Today the
United States celebrates its 237th anniversary since its Independence
from the United Kingdom of the Great Britain. The process of
independence that began with the American colonies was followed later by
countries submitted to the Kingdom of Spain. With the independence of
Cuba and Guam, the Hispanic Monarchy lost its colonial empire overseas.
It wasn't until 1956 that the colonies in Africa (Morocco) obtained
their independence from Spain. With the dictatorship of General Franco
the fight against “the Spanish colonization of the Iberian Peninsula” go
in two ways; one violent (Euskadi) and the other civic (Catalonia). The
American colonies gave the starting signal to the collapse of the
British colonial empire and several successful independent processes up
until now.
The Boston Tea Party and the Constitutional Court Rule.
In 1773 merchants of the American colonies refused to sell a cargo of
British tea which ended being thrown into the sea. The revolt of the
colonists at the port of Boston, Massachusetts, was born as a result of
the adoption by Great Britain in 1773 of the Tea Act, which regulated
imports in the metropolis of different products, including tea, to
benefit the British East India Company. The discontent of the American
colonists came was nothing new. The Stamp Act of 1765 and the laws of
Townshend in 1767 imposed taxes on the colonies without first consulting
the Parliament at Westminster. The British government closed Boston
Harbour in 1774 in retaliation and declared a state of emergency,
establishing other laws known as the Intolerable Acts. In time, these
attitudes of the metropolis proved to be one of the reasons which led to
the Independence War of the United States because it served to unite
and consolidate support for the revolutionaries of the thirteen colonies
which declared independence. On 27 June 2010 the Constitutional Court
of Spain issued its ruling on the Catalan Statute of 2006 which had been
approved by referendum by the people of Catalonia. Fourteen items of
the Catalan Statute were declared illegal and 27 others were
reinterpreted invalidating the definition of Catalonia as a Nation and
introducing eight times the phrase “indissoluble unity of Spain”. Since
this sentence was issued, Catalans become “a subspecies of Spain.”
Catalonia is no longer a Nation, as approved by the Parliament of
Catalonia, the Spanish Parliament and the people of Catalonia as
approved by referendum. The Catalan judicial system was fatally done
away with and became subjected to the third-world Spanish judicial
system. The opinion on the attainment of independence made by
international organizations, describes it as on a level with Jamaica,
Malawi, Kuwait, Tunisia, etc... in the administration and public media.
Even in education, as subsequently endorsed by the Supreme Court.
Cancellation of autonomous rights and restrictive reinterpretation of
Catalonia followed, and from territorial planning, through immigration,
including the legislative initiative of the Catalan Parliament
(Consultation Act)...
The Continental Congress and July the 10th.
The First and Second Continental Congress were used initially to forge a
common American response to the Intolerable Acts. On September 5, 1774,
representatives of the assemblies of the colonies met in Philadelphia.
The Congress met briefly to consider options, including an economic
boycott of British trade, publishing a list of rights and grievances and
petitioning King George III for redress of those grievances. Both
documents recognize the right of Parliament to regulate foreign trade
but defended the right of the colonies to manage their own affairs
without intervention by the imperial government. This doctrine would not
be accepted by the British government, because it meant accepting the
end of the colonial relationship. On 10 July 2010 almost 1.5 million
Catalans took to the streets of Barcelona to demand the independence of
Catalonia from Spain. This was the reaction of the Catalan people to the
Constitutional Court Rule on the Catalan Statute that finished the
minimal self-government and autonomy the Catalan nation inside the
Kingdom of Spain used to enjoy. The vast majority of the slogans at the
demonstration were in favor of independence and to become a State in the
European Union.
The Declaration of Independence.
The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America,
solemnly read today 237 years later in Philadelphia, is still today one
of the most innovative and transcendent texts of contemporary political
history. It claims two basic principles which have been gathered from
the great texts on fundamental rights: freedom and equality. The 13
former British colonies created a democratic regime, setting the rights
and duties of governors and governed in a fundamental law or
Constitution and did so by declaring that “But when a long train of
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a
design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is
their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for
their future security”. The next section is a list of charges against
King George III, which aim to demonstrate that he has violated the
colonists' rights and is therefore unfit to be their ruler: Such has
been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the
necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of
Government. “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a
history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having the object of
establishing an absolute Tyranny over these States.” After fighting a
war with the United Kingdom wh was difficult for the Americans during
the first three years, George Washington defeated the British in
Saratoga (1777) and Yorktown (1781). Two years later the Peace of
Versailles was signed by which the United Kingdom of Great Britain
recognized the independence of the United States of America. A year ago
now, the very clear demand for the independence of the Catalan people
was expressed in the demonstration of September the 11th,
2012 where 2 million Catalans took to the streets of Barcelona under the
“Catalonia, the next state of Europe” slogan as the whole World could
see, and just as the Congress of Philadelphia, claiming for a
Independence Declaration in the Catalan Parliament after an
autodetermination referendum.
Future. Get
the most social majority of the people of Catalonia to declare
independence as did the representatives in Congress in Philadelphia in
1776 and continue denouncing the intolerable laws which Catalans are
subjected to by the Kingdom of Spain. Keeping alive the spirit of
revolutionary and patriotic Americans Hancock, Franklin and Jefferson.
Hoping Catalonia is mature enough soon to follow the footsteps of those
brave and worthy men. Taking the model of freedom, democracy and
happiness of the American revolutionaries is the best tribute that we
can still do in Catalonia Catalan people this July the 4th.
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