Fascists lead the vote in the French regional elections

Regional lead by party: black = FN, blue = LR, fuchsia = PS

The fascist party National Front, led by Marine Le Pen, has obtained around 30% of the vote in the first round of the regional elections, leading the tally in eight of the thirteen European regions of the French Republic (data from the four regions of America and Africa is still not available). 

The second best performing party was the conservative The Republicans of corrupt and authoritarian former President Sarkozy with around 27% of the vote, while the ruling Socialists (social-liberals) came third with roughly 23%. The divided real left parties (Front de Gauche, Greens) may have obtained together around 10-15% of the vote, a bit more if the much weaker Communist Party and Worker Struggle would be included.

The participation was very low, barely 40% in the departament encompassing the Northern Basque Country and Bearn, for example. 

Corsica: nationalists perform well

The nationalist list Femu a Corsica came second in the Mediterranean colony, with more than 17% of the vote, while the regionalist Rassembler pour la Corse came third with 13% of the vote, ahead of Sarkozy's LR (12%). Corsica Libera got some 8%. Unlike in the mainland, the fascists performed badly in the country of Pasquale Paoli, with a mere 9%. 

In the Brittany region (smaller than historical Brittany), the regionalist list Yes Brittany gathered 8%. 

Very worrisome

While indeed that one of every four French citizens, at least, is voting fascist is most worrying, I'm even more worried, if that is possible, about the return of Sarkozy (most likely indirect outcome) and the rightist drift of the PS, which has imposed a permanent state of emergency in the Hexagon. An outright victory of Le Pen would just be the logical outcome of such reactionary evolution across the whole of society, and it would not be significantly different from the autocratic rule of Sarkozy or Valls. France is clearly going down the drain of authoritarianism and that's very bad, for the French of course but also for all the rest of Europe.

Turkey invades Syria

Yesterday I had to report that Turkey had invaded parts of Iraq, today that it has done the same in Syria, almost simultaneously, occupying and fortifying a position across the border, not far from the Islamist capital, Raqqa, with the effect of splitting the Kurdish-controlled area in two and guaranteeing the oil, arms and zombie trade between th Caliphate and the Turkish state. 

Together with the "sneakers on the ground" (actual but hidden US military presence in Northern Iraq, that has been going on for some time) and the apparent Turkish confirmation of installing a military base near Mosul, with apparent complicity of the contested pro-Washington regime in Southern Kurdistan (Iraq), the NATO intervention in (and against) these two beleaguered states is fait accomplí. 

Erdogan: the new Mussolini!

Turkey invades Iraq

With the likely aim to aid their embattled Islamic State (DAESH) puppet allies and consolidate the (Washington and Tel Aviv promoted) "Hornets Nest", under threat of extermination by the joint Russian and Syrian offensive, Turkey has sent troops to Mosul District, an area under DAESH control but disputed by Kurdish militias. 

Iraq has demanded the immediate exit of the Turkish invader force but this request is likely to be ignored by Erdogan's unbearable cynicism.

Ankara claims that it is just "an incursion" and that they are there "to train Iraqi troops". What "Iraqi troops" might those be (if at all)? Only those of the Islamic State. 

The most obvious aim of the attack is probably to set a barrier between DAESH and Kurdish forces, which might otherwise take control of Mosul, the second largest city of Iraq and a key hub in the oil smuggling business of the DAESH and the Erdogan clan. 

This mafioso-terrorist association of the Ankara regime and the DAESH puppet of the Pentagon has been denounced for a long time in the alternative media but only recently, after Turkey downed a Russian jet in a calculated act of war, the usually reserved Moscow government has provided strong evidence of this association. Iraq has also denounced the illegal trade and I guess this is yet another reason for Erdogan pushing it within the frail Iraqi borders. 

What can happen? Well, Iraq has let clear that they do not want US "boots on the ground" within their borders no matter what, pretexting that Shia militias had threatened to kill them but actually because they do not trust Washington nor their semi-autonomous protectorates (Tel Aviv, Ankara, Riyadh) at all. This underlines the alignment of Iraq, a major oil producer (second only to Saudia before the troubles began), with Iran, Russia and China, something that surely is not taken lightly in Washington nor in Ankara. 

Russia had pondered to extend their air operations into Iraq, while China did openly offer its air forces to Baghdad last year in order to fight DAESH. Recently China also signed a military base agreement with Djibouti, located at the strategical Bab-el-Madeb strait, near Yemen, and which also holds a French naval base. So the whole region is each day resembling a mini World War scenario, in which the Western Empire (NATO-plus) is clearly not afraid of provoking its Eurasian rivals into greater intervention, nor these seemingly coy about replying with a "bring it, cowboy", sorta.

Nevertheless I think that a likely development will be the destabilization of Saudia and Turkey themselves, because the Eurasian allies must know that only playing a defensive "cold war" is not enough, that Washington and their satellites must feel the pain themselves, else they will never be brought to any sort of semi-good faith negotiation or understanding. As Sun Tzu said: in order to win the war, take what the enemy values most.

From islamic terror to state terror: France brutally smashes Climate March

The effects of the prolonged and probably to be permanent state of emergency in France are already becoming patent: the Climate March was crushed today by the French police with tear gas and batons, just because... there is no right to demonstrate anymore in the Republique. 

Hundreds of people were arrested. 

The result of capricious state over-reaction to the terror attacks is that France is now heading to become a Islamic State of its own kind. Maybe not Islamic but similarly fascist in any case.

→ Russia Today.

Forecast: Moscow's reaction?

Russia Today's latest poll:

After Turkey shot Russian jet over Syria Moscow will:

• respond to Ankara with economic sanctions
• intensify bombing campaign on Syria-Turkey border
• establish no-fly zone along Syria-Turkey border
• increase support to Kurdish fighters 

Most correct answer (in my humble opinion): all of the above. And probably something else that nobody has yet anticipated, not me either.

The relation between Russia and NATO has been degrading in the last years, beginning precisely in Syria:

1. 2011: NATO and allies (Saudia, Zionistan, Qatar) begin proxy military intervention in Syria
2. June 2011: China and Russia veto anti-Syrian UN Security Council resolution
3. 2012: China and Russia veto another anti-Syrian UN Security Council resolution
4. Winter 2013-14: NATO intervenes via proxy in Ukraina: Euromaidan putsch, largely manned by Neo-Nazi death squads
5. 2013-14: The so-called Islamic State (DAESH) expands to Iraq (Fallujah conquered in January 2014, Mosul conquered in June)
6. Late Winter 2014: Crimea democratically self-determinates in favor of annexation to Russia
7. 2014: NATO & allies initiate economic sanctions against Russia, Russia responds with counter-sanctions
8. 2014-15 Ucraine conflict stagnates, unsolved
9. Fall 2015: Russia intervenes in Syria in favor of the Damascus regime, putting the Islamists in a very difficult situation. Some Islamic State groups are flown to Ukraine and Yemen by their state allies
10. November 24: Turkey shoots down a Russian bomber in Syria, local Turcoman militias shoot and kill the pilot, the co-pilot is rescued. NATO blesses Turkey's attack: they claim that Turkey has "the right to defend itself" but Syria does not. 

What can happen now? On one side it is clear that Russia is deeply offended and has canceled all cooperation with NATO members regarding Syria. On the other extreme, all-out war, which would be nuclear war, is almost certainly a no-go zone, no matter what... or almost. Anything in  between can happen however. 

Russia has shown that they can lay back and wait for the best moment to counter-strike, they have also shown that they can respond very quickly and effectively against provocations, be it in Crimea or in South Ossetia.

Turkey clearly cowers under the skirt of NATO but that does not make the Erdogan regime invulnerable, not at all. Erdogan has in his megalomaniac and authoritarian rise offended many people, even inside the, once all-powerful, Turkish Military. Of course the Left, be it Kurdish or Turkish, hates Erdogan, but he also has enemies in the Right. 

Turkey's Achilles' heel is anyhow the very consolidated Kurdish guerrilla (PKK), which, after upholding a unilateral cease-fire for many years, was pushed into war again recently. Erdogan is known to have used the Islamic State as pretext to bomb Kurdish positions and even civilians in both Syrian and Iraqi territory. Violations of sovereign airspace by Turkey are just a matter of course in fact, and they are usually unmistakable acts of war. 

Even if Putin and co. probably hate it, their best chance at retaliation against Turkey is in fact arming the Kurdish rebels, just as Turkey and their allies (NATO or otherwise) have been arming groups in Syria and Iraq. Why do I say that they probably hate it: mostly because the PKK is a leftist revolutionary force and the Putin regime in Russia is a Right-wing bourgeois conservative force. They have almost nothing in common, except one thing: both have the same enemy: Erdogan and his Islamist regime. And the enemy or my enemy is my friend. But it cannot be an easy relation, no matter what, because the enemy of the PKK is Capitalism, while Putin is a guardian of Capitalism, who sympathizes with reactionary forces like Le Pen, the Lega Nord and the UKIP. But life makes strange allies, you know.

Erdogan tries to trigger World War III

Putin described the attack as "a stab in the back,
carried out against us by accomplices of terrorists".

Turkey has shot down a Russian airplane in Syria (source 2), apparently killing one of the pilots and getting the other to be captured by some militia allied of the Islamists.

Regardless of whether the airplane accidentally stepped or not into Turkish airspace (Russia says nope), the attack is a clear act of war. Terrorist Islamist Turkey feels backed by NATO (otherwise they would not have dared to) and is trying to bring Russia and NATO to start the feared World War III, which implies, almost certainly, total destruction of Humankind by nuclear suicide. 

Turkey is well known as the main direct backer of the Islamist terrorists who, among many other crimes, attacked Paris earlier this month. The very legitimacy of Erdogan's latest electoral "victory" is heavily under question as many observers consider that the polls were rigged, also the campaign was marred by repression against the media and state-organized terror attacks against the opposition campaign. 

The attitude of Erdogan is clearly one of provocation and we should all take this most seriously because, make no mistake, this is an act of war and Russia would be totally legitimate to respond with military means. However this could drag NATO into an all-out war, which would quickly escalate into nuclear war, with catastrophic consequences for all Humankind, probably extinction.


Update: mapping footage made available by Russia clearly indicates that the bomber never entered Turkish territory and that the attack took place inside Syria. In other words: the only air space violation was done by the Turkish fighter.

Russia has also announced the first counter-measures: all bombings will be escorted by fighter jets and air defense of the Syrian coastal strip will be reinforced by air-defense cruiser Moskva.

I expect more counter-measures however, notably economic sanctions but also probably (just my guess so far) that Russia will arm the Kurdish guerrilla in ways that will be able to effectively challenge the Turkish armed forces, much like Turkey arms the Islamists in Syria. Until now the Kurds had been mostly on their own, because their socialist ideals made them ineligible for aid by any power, all of which are bourgeois regimes but today's attack is a step too far by Ankara and I'm sure it will not go unanswered.

Chaos and death among refugees in Lesbos

From the Greek Left Review:

Life in Lesbos: “The Children’s Feet Are Rotting – You Guys Have One Month and Then All These People Will Be Dead”

“There are thousands of children here and their feet are literally rotting, they can’t keep dry, they have high fevers and they’re standing in the pouring rain for days on end. You have one month guys, and then all these people will be dead”.

→ read full story at Greek Left Review.

As More Children Drown, Volunteers on Lesbos Say Rescues Are Left Largely to Them

“We have lines of children half dead waiting to be hung upside down so we can pound the water out of their tiny lungs — boat after boat,’’ Trace Myers, a volunteer from England, wrote on her Facebook page. “We have ambulances, wailing, soaked, terrified people.”

→ read full story at Greek Left Review.

"Patriot Act" in France

The DAESH attacks in Paris are, I understand, controlled and authorized by NATO's "Deep State". Much like the 9/11 attacks in the USA 14 years ago, they have two objectives:

1. To provide a "Pearl Harbor" style justification for foreign military intervention, in this case clearly focused on Syria and ignoring the actual supporters of the DAESH, such as Saudi Arabia and its Gulf vassals, Turkey or the United States, among others (Putin recently mentioned 40 countries, several of which have seats in the G20). 
2. To induce a state of panic among the European population, French particularly, in order to push ahead with anti-democratic and repressive new legislation and de facto measures. This part can be split in three categories:
1. Anti-immigration (in spite of the fact that the authors of the attacks were French or Belgian and that they had been freely traveling in and out of the Schengen area without police ever interfering).
2. Against free transit of people in the European Union. This is about the only good thing we get from this confederacy: that the artificial borders are less apparent. 
3. Reinforcement of authoritarian tendencies and particularly of the police state, dismantling democracy and human rights for the sake of "security".

However the police state clearly failed to prevent the attacks, attacks that had been announced (for example the erratic Spanish political analyst J. Verstrynge considered a French 9/11 style attack certain and immediate in a debate two weeks ago, citing French government sources). The Schengen area was already suspended on the pretext of the Climate Summit and this was totally useless: the terrorists could travel between Paris and Brussels unhindered. Many increments of the police state (telecom spying without judicial authorization, among others) had already been approved after the Charlie Hebdo attacks and these were totally useless. The police state is useless, especially if it is the Deep State who organizes the attacks. Without purging our own hawks and secret services this kind of attacks can only happen once and again, if the shadow commanders think they are useful for their agenda of rallying the masses in favor of militarism, imperialism and repression. 

Anyway, what is happening now (source: Gara) is that President Hollande and PM Valls (what's up with France's hyper-successful police ministers: first Sarkozy, now Valls?) are promoting an increase of the police state. By the moment there is an extension of the state of emergency for three months, much more than the usual 12 days. But what they are proposing is a change of the constitution to the worse. In spite of the French nationality of the terrorists, their focus is xenophobic: allowing banning the entry in the Hexagon to double nationality citizens, speedy ways of expulsion of immigrants, and even the removal of the nationality for those indicted with "terrorism" charges (not for looting the public treasury like Sarkozy?). This last measure goes against the International Declaration of Human Rights which clearly states that people have the right to a nationality and not to be deprived of it. 

They will also forbid associations inciting to hate but it does not seem like the fascist National Front and their xenophobic discourse will be included.

Additionally more jobs will be created in the police apparatus: 5000 new gendarmes, 2800 new judiciary workers and 1000 new border officers. 

An interesting read is also Tierry Meyssan's article on the attacks. A bit clouted with lots of details but emphasizing that it is the Deep State who's running the show, largely the Pentagon directly (people like Petraeus, Clinton or Allen, and of course we can't forget the long menacing shadow of Sarkozy). Interestingly he mentions that the very day of November 13 the emergency services of Paris held a drill of reaction against multiple terrorist attacks. Coincidence? This kind of "coincidences" happen too often, so most certainly not.

Police let Bataclan attackers act for almost three hours

Update: it has surfaced (a witness trapped inside listening to the terrorists' conversations, which were all in perfect French, it seems) that the attackers were trying to negotiate and that the police may have managed it as a hostage crisis. This would explain the delay.

Three hours in which the attackers were murdering people!

Almost three hours after the carnage began, grenade blasts and automatic gunfire marked the moment police stormed the building to free those still trapped inside. (Herald Sun)

‘They are hiding in some kind of room in the dark and they text(ed) me, and they are very afraid, of course, and they are waiting for the police to intervene, but it’s been over two hours now and this is terrible.’ (journalist J. Pierce talking about some friends trapped inside, Euractive)

Watch also what WeAreChange informal news channel has to say:

Among other interesting things, they mention how Twitter and Facebook are tolerating DAESH recruitment through those social media and how the latter even is actively persecuting those who try to expose the terrorist recruiters.

Against terrorism, arm the people

We have become helpless sheep. That is one of the aspects that the terror attack against random workers in France highlights. If the people would have been armed, the death toll would have been much smaller: the attackers would have been quickly eliminated by some among the citizenry. 

Instead we Europeans have become dependent on the dangerous "protection" of the armed forces (police, army). There are a couple of exceptions in Switzerland and Austria, where people does have the right to own arms (and where there are no terror attacks, incidentally), but otherwise that's the norm across Europe: citizens can't protect ourselves, we are strictly dependent on the state. 

We need to regain the right to be armed, a proud people is an armed people. Anything else is just sheep awaiting the slaughter, regardless of who is the author.

"An act of war"? Against whom?

Several French newspaper opened yesterday with the term "guerre" (war) in their headers. Later, the President of the Republic, François Hollande, spoke to the media using the expression "an act of war". 

It is becoming obvious that the "French 9/11", again an attack not against oligarchies or the state apparatus but against common workers, is meant to direct the public opinion in the direction of war. But against whom?

The most obvious answer is the Islamic State or DAESH. However the DAESH is not a real state but a terrorist gang with only some weak territorial control, heavily disputed by the legitimate states of Syria and Iraq and many other forces such as the Kurdish militias, Hizbollah, the Iranian and Russian military and even as of late the elusive Free Syrian Army, which Moscow now claims is aiding them against DAESH. 

The DAESH however has sponsors that can be named: Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United States of America and some other allies, including France itself. So is France going to declare war to the USA? To Saudi Arabia? To Turkey or Qatar? To its own secret services under NATO? It may sound like a joke but it is a very pertinent question. 

On the wake of the Paris massacre

I woke up today with the horrible news of a brutal massacre in Paris. Seven coordinated terrorist attacks against the civilian population caused 126 deaths, 83 severely injured and 132 with lesser injuries. The attacks also caused the declaration of the state of emergency, the deployment of the army in the city and partial closure of borders.

The only possible reaction is that of anguish and rage. There is no coceivable justification for indiscriminate attacks against the civilian population, not even under conditions of war, being considered a war crime. These are crimes against Humankind and deserve our utmost rejection. 

Also there is no possible justification of any sort: the French Republic is not actively involved in Syria (some of the attackers cried "this is for Syria!") except verbally and, if anything, as NATO member and close collaborator with the USA, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey, it would covertly support the Islamists, using them only as poor pretext to attack the anti-Islamist forces of Damascus. 

I know that keeping lucidity under such powerful emotional stress is difficult but we must, no matter what. 

The analytic question qui bono? must be formulated and properly answered. My best answer so far is that such an attack is a strong push for greater French, European and NATO intervention in Syria, where DAESH terror is being used as pretext to attack the secularist regime of Damascus. 

A more logical reaction would be however to intervene against the totalitarian and authoritarian regimes that actively support Islamist terror, namely: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Israel, as well as repressing the hawkish factions in Washington and London, who do exactly the same.

Of course, that will not happen but it is the logical follow up.

Society can only be secular: let's fight against religious fanaticism everywhere because it is nothing but fascism.


See also: 26 things you must know about DAESH (Global Research)

Yemeni forces capture Saudi town of Al Raboah

Yemeni "rebel" forces (Sana'a government) captured the Saudi border town of Al Raboah (also Ar Raboah) earlier this month (sources: ABNA, Khabar Agency, Odio de Clase[es]). When Saudi Arabia began its military intervention in Yemen this Spring, I predicted that something like this would happen eventually. It may be just the beginning.

Raw footage of the takeover (source: Almasirah TV):

Catalan Parliament proclaims "disconnection" with Spain

With a clear majority of 72 vs 63, the Catalan Parliament has approved this morning the nine points of the declaration that I advanced on Friday, which proclaims the beginning of a process for the formation of a sovereign and independent Catalan Republic, allowing for 30 days to initiate the corresponding key laws (constituent process, social security and public treasury) and declares insubordination towards Spanish institutions such as the Constitutional Court, explicitly mentioned. 

Afterwards an annex, again with nine points, addressing human and social rights, was also approved with the same majority. Strangely enough the non-indpendentist allegedly left-leaning groups, be it the Socialist Party or Catalonia Can Indeed (Podemos + United Left + independents) voted against the annex, which urges the future government to:

1. guarantee basic energy needs to all families,
2. guarantee housing to people at social exclusion risk,
3. guarantee universal access to public health care,
4. appeal the constitutionality of the latest Spanish education law (Wert law)
5. appeal the constitutionality of the Spanish law of civic security (muzzle law), which is the most repressive of all Europe and goes against the International Declaration of Human Rights
6. make ineffective the Spanish law of local administrations, that severely constricts local self-rule,
7. open relations with the UN High Commission for Refugees in order to host a greater number of refugees than those admitted by Spain,
8. follow the 17/2015 law on matters of abortion and effective equality between men and women (I don't understand well this part but that's what it says),
9. renegotiate the public debt in order to allocate resources to social expenses.

Raül Romeva, speaker of Together for the Yes (the largest group, with 62 seats), explained that it is not a unilateral declaration of independence but an act of sovereignty, rupture and dignity. Anna Gabriel (Popular Unity List, CUP) used her time to explain the points of the annex, emphasizing that way the social meaning of the disconnection process. 

All other parties and coalitions joined forces against not just each of the nine main points, voted separately, but also against the social annex, underlining the inclusion of Catalonia Can Indeed in the unionist bloc without any shades. One of its MPs, Joan Giner (Podem), said he rather wanted to abstain in the vote, notably because of the social annex, but that he has been hardly pressed by the leaders of the group, to vote against, with threat of expulsion if he did not follow the group's discipline. 

Catalan Parliament to proclaim an independent Republic on Monday

Catalan Republican ensign or estelada

This is my translation of the text that will be voted and no doubt approved on Monday in the Catalan Parliament, in effect a declaration of independence:

The Parliament of Catalonia:

FIRST.- Confirms that the democratic mandate obtained in the elections of September 27th of 2015 is founded on a majority of seats of the parliamentary forces which have as goal that Catalonia becomes an independent state and with a wide pro-sovereignty majority in both votes and seats that demands the opening of a constituent process not subordinated. 

SECOND.- Declares solemnly the beginning of the process of creation of the independent Catalan state with the form of a republic. 

THIRD.- Proclaims the initiation of a civic, participative, open, integrating and active constituent process in order to prepare the foundations of the future Catalan constitution.

FOURTH.- Urges the future government to adopt the necessary measures to make effective these declarations. 

FIFTH.- Considers pertinent to initiate in the maximum term of thirty days the procedure of the laws of constituent process, social security and public treasury.

SIXTH.- As depositor of the sovereignty and expression of constituent power, it insists that this Parliament and the process of democratic disconnection will not be subordinated to the decisions of the institutions of the State of Spain, particularly the Constitutional Court, which it considers without legitimacy nor competence since the sentence of June of 2010 on the Catalan Statute of Autonomy, which was voted previously in referendum by the people, among others. 

SEVENTH.- Will adopt the necessary measures to open this process of democratic, massive, sustained and peaceful disconnection with the State of Spain in a way that allows for the empowerment of the citizenry at all levels and based on an open, active and integrating participation.

EIGHTH.- Urges the future government to fulfill exclusively those norms or mandates emanated from this, legitimate and democratic, Chamber in order to encase the fundamental rights that may be affected by the institutions of the State of Spain.

NINTH.- Proclaims the will of initiating negotiations in order to make effective the democratic mandate of creation of an independent Catalan state with the form of a Republic and also to make it known to the State of Spain, the European Union and the whole international community.

The Spanish Constitutional Court, rather unexpectedly, declined to forbid the vote in advance, so there is no legal impediment that may be used as excuse for a police raid or similar unilateral action by Madrid. Not yet at least.

The text will be debated and voted in the morning. In the evening, the major list Junts pel Sí (Together for the Yes) will propose its initial candidate for the Presidency, Artur Mas (Convergents), however it is well known that he will lose the vote because the other necessary partner in the independentist alliance, the List of Popular Unity (CUP), will vote against, as they promised in the electoral campaign (because he embodies conservatism, repression, ultra-capitalism and corruption). 

In later days it is probable that Junts pel Sí will propose an alternative candidate most probably either the independent head of the list, Raul Romeva, or the leader of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), Oriol Junqueras. This has no yet been clarified but if the Parliament can't elect a President three times, new elections must be held. This scenario is of course purely theoretical, as there is a clear agreement between both independentist forces to make sure that Catalonia goes all the way to its independence. 

Another story is how will Madrid act. In theory at least it can declare the state of emergency and send in the armed forces, be them police or regular soldiers, as well as suspending the autonomy of Catalonia. Doing that in the midst of the all-Spain electoral campaign seems a bit stupid but who knows! Whenever they do it, and if they do, it will trigger a dramatic standoff against the vast majority of the Catalan People, which has already demonstrated that can walk out peacefully for their national rights in numbers that repeatedly border the figure of two million.

A similar situation happened in Kosovo 25 years ago, when Milosevic's Serbia intervened against the legitimate authorities of the Albanian-mayority country. It was the beginning of the end of Yugoslavia, even if Kosovo's nonviolent resistance failed to achieve its democratic goals peacefully. In the end war ensued and Kosovo became free. 

See also: Catalan election results.

Original text in Catalan (from Llibertat.cat):

El Parlament de Catalunya:

PRIMER.- Constata que el mandat democràtic obtingut a les passades eleccions del 27 de setembre del 2015 es basa en una majoria d'escons de les forces parlamentàries amb l'objectiu que Catalunya esdevingui un estat independent i amb una àmplia majoria sobiranista en vots i escons que aposta per l'obertura d'un procés constituent no subordinat.

SEGON.- Declara solemnement l'inici del procés de creació de l’estat català independent en forma de república.

TERCER.- Proclama l'obertura d'un procés constituent ciutadà, participatiu, obert, integrador i actiu per tal de preparar les bases de la futura constitució catalana.

QUART.- Insta el futur govern a adoptar les mesures necessàries per fer efectives aquestes declaracions.

CINQUÈ.- Considera pertinent iniciar en el termini màxim de trenta dies la tramitació de les lleis de procés constituent, de seguretat social i d'hisenda pública.

SISÈ.- Com a dipositari de la sobirania i expressió del poder constituent, reitera que aquest Parlament i el procés de desconnexió democràtica no se supeditaran a les decisions de les institucions de l'Estat espanyol, en particular del Tribunal Constitucional, a qui considera deslegitimat i sense competència arran de la sentència de juny del 2010 sobre l’Estatut d’Autonomia de Catalunya votat prèviament pel poble en referèndum, entre d’altres.

SETÈ- Adoptarà les mesures necessàries per obrir aquest procés de desconnexió democràtica, massiva, sostinguda i pacífica amb l'Estat espanyol de tal manera que permeti l'empoderament de la ciutadania a tots els nivells i en base a una participació oberta, activa i integradora.

VUITÈ.- Insta el futur govern a complir exclusivament aquelles normes o mandats emanats d'aquesta Cambra, legítima i democràtica, a fi de blindar els drets fonamentals que puguin estar afectats per decisions de les institucions de l'Estat espanyol.

NOVÈ.- Declara la voluntat d'inici de negociacions per tal de fer efectiu el mandat democràtic de creació d'una estat català independent en forma de República i, així mateix, ho posa en coneixement de l'Estat espanyol, de la Unió Europea i del conjunt de la comunitat internacional.

Germany tolerates Nazi terror against immigrants

Sare Antifaxista mentions that Katja Kipping (Die Linke) denounced Chancelor Merkel's government failure in solving the systematic attacks against asylum-seeker centers in the Central European country. The "brown shirt terror" is not punctual anymore but a systematic pattern of terrorism against immigrants, particularly centers for refugees. 

Attacks against assylum-seeker centers (blue: 2014, red: first half of 2015)

Nazi terrorism has only grown in the last months, yet almost nobody has been arrested for the attacks. It is very apparent that the German state is accomplice.

Impressions from the spiraling crisis of the state of Spain

Yesterday it was news that the glued-to-the-chair Spanish President Mariano Rajoy has been meeting with all-Spain political parties in order to rally them around his brittle figure against the Catalan process of independence and in defense of the Franco-blessed "sacred unity of Spain". 

Of course not a single relevant Catalonia-only party or coalition (nor even Catalan regional leader of an all-Spain party) was called to La Moncloa Palace. It is being dealt as a Castilian problem, totally ignoring the will of 7.5 million Catalans. There will be a token Catalan politician meeting today but his party (Unió) has been eliminated from the political competition in the last elections, so they are totally irrelevant. 

Shamelessly President Rajoy declared to the press that "we are all together in this", meaning that the all-Spain unionist parties PSOE and Ciudadanos back him: a very narrow meaning of "all". He declined to even mention the dissident Podemos party, addressing it as "that party that you mention", which is clearly off line. The other major state-wide left-wing coalition, United Left, will attend today but again they are clearly not in line with the hardcore unionist dogma of the Weimar Coalition, which is the same as the Commission Majority at European Union level (minus Convergencia, which is affiliated to the liberal ALDE bloc, along with the unionist Ciudadanos). 

The idea that transpired is that the threatened state of Spain (Greater Castile) will act in force against the secessionist threat, even suspending the autonomy status. The relative weakness of the Weimar Coalition was also apparent even if Rajoy insisted in using the word "all", meaning actually some, mostly Castile-only, forces. 

Police raids against Catalan anarchists and Galician nationalists

I think that it is very symptomatic that the Spanish political tribunal Audiencia Nacional (alias The Inquisition, created by dictator Franco under another name) has been rounding political dissidents in both Catalonia and Galicia these days. Dozens of people have been arrested in both countries accused of being loosely related to anarchist direct action groups (in Catalonia, in spite of the alleged attacks taking place in Madrid and Zaragoza) or to Galician leftist independentist guerrilla. 

The raids can be taken as an instance of saber rattling, not the first one. However in Catalonia it has become a political issue because the autonomous police force Mossos d'Esquadra has taken part in the operation, raising the anger of a key independence process actor: the Popular Unity Lists (CUP). These quickly criticized the autonomous government for obeying dictates from Madrid, precisely when they have proposed a roadmap for independence, which implies actively denying Spain any further authority in Catalonia by means of political and social disobedience.

The Catalan process conundrum

The radical independentist bloc CUP is crucial to form an independence government in Catalonia, as Junts pel Sí (Together for the Yes) coalition does not have a majority. They are making sure that their program is incorporated to the process and that it won't be a any feint for mere continuity with previous Convergencia-led governments, under strong judiciary pressure for corruption but also under political criticism for being way too bourgeois and not prioritizing the popular classes and human rights. 

The CUP, as I say, has proposed a roadmap for independence via serious political disobedience. The proposal is at the moment blocked by means of a technicality: the new Parliament has not yet convened because the PP is delaying its constitution all it can. But it's clear that it will be put to vote as soon as the Parliament is formed. It is plausible that it will be approved, although maybe slightly amended, because it is a pre-condition by the CUP in order to continue negotiations to enable the formation of a government. 

The CUP is also demanding that the new President is not considered to be the President of an autonomous region of Spain but of the Catalan Republic. 

Yesterday it was also leaked that some councilors of the current government considered these demands to be unacceptable. However President Mas seems to have shrugged and stated the obvious: without the CUP there is no government and there is no independence process. As the Junts pel Sí list is mostly made up of independents, rather than members of the backing parties Convergencia and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, it is likely that the opinion of possible dissidents within Convergencia will have only limited weight in practical terms.

So the most likely outcome is that the CUP will succeed in the essence of their demands, which are set to make sure that the process of independence can't be reversed, that the bad practices of previous governments are not repeated and that the general program of the new government is more left-leaning. Although still not discussed, almost certainly the new President won't be Artur Mas but someone with a more leftist profile. 

As a marginal note, the support of half of the Catalonia Sí que es Pot list (Catalonia Can Indeed, participated by Podemos and United Left, as well as independents) to the election of the new President of the Parliament has been taken by some as a sign pro-independence leaning among many of its members, reinforcing the pro-independence majority in the Catalan Parliament. 

Another note is that the Catalan Government announced yesterday that it cannot pay the cost of medicines to pharmacies, what is in practical terms a signal of bankruptcy. This is in turn may be affected by the fact that Catalonia does not manage its own finances in full within the current status.

Forecast

My expectation is that a provisional government of the Catalan Republic will be invested in short term, surely even before the all-Spain elections of December. This assuming that Madrid takes so long to suppress the autonomy and that the civil disobedience plan does not work well enough to allow for the constitution of such government. 

Madrid will, almost without doubt try to suppress the Catalan democratic institutions for the first time in many decades, creating an unprecedented situation that is in almost everything identical to what happened with Kosova (Kosovo) in 1990. However Catalonia is much more important economically than Kosova, not just in GDP but also because of its strategical position as nexus between the Iberian peninsula and continental Europe, and also has several times the population of the Balcanic country. 

Not at all accidentally, Spain is one of the few states of the European Union that does not recognize Kosova as an independent state (the others are Romania, Greece and Slovakia). The obvious reason for this anomalous stand is that Spain fears similar processes of unilateral independence taking place within its own territory and does not want to deal with such problems in a constructive and democratic manner but rather by means of imperialism and militarism, Milosevic-style.

While the lack of popular militias or any form of widespread gun ownership precludes a war, at least in the short term, it is also clear that the military means of Spain are relatively modest. Half of its land forces are the military police corps Guardia Civil (80,000 troops, mostly already busy in regular law enforcement), the rest of the Army having only 75,000 effectives, way too many of them officers. Other land troops that can be used are 5000 marines.

It is unclear to me how a military occupation can solve anything. In fact, we can only expect the situation to deteriorate, as a repression-disobedience stalemate consolidates between the majority's independence will and the relatively powerless occupation forces, while the conflicts spread unavoidably to other parts of the state. 

Even within the wider European Union, such a situation will be hard to manage and, in any case, it is part of the growing spiral of conflicts that it faces as it degenerates into anti-democratic ultra-capitalism at the service of an ailing Empire.

Egin newspaper's director, Jabier Salutregi, steps out of jail

Inquisition against Egin journalists

No matter what, the Spanish repression against the Basque People continues endlessly. Worse: some of those repressors like the infamous former superjudge Baltasar Garzón pretend to be on our side and even now and then manage to deceive a few people, like Julian Assange, who has him as attorney.

It was precisely Garzón who led the worst fascist repression against the Basque People since Franco. He was the one who executed the political cause 18/98 against Egin newspaper and related media (the radio Egin Irratia and the investigative journalism magazine Ardi Beltza, and later also its successor Kale Gorria), as well as the Joxemi Zumalabe Foundation.

Egin was a great newspaper, very especially in its latest years, when it had become a key source of alternative information available every morning in your neighborhood. Not only on local affairs but also had come to develop great international analysis, not anymore merely relying on press agencies and their unbearable bias. But the jewel of the crown was the investigative journalism that the newspaper growingly embraced, led by the Basque-Galician journalist Pepe Rei, who complementarily launched the magazine Ardi Beltza (Black Sheep), also closed by Garzón's fascist repression. 

The newspaper was so good that it was referential even in Madrid, as there was nothing else of its kind in all the state of Spain. I am persuaded that one of the main reasons to forcibly close this media was precisely that the investigative journalism they espoused threatened the status quo, largely based on mafia style corruption, which only recently has begun to be more publicly and formally denounced in Spain and Catalonia (but almost not yet in the Basque Country, Navarre excepted).

In 2009, eleven years after its forced closure, the Spanish tribunals ruled that the closure was illegal and unfounded. The damage was done however and the sentences against its journalists, even if reduced, still stood. 

One by one the repressed journalists have completed their sentences. Today Jabier Salutregi, the director of Egin, could finally walk out of jail, expressing his hope for the definitive end of political repression against the Basque People. 

Two other journalists are still behind bars: Karlos Trenor and Joxean Etxebarria. 

Political trial against internationalists

But the repression, no matter what we all hope, is far from ending. For example these days five Basque internationalists (one of them of German origin) are facing a political trial of exactly the same kind that brought Salutregi to jail. 

The Askapena Five

They and their long-lived internationalist association, Askapena (Liberation), are being accused, as usual, of being somehow related to the guerrilla ETA (in unilateral end of struggle since years ago). The accusation is being carried on by the state but also by far-right Spanish ultra-nationalist associations.

Heroes of our time: the man who rescues slaves from DAESH

I was really moved when I watched this documentary yesterday. It is about the plea of the women enslaved by the so-called Islamic State (DAESH) and the former smuggler who works tirelessly to rescue them, Abu Shuja. Must watch:

Source: Russia Today.

Syria War: latest developments

A couple of updated informative videos from South Front channel.

The first one is dated to October 19th and explains with nice maps the offensives of the Syrian Army, mentioning that the "Caliph" al-Baghdadi has been injured and moved to Turkey for treatment under US protection.

The second one is dated to yesterday October 23rd and complements the previous outline with some further details.

Of course, the videos have a mild pro-Russian and pro-Assad bias but it's not like we can rely on Western "free media" to get any useful information, so it is necessary to reach out to other sources.