1. Nationalist leaders must speak more in Spanish; despite their best efforts it’s still the majority language here. People who speak Catalan with their families don’t need to be persuaded by them, Spanish speakers do. The more these leaders speak to, or rather at them in Catalan the more they convince them that the central project of a Catalan republic would be the reduction of their language to the state suffered by Catalan under the worst periods of Franco’s regime. In short, recognize Spanish as a Catalan language, not as some leftover from the past that has to be tolerated for an interim period. (I know, I know, any serious nationalist reading this has already branded me a fascist for saying this, but anyway….)

2. Start explaining that the road to independence will be long and hard, has barely started and will require personal sacrifices, probably a lot of them.

3. Thumbing your nose at Constitutional Court decisions one minute while appealing to its judges to recuse themselves the next is evidence of a shoneen (google it) mentality. Have nothing to do with the existing court system; don’t appeal to it for protection and don’t show up if subpoenaed. When the cops come to your door explain that you are going with them against your will. When before the judge, politely explain that you don’t recognize the court and don’t say another word. If you receive a prison sentence don’t cooperate with the prison regime.

4. Set up your own court system here and use it. Those injured by the cops last Sunday should withdraw any accusations made before the Spanish courts and make them to Catalan ones. Yes, it’ll all be improvised and chaotic at the start but that’s how nations are built.

5. Stop taking your seats in the Spanish Parliament. Your presence there is a huge performative contradiction. The only decent place for a convinced Catalan nationalist to serve his people is in the Parlament in Barcelona.

6. Stop paying taxes to the Spanish government. Set up an alternative tax collecting administration. It’ll be hard to do and some of you will probably end up in jail but you have to do it if you are serious about independence.

7. Stop telling the world that an unbearable state of repression exists here. It’s not true and only the deluded and the useful idiots here resident believe it.

8. Stop hoping for/calling for intervention from the EU or UN or whoever. It ain’t gonna happen. You can only depend on yourselves.

9. And related to the previous point; don’t tell lies in your public communications, you don’t have to tell all the truth but don’t lie. Exaggerating the casualty figures from Sunday worked great initially but repeating tricks like that will just end up undermining your credibility.

10. You must stick to non-violence, of course. But that won’t be enough. A program of boycotting businesses that don’t cooperate with the national movement must be implemented. And consideration must be given to publicly shunning prominent individuals opposed to Catalan independence.

11. Enough of the shameful idea that the Catalan Republic will allow its citizens to keep their Spanish nationality. “Having your cake and eating it”, never makes for a convincing political proposal. After the declaration of independence Catalan residents should be allowed a reasonable period to make up their minds (2 years say) and after that joint Spanish citizenship for Catalans must be forbidden. You don’t want the bulk of your population with split loyalties and anyway, what sort of Catalan would want to hold the nationality of the supposed source of Catalonia’s misfortunes?

12. And finally, this program doesn’t guarantee success but it would be a way for struggling for independence in a serious and honest way.

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For the avoidance of doubt, I don’t favour the destruction of Spain and would do anything in my power to stop it, for personal, political and historic reasons