Moving History about & Constitutionalism

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Friday January 20, 2006 15:09

by the ipsiphi

After over 60 years since their theft, or 30 years since the death of the thief, or a little over a year since the court order to return them, 500 boxes of Spanish Civil War archives were transferred under armed guard in the last 24 hours from Salamanca via Madrid en route to Barcelona.

An incident which did not occur without a near treasonous attempt to impede the lawful commands of the Spanish state by local authorities in Salamanca, Castille and Leon. The polemic and division in current Spanish society which focuses on the democratic wishes of the Catalans and their proposed "estatut"is part and parcel of what occured in Salamanca.
_____________________________________

500 boxes are now in Madrid.
They are being checked to ensure that no papers which were not stolen in 1940 from the Catalan Generalitat go to Barcelona.

The minister for Culture, Carmen Calvo has condemned the non-constitutional behavour of both Salamanca council and the regional government of Castille and Leon.

They had used local privelage to make access roads impassable so that the archives cold not be loaded over the last year and in the last 48 hours mobilised Salamanca's local police resulting in a stand-off with the national Spanish police.

Previous attempts to impede the return of the Generalitat's archive under Aznar led the creation of a "national civil war archive" in 1996. [from wikipedia : "since 1996 Salamanca has been the designated site of the archive of the Spanish Civil War (Archivo General de la Guerra Civil Española). This archive was assembled by the Francoist regime, selectively obtained from the administrative departments of various institutions and organizations during the Spanish Civil War as a repressive instrument used against all sort of opposition groups and individuals: republicans of all signs, unionists, Communists, liberals, Freemasons, Basque and Catalan nationalists, etc.(1) Though as of this morning, if you go to the wikireference to the Spanish ministry of culture (1) http://www.mcu.es/archivos/jsp/plantillaAncho.jsp?id=64 you get "nothing" ]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamanca

History is being made not only moved about.

No-one with a passing interest in Spanish or European history can no notice that the most divisive civil war of the last century (perhaps more important a conflict than the balkan collapse) is being played out on the boundaries of constitutionalism where inflamatory rhetoric risks so much.

As the Spanish council of Ministers (cabinet) today announced their "last" attempt to broker settlement on the Catalan proposed estatut :-
c/f
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=72240 and english translation of proposed document :-
http://www.cataloniatoday.info/pdf/estatut.pdf
I remind everyone that since January 6h this year there has been the first arrest of a general and his subsequent sacking for "non-constitutionalism" in threatening military action against Catalans. That arrest was followed by the arrests of a Colonel at NATO HQ and a Captain in Melilla.
C/f
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73706

The supreme tribunal of Spain which acts as a sort of DPP and Legal proofreader, has concurred that the behaviour in Salamanca by the right wing opposition and those sentimental perhaps for a pro-Francoist legacy was indeed un-constitutional.

There is now a 15 day period of consultation with the other institutions of the government, judiciary, lefislature, executive to decide whether or not to bring criminal actions against those responsible.

For to be quite frank.
It was near treasonous to order local police to impede the agents of the central government. Not for the first time, we see that in Spain it is the right who truly foment treason.

coverage of history in the making.
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=68070
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4629064.stm

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Comments (2 of 2)

Of course the papers didn't arrive quite so easily coz politics here dont work so smoothly

by iosaf

Sat Jan 28, 2006 12:58

the PP are engaged in opposition politics of such mendacious begrudgery that the mere epithet "civil war politics" falls lamentably short of describing how "up their arse" they are.

And so they fiddled with writs and injunctions and only last night, for Mozart's birthday and the anniversary of the Holocaust spanish republicans who were sent to Mauthaussen did a portion of the papers arrive to the Sant Cugat repository just outside of Barcelona where for the last week the local mayor has draped the inocuous building in banners "reclaim memory! justice! plurality! blaa blaa".

About a thousand people were present to attend a "homage" organised by the groups "Commission for Dignity" http://www.partal.com/dignitat/ and "Reclaim Memory" in the barcelona district of Poble Nou last night with the leadership of both Catalan coalition partners ERC and ICV present as well as the front bench of the nationalist (but not independence) opposition party CiU.
http://www.vilaweb.com/www/noticia?p_idcmp=1718753

The backdrop has not changed much. By now ye all know the "estatut" of Catalonia has been overwhelmingly supported by Catalans, but has floundered in Madrid in the face of exceptionally divisive "mendacious begrudgery civil war politics" by the PP. And the most curious thing happened. Most would expect the ERC (catalan left republicans) to be the vanguard of a document which the PP claims will rupture Spain. So it was a sign of the political talent which has perhaps been lacking the Zapatero presidency in the last months, to finally pact an "altered" document last weekend with the CiU. That is to say, they pacted with the opposition Catalan party. The CiU controlled the generalitat for 23 years till losing to the "tripartite coalition" 3 years ago. It is interesting that Aznar came to power, ironically supported by the CiU in his first four years. So yesterday saw Maragall the PSC (catalan branch of PSOE Zaptero's party) in Madrid amidst grumbles from the ERC that they will not accept the "adjusted estatut". But through the week, it becomes clear that money is the heart of the grumbling. The ICV (greens) didn't in the end leave the tripartite over the "anti-social laws" (which saw them ally with the anarchists), I doubt the ERC will leave the tripartite over this. They got the estatut. But not in exactly the way they wanted. {That document which took me 10 days to translate and the team at the english language "Catalonia Today" 14 days-
(our versions are almost equal btw and our problems were the same 'cept mine didn't get the super duper payment)
http://www.cataloniatoday.info/pdf/estatut.pdf }

& watching Maragall on the sofa in the Moncloa palace chatting with Zapatero on telly yesterday, I got the distinct impression of who is in charge, when Maragall thanked "Zapatero the president of plural Spain for his work". Quite...... Zp was off bombarding the media for "an explanation" for the mendacious begrudgery. And certainly in the last week he has picked up a new cache of "praise" from afar away as the New York Times for the disciplinary action taken against members of the military for speaking out on Catalan affairs.
C/f http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73706
That paper used be one of his harshest American critics, declaring his 2004 election win "accidental". I take this as a sign of shifting US opinion in the wake of our very broadband "leftwing" victories in South America.
Remember for many americans, Spain is in geographical fact just round the corner from Miami.

****************

- here's an interview on the Salamanca/Catalan archive with the Spanish minister of Culture , Carmen Calvo published in today's El Pais (spanish langauge)
http://www.elpais.es/articulo.html?xref=20060128elpepicul_3&type=Tes&anchor=elpporcul

& I'd like to tie this in a wee bit to the speech given by her excellency (?!) Mary Mc Aleese an uachtaran at UCC yesterday on "reclaiming 1916".
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2006/0128/2222745689HM1RISING1916.html
Which i think is very important but _not_ at the price of dropping the May Day holiday. 1916 was as much about "class struggle" as "national aspiration".

The papers have arrived.

by ipsiphi

Sun Feb 05, 2006 16:16

& yesterday in the presence of his excellency Senyor Maragall the president of the Catalan Generalitat, at the invitation of "the comission for memory and dignity" sections of the papers including the 1932 "estatut" by which the then Catalan Generalitat declared unilaterally an automous and constituent republic of Catalonia within the Spanish 2nd Republic were put on display.

Amonst the guests were included survivors of the war, of the concentration camp Mauthaussen, as well as children of the subjects of the files, academics from historical departments of many major league European Universities and MIT and others with collective membership and vested interest in the data within.

I was happy to see the papers and they look like most files of the XX century, typed on acidic paper with easy to forge seals and rusted paper clips attached. Strabge to think that history, idealism, truth, victory and vanquishment may so quickly turn to boxes of dull paper.

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Comments (2 of 2)