With the month of September just around the corner and the new political term already underway, preparations are intensifying for the Catalan pro-independence rally on September 11th, the tenth successive year when crowds that have often brought together a million Catalans have filled the streets on the national day or Diada to express their call for a sovereign Catalan state and a referendum to allow the majority will to prevail. This Monday, the Catalan National Assembly has released a promotional video for this year's demonstration, which, like most years, will be held on the streets of Barcelona. The voiceover makes an explicit appeal to people from all over Catalonia: "People from all around, from the city, from the country, retired people, young people, people who have been activists for decades, people who have never protested", an appeal to the heterogeneity of the pro-independence movement to come to the Diada demonstration on the afternoon of Sunday, September 11th.
The video voiceover also recalls some of the feats that one of the largest protest movements in Europe has achieved in the last ten years during the struggle for independence: "We created a human chain more than 400 kilometres long, there have been millions of us chanting together. We voted and we won." The last phrase, of course, is a reference to the referendum of October 1st, 2017, repressed by the Spanish state. For all these reasons, the protest platform considers that on this September 11th, the time has come to take "a step forward" for the independence of Catalonia, a slogan accompanied by the hashtag #TornemhiPerVèncer - (Let's go back again to win).
In the video, published this Monday 29th, with less than two weeks left until the Diada, the diversity of a movement that has always reached across many social barriers is shown: there are girls playing on a swing, a young couple on a terrace drinking beer, older people, athletes, yellow ribbons, tractors and kisses. Everything has a place in the September 11th demonstration, which this year will follow a route across the lower part of the Catalan capital. It will start at the symbolic hour of 17:14 hours, from Plaça Espanya. From there, the demonstrators will go down Paral·lel to the Columbus statue at the end of the Rambla, to then continue along the waterfront and via Avinguda Marquès de l'Argentera to the Estació de França. Outside the train station, the political speeches of the mobilization will take place.
The Diada concerts
Another of the regular Diada highlights is the Festa per la Libertat, organized every year by Òmnium Cultural in Passeig Lluís Companys. In this case, it will take place throughout the day on Sunday, from 10.30am until nightfall. Thus, musical performances will take place both before and after the ANC demonstration and the stage just inland from the Parc de la Ciutadel·la will be the cultural epicentre of the Diada. There will be three major performances starting 6:30pm: Els Pets, Roba Estesa and Lil Dami.