In this week full of tension and police violence, Barcelona looked pretty calm to me when we arrived last night. But during conversations with anarchist comrades here it became clear that the city is far from calm.

Published by Enough is Enough

At Barcelona airport there were no extra controls. Actually we didn’t see any cops at all at the airport.

We left the airport and went to comrades who organised a place to sleep for us. The situation in Catalonia is very difficult for many anarchist comrades in Catalonia. Many people have a similar position as we have on the independence issue. They went on the streets on October 1, trying to protect people against the repression by the paramilitary Guardia Civil and the Spanish Policia Nacional and supported the General strike on October 3. But somehow they are caught in the middle.

Caught in the middle between people who want to stay in the Spanish state and people who are fighting for a Catalonian state. The anarchist comrades that we spoke with don’t believe in any state and for them it just doesn’t make sense to fight for a new state. But they also told us that there are other anarchists who fight for a Catalonian state. These comrades are convinced that a Catalonian state would bring new possibilities for a social revolution.

In long discussions we had last night we came to the conclusion that the ruling Catalan parties probably will start a new wave of repression against emancipartory factions of the independence movement as soon as the Catalan political class don’t need them anymore.

The comrades we spoke with are also convinced that the pacific resistance that the independent movement is so proud of is a dangerous strategy. They are convinced that the Spanish state is capable of sending in the army if they have to. The Spanish government is not going to give up on Catalonia that easy and our comrades think that the things we saw on the first of October could be just a first sign.

Will there be a civil war in Spain? Not necessarily, today there were first signs that the Spanish and Catalan government might even already negotiate behind closed doors. Shortly after the Spanish government apologized to those who got injured from police violence today, Catalan prime Minister Puigmont told reporters there would be a parliamentary session on Tuesday to talk about “the political situation”. Yesterday he was talking about an unilateral declaration of independence. So the tone somehow softened… A dirty deal in the making or just a coincidence?

Tonight Fascists were driving around with Spanish flags and insulting and provoking people. This was in the El Carmel neighborhood, the district where we are staying. There were also a lot of cops in the area. The appearance of fascists is becoming a daily routine in the last couple of days.

On Sunday Spanish nationalists and fascists of the Falange and HSM movements are mobilizing to Barcelona. The Spanish governing Partido Popular (PP) is also mobilizing to Barcelona. Antifa counter protests are also announced. In this tense political climate the fascist mobilization could easily be used to create chaos. That could (but not necessarily must) the moment for the Spanish government to repress the independence movement, but also the anarchist movement even harder.

We will tweet live from the fascist demo and the counter protests on Sunday with our Twitter account @enough14.

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