’Massive’ demonstration planned in Barcelona on Saturday to ’defend rights and freedoms’
Platform for Democracy, a group including 90 organizations and trade unions, organize protest against the arrest of pro-independence leaders
Civil society organizations, trade unions and other entities from the economic, social and cultural sectors have called a ’massive’ demonstration for Saturday in Barcelona to protest against the arrest of two pro-independence leaders. The Platform for Democracy, a group including 90 organizations from Catalonia, is asking citizens to attend the march on October 21 to “defend rights and freedoms”.
The presidents of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart, were sent to prison on Monday evening without bail. They await trial on an investigation for an alleged sedition crime during the peaceful demonstrations of September 20 and 21 in Barcelona and during the October 1 referendum. The chief of the Catalan police, Josep-Lluís Trapero, is also investigated in the same case, although he was released with precautionary measures and his passport was withdrawn.
The platform does not rule out the possibility of calling a strike or work stoppage in the next few days, as they did on October 3 following the police crackdown on the independence referendum.
Catalan News
* 17 October 2017 04:39 PM by ACN | Barcelona:
http://www.catalannews.com/society-science/item/massive-demonstration-planned-in-barcelona-on-saturday-to-defend-rights-and-freedoms
Calls for indefinite general strike intensify as crisis escalates
At noon on Tuesday employees stopped working across Catalonia in response to the arrests of pro-independence organization leaders
The president of the left-wing parliamentary group CUP, Mireia Boya, has defended the call for an indefinite general strike after the imprisonment of the leaders of pro-independence organizations ANC and Omnium Cultural, Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart.
In response to the arrests, at noon on Tuesday hundreds of employees from businesses across Catalonia stopped working for 15 minutes in a display of solidarity and indignation at the latest developments in this ongoing political crisis.
All activity in the Barcelona City Council and Catalan parliament has also been suspended briefly in protest to the decision made by the Spanish prosecutor.
The Barcelona mayor Ada Colau signed a decree with various pro-independence parties including CUP, ERC, right-wing PDeCAT, and the BeC, demanding the release of Sànchez and Cuixart, who have been called “political prisoners.”
The text condemns the arrests as a violation of human rights, and calls on Catalans to continue defending their rights and freedoms peacefully.
Boya said on Tuesday that a proposed general strike could continue until “the two political prisoners who have been detained and imprisoned in Madrid are released,” in a statement made to TV3, also warning that after their imprisonment without bail “dialogue is already impossible.”
Sànchez and Cuixart are being charged with sedition, accused of mobilizing citizens to protest outside government buidlings when 14 high-ranking Catalan officials were arrested by Spanish police on September 20 and 21. They are also being blamed for the organization of demonstrations outside polling stations on October 1 in order to hinder Spanish police’s efforts to put a stop to the referendum.
CUP president Boya asserted that it is up to the people to decide how to mobilize, saying that now “the conflict has been aggravated in an important way.” She also affirmed that, despite a delay after the October 1 referendum, the necessary conditions to declare a republic are already in place.
The worker’s union UGT condemned the arrests as “unjust and disproportionate.” In a statement made on Tuesday, the union emphasized that Sànchez and Cuixart had always called for peaceful mobilizations. It criticized Spain’s actions as a means “to frighten a society that is taking to the street peacefully and democratically.”
Reiterating calls for mediation and dialogue, UGT has demanded that “the repression of the State in Catalonia be brought to an end” and that the Spanish police forces deployed within Catalan territory return to their points of origin.
Catalan News
* 17 October 2017 01:49 PM by ACN | Barcelona :
http://www.catalannews.com/politics/item/calls-for-indefinite-general-strike-intensify-as-crisis-escalates