Catalonia Votes To Secede From Spain
Previously
by Ron Holland: Secession
Petitions: Good PR But Bad Politics
“Secession
is a deeply American principle. This country was born through secession.”
~ Ron Paul
On Sunday,
pro-independence voters in Catalonia captured almost two-thirds
of the regional parliament. While the establishment press attempts
to hide the secession victory by mentioning that the largest pro-independence
party lost parliamentary seats, this, too, was a major victory for
independence forces.
There is a
reason the global elites and politicians are terrified of secession.
All “sanctioned” history lessons and political messages
attempt to cover up the fact that most national and tax-jurisdictional
boundaries are constantly changing, around the world. The elites
want you to believe that all governments are permanent and hence,
you, the citizen, have no alternatives. But take a look back at
any map of Europe 25 years ago, 50 years ago and then each previous
century and you’ll see the actual situation is far different.
Actually, during
its long history Catalonia has been incorporated into or controlled
by Greece, Carthage, Rome, the Visigoths, Moorish or Muslims, the
Franks, the nation of Aragon, the Habsburgs and finally, Spain.
Read this typical
Associated Press announcement on the vote: The headline reads “Independence
Drive for Spain’s Catalonia Falters” and the first paragraph
states: “The push for an independence referendum for Spain’s
Catalonia region has been thrown into doubt after the referendum’s
main supporter was punished at the polls and forced into the difficult
position of having to seek alliances with other parties.”
This is because
Catalan President Artur Mas and his Convergence and Union Alliance
Party, or CiU, lost seats to more radical secessionist parties,
as they should have. Actually, Mas and the CiU are Johnny-come-lately
independence supporters and previously actively supported EU and
bank-mandated austerity measures which only hurt the economy, cut
benefits and impoverish Catalonians through higher taxes.
The four independence
parties still have to develop plans for a future referendum on secession
that will likely be supported by a majority of the citizens of Catalonia.
Although separatist movements are spreading across Europe, here
at The Daily Bell first we question why restored nations should
assume a burdensome share of illegitimate sovereign debt when they
exit existing unions and nation-states.
Most of the
debt was created by distant banking elites buying “encouraging”
parliaments to increase national debt loads that can never be paid
off. With economies collapsing due to the debt load from foreign-imposed
debt never approved by the citizens, why should new nations shoulder
this illegitimate and destructive sovereign load?
Second, of
course, all tax-feeding central governments like Spain warn of a
constitutional crisis and vow to block secession and independence
efforts. But an excellent counter to this draconian argument and
Lincoln-like threat is to say the following: “Either you allow
us to leave voluntarily and we will take a percentage of your sovereign
debt or use force and we will leave debt-free and bring down your
government. The choice is yours!”
It looks like
the productive, hard-working people of Catalonia are growing weary
of funding the Spanish central government. I suggest that they will
eventually gain their independence. The leaders of Spain would do
well to consider their options of allowing a peaceful and friendly
transition to independence lest they face the alternative, which
could take down Spain and many other central governments across
Europe.
Reprinted
with permission from The
Daily Bell.
November
29, 2012
Ron
Holland [send him mail]
lives
in Canada and is a contributor to the Daily
Bell and other websites.
Copyright
© 2012 Ron
Holland