Democratic Tsunami. The organized movement against the sentence in the Catalan case of the consultation on independence on October 1 (1-O) is defined as nonviolent and by civil disobedience.

Today’s covers of the main Spanish media and surely some international ones on the demonstrations and altercations that took place yesterday night in Barcelona, follow the scandalous line of violence. That is what they like to publish in the mass media, inducing opinions behind the vision of the worst value of the human being.

These are the violent images, they are not the only ones and they are the ones we would least like to see, but the ones that occupy the most space in the news presented to us by the big media. In front of them, the rest of citizen actions are omitted, those without violent spirit and with the interest of making a call to democracy. An appeal has been made to a sentence considered unjust, led not only by the supporters of a possible independence of Catalonia but by any citizen who watches over change, democracy, rights and justice.

Sentences from 9 to 13 years for 9 accused of sedition* plus fines and disqualification of another 3, (i.e. for asking citizens in a non-legal consultation).

If we analyze the facts, there is no balance that to date is weighing up the violent actions in the citizen response to the case of the convictions of political prisoners.

Yes, yesterday afternoon the centre of Barcelona was tense, at various points of Passeig de Gràcia, Pau Claris and Diagonal there were police charges to deal with the burning of some containers and the creation of fire barricades to contain the police advance. These altercations, although undesirable, do not represent what massively starred the citizens, who responded as the first operation to the hard result of the sentences of the Supreme Court with protest actions and massive concentrations in the Barcelona airport terminal. But who directed this clever mass concentration?

Democratic Tsunami

In September 2019, a movement begins to run through the networks in Catalonia that announces itself as Tsunami Democràtic* and defines itself as the “citizen response to the Supreme Court’s sentence”. The movement, driven by “frustration” as a result of the “repression” experienced especially since the events of 1-O, claims the value of the words “unity”, “referendum”, “democracy”, “rights” and “justice” while reborn with the peaceful will to generate hope. It is about vindicating a struggle for fundamental rights.

Nonviolence and civil disobedience as tools of action to achieve freedoms and social justice, to “change the state of things”.

On September 2, they began to open channels in networks, which remained closed until September 20, when they began to broadcast messages without clear actions, rather maintaining a certain secrecy in it. There was talk of protests outside the city, but without specifying, calling for rapid citizen response when the mass call is made.

On September 25, a peaceful action took place, with 50 members wearing white masks at the bank of “La Caixa”, denouncing that they were also part of the repression. The actions were repeated in successive days in different parts of the Catalan territory and reaching other entities such as Iberdrola. They become known massively with a huge banner on the football field Camp Nou.

During the following days, the networks were preparing the field of action, invited to download graphic material to disseminate, and advice on how to bring prepared a radio and an external battery to the phone for the day of sentencing. The call focused mainly on university venues.

One month after opening the channel, it already has 60,000 subscribers and today more than 268,000.

After the sentence of the Supreme Court became known mid-morning on October 14 Tsunami Democràtic summoned the citizens to Plaza Catalunya in Barcelona and an hour later to the airport. Objective: to stop the activity of the Prat airport of Barcelona, so that everybody saw this injustice. Thousands of people concentrated in the Prat airport, as well as National Police and Mossos d’Escuadra. The avalanche, the demonstration and the chaos were done under the slogan “Always nonviolent” “Always disobedient”. In parallel in Madrid, in the airport of Barajas, 1.200 cars collapsed the accesses.

With this action, Tsunami Democràtic made an appeal “to all the citizens of Madrid indignant with a sentence that not only points to the political leaders of independence but also impoverishes the democratic quality and the civil and social rights of all Spanish citizens”. They were invited to mobilise, “in defence of a political solution that involves the recognition of a political conflict through dialogue and negotiation”.

The Tsunami continues to grow and the big media such as the BBC are echoing it.

The first action called has been a success. The following actions will be carried out in relation to the followers of the new APP of #Tsunamidemocratic (app.tsunamidemocratic.cat) that must be validated by someone who has the QR code.

At the close of this news it has been 5 hours since the burning of containers and police charges in the city centre. At two o’clock in the morning the Civil Guard helicopters stopped flying over the sky of the city of Barcelona. Some ambulance sirens keep us in suspense …

The actions of Tsunami Democràtic, directed from no one knows where or by whom, have left a precedent of citizen mobilization, a step towards the rights of citizenship, under the slogan: nonviolence and civil disobedience.
Tomorrow the mobilisations will continue.

——
*Sedition: we appeal to the argumentation that Josep Ramoneda’s analysis offers in this respect: “If sedition demands tumultuous violence and this is reduced to 20 September and 1 October 2017, there was little tumult. If the police had not intervened on the day of the referendum in the way they did, how would the sedition have been justified?

https://www.ara.cat/opinio/Josep-Ramoneda-Fugir-estudi_0_2325967579.html

—-
*https://tsunamidemocratic.cat/
Translation Pressenza London