Thursday Feb 6, 7:30pm
Effra Social, Brixton
89 Effra Road
London SW2 1DF
(More dates TBA, including Edinburgh with the Radical Independence Campaign on Wednesday Feb 26)
In the first Reel News night of the year, we’re very pleased to present the premiere of our new film on the struggle for the right to self-determination in Catalonia: “Catalonia is Anti-Fascist”.
Reel News spent two weeks in Barcelona last autumn in the wake of an explosion of protests over the draconian prison sentences handed down to Catalan politicians and civil society leaders. What we found was a very young, very angry movement that has radicalised dramatically since the astonishing scenes around the referendum for independence two years ago – with the anger being directed as much at the Catalan government as it is at the Spanish state.
The 40 minute film shows the occupation of Barcelona airport by 20,000 people immediately after the sentences, an unprecedented general strike called by just two small rank and file unions supported by 1.5 million people in Barcelona alone, and continued daily protests by a people who, with their entire government either jailed or exiled and with violent repression of peaceful protests, see no alternative but direct action and civil disobedoence.
As the huge protests are savagely attacked by both Spanish and Catalan police, youth and student activists explain their fury at the brutal oppression, the more than 30 young people who are now political prisoners for daring to protest peacefully – but also their fury at a lack of a future under a Catalan government that has made savage austerity cuts, is not confronting the threat of climate change, and is paralysed in the face of the oppression of the Spanish state.
With around 80% of the Catalan population supporting the right to decide on their future, increasing numbers of people are now seeing independence as a chance to break from a Spanish regime that never fully broke from its fascist past, break with Catalan politicians who have never served working-class interests and create a socialist, feminist, environmental, anti-fascist republic of Catalonia.
In a world where the extreme right are on the rise in many countries, Catalonia is a beacon of light that points to a real alternative – and desperately needs your support.
Film starts at 7:30pm with discussion afterwards – how can we build solidarity with the Catalan struggle here, and what can we learn from a movement that can mobilise over a million of its 7.5 million population on a regular basis?
All in our normal informal atmosphere with drinks, music and chat – and of course the whole night is FREE.
