Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

We need a reality check. Nine people have been sentenced to between nine and 13 years of prison in a European, supposedly democratic country for the crime of sedition, for organising a democratic vote for people to express their will on the question of the independence of Catalonia. For anyone to try to dress that up or to suggest there is some independent rule of courts, that everything is fine and so on misses the point. If that happened in many other parts of the world, everyone would clearly see that it is not a democratic process when political leaders can be tried in court and jailed for lengthy periods for the crime of sedition because of organising a democratic vote.

Contrary to the previous speaker, I believe we should not whitewash the role of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party and Sánchez. Their Government is sending thousands of troops to Catalonia, while Sánchez has co-ordinated a media campaign to condemn those who peacefully protest as violent, even though the troops and police officers he has sent are the ones being violent against those peaceful protesters. The Spanish establishment may, in future, be haunted by the ideas contained in James Connolly's words of 1914, when he wrote:

If you strike at, imprison, or kill us, out of our prisons or graves we will still evoke a spirit that will thwart you, and perhaps, raise a force that will destroy you! We defy you! Do your worst!

The response to such incredible repression by the Spanish state has been the redoubling of the movement, becoming arguably larger than it was in 2017 or 2018. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets, there was a very successful general strike on 18 October, while there have been demonstrations towards and into the airport, and on the squares and the streets. The response to that has been the campaign of terror I have described and mass violence against protestors, blinding at least four and injuring and arresting hundreds. Anyone who doubts this and believes that everything is peaceful, democratic and fine within the borders of the Spanish state should go online and watch the incredible brutality by the police. One video shows a bunch of police officers snorting cocaine, and then going out to beat protestors in a very brutal way and arresting members of the media for covering their crimes and brutality. It is clear that Francoism is alive and well in the Spanish state, raising its ugly head to put down the boot on the Catalan people, just as it did in 2017. The Spanish legal system and the police are riddled with elements of the old fascist dictatorship of Franco, yet it is the same system the EU leaders claim we must respect. It reflects the contempt for democracy of those at the top of the European Union in their support for a campaign of terror and revenge.

The international arrest warrant for Puigdemont needs to be rescinded immediately, the convictions of the nine political prisoners must be overturned immediately, the repression must be ended and Catalonia's right to self-determination should be respected. The general strike on 18 October shows a way forward for the movement. To paraphrase Connolly, the working class are the incorruptible inheritors of the struggle against national oppression. The working class and the left leadership, not seeking a path of compromise with Francoism or an independent Catalonia to pursue a neoliberal race to the bottom but rather a drive for an independent socialist republic of Catalonia, is the way forward and can appeal to working class people across national and cultural lines, having an impact on the working class throughout the Spanish state. An important part of that is supporting the right to self-determination of other national minorities within the Spanish state opposing repression and oppression, not least the Basque people, and standing for a future socialist federation of the Spanish state and the Iberian peninsula.

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