Ian Alan Paul on Tue, 3 Oct 2017 23:42:39 +0200 (CEST)


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Re: <nettime> Barcelona: nationalism, municipalism?


The radical Left in Barcelona is conflicted. People oppose independence simply because it has the tendency to subsume all other political antagonisms (see the very strange left/right coalition currently in power in Catalonia). At the same time, there is general agreement about the right to self-determination which is historically very strong in the region, and Rajoy sending in his thugs to repress the referendum certainly has done nothing but bolster the sentiment. This of course is magnified by the well-remembered history of Francoist repression in the region.

Rajoy's play is the divide the Spanish Left over the question of independence (particularly Podemos), while Catalan Independentists hope for intervention/sanctions from the EU/UN.

The real history, of course, remains to be settled on the streets. The general strike which is currently unfolding can turn and reroute the present conjuncture in any which way, and no one, even Rajoy, seems to be sure where this is all headed. Let's be attentive and ready to act in solidarity with all of those on the streets when calls to do so inevitably arise.

~i

_____________________________________

What can I do?
One must begin somewhere.
Begin what?
The only thing in the world worth beginning:
The End of the world of course.

           -Aimé Césaire

On Tue, Oct 3, 2017 at 7:14 AM, Felix Stalder <felix@openflows.com> wrote:
I think this is much more than identity politics, beyond the point that
all politics that aim at a certain broad, popular support, are also
about identity. That is, they need to address the questions of who are
"we" and what directions should "our" collective efforts should take.

Several outcomes are possible. Catalan independence (irrespective of
whether this "nation" will also gets is own "state") could either point
beyond the nation state, helping to imagine the new Europe of Regions,
as Ulrike Guérot does not tired to advocate, or it could turn into just
another enclave protecting its supposedly homogeneous identity.

There is always a danger of the latter outcome (which, to a certain
degree is what happened to Quebec nationalism in the 1990s), but it's
not preordained.

What's the sense of nettimers in Barcelona? If this an opening, or a
closure?

Felix




On 2017-10-03 08:00, Morlock Elloi wrote:
> Isn't this equivalent of identity politics, at the province level?
>
> Bunch of cute and original provinces, with unique histories, salamis,
> Gaudis and animosities, feeling so good being themselves, expressing
> their little unique patriotic feelings, and, while doing all that, being
> insignificant minions and subordinates, even bitches, of the powers that
> have no slightest intention of disintegrating into cute communes, and
> failing to join forces (or what's left of them) with other cute
> mistresses of the powers that be?
>
> Isn't it funny that the same entities that support identity politics
> support all these little independencies?
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