"Here we are, stubbornly on our feet." To quote the lyrics of Lluís Llach, unusually absent from the event on Saturday after a bout of flu, the independence movement has once again shown itself to be in excellent health. Some 200,000 people, according to Barcelona's Guardia Urbana, and 500,000, according to the organizers, returned en masse to the streets after several months absence, at the end of the first week of the Catalan independence trial, behind a slogan that said, in English, "Self-determination is not a crime" and demanding freedom for the political prisoners.
To these two official slogans, the protesters repeatedly added a third message, that of unity, as a critical reaction to the constant differences among political parties and civic organizations. Perhaps they were also reacting to the surprising coolness of the parties in the lead up to this rally, whose burden was shouldered to a large extent by the pro-independence civil groups, Òmnium Cultural and the Catalan National Assembly (ANC).
The robustness and enormous mobilization capacity of the independence movement are even more significant if we compare this rally, for example, to the 45,000 protesters who made it to Madrid's Plaza de Colón a week previously to protest against the dialogue with Catalonia. "Separatist forces show their strength," said the story on the Barcelona mobilization in The New York Times, the planet's global newspaper - genuinely global, not like another that claims to be so on its front page and yet is increasingly local.
With the rally this Saturday, the independence movement's new mobilization cycle begins, coinciding with the trial in the Supreme Court. This Thursday the 21st, a general strike has been called, and in a month's time on Saturday, March 16th, a demonstration in Madrid. These two days are a big challenge for Catalan independence, for different reasons. There are good reasons for both actions, but the task is major. In the case of Madrid, it will also be historical, since it is the first time that the independence movement has proposed it. In any case, the independence movement never ceases to surprise when it comes to mobilizations and we must keep a close watch on this new opportunity.