Assembly of Catalonia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Assembly of Catalonia (Catalan: Assemblea de Catalunya, Spanish: Asamblea de Cataluña) was a unitary body of the anti-Francoist opposition of Catalonia created in November 1971. Its fundamental demands were the demand for democratic freedoms, the general amnesty for political prisoners and the achievement of the statute of autonomy, which were synthesized in the motto of Freedom, Amnesty, Statute of Autonomy. In addition to the political parties—all of them clandestine—forces of various kinds were part of it, such as trade union organizations, professional groups, representatives of the university movement, neighborhood movements, Christian groups, regional assemblies, etc. The objectives of the Assembly were achieved during the democratic transition, especially when the Cortes approved the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia in 1979.
Having managed to survive the harsh repression of the first two decades of the dictatorship, the anti-Francoist opposition resurfaced in 1960. The founding act of the Catalan nationalist resistance is usually considered as the events at the Palau de la Música in Barcelona in May 1960, during which the public attending an event held at the Palau de la Música Catalana presided over by several Franco ministers sang the Cant de la Senyera, which functioned as an alternative anthem to the banned Els Segadors. Jordi Pujol, who was also accused of being the author of the pamphlet Us presentem al general Franco (We present ourselves to general Franco), was arrested, tried and sentenced by a military court to seven years in prison.[1]
In those years the most established opposition party was the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) and the first important political event was La Caputxinada in 1966, named after the Sarrià Caputxins that the police surrounded to proceed to arrest the promoters of the illegal Democratic Union of Students of the University of Barcelona who were gathered there together with a group of intellectuals, who among other things claimed the duty of universities to "welcome national languages and cultures and take responsibility for their development and consolidation".[2]
Creation
As a consequence of the actions undertaken to achieve the freedom of those detained in La Caputxinada, the Taula Rodona was founded, an organization that brought together the entire anti-Francoist opposition and of which the PSUC was also a part, for the first time since the end of the Civil War. This organization was a precedent to the Coordination of Political Forces of Catalonia (Catalan: Coordinadora de Forces Polítiques de Catalunya), founded in 1969 and constituted by the National Front of Catalonia, the Socialist Movement of Catalonia, the Democratic Union of Catalonia and the PSUC. In its founding manifesto, the Coordination demanded amnesty and political and union freedoms, as well as the reestablishment of the Statute of Autonomy of 1932 and the convocation of a constituent Cortes, as a prior step to the recognition of the right of self-determination that was to be extended to all the peoples of the Spanish state. With the founding of this unitary body of the entire opposition and the presentation of a joint program "Catalan anti-Francoism [was] at the head of the Spanish opposition".[2]
As a means of protest against the Burgos military tribunals, the Coordination organized in December 1970 an Assembly of Intellectuals held in the Monastery of Montserrat, that led to the formation in November of the following year of the Assembly of Catalonia. In addition to the Coordination's parties, the Socialist Party of National Liberation- a split from the National Front of Catalonia -, the PSOE, the Workers' Commissions and UGT trade unions, as well as various professional and social groups, as well as legal entities and independent people, were integrated into it.[3]
