News from around the world

1) Look at the interactive map; if you have a solidarity committee in your area, get in touch. Go to:
http://withcatalonia.org/?lang=en

NOTE: This text had already been agreed when more very serious events took place; the imprisonment without bail of Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez, leaders of the two main pro independence citizens’ movements; and the Spanish state’s attack on democracy in Catalonia by attempting to apply clause 155. These events only confirm the importance of promoting solidarity.

The centenary of the Russian revolution has been proclaimed in many different ways, throughout the year and particularly as we mark the actual anniversary. Supporters of International Viewpoint are participating in and organising events in their own countries. The IIRE and Resistance books have published a book which can be bought here or here. International Viewpoint is publishing a substantial series on the Russian Revolution and debt by Eric Toussaint [1].

A democratic revolution has begun in southwestern Europe. The day we lived through on 1 October in Catalonia was the biggest mobilization of non-violent civil and institutional disobedience experienced in Catalonia, the Spanish state or and Europe in modern history. Despite the extraordinary outbreak of repressive violence by the Spanish State police and civil guards [17 000 units, 844 civilians were wounded] 2,262,424 people managed to exercise their right to vote and expressed in an admirable and festive way their will to progress towards a Catalan Republic and the opening of a participatory constituent process.

Taking note of the blatant violation of tenant farmers’ rights in Okara, the Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee has condemned the criminal action of retired army officers hired by Okara Military of destroying the maize crops of two tenants in Chak 18/4L late night on September 29.

¡Solidaridad con Cataluña! Solidaritat amb Catalunya! Kataluniarekin bat! Solidariedade con Catalunya! ¡Solidaridá con Catalunya! ¡Solidaridad con Catalunya!

This statement was published on the Viento Sur website on 20 September 2017.

Today, 20 September, the Spanish state federal government stepped up its attack on the right of the people of Catalonia to hold a referendum on national independence.

The Fourth Internationalists in Catalonia stand firmly in defence of this fundamental democratic right of the people of Catalonia. This statement was issued earlier, at the moment when the Catlinian government passed the law. We will publish more as we can.

Mehar Abdul Sattar is general secretary of Anjman Mozareen Punjab and also Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee, a peasant leader demanding land rights at Okara Military Farms. He has been in jail since April 2016, 36 false police cases have been registered against him. In March 2017, he was shifted to Sahiwal High Security prison to torture him as much as possible.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was established by an executive order from President Obama in June 2012. Far from a gift from a sympathetic administration, DACA was a victory won only through the brave and militant actions of undocumented activists who were willing to criticize the devastating immigration policies of a supposedly progressive President, including by occupying Obama campaign offices.

The Catalan parliament has passed a law convening the first of October referendum. We consider this law to be legitimate and backed by the will of the majority of Catalan society which wishes to exercise their right to decide even if this involves disobeying the regime’s unjust and repressive legality.

Pablo Solón, the Director of Fundación Solón, former Executive Director of Focus on the Global South, and former Bolivian Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), is being targeted by the Bolivian government for his vocal criticism of the government and the construction of two hydro-electric projects, El Bala and El Chapete in the Amazonian region. Based on the studies done by Geodata, an Italian company hired by the government to identify where the dams will be built, Solón says they will “inundate an area five times larger than the city of La Paz, displace more than five thousand indigenous peoples, deforest more than one hundred thousand hectares and will not be profitable for the country with the current prices of electricity in Brazil.”