An estimated 300,000 Catalans have observed a general strike today, October 3rd, to condemn Sunday's police violence at a banned referendum on independence. The government in Madrid has come under international pressure to resolve its worst political crisis in decades with Mariano Rajoy sticking to his opinion that the Catalan vote was illegal and that the police used 'proportionate force.'
A crowd several thousand strong gathered in front of the Popular Party headquarters in Barcelona chanting "Occupiers Out!" – in Catalan, obviously, with protests taking place outside Cuidadanos party offices across the region.
Public transport services have been disrupted as well as port operations, after unions called for the stoppage to "vigorously condemn" the police response to the poll, in which Catalonia's leader said 90 percent of voters backed independence from Spain.
Traffic was cut along some of the main highways in the region causing 10 kilometre tailbacks, including the toll route AP-7 as people took to the streets to stage demonstrations. Some of the main thoroughfares in Barcelona, including the Gran Via and the Via Laietana were blocked.
Schools and public universities were closed as well as some of the most popular tourist attractions, including the contemporary art museum, football club FC Barcelona and the Sagrada Familia.
El Prat airport reported that it was functioning normally, with no flight cancellations or delays although few taxis were to be found waiting in the arrivals rank.
"I am convinced that this strike will be widely followed," Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont said, ahead of the protest.
The central government has vowed to stop the wealthy northeastern region, which accounts for a fifth of Spain's GDP, breaking away from Spain and has dismissed Sunday's poll as unconstitutional and a "farce".
In a statement released late on Sunday, UGT and CCOO, Spain's biggest unions, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), a powerful pro-independence civil association, and 41 other organisations called for the work stoppage due to "the grave violation of rights and freedoms."
"We call all society, on employers' organisations, business owners, unions, workers, self-employed workers, institutions and all the citizens of Catalonia to stop the 'country' on Tuesday, October 3," read the press release.
Comments
So two thumbs down for "kyack" for linking to a picture of Drunker telling the E.U. voters that they are an irrelevance in the great plan, appears that the E.U. propaganda department also read this newspaper.
What I see has happened, is that the Catalans have become aware of their wealth and they want it all for themselves. They have forgotten that they are part of a democracy that shares it's wealth throughout the country and that they have a privileged place in Spanish society that should be embraced and not used to make a few individuals powerful through dividing up the country.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/cataluna-libre/5611741
https://hat4uk.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/nodemocjuncker.png
https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2017/10/02/catalonia-the-fingerprints-of-eu-power-are-all-over-it/
Why is this additional heavily armed force necessary ?
Well, you've just seen the answer because as in the recent police violence in Catalonia the Spanish government send non Catalonian police to sort out the Catalonians because the Catalonian police could not be trusted to beat up their own people, so the E.U. want a multi national militarised police force so that in the event of what the "elite " consider "unrest" in a member state they can send the French police to sort out the German citizens and the German police to sort out the Italian citizens and the Italian police to sort out the Portuguese citizens, etc,etc.
The Soviets used exactly the same system to keep their citizens under control, the KGB and NKVD troops that were used for subduing internal dissent in the member states of the Soviet Union and even in Mother Russia itself were always drafted in from other Soviet regions or states because this prevented brother fighting brother and father fighting son and ensured that the police did the "elites" bidding with no emotional ties to the people they were brutalising.
Take the Catalonia violence as an early warning of what will be considered "proportionate" by the E.U. "elite" if the E.U. gets its own police force and also note the total lack of any E.U. condemnation of the violent police methods perpetrated on E.U. citizens by the Spanish government.
If a member of his family came home badly beaten by the police would he calmly say "you deserved it"? The women with the blood on her face, the old man with the dog thrown the the ground, young people just throw down the stairs then being kicked and pulled by there hair over the ground and thrown outside. All these persons have mothers, fathers, children and grandparents. Does Mariano Rajoy thinks they will forgive or forget ? They will hate the Spanish police, the Spanish Government and Mariano Rajoy for ever. They feel so betrayed. And it all comes down to greed. The north of Spain is rich because they work very hard, in contrast with the south of Spain, their attitude is much more relaxes with long lunch hours and tomorrow is an other day! Nothing wrong with that, but do not send your police to beat up the hard working people from the north because they do not want to share.