ANC gearing up to revive a Diada that's starting at half throttle

With less than a month to go before the Diada —Catalonia’s National Day on September 11—, it is odd to see the headquarters of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) devoid of the traditional hum of volunteers and stacks of boxes in the hallways--- at half throttle. Despite the fact that there is a government in place with a pro-independence mandate for the first time ever, the pulse of the demonstration is the lowest of the past five years. The ANC says that political and organizational reasons explain why so few people have signed up to date for the decentralized rally. The calendar for the preparations has been delayed due to internal affairs of the organization, and the pro-independence roadmap is being redefined. Nevertheless, the ANC believes that it can replicate the attendance success of past editions.

Delayed organization

Efforts focused on the consultation on a unilateral referendum

The ANC began the campaign to mobilize for the Diada later than in previous years, and as of now there are only 50,000 registered participants. "We're running a bit late”, admits Enric Blanes, Manager of Political Communication for the organization. In July their efforts were focused on the internal consultation on a unilateral referendum and the informative work on this topic throughout the nation. "We had to explain well why the RUI (unilateral referendum on independence, in Catalan) is on the political agenda as one of the alternatives. The truth is, we've found a very high level of political maturity", assured the member of the secretariat.

After an busy month of July, the leadership of the ANC did not think it wise to put in a great deal of effort in August, when many Catalans are on vacation. For this reason, it will not be until the last week in August that the machinery of the campaign will be running at full steam. This is not to say, however, that the organization is at a standstill. Last week they rolled out the commemorative T-shirt, which will be on sale as of tomorrow. They also outlined the events of the Diada: a giant "heartbeat" will be simulated simultaneously at the five gathering points --Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida, Berga, and Salt-- to show, in what it considers the final stretch of the process, that the Catalan Republic is about to be born.

Having revealed some more details of the event, the ANC hopes to duplicate the number of registrants in the upcoming days. "We always have a lot of registrations in July, it drops off in August, and kicks in again once the summer vacation is over. This pattern will repeat this year, but in a shorter period of time", predicts Blanes.

More uncertain future

A vague calendar and a unilateral referendum in the air

Beyond the organizational issues, the ANC assumes that the political context in which this Diada will take place is completely different from the four previous editions. "Last year we were coming from a euphoric moment as the starting gun for the campaign for the September 27th elections. And the prior year we had the consultation of November 9th as a priority", explained Blanes. Now, however, we are facing a new political season filled with uncertainty, in which we don't yet know if Junts pel Sí and the CUP will change the roadmap to include the unilateral referendum that the ANC supports. In fact, the two parties disagreed a few weeks ago over the negotiation on the vote of confidence on Carles Puigdemont, President of the Generalitat, and the 2017 budget.

“So far we have had a very dynamic horizon, but now it is completely uncertain", Blanes admitted. All together, the ANC believes that the latest actions by the Spanish government, the suspension by the Constitutional Court of the conclusions of the Constituent Process Study Committee, and the threat of disqualification against Carme Forcadell, Speaker of the Catalan parliament, will eventually encourage citizens to participate—, either to stand behind the final stage of the process or to show their indignation with the court rulings. The government itself has claimed that if Forcadell is disqualified there will have to be a "unified and powerful" response from the people, in the words of spokeswoman Neus Munté. Indeed, aware of the effect that its position could generate, the Spanish Constitutional Court decided to postpone its ruling on the roadmap until —presumably— after the Diada.

A different campaign

Small format informational events to mobilize locally

While campaigns so far have focused especially on the macro element --that is, a country of our own-- this year the ANC is running a campaign that aims to focus on the content of a future Catalan Republic. It is seeking a "local impact for the mobilization". Throughout the summer they have planned low key events to explain the values on which the new country will be built. Other years they have warmed up the engines with small replicas of what would be the grand event of September 11th. The campaign which will kick into gear the last week of August is expected to be "very visible" in the streets and much more present in social networks.

As to the foreign assemblies that promote the independence process among the communities of Catalans who live abroad, on Wednesday the initiative Catalan Week in the World will be unveiled. There will be seven large events over seven days at seven strategic points around the world.

Decentralization

Five simultaneous events to involve the whole nation

Another of the reasons for the low number of registrants, according to the ANC, is that people who want to participate in the Diada do not find it necessary to sign up online in advance. This is especially true this year, as the day will feature decentralized events that will allow for demonstrations closer to home all over Catalonia. The ANC, however, continues to hope that people will sign up, as it will help to improve organization, and also because it is a way of measuring the size of the mobilization. "Although it may not seem so, coordinating five simultaneous scenarios is a big challenge", said the ANC leadership. They are attempting to "keep a rein on" expenses so that they do not multiply by five.

Enric Blanes explained that their choice of a decentralized event means that there are people who believe that it will have less visual impact than in previous years because crowds will not be concentrated in a single point. But he assured that there are others who are happy that the rallies will extent throughout the territory, because the advantage of having a demonstration closer to home is also an opportunity to win over people who until now have not become involved.

Conserve strength

A year in which more responses from the people will be needed

Conscious that the event might not have the same impact as in other years, the ANC is advising that it has to reserve some strength for the coming months in which it assumes that the group will call for more mobilizations to respond to attacks from the Constitutional Court and the Spanish government.