Traditional castellers (human towers) in front of a banner demanding ‘freedom for the political prisoners’ at Vila de Gràcia square in Barcelona. Jorge Sanz/PA Images. All rights reserved.On November 2, a Spanish judge sent the Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras and seven cabinet ministers to prison without bail, using an outdated penal code from Spain’s Francoist regime. Extradition warrants were also issued for Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and several of his ministers, who are currently in Brussels. Once again, thousands of Catalans took to the streets day after day to demand freedom for our political prisoners and to denounce Spain’s abuses of power and misuse of the law, culminating in the mass demonstration last Saturday, November 11 which stretched across more than a kilometre of Barcelona’s space.
With the same aims, a general strike took place all across Catalonia on Wednesday, November 8. Its novelty was the mass blocking of roads and railways, with particular focus on those leading to France and mainland Spain, in order to bring our outrage to the national and international attention with the hopes that, eventually, pressure is put on the Spanish government to stop its repressive tactics and to free the political prisoners. Abroad, it could falsely seem that the Catalan question only erupted on October 1. However, understanding our political context is necessary in order to truly make sense of how we got where we are today and why we have declared independence unilaterally.
“I regret that my protest is collapsing your transit, but your indifference is collapsing my country.”
