Solidarity was a word that seemed to be on everybody’s lips some time ago when human rights –as a concept– mattered more than they do on today’s rather dehumanized international political and judicial scene. Why is it so absent today? Whether directly answering this particular question or not –while admitting that
“solidarity” as such has never been a common word in jurisprudence– several leading jurists have indeed pointed to a worrying downturn in the general presence of terms related to Human Rights in recent times. Could it be that other priorities such as State interests, military expenditure and migrational issues could have ousted them from the public sphere in the tsunami caused by globalization, increased authoritarianism, State intervention and new forms of colonialism? A quick look at some recent ECHR sentences related to the Catalan issue –for instance– spring to mind.
One consequence of this could be that the so-called “national minorities” and unrepresented people that UNPO so bravely defends could end up becoming chronic victims of this phenomenon. Indeed, in many senses they already are. Yet in the case of the Catalan people –and undoubtedly in other cases too– the limitations on access to policy-making and national status have much deeper roots. So what do we mean when we talk about a concept as wide –and vague– as “solidarity” when it comes to unrepresented peoples?
To start with, and when considering the Catalan case, it is sometimes difficult to say if the word “unrepresented” is 100% applicable. For even when apparently represented with the support of the absolute majority of the Catalan Parliament for declaring independence in October 2017, that “representation" factor was rapidly stiffled by the joint weight of the Spanish Supreme Court –now callously inspired in Germany’s Carl’s Schmitt’s lawfare?– the sinister “Patriotic Police” created under Rajoy or the disgraceful behaviour of monarch Felipe VI, with a strategy based on police violence, illegal Pegasus spying and the massive implementation of
lawfare. So where does the term “solidarity” come in? Was Catalonia’s behaviour lacking in solidarity?
Solidarity is one of the major social blessings we ressort to when it comes to the need to blend or bring communities together. The famous haves and have nots, the rich with the poor, the healthy and the deprived of health, the majority with the minority. It basically involves the exercise of placing oneself in the shoes of the other, a practice embodied by so many of the great leaders and artists post- WW2 society once modelled itself on: Mandela learning Afrikaans on Robben Island, Gandhi fasting for peace with Muslims and Kennedy’s famous “Ich bin ein Berliner”. At the other more cultural end of the scale, we could mention the song “Jenifer” by the popular Catalan group Els Catarres which amusingly blesses the
communion between Catalans with greater and lesser degrees of national conscience. But was true “solidarity” a concept the Spanish political class in any way envisaged when designing their new “democratic” Spain on Franco’s death? I do have my serious doubts.
When discussing the Catalan issue and the country’s incardination within the new Constitutional Spain, it is difficult to come up with any real sense of State solidarity. With whom? With all those hundreds of thousands of Spaniards blighted in the murderous Franco Regime they were victims of? No way. Incredibly enough –Democratic Spain-fans please brace yourselves– even 32 years after Franco’s death, the sentences against anti-Francoists were still technically in force, having never been annulled! Can you imagine a monstrosity of this dimension slipping by in post-Nuremberg Germany? But of course Spain with its lingering philoFrancoism is quite different. The confirmation for this came in 2007 when president Zapatero had to admit that annulling those sentences would have “rocked the foundations of Constitutional Spain”, he somewhat sheepishly said. Wasn’t this a stark admission that current-day Spain was built upon the the foundations of the Franco Regime? So, can one seriously talk about the presence of honest democratic “solidarity” in post-Franco Spain?
Parallel to this, and from the point of view of the Catalans, the 1978 Constitution may to some have looked like a doorway to home-rule and solidarity. Yet a closer look makes one wonder if it wasn’t more of a long-term ploy to obstruct a National status for Catalonia –in accordance with its past– by merging it with the newfound “status” of Spanish regions with next to no tradition –not to mention aspirations– regarding self-government. And to think that this was done in the name of solidarity!
Was it solidarity though? Or was it a formula to take advantage of 40 years of denationalizion and repression to iron out her national status? If we add to this the fact that: a) only Spanish is an obligatory language in Catalonia today (quite different is the non- committing concept of “coofficiality”) b) Spain has made every attempt to discredit and hamper the normalization and standardization of the language c) no top-level apology has ever been made by a Spanish Government for the Nazi-aided arrest and assassination of Catalan president Companys in 1940; d) Under the guise of supposed constitutional solidarity, which conveniently reinterprets international law to its own ends, the various Catalan national regions are prevented from fully and freely enjoying their own wealth and resources; and e) as Catalonia is systematically prevented from having a say in the control and administration of immigration (Spanish and –now– international), a very real threat exists for her language and culture. This despite being one of the most supportive and immigration-friendly nations in Europe.
Catalonia thus may be seen to suffer a considerable deficit when it comes to “receiving” solidarity in comparison with the solidarity it produces. Proof of this would not only be Catalonia’s stunning yearly contribution to the Spanish Treasury (over €20,000M in non-return taxes) but the very worrying and persistent existence of discrimination and Catalanphobia in Spain as recently reported by UN experts at the latest ICCPR meeting. Indeed, no one can claim
that Catalonia fails to export solidarity if we contemplate the wealth of solidarity-orientated activities run by operators such as the Catalan Aid to Cooperation Agency, ActxPalestina, La Marató de TV3, Open Arms, the activity of hundreds of international cooperation NGOs throughout the country and the position recurrently adopted by the Catalan Parliament itself etc. But that’s another story.
