Ciudadanos, the Citizens, is a relatively new political party. It was born in Catalonia eleven years ago. (Oh Catalonia, root of all Spain's malaise.) This new-born political formation was modern, business-oriented, anti-corruption, wedded to Spanish unity, a counterpoint to any thoughts of Catalan secession and also to any Catalan dominance. It still is all of these things. It has proved to be moderately successful in taking its brand of Partido Popular-lite politics (the PP minus the corruption and with less austerity) onto a broader plain. It has modestly conquered Spain. It partially reigns (sic) on the plain, not just Spain's but also Mallorca's. And that's the problem.
Its leader, the one-time swimming champion, the occasional "little twerp" Albert Rivera, discovered last week that he was being compared to José Antonio Primo de Rivera. And who is he? Not is; was. José Antonio was the son of Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, the first dictator, the forerunner of you know who. José Antonio was also, and more pertinently, the founder of the Falange. It clearly ran in the blood. For his sins (and there were sins), José Antonio was charged with military rebellion and conspiracy by the still Republican government. He was shot on 20 November, 1936.
Shall I compare thee in a fascist way? Who made the comparison? Was it Podemos? Was it one of the wilder Catalan elements? The Ruffian, Gabriel Rufián of the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, perhaps? It was neither. It was the number two in PSOE. Adriana Lastra, Pedro Sánchez's right-hand (left-hand) woman, opined that Rivera had arrived kicking and screaming with his new-born party as a form of Adolfo Suárez reincarnate - Suárez, the godfather of democratic transition. But as the new-born grew, he started his own transition. Into José Antonio Primo de Rivera.
The C's, said Adriana, have moved to the right of the PP, which was a massive condemnation in its own right. The party has "no respect" for the style of autonomous government in Spain, that which filters down to the regions - Catalonia being one of them. Every day, Adriana continued, the C's move more to the right. Was she in fact claiming that the C's are a far-right party? When presented with this question, Adriana realised quite what she had been saying. She withdrew her remarks and apologised. But she had made them nevertheless.
Rivera does have the ability to get under people's skin. He is a sort of Aussie cricketer sledger type of politician, but then so are various others, not least The Ruffian, his left-wing opposite in Catalonia. But the Falange? Really, what was she thinking? Well, she was thinking what all too many think. The latest bout of Catalan soul-searching and navel-gazing has unleashed what is always there just beneath the surface ready to break into the light of day. The past. Spain can't do without it. A national form of self-pity characterises society and not just political society.
There was a time, certainly during Zapatero's period as prime minister, when a new-found maturity appeared to have been attained, a dispensing of the past but also an attempt at the reconciliation that was denied by the amnesia of the post-Franco amnesty. Rivera and the C's were a product of the Zapatero era. Forward-looking. But unfortunately they aren't. They, as with all other parties, are stuck with their historical memories. Puigdemont has merely taken these to an extreme and has in the process facilitated the remembrance of the past. None of them can move forward because they are all victims of this debilitating self-pity.
From a motorway bridge in Barcelona the other day, seven dolls were hanged. Heads down, they bore the logos of the C's, the PP and the Catalan wing of PSOE. The release of political prisoners was the demand that accompanied them. Of course Junqueras and the rest should be released. Wrongs there have been, but incarceration achieves nothing more than fuel the memories of the wrongs of the past. And in the midst of this are the C's, whose modest successes are giving other parties the jitters. Notably those towards the left.
In the Balearics, the membership of the C's has shot up by 20% in the past few weeks. Such a statistic will not have gone unnoticed and has not gone unnoticed by the promoters of nascent Balearic independence - Més, to whom, so the right-wing press regularly insist, can be added the name of Francina Armengol. What fools there can sometimes be on the right in drawing such an assumption.
The C's in the Balearics, and in particular their scholarly leader Xavier Pericay, are on the end of a campaign to discredit them. The main reason for this is the C's insistence that there is political pro-independence indoctrination in Balearic schools. The campaign has been started by the Unió Obrera Balear, in which the one-time hunger-striking teacher from Llucmajor, Jaume Sastre, is a key player. A poster reads: "Who are the new Inquisitors who wish to intimidate and make purges among the teachers of the Balearics?" There are photos of Pericay and Olga Ballester of the C's.
And so, the past goes even further back. From the Falange to the Inquisition.
Showing posts with label Indoctrination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indoctrination. Show all posts
Sunday, December 03, 2017
Wednesday, November 08, 2017
Independence Indoctrination In Schools?
Over three years ago a teacher in Mallorca went on hunger strike. The reason for his taking this extreme action was as a protest against the educational policies of the Bauzá government. Foremost among those policies was the attack on the use of Catalan. The adoption of the policy of TIL trilingual teaching was a thinly disguised means of undermining Catalan, and one really didn't need to be a supporter of Catalan in schools or not in order to appreciate the policy for what it was. He was a teacher of the Catalan language and of Catalan literature. His defence of both was understandable.
At the time of the protests against TIL there was a political undercurrent in addition to specifically educational opposition or a concern about an assault on Catalan culture. That undercurrent was one of independence. The hunger-striking teacher was a supporter of the independence of the Catalan Lands.
The other day the president of the Empresaris de Catalunya, Josep Bou, was warning about an "export" of the Catalan sovereignty movement to the Balearics. The warning was unnecessary. The movement is already in the Balearics and it has been here for many years. From the time of their inception in the 1970s, the PSM Mallorcan Socialists (the principal component of Més) have advocated a form of national (Mallorcan) liberation and the coming-together of the Catalan Lands.
What Josep Bou was referring to was the independence cause in Catalonia and its transfer to the Balearics. In this regard he was also a bit late. Més, David Abril most obviously, have been advancing the cause of Balearic independence. A date has been set as to when it should come about: 2030. In the context of support for Catalonia, and thus the greater good of the Catalan Lands, Més in Menorca have "recognised" the independent republic of Catalonia.
Meanwhile, there has been a call for Més and for Podemos to break their links with PSOE in the Balearic government and parliament because of the support given to the Rajoy government by PSOE nationally. This call has come from the CUP, Candidatura de Unidad Popular, the hard-left Catalonia party which backs independence. The call was specifically from the CUP in Palma, and the CUP have close ties to the radical youth group Arran, the ones who staged the anti-tourism protest by the restaurant in Palma in July and did so within a broader framework of advocating the independence of the Catalan Lands.
This independence sentiment in the Balearics is far from being anything new, but what now appears to concern the likes of Josep Bou is that it is gathering momentum. There need, he says, to be arguments which rebut this movement.
While there is a political framework that is capable of fostering this sentiment, there are other institutional frameworks about which some anxiety is being expressed because of their potential for adding to it. One institutional framework in particular - education.
There was a recent press report about pupils at a secondary school - it was in Inca - being "obliged" to take part in a form of protest in favour of the Catalonia referendum and against the police violence which occurred on the day of the referendum. As one parent put it, "the kids were being indoctrinated and presented with slogans in favour of independence and against the Spanish state".
Following this, the public prosecution service with responsibilities for minors launched an investigation into possible enforced participation in protest actions which went beyond the normal educational sphere. PSOE in the Balearics, Més and Podemos then presented a joint motion to parliament rejecting the "attacks and accusations" of political indoctrination coming from parties towards the right of centre.
Chief among those making the accusations has been Xavier Pericay, the leader of Ciudadanos (C's) in the Balearics. The C's are vehemently opposed to Catalan independence (you might have noticed this) and were indeed originally founded in Catalonia as a party as much against independence as they were against corruption.
In a lengthy interview, Pericay has gone into detail in explaining his concerns, suggesting that indoctrination can occur at conscious and the subconscious levels in schools. He said that this indoctrination can come about through teacher "inertia". Teachers are themselves unaware of operating in a particular way and adopting a dogmatic view of the world. He added that there are "militant teachers" and "professional indoctrinators", noting that there are only a few of these, but took aim at the "imposition" of Catalan by nationalists, believing that this creates their form of "microcosm", the school as a means ultimately of indoctrination.
The defence of culture and of language is a noble cause. But where are the boundaries for this defence and how does society react to their being breached? Pericay can perhaps look at the polls for an answer. The C's are gaining, while Més are going backwards.
At the time of the protests against TIL there was a political undercurrent in addition to specifically educational opposition or a concern about an assault on Catalan culture. That undercurrent was one of independence. The hunger-striking teacher was a supporter of the independence of the Catalan Lands.
The other day the president of the Empresaris de Catalunya, Josep Bou, was warning about an "export" of the Catalan sovereignty movement to the Balearics. The warning was unnecessary. The movement is already in the Balearics and it has been here for many years. From the time of their inception in the 1970s, the PSM Mallorcan Socialists (the principal component of Més) have advocated a form of national (Mallorcan) liberation and the coming-together of the Catalan Lands.
What Josep Bou was referring to was the independence cause in Catalonia and its transfer to the Balearics. In this regard he was also a bit late. Més, David Abril most obviously, have been advancing the cause of Balearic independence. A date has been set as to when it should come about: 2030. In the context of support for Catalonia, and thus the greater good of the Catalan Lands, Més in Menorca have "recognised" the independent republic of Catalonia.
Meanwhile, there has been a call for Més and for Podemos to break their links with PSOE in the Balearic government and parliament because of the support given to the Rajoy government by PSOE nationally. This call has come from the CUP, Candidatura de Unidad Popular, the hard-left Catalonia party which backs independence. The call was specifically from the CUP in Palma, and the CUP have close ties to the radical youth group Arran, the ones who staged the anti-tourism protest by the restaurant in Palma in July and did so within a broader framework of advocating the independence of the Catalan Lands.
This independence sentiment in the Balearics is far from being anything new, but what now appears to concern the likes of Josep Bou is that it is gathering momentum. There need, he says, to be arguments which rebut this movement.
While there is a political framework that is capable of fostering this sentiment, there are other institutional frameworks about which some anxiety is being expressed because of their potential for adding to it. One institutional framework in particular - education.
There was a recent press report about pupils at a secondary school - it was in Inca - being "obliged" to take part in a form of protest in favour of the Catalonia referendum and against the police violence which occurred on the day of the referendum. As one parent put it, "the kids were being indoctrinated and presented with slogans in favour of independence and against the Spanish state".
Following this, the public prosecution service with responsibilities for minors launched an investigation into possible enforced participation in protest actions which went beyond the normal educational sphere. PSOE in the Balearics, Més and Podemos then presented a joint motion to parliament rejecting the "attacks and accusations" of political indoctrination coming from parties towards the right of centre.
Chief among those making the accusations has been Xavier Pericay, the leader of Ciudadanos (C's) in the Balearics. The C's are vehemently opposed to Catalan independence (you might have noticed this) and were indeed originally founded in Catalonia as a party as much against independence as they were against corruption.
In a lengthy interview, Pericay has gone into detail in explaining his concerns, suggesting that indoctrination can occur at conscious and the subconscious levels in schools. He said that this indoctrination can come about through teacher "inertia". Teachers are themselves unaware of operating in a particular way and adopting a dogmatic view of the world. He added that there are "militant teachers" and "professional indoctrinators", noting that there are only a few of these, but took aim at the "imposition" of Catalan by nationalists, believing that this creates their form of "microcosm", the school as a means ultimately of indoctrination.
The defence of culture and of language is a noble cause. But where are the boundaries for this defence and how does society react to their being breached? Pericay can perhaps look at the polls for an answer. The C's are gaining, while Més are going backwards.
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