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Postfascism in Spain: the Struggle for Catalonia

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Postfascism in Spain: the Struggle for Catalonia Critical Sociology Postfascism in Spain: the struggle for Catalonia Journal: Critical Sociology Manuscript ID CRS-19-0036.R2 Manuscript Type: Article Postfascism, Political repression, Far-right, Democracy, State power, Keywords: Catalonia, Spain Please choose from the following the areas that best Social Movements, State reflect the general topic of your submission:: Please choose from the following geographical areas Western Europe, US and Canada that reflect the area of your study:: The thousands of Spanish National Police and Guardia Civil sent to Barcelona in order to prevent the referendum legislated by the Catalonian Parliament on the 6th and 7th September 2017 raised major questions about the fragility of Spanish democracy. The subsequent display of police violence on 1st October, and the imprisonment and criminalization of political opponents for the archaic offences of ‘rebellion’ and ‘sedition’ looked even less ‘democratic’. Indeed, those events in Catalonia constitute a remarkable moment in recent European history. This paper uses the literature on ‘post-fascism’ (developed in this journal and elsewhere) to analyse this remarkable moment and develop its social connections to the parallel re-emergence of fascist violence on Abstract: the streets and the appearance of fascist symbolism in mainstream politics in Spain. The literature on post-fascism identifies contemporary fascism as a specifically cultural phenomenon, but generally fails to identify how the conditions which sustain the far-right originate inside the state. In order to capture this historical turn more concretely as a process in which state institutions and processes of state craft are intimately involved, we argue that the Spanish state is postfascist. The paper offers a brief critique of the way the concept of post-fascism has been deployed, and, through an empirical reading of the historical development of Spanish state institutions, it proposes a modified frame that can be used to understand the situation in Catalonia. For Peer Review Page 1 of 18 Critical Sociology 1 2 3 Postfascism in Spain: the struggle for Catalonia 4 5 6 Ignasi Bernat, University of Girona, Girona, Catalunya, ES 7 David Whyte, University of Liverpool, UK 8 9 10 Abstract 11 12 The thousands of Spanish National Police and Guardia Civil sent to Barcelona in order to 13 14 prevent the referendum legislated by the Catalonian Parliament on the 6th and 7th September 15 2017 raised major questions about the fragility of Spanish democracy. The subsequent display 16 of police violence on 1st October, and the imprisonment and criminalization of political 17 opponents for the archaic offences of ‘rebellion’ and ‘sedition’ looked even less ‘democratic’. 18 Indeed, those events in Catalonia constitute a remarkable moment in recent European history. 19 This paper uses the literature on ‘post-fascism’ (developed in this journal and elsewhere) to 20 21 analyse this remarkable moment and develop its social connections to the parallel re-emergence 22 of fascist violence on the streets and the appearance of fascist symbolism in mainstream politics 23 in Spain. The literature on post-fascism identifies contemporary fascism as a specifically 24 cultural phenomenon, but generally fails to identify how the conditions which sustain the far- 25 right originate inside the state. In order to capture this historical turn more concretely as a 26 process in which state institutions and processes of state craft are intimately involved, we argue 27 that the Spanish state is postfascist. The paper offers a brief critique of the way the concept of 28 29 post-fascism has been deployed, and, through an empirical reading of the historical 30 development of Spanish state institutions, it proposes a modified frame that can be used to 31 understand the situation in Catalonia. 32 33 Keywords 34 35 Postfascism, political repression, far-right, democracy, state power, Catalonia, Spain. 36 37 38 Introduction: A Scene from Spain’s Dark Past? 39 40 In the weeks running up to the independence referendum on the 1st of October 2017, 41 spontaneous demonstrations broke out across Catalonia. The people on those demonstrations 42 chanted anti-fascist slogans "No Pasaran" and "We are not afraid", alongside well known anti- 43 44 Francoist resistance songs. It seemed to outsiders as if the crowds were using a misplaced 45 nostalgia: surely they weren’t comparing the struggle for Catalan independence with the 46 struggle against fascism in the Spanish civil war? Yet in the aftermath of the referendum, a 47 number of visible instances of state violence and clear manifestations of far-right violence 48 made it seem as if there might be a material connection to be made between the darkest days 49 of Franco and the present moment in Spanish politics. 50 51 52 Garrisons of Spanish National Police and Guardia Civil (estimated at a total of 10-12,000) were 53 sent to Barcelona after the Catalonian Parliament had passed two laws on the 6th and 7th 54 September (one to confirm the referendum and the other to make the result binding). The 55 subsequent violent scenes of the Guardia Civil and the Spanish Police beating, dragging and 56 shooting plastic bullets at voters on the 1st October provoked many to ask if this was a return 57 of the darkest days of Franco’s Spain. In this context the words of Pablo Casado (who is now 58 President of the conservative Partido Popular (PP) but was then Deputy) in the days following 59 60 the referendum contained a remarkable threat: “if Puigdemont declares independence from 1 For Peer Review Critical Sociology Page 2 of 18 1 2 3 Spain, he may end up like Companys.” Casado backtracked quickly, saying he was ‘only’ 4 threatening to jail the President. But the symbolism of this statement is powerful. Companys 5 6 was the Catalan President who was executed by Franco in 1940. 7 8 The referendum and its aftermath has brought to the surface some apparent examples of the 9 residual Francoism and fascism in the police and the military. There have been a number of 10 publicised cases of police officers displaying Francoist symbols, and even giving the fascist 11 salute in public. At the end of July 2018, a group of 180 retired Spanish army personnel signed 12 a Manifesto demanding an end to attacks on “Franco and its legacy” in the midst of the debate 13 14 about whether it was appropriate that he was still lying in state at the monument of Valle de 15 los Caídos. Although such cases are anecdotal and do not tell us anything definitive about the 16 general character of the Spanish army, the national police or the Guardia Civil, the frequency 17 and intensity of such incidents does raise questions about the presence of fascist sentiments 18 and allegiances deep inside in the military and the police. 19 20 21 On the streets, there has been an ongoing series of cases in which fascists have attacked pro- 22 independence supporters, or even simply people that are assumed to be Catalan. Thugs 23 claiming the mantle of Franco’s Falange party – the heirs of Franco’s one-party state who have 24 barely been seen in public for 40 years – marched in Zaragoza on the day of the Catalan 25 referendum. In Barcelona, Spanish unionist marches have been followed by violent attacks 26 against journalists, migrants, and left political activists. It has been reported that between 8th 27 September and 11th December there were 86 recorded incidents of physical violence by Spanish 28 29 nationalists in Catalonia (Borràs, 2018). 30 31 The struggle of independence in Catalonia and the repression unleashed in the wake of the 32 referendum has apparently given some momentum to the far right, and even to the resurgence 33 of a residual pro-Franco sentiment. This residual sentiment is beginning to emerge in 34 mainstream politics, most clearly in the success of the fascist VOX party in Andalusia. VOX 35 is an explicitly Francoist political party, indeed, the first to emerge since Franco’s Falange 36 37 Party. The regional elections in Andalusia in 2018 left VOX in a strong enough position to 38 enter a power sharing deal with the PP and populist right wing party Ciudadanos. The most 39 prominent of the manifesto promises made by VOX was the abolition of Catalan autonomy 40 (the party has regularly held demonstrations ‘against Catalonia’). VOX also promised the 41 repeal of laws tackling gender violence and laws that recognise the status of the victims of 42 Franco, along with the mass deportation of all non-regularised migrants. 43 44 45 How do we explain such a rapid re-emergence of open acts of fascist violence and the apparent 46 mainstreaming of Francoism in politics? The next section of the paper refers to a growing 47 literature which tries to explain the rise of the far right, particularly in Europe, but also in North 48 America, as a ‘post-fascist’ phenomenon. This paper will argue that those analyses that 49 generally seek to distinguish the European fascism of the 1930s and 40s from the contemporary 50 far right are missing one crucial focus of analysis: the state. Recent work on ‘post-fascism’ 51 52 identifies contemporary fascism as a specifically cultural and political phenomenon, but fails 53 to identify that the conditions which sustain the far-right originate inside the state. In order to 54 capture this historical turn more subtlely, we argue that the Spanish state is postfascist. It is our 55 understanding of how this concept can be applied that the next section of the paper develops. 56 In the following section of the paper we offer a brief critique of the way the concept of post- 57 fascism has been deployed, and propose a modified frame that can be used to understand the 58 situation in Catalonia.
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