More than 1,300 university and research centre personnel and professionals have signed a manifesto in support of Catalonia's self-determination referendum on 1st October in which, moreover, they also proclaim their "will to vote 'yes'". Those who have signed include scientists, teachers, technicians and administrative workers from all the public and private Catalan universities, as well as others working outside Catalonia: at Harvard, Virginia Tech, CNRS Paris, Linz, Cambridge Polytechnic, Politècnica de València, Salford, Lausanne, Durham, Portsmouth, Tokyo, New York and other centres.
The list also includes researchers at investigative centres, hospitals, laboratories and companies from all over the world.
The manifesto, which is still open for signatures, explains that "the possibility of taking part in the construction of a new state, with a structure that allows us to develop our individual and collective potentialities more satisfactorily, thrills us. If we renounce this, the alternative would be to continue subordinating our lives to the arbitrariness of a state that is for the most part hostile".
We "want to contribute to ensuring that education and science, these great forces for transforming humanity, become fundamental in the construction of the new country", the manifesto states. We "want Catalonia to take a place beside the most scientifically and technological advanced nations, which, through their efforts, help make the world —the whole world— a better place to live".
The manifesto closes with a call "to our fellow citizens" that they should "ignore the threats of those whose only argument is the irrational use of force, and on 1st October, vote 'yes' so that Catalonia becomes an independent republic", with the objective of "constructing a better future for us and our children".