tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/madrid-28882/articlesMadrid – The Conversation2019-12-16T19:03:19Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1280602019-12-16T19:03:19Z2019-12-16T19:03:19ZClimate conferences are male, pale and stale – it’s time to bring in women<p>The COP25 climate meeting in Madrid concluded over the weekend. As in past meetings, the talks failed to make much progress on international climate action. And again, the views and needs of women were largely ignored.</p>
<p>Among the aims of the COP, or conference of parties to the Paris Agreement, was working towards “<a href="https://unfccc.int/topics/gender/events-meetings/gender-day-other-events-at-cops/gender-events-at-cop-25">ambitious and gender-inclusive climate action</a>”. That is, recognising the need to integrate gender considerations into national and international climate action.</p>
<p>The first step to achieving this aim would be <a href="https://wedo.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019_June_WomensParticipation_Final.pdf">gender parity</a> at international climate conferences such as the Madrid COP. While we don’t yet know how many of the <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-which-countries-have-sent-the-most-delegates-to-cop25">13,000 registered governmental delegates</a> were women, based on <a href="https://wedo.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019_June_WomensParticipation_Final.pdf">past numbers</a> they are unlikely to make up more than a quarter. </p>
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<p>This is not the only forum where the experiences of women are ignored. Our <a href="https://actionaid.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Monash-GRACC-Report-Global-.pdf">research</a>, spanning Kenya, Cambodia and Vanuatu, has found women are working collectively to strengthen their communities in the face of climate change. But their knowledge about climate risk is dismissed by scientists and political leaders.</p>
<h2>Bridging climate awareness</h2>
<p>When women are excluded from local and national-level governance, the absence of their voices at regional and global levels, such as COP meetings, is virtually assured. </p>
<p>Our work across Africa, Asia and the Pacific found scientists – generally male – lack awareness of the knowledge women hold about the local consequences of climate change. At the same time, those women had little access to scientific research.</p>
<p>In places where the labour is divided by gender, women and men learn different things about the environment. </p>
<p>Though the women in our research generally did not know about government policies or programs on climate change and disaster risk reduction, they were very aware of <a href="https://lens.monash.edu/2019/11/29/1378467/unlocking-the-voices-of-women-on-the-front-line-of-climate-change">environmental change</a>. In Kenya, the pastoralist women we spoke to are acutely aware of the link between their physical insecurity and extreme drought. </p>
<p>As droughts become more intense, pastoral communities who depend on livestock and grazing land are severely impacted. The loss of livestock can trigger communal conflicts and displacements as violence is used in retaliation for <a href="https://enactafrica.org/enact-observer/cattle-rustling-on-the-rise-across-africa">cattle rustling</a>. </p>
<p>Moreover, given the prevailing practice of “bride prices” among pastoral households, early marriages for young women and girls are a way to secure cattle. Despite laws against female genital mutilation in Kenya, it is practised to secure higher bride prices, due to beliefs that the practice makes girls more valuable.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/paris-climate-summit-why-more-women-need-seats-at-the-table-50116">Paris climate summit: why more women need seats at the table</a>
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<p>This everyday knowledge is crucial for identifying the full risk posed by climate change. However, women told us their knowledge was not always recognised within their communities – let alone at the national level. They blamed this on discrimination against women taking up decision-making roles, poverty and gender-based violence which dissuades women and girls from participating. </p>
<h2>Valuing women</h2>
<p>Even when countries have policies for gender equality in climate change responses, that doesn’t mean women are actually given an equal voice. According to female community leaders and women working in government and non-government organisations in Cambodia, Kenya and Vanuatu, gender equality issues in climate change policies tend to be confined to “women-only programs”. </p>
<p>Gender inclusion is primarily addressed in social welfare programs, rather than ministries responsible for energy, meteorology, land and natural resources. </p>
<p>To address these gaps, we need to to take women’s varied expertise seriously. This begins with supporting their leadership within communities and villages.</p>
<p>Women’s access to education and careers in climate-relevant sciences is also crucial. Ideally, this will progressively bring in broader groups of women and girls to participate in climate change decision-making.</p>
<h2>Climate change action</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.monash.edu/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/2039083/FINAL_GRACC-Research-Brief.pdf">research</a> found programs for mitigating climate change are also perfect opportunities to support peace, community development and women’s rights. </p>
<p>In Kenya, for example, one member of a women’s network responding to drought and conflict told us: “[W]e support each other. We want a collective voice because then we have more power.”</p>
<p>These networks help women with female-specific issues, such as natural disasters that make women extremely vulnerable to abuse from men. </p>
<p>But even in day-to-day life, these forums are valuable for women who would otherwise be barred from political activism. In areas where authoritarian rule or discriminatory customs limit democratic spaces, women’s networks for climate response are a rare opportunity for public deliberation on policy-making.</p>
<p>Global evidence now shows <a href="https://www.iucn.org/content/environment-and-gender-index-egi-2013-pilot">environmental projects</a> are more effective when gender considerations are taken into account. Our research adds to this knowledge base by documenting how women’s networks mobilise in response to climate change.</p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Women+I+Tok+Tok+Tugeta&oq=Women+I+Tok+Tok+Tugeta&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">Women I Tok Tok Tugeta</a> (Women Talk Together) network in Vanuatu has created a Women’s Weather Watch that provides early warning of disasters. </p>
<p>It also makes clear that relying on scientific knowledge or technological solutions alone will be insufficient in these complex environments, where climate change, gender discrimination and conflict all come together.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-and-migration-in-bangladesh-one-womans-perspective-107131">Climate change and migration in Bangladesh – one woman's perspective</a>
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<p>When we look at COP25, we can’t help but mourn the lack of women’s knowledge from the countries most affected by climate change. By supporting women at all levels, from the village to the global stage, this vital perspective can inform the creation of robust, sustainable and effective solutions to our climate crisis.</p>
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<p><em>The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Melissa Bungcaras and Michelle Higelin, and ActionAid Australia.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128060/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqui True receives funding from the Australian Research Council, United Nations Women, and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). This research was funded by DFAT's Gender Action Platform.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maria Tanyag does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>COP25 has come and gone, another missed opportunity to use women’s knowledge to mitigate climate change.Maria Tanyag, Lecturer, International Relations, Australian National UniversityJacqui True, FASSA, Professor of Politics and International Relations, Director Monash Gender, Peace and Security Centre, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1281202019-12-02T18:13:45Z2019-12-02T18:13:45ZEarth has a couple more chances to avoid catastrophic climate change. This week is one of them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304634/original/file-20191202-67023-emmwbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C14%2C4861%2C3240&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This week's climate conference in Madrid is key to getting global cooperation on climate change, the impacts of which are already being felt.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Almost 200 world leaders gather in Madrid this week for climate talks which will largely determine the success of the Paris agreement, and by extension, the extent to which the planet will suffer under climate change.</p>
<p>Negotiations at the so-called <a href="https://unfccc.int/news/cop25-will-take-place-in-madrid-from-2-to-13-december-2019">COP25</a> will focus on finalising details of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-finally-have-the-rulebook-for-the-paris-agreement-but-global-climate-action-is-still-inadequate-108918">Paris Agreement</a>. Nations will haggle over how bold emissions reductions will be, and how to measure and achieve them.</p>
<p>Much is riding on a successful outcome in Madrid. The challenge is to get nations further along the road to the strong climate goals, without any major diplomatic rifts or a collapse in talks.</p>
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<h2>What COP25 is about</h2>
<p>COP25 is a shorthand name for the 25th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (or the nations signed up to the Paris agreement).</p>
<p>After Paris was signed in 2015, nations were given five years in which to set out bolder climate action. Current targets expire in 2020. At next year’s November COP in Glasgow, nations will be asked to formally commit to higher targets. If Madrid does not successfully lay the groundwork for this, the Glasgow talks are likely to fail.</p>
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<p>The United Nations says the world <a href="https://unfccc.int/news/cut-global-emissions-by-76-percent-every-year-for-next-decade-to-meet-15degc-paris-target-un-report">must reduce overall emissions by 7.6%</a> every year over the next decade to have a high chance of staying under 1.5°C warming this century. </p>
<p>The 1.5°C limit is at the upper end of the Paris goal; warming beyond this is likely to lead to catastrophic impacts, including <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/federal-election-2019/radical-climate-action-critical-to-great-barrier-reef-s-survival-government-body-says-20190413-p51dul.html">near-total destruction of the Great Barrier Reef</a>.</p>
<p>Presently, emissions reduction targets of nations signed up to Paris put Earth <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/global/temperatures/">on track for a 3.2°C</a> increase.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304635/original/file-20191202-67011-p4ln2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304635/original/file-20191202-67011-p4ln2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304635/original/file-20191202-67011-p4ln2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304635/original/file-20191202-67011-p4ln2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304635/original/file-20191202-67011-p4ln2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304635/original/file-20191202-67011-p4ln2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304635/original/file-20191202-67011-p4ln2x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Coral bleaching will devastate the Great Barrier Reef if climate change is not curbed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">KERRYN BELL</span></span>
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<h2>A global carbon market</h2>
<p>Parties will debate the mechanism in the Paris agreement allowing emissions trading between nations, and via the private sector.</p>
<p>Such mechanisms could lower the global cost of climate mitigation, because emissions reduction in some nations is cheaper than in others. But there are concerns the trading regime may <a href="https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/business/energy/article/U-S-to-Negotiate-Carbon-Trades-Under-Climate-14870329.php">lack transparency and accountability</a> and <a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/ijsq/8/2/ijsq080203.xml">ignore human rights</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/double-counting-of-emissions-cuts-may-undermine-paris-climate-deal-125019">Double counting of emissions cuts may undermine Paris climate deal</a>
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<p>Among the additional risks are that <a href="https://theconversation.com/double-counting-of-emissions-cuts-may-undermine-paris-climate-deal-125019">emissions cuts are “double counted”</a> - meaning both the buying and selling nation count the cuts towards their targets, undermining the aims of the agreement.</p>
<h2>Help for vulnerable nations</h2>
<p>Small island states say COP25 is the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/dec/01/island-states-want-decisive-action-to-prevent-inundation">last chance to take decisive action</a> on global emissions reduction.</p>
<p>Fossil fuel burning in the developing world is largely responsible for the carbon dioxide that drives global warming. Developing nations are particularly vulnerable to the loss and damage caused by climate change.</p>
<p>Parties will discuss whether <a href="https://unfccc.int/topics/adaptation-and-resilience/workstreams/loss-and-damage-ld/warsaw-international-mechanism-for-loss-and-damage-associated-with-climate-change-impacts-wim">an international mechanism</a> designed to assess and compensate for such damage is effective.</p>
<p>Developing nations are expected to contribute to <a href="https://www.greenclimate.fund/cop">the Green Climate Fund</a> to help poorer nations to adapt to and mitigate climate change. Some 27 nations <a href="https://www.greenclimate.fund/news/countries-step-up-ambition-landmark-boost-to-coffers-of-the-world-s-largest-climate-fund">contributed US$9.78 billion</a> in the last funding round.</p>
<p>Some nations have indicated they will not contribute further, <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2019/04/02/australia-stops-payments-green-climate-fund/">including Australia</a>, which says it already helps Pacific nations through its overseas aid program.</p>
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<span class="caption">Low-lying islands such as Tuvalu are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise caused by climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">MICK TSIKAS/AAP</span></span>
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<h2>Arguments about cost</h2>
<p>Nations opposed to adopting stronger emissions reduction targets often argue the costs of decarbonising energy sectors, and economies as a whole, are too high.</p>
<p>However, recent <a href="https://academic.oup.com/reep/article/12/1/4/4804315">cost benefit analysis</a> has found not taking action on climate change will be expensive in the long run.</p>
<p>Realisation is also growing that the cost of emissions reduction activities has been overestimated in the past. In Australia, <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-could-fall-apart-under-climate-change-but-theres-a-way-to-avoid-it-126341">prominent economist Ross Garnaut </a> recently said huge falls in the cost of equipment for solar and wind energy has created massive economic opportunity, such as future manufacturing of zero-emission iron and aluminium.</p>
<p>The shift in the cost-balance means nations with low ambition will find it difficult to argue against climate mitigation on cost grounds.</p>
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<span class="caption">A coal-fired power plant in Germany. Developing nations emit most CO2 in the atmosphere.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SASCHA STEINBACH/EPA</span></span>
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<h2>Australia’s position at Madrid</h2>
<p>At the Paris talks, Australia pledged emissions reduction of 26-28% by 2030, based on 2005 levels. The Morrison government has indicated it will <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/26/scott-morrison-says-australias-record-on-climate-change-misrepresented-by-media">not ramp up the goal</a>.</p>
<p>About 68 nations said before COP25 they will set bolder emissions reduction targets, including Fiji, South Africa and New Zealand. This group is expected to exert pressure on laggard nations.</p>
<p>This pressure has already begun: France has <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/france-puts-climate-at-heart-of-any-fta-with-europe-20191107-p5386n">reportedly insisted</a> that a planned free trade deal between Australia and the European Union must include “highly ambitious” action on climate change.</p>
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<p>The Climate Action Tracker says Australia is <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/australia/current-policy-projections/">not contributing its fair share</a> towards the global 1.5°C commitment. Australia is also ranked among the <a href="https://www.climate-transparency.org/g20-climate-performance/g20report2019">worst performing G20 nations</a> on climate action. </p>
<p>The Madrid conference takes place amid high public concern over climate change. Thousands of Australians <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-20/school-strike-for-climate-draws-thousands-to-australian-rallies/11531612">took part in September’s climate strikes</a> and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/environment-is-prime-worry-for-the-first-time-poll-20191201-p53fu5.html">the environment has reportedly </a>surpassed healthcare, cost of living and the economy as the top public concern.</p>
<p>Climate change has already arrived in the form of more extreme weather and bushfires, water stress, sea level rise and more. These effects are a small taste of what is to come if negotiations in Madrid fail to deliver.</p>
<p><em>Johanna Nalau, Samid Suliman and Tim Cadman contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128120/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Recent bushfires and extreme weather are just a small taste of what is to come if this week’s climate negotiations in Madrid fail to deliver.Robert Hales, Director Centre for Sustainable Enterprise, Griffith UniversityJohanna Nalau, Research Fellow, Climate Adaptation, Griffith UniversitySamid Suliman, Lecturer in Migration and Security, Griffith UniversityTim Cadman, Postdoctoral Research/Teaching Fellow, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1257622019-10-24T14:54:56Z2019-10-24T14:54:56ZExhumation of Franco’s remains is a chance for Spain to rest in peace<p>After three days of national mourning, the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was buried in a large crypt in the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/general-franco-grave-valley-tourist-holiday-site-fallen-spain-fascist-dictator-spanish-civil-war-a7652841.html">Valley of the Fallen</a>, a state mausoleum outside Madrid, in 1975. The location of his remains became a place of pilgrimage and fascist glorification for the next 44 years.</p>
<p>But now those remains have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2019/oct/24/spain-exhumes-franco-remains-in-pictures">exhumed and moved</a> – to a public cemetery near Madrid. His new resting place, where Franco’s wife was buried in 1988, is a far cry from what the dictator himself <a href="https://www.boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE/1940/093/A02240-02240.pdf">described</a> as “a grandiose temple for our dead, in which, for centuries, people will pray for the souls of those fallen for God and their Fatherland”.</p>
<p>Built after the end of the Spanish Civil War by up to 20,000 political prisoners in the mountains of Guadarrama, the Valley of the Fallen took 18 years to complete, and sits dramatically under the shadow of a 152 metre Christian cross.</p>
<p>Inside the basilica rest the remains of the fallen during the civil war, from both sides. With 33,847 people buried there, transported from all over the country between 1959 and 1983, it is one of the biggest mass graves in the world, with more than 12,400 corpses still unidentified.</p>
<p>Franco called the burial site a place of “atonement and reconciliation”. But the truth is that it has never been a symbol of unity. Instead it became a monument of fascist propaganda. </p>
<p>From its opening in 1959, burying murdered republicans under the same roof as their enemies was a permanent act of political humiliation. Doing it under a religion which many of them explicitly fought against simply added insult to injury.</p>
<p>This is why the monument continues to be controversial in contemporary Spain. When the socialist government passed its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/nov/03/comment.spain">Historical Memory Law in 2007</a>, the future of the Valley was one of the items in the agenda. </p>
<p>That law explicitly condemned Franco’s regime, and promised to finally recognise the victims of the war. It also promised state aid to help identify and exhume those victims, the removal of Francoist symbols from public spaces, and the prohibition of celebratory fascist events in the valley. </p>
<p>Then in 2011, a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/dig-up-franco-to-let-victims-rest-in-peace-says-spanish-commission-6269719.html">Commission for the Future of the Valley of the Fallen</a> was created, which recommended that the valley should become a place to commemorate the dead of the civil war. This would include setting up an educational centre to set the valley in its historical context – and crucially, <a href="https://theconversation.com/digging-up-franco-why-spain-still-cant-decide-what-to-do-with-the-dictators-body-100781">the removal of Franco’s remains</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/digging-up-franco-why-spain-still-cant-decide-what-to-do-with-the-dictators-body-100781">Digging up Franco: why Spain still can't decide what to do with the dictator's body</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.elindependiente.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/informe_expertos_valle_caidos.pdf">The report</a> they produced was published on November 29 2011, nine days after the conservative party PP had won the elections. This meant in practice that the application of the Historical Memory Law, including any recommendations for the Valley, would become frozen for almost a decade. </p>
<p>The PP party had always been reluctant to condemn Spain’s Francoist past. Its (lame) excuse for this view was that the country should look forward rather than backwards, and that dealing with such issues would merely serve to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14189534">reopen old wounds</a>.</p>
<p>It wasn’t until 2017 when the Socialist party filed a non-binding motion to exhume the body that won the support of a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/11/its-shameful-for-francos-victims-spanish-mps-agree-to-exhume-dictator">large majority of Parliament</a> that progress was made.</p>
<h2>A fresh start</h2>
<p>After a motion of no-confidence that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/world/europe/spain-mariano-rajoy-no-confidence.html">ousted the conservative leader, Mariano Rajoy, in 2018</a>, socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez announced the government’s intention to resume work and exhume Franco’s body in an attempt to comply with the law and recommendations, and to “<a href="https://www.telam.com.ar/notas/201909/395001-pedro-sanchez-exhumacion-franco.html">symbolically close the circle of Spanish democracy</a>”. </p>
<p>Despite fierce opposition from the Franco family and the Benedictine community in the valley, the Supreme Court finally <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49807372">gave permission to exhume the body</a> in September 2019.</p>
<p>With a general election fast approaching, the socialist government has been accused from both sides for using “Franco’s mummy” for political gain. The leader of anti-austerity party Podemos claimed <a href="https://www.eldiario.es/politica/Iglesias-Sanchez-electoralismo-Cataluna-helicoptero_0_955055390.html">it was a distraction</a> from Sánchez’s failed policies on Catalonia. </p>
<p>But in terms of popular support, the issue does not seem to bother most Spaniards, with <a href="https://www.eldiario.es/politica/espanoles-muestran-exhumar-Franco-frente_0_952955653.html">42% approving the removal</a> of the dictator’s remains.</p>
<p>And so finally, after 44 years, Franco is finally denied his own state-run mausoleum at one of the largest basilicas in the world. And 44 long years for Spaniards to finally see the dictator denied the privilege of lying in a place built on the blood and suffering of republican prisoners.</p>
<p>Franco’s ghost has been haunting Spain for decades. It is now time for the country to rest in peace. Hopefully this powerful act will just be the beginning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125762/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Federico López-Terra received funding from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). </span></em></p>Spanish dictator Francisco Franco no longer has a place in the Valley of the Fallen.Federico López-Terra, Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/985102018-06-29T13:44:38Z2018-06-29T13:44:38ZBoogie noches: how erotic cinema boom in 1970s helped shape modern Spain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225315/original/file-20180628-117374-1e88z9n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">From poster of The Marvellous World of Sex. </span> </figcaption></figure><p>Madrid, June 1978. A sweltering heatwave is matched by the tensions bubbling through newspaper headlines. Nearly three years since the death of dictator Francisco Franco, politicians are intensely debating the new constitution at the Palacio de las Cortes. Will the Left accept the monarchy or demand a republic? Will the Right accept abolishing the death penalty and omitting any reference to the Catholic church? Will regions such as the Basque Country and Catalonia receive the sovereignty they demand? </p>
<p>Around the corner, people queue for the latest hit film. Is it Grease, newly premiered in New York and on its way to becoming a global colossus? No. Spanish audiences won’t be introduced to Danny, Sandy and the gang until September. Today’s crowd awaits a much more explicit celebration of cinematic sexuality: <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077513/">Las eróticas vacaciones de Stela</a> (Stela’s Erotic Vacations).</p>
<p>Played by Azucena Hernández, the reigning Miss Catalonia, Stela has returned from her strict Catholic boarding school and is set on disrupting this peaceful Castilian town. Unlike the negotiators in the congress, Stela is not diplomatic towards the guardians of Catholic morality. She sexualises everything – even a banister becomes an erotic toy as she slides down in ecstasy. She seduces a priest, a maid and her stepfather – she even flashes her own mother.</p>
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<p>Such films became possible after Spain <a href="https://elpais.com/elpais/2013/12/30/inenglish/1388413211_320751.html">abolished censorship</a> in December 1977. This was monumental – it is hard to convey how much censorship shaped public consciousness during the dictatorship. It created such hunger for erotic images that many made pilgrimages to France to see <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070849/">Last Tango in Paris</a> (1972), among other films. Group tours of x-rated cinemas were even organised.</p>
<h2>Rated ‘S’ for sexual</h2>
<p>In Franco’s day, some Spaniards believed the world outside was freer than it was. When audiences saw Rita Hayworth’s famous scene in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038559/">Gilda</a> (1946), where she provocatively removes a long white glove onstage, many in Spain assumed she did a full striptease in the uncut version. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225296/original/file-20180628-112598-2v8eqm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225296/original/file-20180628-112598-2v8eqm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225296/original/file-20180628-112598-2v8eqm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225296/original/file-20180628-112598-2v8eqm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225296/original/file-20180628-112598-2v8eqm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225296/original/file-20180628-112598-2v8eqm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225296/original/file-20180628-112598-2v8eqm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225296/original/file-20180628-112598-2v8eqm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Occasionally censorship even made things more lurid. In <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046085/trivia">Mogambo</a> (1953), Spanish censors changed the script to conceal the adulterous relationship between Grace Kelly and Clark Gable’s characters, turning Kelly’s husband into her brother. When she later shares a bed with him, they appear to be committing a much greater sin. </p>
<p>Ending censorship gave free rein to what was known as the <em>destape</em>, literally “the undressing”. The “S” rating was created, allowing films with soft porn elements to infiltrate the mainstream. </p>
<p>S-rated films were generally cheap and big money makers. Stela’s Erotic Variations alone sold 600,000 tickets, and was followed by other great successes such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077910/">El mundo maravilloso del sexo</a> (The Marvellous World of Sex), <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078414/">Trampa sexual</a> (Sexual Trap) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076505/">La orgía</a> (The Orgy). The 17 S-rated films screened in 1978 probably attracted more customers than the four million people that went to see Grease. </p>
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<p>Neither was the <em>destape</em> limited to cinema. The magazine Interviú, formed in 1976, was creating waves with revealing covers of famous actresses, including a nude photo of Franco-era child star Marisol – sadly without her permission. </p>
<p>In February 1978 another iconic photograph appeared. It shows future Madrid mayor Enrique Tierno Galván giving actress/stripper Susana Estrada – star of El mundo maravilloso del sexo – a prize for being the most popular actress of the year. Her jacket has moved, revealing a breast, while she smiles unconcerned. The picture became an emblem of Spain’s transition to democracy, showing it was much more than a political process. </p>
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<span class="caption">Susana Estrada (right) and Enrique Tierno Galván (left)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marisa Flórez</span></span>
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<p>The S rating endured until 1983, when it was replaced by the more permissive but more marginalised X rating. Where the 1970s releases often included good scripts and serious social commentary, the <em>destape</em> was becoming more purely gratuitous by the early 1980s. </p>
<p>Since then the genre has often been considered an embarrassing footnote in Spanish cinema. But that risks missing something important. As one writer has <a href="http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719062834/">put it</a>, Stela, like other young S-rated protagonists, “embodies the myriad ironies of the transition to democracy, for she does not merely awaken the village sexually, but reveals what was always simmering under the surface of franquista repression”. </p>
<p>Sex and nudity have been especially pervasive in the nation’s cinema over the past four decades. A recent book, <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-spanish-erotic-cinema.html">Spanish Erotic Cinema</a>, argues convincingly that sensual pleasure on Spanish screens is bound up with historical, political and social issues.</p>
<h2>Priests and politics</h2>
<p>A good example is <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078192/">El sacerdote</a> (The Priest), another S-rated success during that sultry summer of ‘78. It shows a priest torn between conservative ideology and sexual desires, awakened by a billboard of a woman in a bikini and the steamy confessions of an unhappy housewife. His inner turmoil reaches such a frenzy that he eventually castrates himself. </p>
<p>Director <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0407061/">Eloy de la Iglesia’s</a> films are often criticised for being heavily didactic. Yet some <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-spanish-erotic-cinema.html">argue that</a> movies such as El sacerdote helped broaden the moral horizons of the audience. In October 1978, de la Iglesia premiered <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077438/">El diputado</a> (Confessions of a Congressman), one of many films that featured gay characters and arguably contributed to Spain’s widespread acceptance of homosexuality.</p>
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<p>The same summer also saw <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077236/">Bilbao</a>, a landmark in the genre by director <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000940/">Bigas Luna</a>. His work over the next two decades would blur erotic and art-house cinema. Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem were launched to stardom in his 1992 send-up of Spanish stereotypes, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104545/">Jamón jamon</a> (Ham Ham), where they famously make love under one of the country’s emblematic bull-shaped highway billboards.</p>
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<p>More recently, the popular films <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339806/">Torremolinos 73</a> (2004), <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1129422/">Los años desnudos</a> (The Naked Years, 2008) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4922692/">Kiki, el amor se hace</a> (Quickie, Love is So, 2016) all pay homage to the genre. In this #MeToo era, many might prefer it was buried instead. Yet in contrast with the female sexual objects of the original <em>destape</em>, it has been <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-spanish-erotic-cinema.html">argued that</a> the women in Kiki, for example, are “utterly in control of their sexuality, well informed about various practices, open-minded and confident in their pursuit of their preferences and desires”. </p>
<p>The Spanish people <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01402387908424239?journalCode=fwep20">approved</a> today’s constitution in the referendum of December 1978, founding a political order that now appears in disarray. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-a-new-government-in-spain-means-for-catalonia-97724">Catalan conflict</a> is rooted in that constitution’s negation of the right of Spanish regions to self-determination. The former president, Mariano Rajoy, <a href="https://theconversation.com/spains-prime-minister-loses-no-confidence-vote-what-next-97564">was recently forced out</a> of office over party corruption. </p>
<p>Many now question the entire political culture that was forged in the transition years after dictatorship. If we consider the conscientious undressing of old morals and sexual hang-ups another of the founding acts of democratic Spain, this parallel process is arguably in much better health. To give just one example, Spain was one of the first countries <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jun/30/gayrights.spain">to legalise</a> same-sex marriage, preceded only by Holland and Belgium. While the difficulties with the <em>destape</em> are obvious, we should concede it has played an important role in creating the culture we see today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98510/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jesse Barker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Soon after the death of Franco, Spain began an experiment with censorship that brought graphic sex and nudity to mainstream cinemas.Jesse Barker, Lecturer in Hispanic Studies, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/866692017-11-03T16:51:04Z2017-11-03T16:51:04ZWhy independence movements in Scotland and elsewhere are tongue-tied over Catalonia<p>Catalonia’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/catalonia-declares-independence-and-spain-enters-uncharted-territory-86489">unilateral declaration of independence</a> already seems so long ago. It’s hard to believe it is only a week since the provocative move by Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont unleashed a chain of events including Madrid resuming direct rule of the region, Puigdemont retreating to Belgium and Spanish premier Mariano Rajoy <a href="https://theconversation.com/catalonia-the-prospect-of-an-election-has-everyone-nervous-86631">calling</a> snap Catalan elections for December. </p>
<p>Whether the ringleaders of the UDI will be allowed to stand is unclear at the time of writing: eight <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/02/spanish-court-question-catalonia-separatists-except-puigdemont">have been jailed</a> by a Madrid court pending an investigation over charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds. An international arrest warrant has been issued against Puigdemont to extradite him from Brussels. </p>
<p>Leaders of Europe’s other independence and autonomy movements, particularly in Scotland but also in Corsica, Flanders and the Basque Country, are doubtless following every twist and turn. So how are these events likely to impact on their ambitions? </p>
<p>At the outset, it is worth remembering these separatist surges tend to have roots in common. They are often less about nationalism for its own sake than part of the anti-establishment insurgency following the <a href="https://theconversation.com/six-charts-that-show-how-much-the-world-has-changed-since-the-2007-08-financial-crisis-83477">financial crash of 2007/08</a>. Even though Spain has been caught in a perfect storm that included the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17549970">eurozone crisis</a>, radical and populist parties on the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/31/podemos-revolution-radical-academics-changed-european-politics">left</a> and <a href="http://www.euronews.com/2017/05/15/meet-ciudadanos-the-party-dreaming-of-a-spanish-remake-of-macrons-success">right</a>, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/spain-corruption-pp-rajoy-never-ending-problem-graft-ignacio-gonzalez/">corruption scandals</a> and high youth unemployment, there are sufficient parallels with movements elsewhere to make events in Catalonia seem of much broader importance. </p>
<p>In Scotland, there’s an additional similarity. The rise of the Ciudadanos party in Catalonia was partly due to its anti-independence stance – much like the revival of the Scottish Conservatives under Ruth Davidson. On the other hand, the Basque Country may share all the Spanish context but <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/28/world/europe/spain-catalonia-basque-independence.html">was weary</a> of separatism at the time of the crash after decades of division over the issue. In that part of Spain it was the anti-establishment pro-Madrid Podemos that won the most votes in the last national election.</p>
<h2>Bullets or ballots?</h2>
<p>The non-violent tactics of the Catalan separatists are among the most notable characteristics of the crisis. They contrast sharply, of course, with the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11183574">separatist terrorism</a> in the Basque Country before ETA gave up arms <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/20/basque-separatist-eta-historic-weapons-mariano-rajoy">in 2014</a>. This has probably helped the Catalan separatists to win more sympathetic coverage in the international media. </p>
<p>Puigdemont, a former journalist, is generally considered to have played a subtler and more reasonable game than Rajoy – particularly after the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/03/catalonia-tensions-rise-as-strikes-held-over-police-violence-during-referendum">obstructive actions and violence shown by</a> the Guardia Civil on October 1, the day of the independence referendum. Appealing over the heads of EU leaders, repeatedly making statements in English to the international media, has not been a bad strategy when trust in the political establishment is at an all-time low.</p>
<p>If this is <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/catalan-threat-to-unleash-mass-civil-disobedience-8vgf9w65b">followed by</a> successful use of peaceful mass civil <a href="https://theconversation.com/catalonia-civil-disobedience-and-where-the-secession-movement-goes-now-86425">disobedience</a> in the wake of Spain revoking Catalonia’s autonomy, it could inspire other independence movements. Such tactics were famously effective in the US against racial discrimination <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/nonviolencekey-to-civil-rights-movement/1737280.html">in the 1960s</a>, albeit Catalans neither appear to have the law on their side nor the ability to shame the government to intervene on their behalf. Whether this ultimately means such disobedience would fail, however, is far from certain. </p>
<h2>Europe snub</h2>
<p>The EU presents opportunities and challenges for its minority nations. Like the Catalans, Scotland’s SNP is deeply wedded as a party to the EU – even if some of its supporters <a href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14950013.36__of_SNP_and_Labour_supporters_backed_Brexit__finds_survey/">are not</a>. But with the EU broadly seen to be siding with Spain against the Catalans, it could be increasingly difficult for the party to maintain its current policy. </p>
<p>If the price of independence is for Catalans to be ejected from the EU, for example, where does this leave the SNP strategy of pursuing independence inside the EU? And where does it leave the Flemish nationalists’ aim of increasing the powers of Flanders within Belgium until it is independent?</p>
<p>These fault lines have already been visible since the Catalan UDI. Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon and her government have been <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/nicola-sturgeon-snp-catalonia-the-scottish-nationalists-catalan-dilemma/">careful to</a> call for dialogue rather than for the declaration of independence to be recognised. Perhaps fearful of Spain blocking a potential bid for EU membership by an independent Scotland in years to come, the Scottish government has left it to a group of members of the parliament <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/msps-call-for-independent-republic-of-catalonia-to-be-recognised-1-4601309">to welcome</a> the declaration instead. Contrast this with the president of the Corsican assembly <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-28/corsican-assembly-president-hails-birth-of-catalan-republic">welcoming</a> the birth of a new republic, for instance. </p>
<p>Meanwhile in Belgium the Flemish nationalist party N-VA, which is part of the ruling coalition, has been put in an awkward position with the arrest warrant. <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-28/belgium-s-nationalists-keep-their-distance-from-catalan-campaign">So far</a>, at a national level, the party line <a href="https://sceptr.net/2017/11/catalaanse-ministers-gevangenis-vlaamse-n-va-ministers-ontzet/">has been that</a> this is a legal, not a political, matter and that it is inappropriate to intervene. In contrast, at a regional level Geert Bourgeois, minister-president of Flanders, has <a href="https://sceptr.net/2017/11/catalaanse-ministers-gevangenis-vlaamse-n-va-ministers-ontzet/">condemned</a> the Spanish government and has been tweeting in opposition to the latest moves by the Spanish courts. </p>
<h2>Events, dear boy</h2>
<p>Overall, the Catalonia crisis may lead to a rise in minority nationalism around Europe in the short-term. But what happens in the longer term is likely to depend on how events in Spain play out. A peaceful and prosperous Republic of Catalonia within the EU would greatly encourage other minority nations to assert themselves – just like the independence of the Baltic states did in the early 1990s. </p>
<p>Equally a descent into chaos would have the opposite effect, as would a decisive victory by pro-Spanish parties in the Catalan election on December 21. In this scenario, the analogy would be the break-up of the former Yugoslavia <a href="https://www.petergeoghegan.com/2014/09/02/what-scotland-can-learn-from-balkanisation/">putting independence movements</a> on the defensive about the dangers of nationalism. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193203/original/file-20171103-1032-1jv3538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193203/original/file-20171103-1032-1jv3538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193203/original/file-20171103-1032-1jv3538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193203/original/file-20171103-1032-1jv3538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193203/original/file-20171103-1032-1jv3538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193203/original/file-20171103-1032-1jv3538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193203/original/file-20171103-1032-1jv3538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193203/original/file-20171103-1032-1jv3538.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Forward march!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/madrid-spain-october-7-2017-manifestation-731383261?src=1wNqzlk6wRxCRjH390l0TQ-1-45">Lord Kuernyus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A sobering and crushing defeat for Catalan separatists would reinforce the view in the SNP that they should tread carefully. It would perhaps convince the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/happened-catalonia-happen-scotland-171030134957987.html">Flemish</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/28/world/europe/spain-catalonia-basque-independence.html">Basque</a> separatists that their gradualist approaches are the right ones. </p>
<p>Despite this uncertainty around the lessons from Catalonia, central governments in London, Paris and Madrid will be in no doubt about the challenge facing them. They have to find a way of rebuilding support for their centralised countries while continuing to retrench their welfare states. Whatever happens in Catalonia, that looks like being one of the key conundrums for decades to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86669/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William McDougall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Barcelona has become the test case for separatists Europe over.William McDougall, Lecturer in Politics, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/850852017-10-11T23:38:32Z2017-10-11T23:38:32ZThe hypocrisy of the European Union on the Catalan referendum<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189682/original/file-20171010-17684-fctmed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C282%2C3730%2C2059&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Spanish National Police block people trying to reach a polling station in Barcelona, Spain, on Oct. 1. Catalan leaders accused Spanish police of brutality and repression. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After days of political upheaval following the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2017/oct/01/catalan-independence-referendum-spain-catalonia-vote-live">Oct. 1 referendum</a> on independence from Spain, the president of Catalunya, Carles Puigdemont, spoke in the Catalan parliament this week.</p>
<p>The radical parties in parliament had been pushing for an immediate unilateral declaration of independence.</p>
<p>But with corporations beginning to <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/06/investing/catalonia-independence-banks-companies-spain/index.html">threaten they’d leave</a>, it made sense for Puigdemont to recount all the reasons why Catalunya is entitled to consider separation, but then announce that the independence declaration <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/10/catalan-government-suspends-declaration-of-independence">would be put on hold</a> for “several weeks” until a mediator is found.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189689/original/file-20171010-7420-122mypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189689/original/file-20171010-7420-122mypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189689/original/file-20171010-7420-122mypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189689/original/file-20171010-7420-122mypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189689/original/file-20171010-7420-122mypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189689/original/file-20171010-7420-122mypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189689/original/file-20171010-7420-122mypi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Catalan regional President Carles Puigdemont signs an independence declaration after a parliamentary session in Barcelona on Oct. 10. Puigdemont says he has a mandate to declare independence but is waiting a few weeks in order to facilitate a dialogue.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.dw.com/en/catalan-independence-spain-rejects-calls-for-mediation-by-catalan-president-carles-puigdemont/a-40809000">Mediation is widely supported</a> in Barcelona, the capital of Catalunya, by the leading newspaper, the bar association, the economists’ association, the chambers of commerce and a long list of civic leaders.</p>
<p>But the Spanish government has continued to repeat that there is no dialogue with law-breakers and that the referendum was illegal. </p>
<p>It was indeed illegal, but how the “illegal” label was generated would likely be mocked by international constitutional law experts.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, only Barcelona’s news outlets seem to know the background. They have tried to explain that in 2006 a referendum was actually held to approve the basic law governing Madrid-Barcelona relations (<a href="https://www.parlament.cat/document/cataleg/150259.pdf">the “Estatut.”</a>)</p>
<p>If it had been upheld, this long-awaited compromise law would have put an end to the independence movement. What the vast majority of Catalan people wanted (and probably would still want, if it were in the cards) was federalism, as it exists in Canada, Germany and other countries.</p>
<h2>Court stacked with centralists</h2>
<p>But the Constitutional Court, which had been carefully packed with strong centralists (in Spain judges belong to political parties and their affiliation is publicly known), unilaterally gutted the “Estatut” in 2010. When the same Constitutional Court declares the Barcelona government to be “anti-democratic” in 2017, one can appreciate why the labels “anti-democratic” and “illegal” have little purchase. Madrid unilaterally, and conveniently, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/10/europe/catalonia-how-we-got-here/index.html">deemed it so.</a></p>
<p>Prior to the Oct. 1 vote, Madrid sent tens of thousands of <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/01/europe/catalonia-spain-independence-referendum-vote/index.html">heavily armed national police</a>, including the paramilitary Guardia Civil, to keep people from voting. </p>
<p>Clearly the thousands of riot police, who destroyed polling stations, beat up almost 900 voters, made off with ballots and ballot boxes and shot rubber bullets into crowds, had not only permission but encouragement from on high. They were unsuccessful, as it turned out, since more than two million people voted.</p>
<p>On Oct. 3, just after a <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/10/general-strike-grinds-catalonia-halt-171003093537481.html">massive general strike</a> was held throughout Catalunya to protest the police actions, Spain’s King Felipe went on national TV. Instead of easing tensions, Felipe proceeded to use his position as sovereign <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/03/europe/catalonia-general-strike-protests-barcelona/index.html">to lambaste the government of Catalunya.</a></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189687/original/file-20171010-19989-1s2mi2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189687/original/file-20171010-19989-1s2mi2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189687/original/file-20171010-19989-1s2mi2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189687/original/file-20171010-19989-1s2mi2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189687/original/file-20171010-19989-1s2mi2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189687/original/file-20171010-19989-1s2mi2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189687/original/file-20171010-19989-1s2mi2t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Catalan regional police officers stand between protesters and national police headquarters during a one-day strike in Barcelona on Oct. 3 to protest alleged brutality by police during the referendum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Santi Palacios)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If Felipe had said “a few bad apples” among police had become overzealous, as would have happened in many democracies, that might have calmed things down. But the massive police violence went totally unmentioned, as if Felipe did not have a television set in his palace.</p>
<p>So where are things now? </p>
<p>Barcelona is still hoping for mediation, and has not gone through with independence declarations despite pressure from the radical left-separatist party CUP. Madrid has not yet sent in the tanks; but it has refused to pull the <a href="http://gulfnews.com/news/europe/spain/police-block-public-access-to-catalan-parliament-1.2103665">national police and paramilitary forces</a> out of Catalunya. </p>
<p>And the government continues to refuse to negotiate at all, either directly or through international mediators, including “The Elders,” the group founded by Nelson Mandela that has made a <a href="http://theelders.org/article/elders-call-dialogue-and-restraint-over-catalonia-crisis">sensible call for dialogue</a> and would no doubt be available to mediate.</p>
<p>In all of this, the people of Catalunya keep asking: Where is the European Union? What is the point of having a European Parliament and a European Commission if they are AWOL during the worst political crisis in recent European history?</p>
<p>As a Barcelona-raised scholar of urban law and governance, I can attest that being European is important to all Catalans. </p>
<p>Those who favour independence flood the streets every Sept. 11 (the Catalan national day), waving both Catalan independence flags and EU flags. But those who are against independence also wave the EU flag. During the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/08/catalonia-spain-prime-minister-refuses-rule-out-suspending-autonomy">huge anti-independence demonstration</a> held Oct. 8 in Barcelona, people carried Spanish flags, EU flags and the official pre-independence flag of Catalunya, often with the three sewn together.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189684/original/file-20171010-17673-18j3wsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189684/original/file-20171010-17673-18j3wsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189684/original/file-20171010-17673-18j3wsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189684/original/file-20171010-17673-18j3wsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189684/original/file-20171010-17673-18j3wsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189684/original/file-20171010-17673-18j3wsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189684/original/file-20171010-17673-18j3wsa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonstrators carrying flags march to protest the Catalan government’s push for secession from the rest of Spain in downtown Barcelona, Spain, on Oct. 8.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Francisco Seco)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The EU flag is just about the only thing both sides have in common. Even the famed Futbol Club Barcelona, usually the object of widespread and non-partisan adoration in Catalonia, took sides, not quite pro-independence but in favour of the referendum.</p>
<p>During the afternoon of Oct. 1, with European televisions and smartphone screens rife with photos of brazen police violence, a rumour circulated on social media about Angela Merkel phoning the Madrid Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, to tell him <a href="http://www.elnacional.cat/en/news/merkel-calls-rajoy-explanations-catalan-referendum_197541_102.html">to call off the dogs</a> – but it was only a rumour.</p>
<p>On referendum day, Oct. 1, one of the thousands of local crowds hoping to vote carried a large banner saying “Europe, help us” in English. That appeal, which in prior weeks was imbued with hope, became a cry of desperation.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"915189492394467328"}"></div></p>
<p>My sister Teresa, who was able to vote without violence (she lives in a very small town, one forgotten by the national police), told me that her fellow townspeople, who know of her Canadian connections, were asking, only half jokingly, whether Catalunya might become a province of Canada, since the EU clearly didn’t care about it.</p>
<p>What’s transpired in Spain over the past two weeks raises serious questions about why the West views it as acceptable that a European prime minister has completely disregarded every European Union norm about civility, dialogue, pluralism, police oversight and basic human rights.</p>
<p>When Venezuela stacks the constitutional court to ensure that democracy movements are labelled illegal, the EU cries foul. When the same thing happens in Madrid? Silence.</p>
<p>If Madrid wanted to secede from the EU economy, like Great Britain, an uproar would no doubt ensue. But Madrid has managed to secede from the legal, political and ethical norms and laws that European leaders insist countries like Russia, Turkey and Venezuela adhere to. </p>
<p>And nobody seems to care.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85085/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mariana Valverde does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The European Union is quick to condemn countries like Venezuela and Turkey when they engage in anti-democratic tactics. So why is it so silent on Spain’s treatment of the Catalan?Mariana Valverde, Urban law and governance, infrastructure researcher; professor of criminology, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/849222017-09-29T14:29:12Z2017-09-29T14:29:12ZSpain’s disregard for Catalan press freedom is setting a dangerous precedent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188184/original/file-20170929-21094-1ke7rej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protest in Barcelona against the Spanish government on September 21. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/barcelona-catalonia-spain-september-21-2017-720040666?src=fceMukMuLGKltsCRE06sow-1-42">Riderfoot</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the run-up to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/catalonias-independence-referendum-how-the-disputed-vote-led-to-crackdown-82277">Catalan independence referendum</a> on October 1 – ahead of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/01/dozens-injured-as-riot-police-storm-catalan-ref-polling-stations">police attacks on voters</a> on the day – the lines between protecting the Spanish constitution and curtailing freedom of expression became increasingly blurred. More than 140 websites promoting the referendum <a href="https://comunicacio21.cat/noticies-comunicacio21/123896-la-guardia-civil-bloqueja-144-webs-pro-referendum">have been</a> closed by the Spanish government in recent weeks. </p>
<p>Reports have been rife of tensions between police and journalists – <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-spain-politics-catalonia-tax/from-new-tax-office-catalonia-hopes-to-grab-billions-from-madrid-idUSKCN1BW10A">including raids</a> on newspaper offices, broad threats of legal consequences, and an <a href="http://www.sindicatperiodistes.cat/content/m%C3%A9s-de-300-assistents-la-concentraci%C3%B3-en-defensa-de-la-llibertat-dinformaci%C3%B3">organised protest</a> by journalists against harassment. All this in parallel with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/27/europe-must-act-to-protect-rights-and-freedoms-of-catalans">the other hostilities</a> from Madrid: threats to arrest Catalan mayors, interference with civic budgets, mass police deployment and now the violence on the day itself. How do these attempts to control communication compare to other referendums – and how concerned should we be?</p>
<p>Ahead of the independence referendums in Scotland <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/events/scotland-decides/results">in 2014</a> and Quebec <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29077213">in 1980 and 1995</a>, there were certainly accusations of media bias. In Scotland pro-independence activists <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-29196912">gathered</a> outside BBC Scotland a couple of days before the vote to protest against alleged institutional bias in favour of the union with England. Meanwhile, independence campaigners were <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scottish-independence/11102194/Threats-intimidation-and-abuse-the-dark-side-of-the-Yes-campaign-exposed.html">continually accused</a> of being abusive on social media. </p>
<p>In Quebec’s second referendum, the French-speaking public broadcaster <a href="http://reporter-archive.mcgill.ca/Rep/r3113/media.html">was accused</a> of favouring the pro-independence vote and a parliamentary commission investigated possible bias. But for all the political conflict in these referendums, freedom of expression was never called into question – neither in the actions of the authorities nor <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/catalonia-the-messy-reality-of-the-referendum-spain-wants-shut-down-11057965">by putting up</a> potential legal obstacles to a referendum taking place. </p>
<p>To be sure, there has also been a row about media bias in Catalonia. This has been magnified by the fact that only the pro-independence side is campaigning – the referendum is not recognised by those opposed to independence and is regarded as illegitimate by Madrid. </p>
<p>Media outlets sympathetic to independence look more partisan because they only have one campaign to cover, while unionist outlets positioned against the referendum – which are roughly comparable in number – fall equally foul because they report the situation as a political dispute and not as a campaign at all. This reporting goes way beyond presenting two political options for Catalans. The unionist media talk openly about “the pro-independence offensive”, while the pro-referendum media focus on the “state challenge to Catalonia”.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188183/original/file-20170929-21094-3z49gq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188183/original/file-20170929-21094-3z49gq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188183/original/file-20170929-21094-3z49gq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188183/original/file-20170929-21094-3z49gq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188183/original/file-20170929-21094-3z49gq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188183/original/file-20170929-21094-3z49gq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188183/original/file-20170929-21094-3z49gq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monica Terribas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mònica_Terribas_2017.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, anti-referendum activists and others <a href="http://www.elnacional.cat/ca/politica/concentracio-ultra-terribas-catalunya-radio_195705_102.html">gathered outside</a> the Catalan Public Radio Station on September 27 chanting against pro-referendum editorial lines and carrying threatening signs against prominent news anchor Mònica Terribas, whom they regard as one of the key culprits. At pro-referendum events, meanwhile, activists <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.es/2017/09/22/lo-que-le-hicieron-a-una-reportera-de-lasexta-en-barcelona-tras-boicotear-su-directo_a_23219325/">have carried</a> signs saying that the generally unionist Spanish media does not represent them. </p>
<h2>Media neutering</h2>
<p>The activities of the Spanish authorities have taken things to a whole different level, however. Earlier in September, Spanish police <a href="http://www.ara.cat/en/Spanish-HQ-several-Catalan-newspapers_0_1870613118.html">visited or wrote to</a> a number of Catalan news organisations which had aired the <a href="http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20170904/431057749241/emitido-tv3-primer-anuncio-oficial-referendum.html">official referendum campaign advertisement</a> to give them a letter from the Catalan Superior Court of Justice. The letter, which also went to all Catalan public institutions, did not forbid the adverts or declare them illegal, or even say explicitly that it was illegal to inform people about the referendum. </p>
<p>Instead it warned of possible criminal consequences from helping to bring the referendum about, without specifying what types of actions could fall into that category. The problem with such loose warnings has been the censorship that has come about: the daily newspaper <a href="http://www.ara.cat/media/Als-nostres-lectors_0_1866413587.html">Ara</a> decided not to publish any more campaign adverts, for example. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188185/original/file-20170929-23041-1s9iwcw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188185/original/file-20170929-23041-1s9iwcw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/188185/original/file-20170929-23041-1s9iwcw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188185/original/file-20170929-23041-1s9iwcw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188185/original/file-20170929-23041-1s9iwcw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188185/original/file-20170929-23041-1s9iwcw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1154&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188185/original/file-20170929-23041-1s9iwcw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1154&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/188185/original/file-20170929-23041-1s9iwcw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1154&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Omnium Cultural.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Network of Local Television (La Xarxa de Comunicació Local) <a href="https://comunicacio21.cat/noticies-comunicacio21/123807-la-direccio-de-la-xarxa-ordena-no-entrevistar-alcaldes-fins-a-l-1-o">told its journalists</a> not to ask politicians questions about the referendum until the day after it had taken place. Acting on similar fears, Spanish public mail company Correos <a href="http://www.elnacional.cat/es/politica/omnium-correos-revista-referendum_191976_102.html">stopped distributing</a> the news magazine Omnium Cultural to its subscribers because it contained pro-referendum advertising. </p>
<p>Of the 144 websites that have been blocked, most belong to cultural and political associations campaigning for an independence vote. Fourteen individuals <a href="http://www.catalannews.com/society-science/item/14-people-summoned-to-court-for-duplicating-referendum-website">have been</a> called before a judge for copying the codes of some of the sites in question. </p>
<p>The Spanish military police association, the Guardia Civil, meanwhile, <a href="http://www.catalannews.com/society-science/item/guardia-civil-officers-sue-catalan-public-radio-news-anchor">is suing</a> Mònica Terribas. It accuses the news anchor of endangering police operations by asking listeners to report on anti-referendum raids by the forces. In all, media observer media.cat <a href="https://twitter.com/GrupBarnils/status/913715948774940672">has reported</a> than 64 situations where freedom of expression has been affected or disrupted in relation to the referendum. </p>
<p>Faced with such accusations, the Spanish government <a href="http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20170928/gobierno-dice-no-pretende-limitar-libertad-expresion-1-sino-evitar-acto-ilegal/1623620.shtml">has said</a> it does not want to restrict freedom of expression in Catalonia. Its actions, it says, are aimed at guaranteeing the order against a referendum which was <a href="http://time.com/4933069/catalonia-independence-vote-spain-suspended/">laid down by</a> the Spanish constitutional court a few weeks ago. </p>
<p>But even before the outbreak of referendum day violence, Spain already found itself in territory for which it is hard to find comparisons in the West. Article 10 of the <a href="http://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf">European Convention on Human Rights</a>, to which Spain is of course a signatory, lays down the principle of freedom of expression quite clearly. It talks about the right of people to “receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers”. </p>
<p>Yet little or nothing has been said by the international community in this regard. The situation is troubling to say the least. If there are no consequences, particularly in light of the latest developments on the ground, it will set a dangerous precedent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84922/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mariola Tarrega does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When you put together the efforts of the Spanish authorities to curb media coverage of the Catalan referendum, you have a deeply worrying picture.Mariola Tarrega, Teaching fellow, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/797172017-06-27T18:25:32Z2017-06-27T18:25:32ZHow Madrid’s residents are using open-source urban planning to create shared spaces – and build democracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174795/original/file-20170620-29242-1mvrtv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Neighbours enjoy Madrid's outdoor Cinema Usera. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://afasiaarchzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Todo-por-la-Praxis-.-CINEMA-USERA-.-Madrid-10.jpg">Todo por la Praxis </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since the 2008 economic crisis, Madrid has become the epicentre of major political and urban change. The city’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-spanish-political-laboratory-is-reconfiguring-democracy-74874"><em>Indignados</em></a>
are back, asserting that residents have a <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0042098009360239">“right to the city”</a> as well as “lodging, work, culture, health, education, political participation, the freedom of personal development and the right to first-necessity products”, as expressed in the manifesto of the <a href="http://www.democraciarealya.es/manifiesto-comun/manifesto-english/"><em>¡Democracia Real Ya!</em> movement</a>. These and other groups have thus revived a traditional Madrilenian citizens’ movement, based in part on self-management.</p>
<p>This is witnessed today in the phenomena of <em>laboratorios ciudadanos</em> (citizen laboratories) created in vacant city spaces. Not the result of any urban-planning strategy, they seem to have materialised from the spontaneous impulse of ordinary citizens and highly qualified groups working together in areas like collaborative economy, the digital technology, urban ecology or social urbanisation. These laboratories are fertile grounds for open-source urban planning (in Spanish, <em>urbanismo de codigo abierto</em>) and collectively rethinking the urban commons. The challenge is to (re)make the city <em>in situ</em>, using neighbourhood resources rather than acting like public authorities or already-established municipal groups.</p>
<h2>Hacking, a production mode common to Madrilenians</h2>
<p>Citizen laboratories use digital tools and “hacker ethics” to reclaim and coproduce in Madrid’s vacant spaces. Some twenty <em>laboratorios ciudadanos</em> have emerged over the last few years, including <em><a href="http://latabacalera.net/c-s-a-la-tabacalera-de-lavapies/">La Tabacalera</a></em>, <em><a href="http://estaesunaplaza.blogspot.fr/">Esta es une plaza</a></em> or <em><a href="https://es-la.facebook.com/campodecebada/">Campo de la Cebada</a></em>. Each specialises in a particular field, such as agriculture and urban economy, social and cultural integration, collaborative art or digital economy.</p>
<p>The <em>Campo de la Cebada</em> came to be in October 2010, when the city decided to demolish a sports complex in the La Latina area. Residents and neighbourhood groups worked together to create and manage an area dedicated to citizen social and cultural initiatives, with shared gardens and sports fields. Benches and bleachers were designed and made from recycled materials using free designs and fab-lab tools. Participants even created a geodesic dome 14 metres in diameter for hosting different cultural and social events.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174513/original/file-20170619-22116-1imq8pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174513/original/file-20170619-22116-1imq8pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174513/original/file-20170619-22116-1imq8pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174513/original/file-20170619-22116-1imq8pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174513/original/file-20170619-22116-1imq8pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174513/original/file-20170619-22116-1imq8pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174513/original/file-20170619-22116-1imq8pq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Campo de la Cebada in Barcelona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Raphaël Besson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <em>Campo de la Cebada</em> has since grown to include exchange services, workshops for street art, photography, poetry and theatre, and events such as open-air music and film festivals. Activities are totally self-managed by groups representing residents, retailers, and associations, as well as architects, urban planners, researchers and engineers. It’s administered collectively rather than within the closed circle of a few elected officials or experts. Its objective is “that anyone may feel concerned and be implicated in the functions of the place”, according to Manuel Pascual of the <a href="http://www.zuloark.com/">Zuloark</a> architectural agency.</p>
<h2>Toward open-source urban planning</h2>
<p>Community groups such as <em><a href="http://www.ecosistemaurbano.com/">Ecosistema Urbano</a></em>, <em><a href="http://basurama.org/">Basurama</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.todoporlapraxis.es/">Todo por la Praxis</a></em> or <em><a href="http://www.paisajetransversal.org/">Paisaje Transversal</a></em> are also testing an urbanism based on collaborative management, experimentation, sustainable development, and the integration of artistic and cultural events. Inspired by the universe of open-source software, these groups advocate open-source urban planning. This translates into the development of design-thinking methods and digital tools that can help stimulate citizens’ ability to express themselves and their needs and turn projects into co-productions.</p>
<p>For example, the <em>Basurama</em> group organised an initiative called <em><a href="http://basurama.org/proyecto/autobarrios-sancristobal/">Autobarrios San Cristobal</a></em> in which residents of a neglected Madrid neighbourhood developed a shared space using local knowledge and recovered materials. The <em>Paisaje Tetuàn</em> project encouraged residents of the Tetuàn neighbourhood to collaborate with urban architects, artists and designers to rehabilitate the central Leopoldo Luis square as well as its surrounding area.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174514/original/file-20170619-22108-11b7flr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174514/original/file-20170619-22108-11b7flr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174514/original/file-20170619-22108-11b7flr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174514/original/file-20170619-22108-11b7flr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174514/original/file-20170619-22108-11b7flr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174514/original/file-20170619-22108-11b7flr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/174514/original/file-20170619-22108-11b7flr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Autobarrios San Cristóbal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Basurama</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Open-source urban planning is less a business than a process of establishing relational spaces required for building the commons. This is one of the objectives of collaborative digital platforms that can connect of socially different worlds. These platforms serve as a “middle ground”, connecting the “underground” of residents, users, hackers and artists, with the “upper world” of administrations, businesses and engineers.</p>
<p>Online social networks thus facilitate self-managed citizen laboratories and mobilise hundreds of people for events in record time – equipment and infrastructure for <em>Campo de La Cebada</em> were financed through crowdfunding. Platforms for citizen laboratory networking, like the program “Ciudadania 2.0” (“citizenship 2.0”) created by <a href="http://medialab-prado.es/">Media Lab Prado</a> and the <a href="http://segib.org/">Secretaria General Iberoamericana</a> (SEGIB), facilitate resource sharing and visibility. The collaborative map <a href="http://www.losmadriles.org/">“Los Madriles”</a> features real-time polls of social and citizen innovations, including social centres, shared gardens, artistic events and more.</p>
<p>The Media Lab Prado <a href="http://medialab-prado.es/convocatorias">call-for-projects platform</a> helps spread the word about workshops and experiments related to the city and shared spaces – urban agriculture, data visualisations, cultural events, urban economics, etc. The Media Lab Prado digital façade provides real-time information on research, workshops, and on-going experiments to residents of the <em>Letras</em> district are updated on programs, and also enables them to publish their own announcements for events as well as neighbourhood news.</p>
<h2>Making the Madrid commons : intense daily activism</h2>
<p>The movement around Madrid’s public spaces has roots that stretch back to the <a href="https://monoskop.org/Situationist_International">Situationist International</a> of the 1960s. It asserts that experimentation and the mobilisation of a wide range of knowledge, be it expert or profane, are the basis for renewed vision of the urban fabric. By inciting citizens to act directly on the urban landscape and to freely create daily life, it differentiates itself from militant politics, to defend an intense daily activism.</p>
<p>In contrast to Madrid’s experiments, the Situationist movement
remains largely confined at a <a href="https://metropoles.revues.org/2902">literary and conceptual level</a>. New digital manufacturing techniques and tools have changed this situation. They enabled Madrid activists and residents to demand the material realisation of the Situationist ideal and to defend a “right to the infrastructure of cities”. This right is not limited to demanding equal access to city resources, but also concerns the city’s infrastructure, the “urban hardware”.</p>
<p>It going beyond social, educational and cultural life to coproducing city public spaces, equipment and other urban infrastructures. Thus Madrid’s movements are part of the “maker age”. In citizen laboratories, physical and material aspects come before intellectual and political considerations. Residents go first to the garden, where they can exchange and create; only then do they debate broader political issues. In this “soft activism”, the shared space becomes the new <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-multitudes-2007-4-page-101.htm">“interstice where political reconstruction could begin”</a>.</p>
<p>Exploring Madrid’s urban experiments permits us to better understand the conditions needed to making the urban commons. First is some vacant space and the possibility of using a portion of it to experiment and create. The space also need to be intermediate – neither private nor public – and inherently unstable and suitable for gathering. Then come the digital tools and acquisition of the technical capacity to produce shared space. Finally the “making” begins, and with it the continuous interaction between the materials and the intellectual end result.</p>
<p>How such urban commons experiments are to be developed and managed over the long-term remains to be answered. From this point of view, everything remains to be done.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This text was translated by Joan Thomas and Sarah Marcelly Fernandez.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raphaël Besson ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Born seemingly spontaneously out of a desire to create and manage shared spaces, Madrid’s “citizen laboratories” are using new tools to build a new vision of how cities should be planned and run.Raphaël Besson, Directeur de l'agence Villes Innovations, Chercheur associé au laboratoire PACTE (Université de Grenoble), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/667212016-10-12T15:03:14Z2016-10-12T15:03:14ZThe story behind Scotland’s art is not being told – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141438/original/image-20161012-13467-1btxwjn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Peter Graham: Wandering Shadows (1878). </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_Graham_-_Wandering_Shadows_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Catalans tell their story to the world at the <a href="http://elbornculturaimemoria.barcelona.cat/en/the-center/">El Born</a> Cultural and Memorial Centre in Barcelona. It tells of how the Bourbon Philip V defeated them in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/War-of-the-Spanish-Succession">Spanish War of Succession</a> in 1714. He then abolished Catalan constitutions, parliament and rights; suppressed their universities; and ended administrative use of the language. He demolished nearly a fifth of Barcelona – including the site of the centre. </p>
<p>This conscious destruction of identity has been bitterly resented by the people ever since. El Born condemns the past and celebrates modern Catalan culture as a continuity with the old times before the war. This imbues everything at El Born from the text on the entrance panel that says “nothing was ever the same” after the fall of Barcelona, to the restaurant menu that offers Philip V’s entrails. </p>
<p>Everyone in Catalonia buys into this narrative, regardless of their support for independence. The people know who they are, what they lost, what they want back. </p>
<p>In Edinburgh, meanwhile, the National Gallery of Scotland is <a href="http://www.parliament.scot/ResearchBriefingsAndFactsheets/S4/SB_15-62_National_Galleries_of_Scotland_Bill.pdf">gearing up</a> for a major expansion. It is rebuilding a “Scottish wing” and its collection of Scottish art is currently not on display. Will there be a similar approach to El Born? I very much doubt it. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141411/original/image-20161012-13464-7pbhb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Inside El Born: ruins of old Barcelona.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ckorange/15574971028/in/photolist-pJiNgf-gipmFY-eGanZX-g1Ndms-g1MK4b-g1MJxj-g1MmXr-g1NEBJ-fN3EHB-fNknwm-fNMsAo-fNkuPL-fN3Mep-fNPzF1-fNkfBw-fNx1ma-g1MDv4-jwodeV-jHLVUv-g1MG5q-X9A2r-55mKtj-BfTDqF-fNkfu5-fNkfco-fNPzhy-fNkmZs-fNkneq-fNuTye-fN3Dt2-fN3F2g-fNkmJQ-fNx19M-eczwTV-fNkuzS-fN3LGp-fNPzyE-fNkeWU-fNPz5J-fNkn7u-fNMsq1-6b6ku9-w35VUY-fNuSS6-fUb6Nc-Jd3bxb-pvxGwd-7jMSXn-g1MnEs-N9noA">Luca Cerabona</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Not coming soon</h2>
<p>Were Scotland’s national gallery to follow that Catalan model, you might see a <a href="http://www.pictishstones.org.uk">Pictish standing stone</a> by the entrance next to Kate Whiteford’s <a href="https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/home/kate-whiteford-land-drawings-installations-excavations/1996069.article">drawings</a> of Calton Hill in Edinburgh. An opening panel might read:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Scotland was for centuries a small but successful independent European country. Like Holland it was a Calvinist trading nation. Its art too had Low Countries parallels. </p>
<p>But following disastrous overseas speculation, Scotland was refused financial support and some proposed political union with England. Many were opposed but the vote was corrupt. The nobles sold Scotland for English gold and nothing was ever the same again.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141413/original/image-20161012-13501-j4tytd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">William Aikman self portrait.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Aikman_(painter)#/media/File:William_Aikman.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Visitors might walk through to paintings to illustrate <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/j/artist/george-jamesone/object/george-jamesone-1589-1590-1644-portrait-painter-self-portrait-pg-2361">George Jamesone’s</a> primacy in the 16th/17th century, alongside his contemporary <a href="http://artuk.org/discover/artists/wright-john-michael-16171694">John Michael Wright</a>. A portrait comparison of <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/m/artist/sir-john-baptiste-de-medina/object/sir-john-baptiste-de-medina-1659-1710-portrait-painter-self-portrait-pg-1555">John de Medina</a> and <a href="https://www.artuk.org/discover/artists/aikman-william-16821731">William Aikman</a> might explain that while Medina could not keep up with demand in culturally vibrant pre-<a href="http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/act-of-union-1707/">Union</a> Scotland, Aikman had to make his living in London a few years later because Scotland had been stripped of patronage. </p>
<p>The tale could continue with <a href="http://artuk.org/discover/artists/ramsay-allan-17131784">Allan Ramsay</a> the primary portrait painter of Europe in the 18th century, lured to the royal court in London despite an upbringing steeped in Scottish cultural identity; and <a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/sir-henry-raeburn">Henry Raeburn</a>, 18th/19th century chronicler of a Scottish egalitarianism that contrasts with class-ridden England. </p>
<p>There would be <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/w/artist/sir-david-wilkie/object/sir-david-wilkie-1785-1841-artist-self-portrait-pg-573">David Wilkie</a>, the inventor of modern genre painting; <a href="http://www.scottish-places.info/people/famousfirst1716.html">GP Chalmers</a> and <a href="http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp07468/sir-george-reid">George Reid</a>, who brought modern continental art to Scotland at a time when nationalist England ignored it. Then <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/g/artist/sir-james-guthrie">James Guthrie</a>, <a href="http://artuk.org/discover/artists/lavery-john-18561941">John Lavery</a> and the French influence. The <a href="http://www.scottishcolourists.co.uk/history-of-the-movement/">Colourists</a> and Modernism. Nothing in the gallery would ever mention England except to point out Scotland’s artistic independence and/or superiority. </p>
<h2>Wha’s like us?</h2>
<p>It is not the artists that will probably be missing from this display but the narrative. The gallery is unlikely to emphasise that the pre-Union paintings were created in an independent country; that the 18th century artists were increasingly seeking to fit British sensibilities; that the Highland romance in many later works came out of a colonised state desperately trying to find its own identity. And make no mistake: not acknowledging these things is no less political than the alternative.</p>
<p>The problem is that Scots do not have a single shared identity like the Catalans, viewing the past with the same emotion and seeing a continuity with the present. Scotland’s modern identity was not born in outside oppression but through a vote <a href="http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-Act-of-Union/">of sorts</a>. Post-Union Scotland was not immediately a victim of oppression, murder and discrimination so there was no shared “enemy”. </p>
<p>Scots often find it faintly awkward that their heroic achievements relate to constant war with England, either because they feel happily part of Britain or are repeatedly assured by Scottish nationalist politicians that independence is not anti-English. It is complex where Catalan nationalism can be anti-Spanish plain and simple. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1306&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1306&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141432/original/image-20161012-13501-1ltqfnx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1306&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Highland Landscape (1835).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Scotland’s nearest thing to a unifying identity is Highlandism: the romantic ideal of the noble clansman and his spectacular surroundings that was championed above all by <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/6ybQ7x2H4s0LF0ZlL8jKj0/walter-scott">Walter Scott</a> – the Horatio McCulloch landscape opposite is an example of the art that followed. </p>
<p>But to most people nowadays Highlandism is a manufactured monster of tartan gonks, Nessie, Harry Lauder and kitsch which is no less uncomfortable. Many Scots seem to prefer insisting they are a cool mid-atlantic internationalist people and nothing else. </p>
<p>My own view is that Scots should not throw away the past, no matter how embarrassing or awkward. Scotland invented Highlandism <a href="http://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/eclipse-of-scottish-culture/author/beveridge-and-turnbull/">because</a> its own culture had been ignored by London and <a href="http://www.historytoday.com/ian-bradley/britishness-scottish-invention">suppressed by</a> many leading Scots in the years after Union. </p>
<p>Rejecting it is siding with Irvine Welsh’s Rent Boy in Trainspotting saying “it’s shite being Scottish”. Behind his nihilistic attack on Scotland as the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-F5dmRV5Bc">Land of the Mountain and the Flood</a>” is really an impotent anger at having nothing to put in its place. Accept it and Scotland has no past of its own, only present. Yet Scotland’s identity is not nothing. It is Walter Scott, Jacobites, Presbyterians, Dalriada, Gaels, Samuel Smiles, Catholicism, Glencoe, internationalism, Clearances, Enlightenment, Doric and much more. </p>
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<p>Some might argue your visual artistic culture doesn’t need to tell your national story. Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, the writer and politician, famously <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/209/614.html">said</a> in 1703 that “if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of a nation”. He appears to be suggesting culture can survive and define a people without statehood. </p>
<p>Madrid’s willingness to tolerate El Born’s violently anti-Spanish rhetoric certainly supports such a reading. “Sing all the ballads you like, display all the paintings you want”, Madrid is saying to the Catalans, “just don’t vote”. </p>
<p>Ultimately I reject Madrid’s implication that identity is powerless if expressed only through culture. I think what Fletcher is actually saying is that culture is in effect a resistance movement. It is not vulnerable to short term changes in law or lawmakers. It is who we were, who we are and what we will ultimately be. How we present our culture, how we construct our resistance, is very important indeed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66721/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Morrison does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Catalans have no trouble telling their story of oppression through culture. The Scots find it trickier.John Morrison, Head of School, Divinity, History and Philosophy, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/656922016-10-06T20:14:58Z2016-10-06T20:14:58ZKinky, curly hair: a tool of resistance across the African diaspora<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/140202/original/image-20161003-20228-16od3gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For women studying and working in Eurocentric institutions, wearing natural hair can be a symbol of resistance</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Across the African diaspora, stigmatising kinky and curly hair was a central way that European colonisers and slave-owners <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=TVrbAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=kobena+mercer&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">subjugated black people</a>. </p>
<p>In many places, like <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=XnqlDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA114&lpg=PA114&dq=hair+texture+brazil+slave+trade&source=bl&ots=wc_Iqg7L7X&sig=RCnubbE_3W5c8LC66wJlb7yHsO8&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=hair&f=false">Brazil</a> and the <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=iYhEAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=hair+story+tharps&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=hair%20story%20tharps&f=false">US</a>, hair texture later became a key marker of racial classification and social status. In apartheid South Africa, the “<a href="http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2010/07/separating-strands-the-apartheid-of-hair-in-south-african-society/">pencil test</a>” was used to determine proximity to whiteness, along with access to political, social and economic privileges. It involved inserting a pencil into the hair and testing whether it would hold or fall out.</p>
<p>Persistent, disdainful ideas about natural, black hair are the legacy of this history. </p>
<p>National independence and civil rights protections have brought citizenship rights to many black people. And yet hair texture continues to determine access to <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/09/21/a_federal_court_ruled_that_employers_can_fire_people_just_for_having_dreadlocks.html">employment</a>, <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=zAPEBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=black+looks+race+and+representation&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=hair&f=false">romantic relationships</a>, <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2016/08/29/Pretoria-High-School-for-Girls-faces-fury-after-black-pupils-told-to-%E2%80%98straighten-hair%E2%80%99">educational institutions</a> and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/03/tsa-hair-pat-downs_n_6996790.html">freedom of movement</a>.</p>
<p>Over the last decade, black women around the world have grown a movement centred on validating, celebrating and caring for their hair in its natural kinky-curly state. Natural hair expositions, pageants, salons and bloggers can now be found in cities across the globe – in Sao Paulo, Johannesburg, Madrid, Atlanta, Paris, Amsterdam and Havana. There’s even a holiday – <a href="http://nnhmd.com">International Natural Hair Meetup Day</a> – that attempts to coordinate these geographically separated natural hair communities. </p>
<p>Over the last two years I’ve travelled around the US, Spain, the Netherlands, France and South Africa unpacking why the natural hair movement has become a political rallying point across the African diaspora. And establishing who participates in it. </p>
<h2>Awareness, social media and environmentalism</h2>
<p>Natural hair has been transformed from an unpopular and outdated style option to a full blown lifestyle movement. This can be explained by the convergence of three factors: a heightened concern about the ethical implications of hair straightening, the rise of social media and environmentalism.</p>
<p>In 2008, Chris Rock’s documentary <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m-4qxz08So">Good Hair</a> revived a global conversation about the politics of black hair. The film explored the physical, emotional and financial toll that straightening hair takes on black women’s lives as they try to fulfil Eurocentric beauty ideals. The documentary harshly criticised wearing weaves and using chemical relaxers. But it left viewers without clear pathways for change. </p>
<p>This gap was filled by the rise of visually rich, interactive social media platforms. YouTube (released 2005), Tumblr (2009) and Instagram (2010) enabled black women to create communities and exchange information about styling natural hair, creating products at home and fostering self-acceptance. Popular music has also played a part in drawing attention to the significance of hair for identity and self-esteem. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">In “Don’t Touch My Hair” Solange Knowles sings about hair, identity, freedom and pride.</span></figcaption>
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<p>At the same time, <a href="http://raconteur.net/lifestyle/our-growing-taste-for-organic-life">green movement conversations</a> piqued concerns about sustainability and chemical toxicity in food and cosmetics. The word “natural” came to describe the integrity of ingredients in products in addition to texture. Some “naturalpreneurs” have created entire careers importing raw shea butter, virgin coconut oil, and other organic concoctions to sell to health-conscious black women. In the process of marketing their products, they have also been involved in marketing natural hair politics. </p>
<h2>Individual resistance and collective struggle</h2>
<p>In racially diverse places like Brazil, Canada, the US, South Africa and Western Europe, natural hair has inspired responses ranging from <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/allure-afro-tutorial-outrage_us_55bf852ae4b06363d5a2b1ae">fetishisation</a> to <a href="https://youtu.be/Jmv6pVgBI9M">confusion and disgust</a>. </p>
<p>These reactions highlight the fallacies of post-racial “colourblind” thinking. This post-racial thinking asserts that race no longer explains social and economic obstacles faced by people of colour. In doing so, it denies the powerful ways that institutionalised racism and cultural racism continue to maintain white privilege. </p>
<p>For example, many older South African women described feeling pressure to straighten their hair in the post-apartheid “rainbow nation”. They did this to assimilate into newly accessible elite institutions. But today’s natural hair trend mirrors a rejection of post-racial thinking. There is a <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/talktojazeera/inthefield/2016/07/south-africa-students-key-real-change-160729105103865.html">growing demand</a> to combat enduring racial inequality through race-conscious strategies.</p>
<p>In societies that are dealing with the legacies of settler colonialism, slavery and apartheid, black women are usually underrepresented in boardrooms and elite classrooms. In these contexts, wearing natural hair allows upwardly-mobile black women to assert their identity despite white supremacist norms. For these women, natural hair politics often takes the form of individual resistance. Women attend monthly or annual meet-ups, and follow black women’s online media. </p>
<p>But in places with large enough populations of black women in formerly white spaces, natural hair politics can form the basis of a collective anti-racist politics. The <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2016-08-29-pretoria-girls-high-school-pupil-i-was-instructed-to-fix-myself-as-if-i-was-broken">protests</a> that broke out in 2016 at South Africa’s Pretoria Girls High are evidence of this. </p>
<h2>The class question</h2>
<p>It is significant to note that working-class and poor women tend to be underrepresented in the natural hair movement. Its green ethos is difficult for poor and working-class women to buy into. Poor black neighbourhoods are less likely to have grocery stores, let alone speciality health food stores that stock organic products. </p>
<p>Women in poverty and women in developing nations are also less likely to enjoy reliable internet access. This limits their ability to interact with the blogs, vlogs, and think-pieces integral to natural hair culture. Likewise, natural hair spaces tend to organise themselves around buying, selling and reviewing natural hair products. Many of these are expensive and inaccessible outside of the US. </p>
<p>In these contexts, the symbolism around natural hair is different. Sporting natural hair is more likely to be interpreted as an inability to afford chemical relaxers rather than as a personal or political choice. </p>
<h2>Black Hair Matters</h2>
<p>The exclusivity of the movement does not diminish the transformative impact that “going natural” has had on the lives of thousands of black women across the African diaspora. It is an issue of aesthetics and representation. But it is also more than that. </p>
<p>I’ve met women around the world who link their breastfeeding advocacy, midwifery, yoga practice, veganism, reiki work and improved fitness habits back to their choice to embrace natural hair. </p>
<p>For some women, natural hair communities simply disseminate more culturally affirming images and pleasurable options for styling black hair. For others, “going natural” is one way to mobilise against the lived experience of white supremacy. For many more, the natural hair movement has provided black women with a set of ideas that allow them to live more fully, freely and joyfully in their own bodies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65692/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chelsea Johnson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Natural hair has become a political rallying point for women across the African diaspora. For these women, wearing natural hair is way to resist Eurocentric norms and “post-racial” political thought.Chelsea Johnson, PhD Candidate in Sociology, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/619292016-07-04T16:06:29Z2016-07-04T16:06:29ZLondon banking will struggle to escape Brexit trap<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129214/original/image-20160704-19103-1j1vtw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-231494776/stock-photo-city-of-london-skyline-at-sunset-long-exposure-shot.html?src=csl_recent_image-3">Aliaksei Yarmolin</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The free movement principle of the EU means that all individuals of member states receive an EU passport. They can settle in any other EU country and enjoy the same rights and benefits as any other citizen of the host country. </p>
<p>It is perhaps less obvious that the EU passport also applies to businesses, including banks. If, say, an American bank has been authorised to be in Britain, it is automatically entitled to operate in any EU country. It is this quintessential element of EU membership that has enabled London to become the banking capital of Europe. </p>
<p>Now that the UK <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32810887">has voted</a> for a Brexit from the EU, we don’t yet know what kind of arrangements the two sides will agree. They may end up being more favourable than the total separation envisaged by <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-article-50-the-law-that-governs-exiting-the-eu-and-how-does-it-work-60262">Article 50</a> of the Treaty of the European Union. But unless the UK is still inside the single market, at least as part of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/eu-eea">European Economic Area (EEA)</a>, this passporting right will be gone. </p>
<p>This is why there are <a href="https://next.ft.com/content/e8b14d60-3a36-11e6-9a05-82a9b15a8ee7">widespread fears</a> about how the banks are going to keep their main European headquarters in London, particularly those that are non-EU. There is likely to be a surge in requests for banking licences on the continent, even from British banks. Hence numerous international banks <a href="https://next.ft.com/content/e8b14d60-3a36-11e6-9a05-82a9b15a8ee7">are reportedly</a> considering their options. Substantial numbers of the City’s <a href="http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/business/economic-research-and-information/statistics/Documents/an-indispensable-idustry.pdf">circa 700,000</a> jobs might shift.</p>
<h2>Capital gains</h2>
<p>The most likely beneficiaries will be the other main European financial centres – Paris, Frankfurt, Milan and Madrid – though smaller players will seek gains, too, including Luxembourg, Amsterdam and Dublin. </p>
<p>The European Banking Authority (EBA), currently located by the River Thames, will almost certainly be among the departures. It is one of the EU’s three overseers in the financial services sector. With the insurance regulator (<a href="https://eiopa.europa.eu">EIOPA</a>) already based in Frankfurt and the financial markets regulator (<a href="https://www.esma.europa.eu">ESMA</a>) in Paris, Milan <a href="http://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/finanza-e-mercati/2016-07-03/borsa-e-sede-dell-eba-brexit-doppia-opportunita-milano-105710_PRV.shtml?uuid=ADfBzEn">has emerged</a> as the early frontrunner to provide the EBA’s new home. </p>
<p>The global investment banks will probably incline to Paris, both because of ESMA and because there is already Europe’s second-largest market for trading securities in the form of <a href="https://www.euronext.com">Euronext Paris</a>. HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/uk-banks-move-brexit-eu-referendum-paris-amsterdam-passporting-single-market-eea-sapin-hollande-a7110651.html">has indicated</a> that 20% of his 5,000 investment banking staff could be bound for Paris, for instance. In a similar way, mutual funds and pension funds would find a natural location in Frankfurt, since they come under the EIOPA. </p>
<p>There is unlikely to be one big winner from any reorganisation. The 2008 financial crisis revealed major cracks in the eurozone, broadly dividing the north and south of the continent. Where in the past the major investment banks have tended to have just one major European headquarters, they might now decide to operate out of several smaller centres on the mainland and to take different strategic approaches for different parts of the bloc. This might be a suitable move for cautious new times, given the uncertainty that Brexit has created. </p>
<p>These players will probably retain a reduced British operation for similar reasons. We might also see European banks setting up in London that were previously able to service the UK market from the mainland. This at least means we are unlikely to witness a catastrophic mass migration from the Square Mile. </p>
<p>It is also worth emphasising that we are certainly not talking about all jobs. Within investment banks, for instance, there is <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-29/hollande-says-brexit-to-hurt-city-of-london-in-clearing-warning">a threat</a> to the clearing services that London houses provide for trading euro-denominated financial instruments. French president Francois Hollande has <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-29/hollande-says-brexit-to-hurt-city-of-london-in-clearing-warning">already said</a> that they can’t stay in the UK. This won’t affect the clearing of financial instruments denominated in other currencies, however. </p>
<p>Equally, it may no longer be possible to directly buy and sell the shares or bonds of EU-listed companies in London post-Brexit, but it won’t affect the trading in other companies or other markets such as commodities. In some areas, such as derivatives trading, no longer having to live with EU regulations might even be an advantage – albeit potentially making the markets more volatile, too. Also potentially less affected will be other merchant banking services, such as mergers and acquisitions. </p>
<p>On the other hand, UK insurance companies will no longer be able to offer insurance within the EU without a licence within one of the member states. I should also stress that the different sub-sectors of financial services may not all be protected if the UK ends up in the EEA – instead of an automatic right to a full passport, the different areas it covers would need to be agreed. </p>
<h2>Scotland’s opportunity</h2>
<p>If Scotland does vote for independence in the next couple of years, it could be a unique opportunity for luring banks to Edinburgh or Glasgow – as has <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/27/brexit-may-be-scotlands-chance-to-steal-london-finance-crown/">already been</a> suggested. In particular, <a href="http://www.talentscotland.com/news/2016/05/edinburghs-financial-services">Edinburgh’s “City”</a> is presently small but not negligible, hosting the headquarters of Tesco Bank and Sainsbury’s Bank, insurance firm Standard Life and a substantial amount of fund management.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129255/original/image-20160704-19107-12toskq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129255/original/image-20160704-19107-12toskq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129255/original/image-20160704-19107-12toskq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129255/original/image-20160704-19107-12toskq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129255/original/image-20160704-19107-12toskq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129255/original/image-20160704-19107-12toskq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129255/original/image-20160704-19107-12toskq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/129255/original/image-20160704-19107-12toskq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Edinburgh’s financial district.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ross_strachan/6691794223/in/photolist-arhibw-dAi7pp-6eSdZx-bckcht">Ross G. Strachan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>The central bank of a new independent Scotland would be entitled to authorise banks to trade across the EU <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-spain-plays-a-crucial-role-in-whether-united-kingdom-stays-together-61823">as soon as</a> the new country was granted membership. This could engender a new Scottish enlightenment, attracting banks and investment firms from all over the world. </p>
<p>It certainly sounds better than the alternative in which Scotland leaves the EU with the rest of the UK. If the likes of Tesco Bank and Sainsbury’s Bank were interested in expanding to the single market, they too would have to establish operations elsewhere in this scenario. Scotland’s financial waters could end up stagnant for decades as a result. </p>
<p>With this much at stake, the UK’s formidable banking lobby will doubtless be gearing up over the next couple of years to make the best out of a very difficult situation. At this stage, however, it looks as though the EU passport will be lost unless the UK accepts free movement of citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61929/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pierre Sinclair de Gioia Carabellese does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The fears about the City don’t look overcooked – here’s why.Pierre Sinclair de Gioia Carabellese, Associate Professor of Business Law, Heriot-Watt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/618232016-06-30T09:30:29Z2016-06-30T09:30:29ZWhy Spain plays a crucial role in whether United Kingdom stays together<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128825/original/image-20160630-30661-drfk2s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tapa the morning. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-302576285/stock-photo-red-marker-over-spain-europe.html?src=csl_recent_image-1">Tonello Photography</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Committed supporters of Scottish independence may be dusting down their <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/events/scotland-decides/results">2014 memorabilia</a> and rehearsing their arguments now that the Brexit vote <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2016/jun/23/eu-referendum-result-live-counting-leave-remain-brain-in-europe">has raised</a> the prospect of another referendum north of the border. Yet despite much talk about the sovereign will of the Scottish people, the gift of holding a referendum belongs to Westminster. As Enoch Powell claimed, “power devolved is power retained”. </p>
<p>When deciding how to respond to a demand for another referendum from Scotland, the UK government need not just rely on theories. It has a real example with the Spanish state’s handling of the Catalan question.</p>
<p>In 2012, the main nationalist parties in Catalonia <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20482719">won a</a> decisive majority of the vote in the regional elections. They <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/13/catalonia-independence-2014">supported</a> holding a referendum on self-determination in 2014 but this <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26949794">was vetoed</a> by Madrid. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128743/original/image-20160629-15285-zdghnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128743/original/image-20160629-15285-zdghnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/128743/original/image-20160629-15285-zdghnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128743/original/image-20160629-15285-zdghnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128743/original/image-20160629-15285-zdghnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128743/original/image-20160629-15285-zdghnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128743/original/image-20160629-15285-zdghnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/128743/original/image-20160629-15285-zdghnf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Artur Mas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/erprofe/5182288948/in/photolist-8TWzXs-8tnjXw-8Gt3Lb-87BqeS-8tnk7o-8tnjYY-87Bn3s-87ybwK-87ydAK-87BpSh-87BkQb-87BqBQ-87ycjT-8SMsnd-87BmoW-87y97e-8GpGRi-8GpK8M-8tjiMB-87BjDs-npRemJ-8tjiHP-8tjiG6-87y5ZZ-4cWjJY-7zKGmN-8aRBvJ-87Bp6m-8Tg1GU-7zKNUm-87Bmcf-87y9Hx-87yatr-8L86Zq-87BnEG-87ydYt-95CEw3-87y7nZ-7zF8Qy-8tnk5W-87ygbH-8TcUGz-87Boem-8tjiGK-8tnk6Q-87Bndw-8tjiDz-87Bkny-7zFWvp-8tnk1s">Juankey Pamies Algobilla</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>As a result, support for a referendum <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29982960">rose to 80%</a> and backing for independence hardened, while the nationalists were <a href="http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/scotland-got-its-referendum-all-catalunya-gets-threats-repression-1467377">threatened</a> with prosecutions if they went ahead. They were reduced to holding the referendum as a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29982960">symbolic non-binding vote</a> (80% voted for independence, though those in favour appeared overrepresented – the split <a href="http://www.catalannewsagency.com/tag/Survey">is usually</a> nearer 50-50). </p>
<p>Even this informal vote led the Spanish authorities <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/11898899/Catalan-president-Artur-Mas-accused-of-holding-illegal-referendum.html">to accuse</a> the organisers of breaches of electoral law and misusing public funds. The then president of Catalonia, Artur Mas, was threatened with a trial which could have resulted in a ten-year bar on holding electoral office and 12 months’ imprisonment. </p>
<p>The two main nationalist parties next <a href="http://www.nationalia.info/new/10494/two-main-catalan-parties-civil-society-organizations-agree-on-18-month-roadmap-to-independ">formed an alliance</a> that called for an early election for September 2015. Running under the name Junts pel Sí (“Together for Yes”), the plan was to turn it into a plebiscite on independence and secede by 2017 if pro-independence parties won a majority. </p>
<p><a href="https://next.ft.com/content/1f551bec-655a-11e5-9846-de406ccb37f2">In the end</a> they won 53% of seats but only 48% of votes, and only then in combination with a smaller pro-independence party on the far left. There was some debate about whether an electoral or absolute majority was necessary to trigger secession. Nevertheless, the new Catalan government decided to push ahead. </p>
<p>Since then, its efforts have been delayed by the fact that new Catalan president Charles Puigdemont has <a href="http://news.videonews.us/new-catalan-leader-rules-out-udi-0651287.html">ruled out</a> secession during this term, as have the far left grouping. It looks as though the nationalists have lost momentum and a unilateral declaration of independence next year looks unlikely, though the longer-term picture is far from certain. </p>
<h2>Westminster: weighing the options</h2>
<p>But what lessons can the UK government take from all of this? It has good reason for refusing to grant the Scots another referendum. It may well have agreed to the last one assuming little risk of Scottish independence, and may not be so obliging in future. </p>
<p>A new prime minister will hardly want to start their tenure by losing part of the country. There may also be Westminster resistance to another Scottish referendum so soon after the last one, regardless of the circumstances. </p>
<p>Yet granting a referendum in 2014 set a precedent and demonstrating the same lack of flexibility as Madrid could easily backfire. Spain is testing to the limits the old <a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Stewart_Parnell">claim of</a> Irish nationalist Charles Stuart Parnell that no one can hold back the march of a nation. In the long term, Spain may even have made an independent Catalonia more likely. </p>
<p>On the other hand, the Spanish example does demonstrate that the state has considerable advantages in a constitutional dispute – not least having electoral law on its side. At the very least, a state can slow the process of statehood considerably. </p>
<p>In volatile times, a newly elected Conservative prime minister may decide that placing obstacles in the path of Scottish independence will convince enough risk-averse voters to think again. With the SNP accustomed – like their Catalan cousins – to behaving in a constitutionally legal manner, it is not entirely clear how they would react. The nationalists’ best hope is to gain enough allies in the EU beforehand to make such a move extremely difficult. </p>
<h2>Spanish interests</h2>
<p>One handicap for Scotland is that Spain and the UK share an obvious interest in obstructing regions with ambitions to become states. Spain is already intervening as Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon holds meetings in Brussels to try and retain EU membership for Scotland. </p>
<p>She <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/european-commission-listen-jean-claude-juncker-nicola-sturgeon-a7109161.html">is pushing</a> a model similar to that of Denmark, an EU member whose Greenland and Faroe Islands territories are not in the EU. Spanish leader Mariano Rajoy is opposed to any equivalent scenario whereby Scotland and Northern Ireland remain in the EU while England and Wales moved outside. It is clearly not in Spain’s interest for the EU to be discussing a special deal with nationalists who favour independence. </p>
<p>In one sense it’s not entirely clear if this Spanish intervention is against UK interests, since it depends on what type of relationship with the EU the UK ends up negotiating. Should England and Wales end up outside the single market, it wouldn’t be workable for Scotland to be in the same state but with a customs border as a result of different policies on free movement. Either way, however, Spain’s intervention at this stage may have the perverse effect of making an indyref2 more likely. </p>
<p>On the other hand, Madrid could end up helping the British unionists by taking the line that Scotland would need to wait until after the UK has left the EU before it applies for membership. That could both reduce support for the referendum and reduce the nationalists’ chances of winning in the event that it went ahead. </p>
<p>For these reasons, Spain both provides a lesson for Westminster in its treatment of Catalonia and is potentially its most important ally in heading off this second push for independence at the pass.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/61823/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William McDougall is a member of the UCU trade union and the SNP but the views expressed are entirely his own personal opinion. </span></em></p>Madrid may hold the key to Scotland’s future – for several reasons.William McDougall, Lecturer in Politics, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.