A social aspect to this camp everything has a basis in the fight that all of us here share we organize everything from. Debates between the different people who are here camps to different speakers who come in tell us about all sorts of different issues we have people and talked about different ways of protecting ourselves and also we had people come and talk to us about the situation in kurdistan and south america to a different bites that are. Going on. In the rest. Situation and looking to the way to one of the well we believe that our fight. Is part of a more global issue. Involves many other people who are also oppressed by different oppressive regimes and so thats something that we think is important even though what were here fighting for we know is a very is a more concrete issue. Well it seems to be pretty overwhelming from the young people here outside the universe their boss alone and University Square that they are very hopeful that will be a Better Future of catalonia im very the talent to stay here until the secure that future. But a former British Ambassador can you explain to our viewers why despite the public sympathy for the cattle and cause which is evident across many countries theyve had little or no support from individual european governments or for that matter from the institutions of the European Union it really has been quite striking but there has been. Very brittle support for catherine on the diplomatic front and in particular within the European Union its been extremely striking that there has been no support for from the commission over council or parliament and particularly at the time of the violent suppression of a catalan referendum all 3 of those European Union institutions came out in fairly strong support of the actions of the Spanish Government saying it was all part of the rule of law i do think perhaps the catalans will have better prospects in the in the council of europe and strasburg i remembered back in 2017 the then acting head acting president of the council me there is strong statement of condemnation of the actions of the spanish authorities might strasburg be a better vehicle for cattle on account of the sing for support than the brussels struggles bergers is going to be more hopeful because of course. The council of europe are particularly tough with institutions of Good Government questions of selfdetermination and questions of of human rights so it is very much in the main and also they have no economic Remit Service stability or the currency or the future of the spanish economy is not not so much their concern so yes there will be more but chance of eventual address from a council of europe and of course for me Court European court of. Rights which is a council of Europe Institution not a European Union institution but these things gone fluently and remember of course the government still do have great influence on many of the representatives within the council of europe so if you were advising the Catalan Government at the present moment or indeed the wider catalan cause how would you tell them to frame the diplomatic offensive to try and target the right and the shut doors of getting from morse of the countries in europe. I would tell them primarily to look outside europe i would tell them to go to the developing world the g 77 countries as we call them and in diplomatic speak and to flame. Catalonians desire to independence. In respect of the right of selfdetermination and to seek to open the United Nations of the United NationsGeneral Assembly one of the relatively few crumbs of comfort that catalonia has received in terms of International Support has been the refusal of a number of jurisdictions to salvors the european arrest warrants that Spanish Government taken out against their karmas long against cloud up on saturday and scotland whats your reading of the situation that know that the Spanish Government of come back with a new improved version of the rest what are they going to get their way or all the jurisdictions continue to hold out against the porting these people well im still extremely hopeful that the judicial systems of european states will will be business tend to be the spanish efforts because. You know plainly there beaches here of of freedom of speech of freedom the same leave it out of selfdetermination and plainly the spain is trying to get still more Political Prisoners after imposing absolutely vicious sentences on on people who are campaigning for up to terminations so you know courts tend to take a more decent a few of these things than politicians do so i am hopeful particularly here in scotland that the courts will will resist these politically motivated divest want but i will say that im fairly disgusted that the prosecuting authorities who are of course much. More susceptible to political influence are taking forward the left wants to because at all the. Around here in scotland should be thinking this is plainly a politically motivated they should not be saying but with charges the equivalent of a u. K. Charge of treason which is remarkable thing which for the crown here in scotland is is resting his case upon this is still a very grave and worrying situation so every summer i mean that the cattle out and tremendous support for the way they conducted themselves peacefully joining the 2017 what i thought end up theyve won the cattle and elections for the 1st time the for mess leading in the spanish elections in catalonia theres clearly a substantial majority in favor of a referendum if the case for independence is much more evenly divided so what exactly does the cattle and politicians to the cattle and cause do to progress their desire for a referendum well i think they have to have to keep on doing what theyre doing and of course they have to be obvious that catalonia is a nation it has its own language it has its own Political Institutions and it has a long history of p. B. s autonomy so all these are factors they have to work upon but its going to be a hard road you know where they are facing state willing to use extreme violence against them and allowing no form of democratic expression so to keep to the path of nonviolence as time goes on is going to be extremely difficult for an emerging new front and the struggle for catalonia is the the social media obviously havey li used by the cattle campaigners know that they feel according to the Catalan Government that the Spanish Government taken powers to virtually interrupt wipeout course down the internet or across barcelona what fears would you have that this might be a tactic used by other governments internationally its quite. Archival to see a european government taking these kind of draconian powers weve just seen precisely this kind of action done in iran in the last couple of weeks to stop protests there and weve seen similar things before in hong kong and other parts of china you dont expect to see it in europe but ultimately if the Spanish Government is going to seek to suppress. Catarrh the independence byte by means of repression its going to have to take more and more draconian steps to crush Civil Societies so im not in the least surprised. Thank you very much indeed thank you. Join us after the break when alex discusses the catalonia movement with the leader of one of the Grassroots Organizations who provided the engine for change and the baileys probably. The European Unions tendency to believe that. Represents europe has long been a major gripe for russia but as the e. U. Experiences significant internal difficulties it is studied to reassess what it is and what it stands for what does that process mean for the countries sharing the continent with it. My feeling with this world its what now is were so confused and fearful and this certain generation thats controlling all the Politics Around the world when that generation. And children that are brought on this new reality are less materialistic dont really care about these things dont even more automobiles want to live right beside their job want to ride a bicycle this movement is global its going the world is going to house to go this direction and its going to change. Facebook and google started with a great idea and great ideals unfortunately it was also a very dark so. They are constructing a profile of you and that profile is real its detailed and it never goes away turns out that google is manipulating your opinions from the very 1st character that you type into the search bar it will always favor one dog food over another one comparative Shopping Service over another and one candidate over another they can suppress certain types of results diced on what they think the. B. C. If they have this kind of power then democracy is a can allusion the free and Fair Election doesnt exist the more rope we give them the sooner were all. Welcome back the cattle on struggle for independence that had huge currency and International Terms but few really understand the intertwined nature of the various organizations supporting a move towards independence the catalan movement is represented not by one Political Party but by thursday and much of its influence comes boards from grassroots cultural and citizens are going isaacsons alex caught up with el Offender Police in barcelona leader of the council on National Assembly welcome back to the show thanks thanks for inviting me again but tell the viewers about the what is the catalyst National Assembly thats not a parliament that a Grassroots Organization that they are simply is not a parliament its a civil site Society Organization that was created in 2012 and that has a single aim is to fight for Catalan Independence for democratic and pacific means and needs their ideological the diverse so all we can have in. Our membership leftists people or people that are more center right its a very diverse and what sort of activities does the National Assembly what support does it provide to the Independence Movement carol the 1st thing that we did and that was rendered darst famous was to organize a big big demonstration in 2012 during the Catalan National day so one of our activities is mobilizing Civil Society organizing large demonstrations but weve been doing many other things like campaigning for the yes to independence when we had the referendum. In 2017 and also during the participatory process in 2014 so giving arguments in favor of in the pendants and we do that through also our experts economies lawyers and different experts that are also are part of the of the association so youre looking to support independence supporting can the some politicians not not just in Political Parties and Government Office but floor all the institutions of of catalonia yes because this is something that we realized in october 2017 is like the power is not only in the formal institutions in government the power and the Spanish State power. Has. Is spread in other institutions of the Civil Society especially in business institutions we saw that in october when they some of these institutions participated in the Fear Campaign so what we said is that if we want to succeed when we do another attempt to declare independence and this time it has to be definitely if attempt we have to be more prepared and we have to have more power in these type of institutions. We have to these institutions shouldnt be corroborating. With the Spanish Power in the sense that they are collaborating in not respecting the will of the catalan people are the decisions of the Catalan Parliament they have to be a police neutral since we last spoke in the last year the sentence is a bill handed dont for the independence campaigners 9 people sentence collective with almost 100 years of imprisonment. What does been the impact of these draconian sentences on the Catalan Independence movement the society is really thought i think by this. Verdict and by the sentences and also the reaction of the spine is the state by doing more repression by using. And again the police that is acting quite violently and also with an increase in the political repression but by sending of these youngsters to pretrial detention again we have no 45 people in pretrial detention in jail so. The situation is quite complex and complicated now. But how does the national cattleya avoid being drawn in to cleave in so violent which one of your greatest. Promotional points in World Opinion must be lissas an example like gandhi. A century ago totally peaceful protests here its difficult when they have just condemned the leader the former leader of the catalan National Assembly and that of another association to 99 years of jail when that what they were doing in september 2017 was trying to calm down a protest and send people home and saying no no no lets stop the protests now. And they have been condemned for sedition for these Peaceful Demonstrations so its very difficult. To do that the students the young people do not react to that saying oh see what happens when you do things peacefully no. The Central Government will and the institutions and the judge is going to condemn you as if you have where had used violence no sorry so its difficult but we have to try we have to try to to to keep our on track. Of nonviolence which doesnt mean exactly pacifism is not exactly the same because nonviolence isnt their strategy that implies an action its not doing nothing its acting against this oppression against the state that is violating fundamental rights and trying to weaken eat by acting by using sometimes even civil disobedience but under strict principles of nonviolence so we have to hold so what youre saying is that the principle of the castle our National Assembly unambiguously is nonviolent. Action but nonviolent action at all types yes the principle of a common National Assembly is an ambiguous unambiguously nonviolent action but you yourself have come under investigation recently as have many others in catalonia how does it feel given what youve seen happening to many of your colleagues you yourself are no under investigation for what you may have said or may not have said in a television or radio interview they asked me if all of these clashes at night were having a negative impact on their movement and i said i was trying to make a reflection so i said yes but it is true also that they make visible the conflict in the International Press because the world is that the us and normally that the press at at that just more importance to negative news than positive names so i was trying to make a reflection and no im under investigation for having appealed to violence so these these limitation on the freedom of speech that we are enduring. Must be quite intimidating for people i mean that is the demonstration of 9 people incarcerated for a long sentence is theres other people on the vest a geisha that must be quite an intimidating atmosphere for people in the National Movement and cattle and yes it is intimidating we we have to deal with new experiences that trying to fight for our i. D. s in a context of political repression. Now theres been news recently that the Spanish Government are taking moves to have new powers to intercept social media and stop social Media Communication given that one of the great strengths of the cath lab movement has been the ability to mobilize and organize using inventively the social media how big or a spread do you see that latest move to the way you organize it is a big threat in fact the website of the catalan National Assembly in 2017 was already cut or stopped without a warrant but then as they didnt do it right we were able to recovery. With these new decree of the Spanish Government no they they are allowed to do it without a warrant so its going to be its going to introduce more limitations to to our activities because they are going to try to put you in jail for trying to make into practice these political objectives and also they are going to lima tape the movement so that you cannot spread your ideas freely to make this be a strange way an opportunity to mobilize supported and elsewhere the spain because governments which