means it would take 20% of the Spanish debt. Given that the Spanish debt is right now almost the same size as the Spanish GDP, calculations are rather simple.ource: Statista.
The second option is rather dramatic. Without Catalonia, Spanish GDP would automatically shrink by 20%, while having to service the entirety of the debt. The debt to GDP percentage ratio would go from 99.4% to 124% overnight.
Deficit to GDP percentage ratio
The Treaty of Maastricht says it should be 3%. Spain has been way outside it since the financial crisis, with a peak at 11% in 2011. For 2016 it was 4.5%.
Here the problem is understanding how much more tax revenue Spain gets from Catalonia than it gives. Catalonia says 11.1€ billion, Spain says 8.5€.1)Either way, as the deficit is calculated as expenditure minus revenue, it would be a hole in the revenue of the Spanish government of 8.5 to 11.1€ billion. Last year the deficit/GDP ratio was 4.5%, corresponding to approximately 50€ billion. With the Catalan secession, assuming a 10€ billion hole for simplicity between the estimates of the Spanish and Catalan governments, Spain’s deficit would go up to 60€ billion2), while its GDP would shrink by 20%. Result? The deficit to GDP percentage ratio would be 6.7%, back to 2013.
Conclusion
The doomsday scenario would be Spain waking up with a debt equal to 124% of its GDP and growing, due to the 6.7% deficit, which would take another 4-5 years to be contained. The EU’s response to the possibility of Spanish bankruptcy would be predictable: more “austerity” .
It is important to note that while Spain has been growing for the past two years and unemployment is also decreasing, the recipe chosen by the Spanish government, flexibility of the labour market in the form of temporary jobs, has exacerbated income inequality:3) as the OECD points out that temporary jobs are low-productivity and thus earn low wages; the precariousness of the job prevents improvements in productivity, thus improvement in wages. The poor remain poor, while the rich get richer and the gap widens.4)
Boosting GDP and employment statistics with mini-jobs is thus masquerading an issue common to other Western countries: the collapse of the middle class. Catalan independence could prove to be the last nail in the coffin: either Spain goes bankrupt or is forced to implement even more austerity at the risk of facing a revolution from the economically displaced.
https://gefira.org/…/spanish-debt-will-spin-out-of…/