Moving History about & Constitutionalism

by ipsiphi Sun Feb 05, 2006 16:16

& yesterday in the presence of his excellency Senyor Maragall the president of the Catalan Generalitat, at the invitation of "the comission for memory and dignity" sections of the papers including the 1932 "estatut" by which the then Catalan Generalitat declared unilaterally an automous and constituent republic of Catalonia within the Spanish 2nd Republic were put on display.

Amonst the guests were included survivors of the war, of the concentration camp Mauthaussen, as well as children of the subjects of the files, academics from historical departments of many major league European Universities and MIT and others with collective membership and vested interest in the data within.

I was happy to see the papers and they look like most files of the XX century, typed on acidic paper with easy to forge seals and rusted paper clips attached. Strabge to think that history, idealism, truth, victory and vanquishment may so quickly turn to boxes of dull paper.

by iosaf Sat Jan 28, 2006 12:58

the PP are engaged in opposition politics of such mendacious begrudgery that the mere epithet "civil war politics" falls lamentably short of describing how "up their arse" they are.

And so they fiddled with writs and injunctions and only last night, for Mozart's birthday and the anniversary of the Holocaust spanish republicans who were sent to Mauthaussen did a portion of the papers arrive to the Sant Cugat repository just outside of Barcelona where for the last week the local mayor has draped the inocuous building in banners "reclaim memory! justice! plurality! blaa blaa".

About a thousand people were present to attend a "homage" organised by the groups "Commission for Dignity" http://www.partal.com/dignitat/ and "Reclaim Memory" in the barcelona district of Poble Nou last night with the leadership of both Catalan coalition partners ERC and ICV present as well as the front bench of the nationalist (but not independence) opposition party CiU.
http://www.vilaweb.com/www/noticia?p_idcmp=1718753

The backdrop has not changed much. By now ye all know the "estatut" of Catalonia has been overwhelmingly supported by Catalans, but has floundered in Madrid in the face of exceptionally divisive "mendacious begrudgery civil war politics" by the PP. And the most curious thing happened. Most would expect the ERC (catalan left republicans) to be the vanguard of a document which the PP claims will rupture Spain. So it was a sign of the political talent which has perhaps been lacking the Zapatero presidency in the last months, to finally pact an "altered" document last weekend with the CiU. That is to say, they pacted with the opposition Catalan party. The CiU controlled the generalitat for 23 years till losing to the "tripartite coalition" 3 years ago. It is interesting that Aznar came to power, ironically supported by the CiU in his first four years. So yesterday saw Maragall the PSC (catalan branch of PSOE Zaptero's party) in Madrid amidst grumbles from the ERC that they will not accept the "adjusted estatut". But through the week, it becomes clear that money is the heart of the grumbling. The ICV (greens) didn't in the end leave the tripartite over the "anti-social laws" (which saw them ally with the anarchists), I doubt the ERC will leave the tripartite over this. They got the estatut. But not in exactly the way they wanted. {That document which took me 10 days to translate and the team at the english language "Catalonia Today" 14 days-
(our versions are almost equal btw and our problems were the same 'cept mine didn't get the super duper payment)
http://www.cataloniatoday.info/pdf/estatut.pdf }

& watching Maragall on the sofa in the Moncloa palace chatting with Zapatero on telly yesterday, I got the distinct impression of who is in charge, when Maragall thanked "Zapatero the president of plural Spain for his work". Quite...... Zp was off bombarding the media for "an explanation" for the mendacious begrudgery. And certainly in the last week he has picked up a new cache of "praise" from afar away as the New York Times for the disciplinary action taken against members of the military for speaking out on Catalan affairs.
C/f http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73706
That paper used be one of his harshest American critics, declaring his 2004 election win "accidental". I take this as a sign of shifting US opinion in the wake of our very broadband "leftwing" victories in South America.
Remember for many americans, Spain is in geographical fact just round the corner from Miami.

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- here's an interview on the Salamanca/Catalan archive with the Spanish minister of Culture , Carmen Calvo published in today's El Pais (spanish langauge)
http://www.elpais.es/articulo.html?xref=20060128elpepicul_3&type=Tes&anchor=elpporcul

& I'd like to tie this in a wee bit to the speech given by her excellency (?!) Mary Mc Aleese an uachtaran at UCC yesterday on "reclaiming 1916".
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2006/0128/2222745689HM1RISING1916.html
Which i think is very important but _not_ at the price of dropping the May Day holiday. 1916 was as much about "class struggle" as "national aspiration".