Catalonia activists keep up pressure

BARCELONA, Spain — There are no membership fees, no roll calls, no official leaders and no headquarters. Attending the weekly meetings is optional.

They are loosely organized groups of neighborhood activists known as defense committees, and they have taken a key role in Catalonia’s independence movement after its political leadership was jailed or fled the country.

Ever since Spain’s crackdown on an unauthorized referendum on secession in October, hundreds of self-proclaimed Committees for the Defense of the Republic are waging a campaign of economic disruption, blocking roads and highways and temporarily seizing toll booths in defiance of the Spanish government.

Though the activists say they are nonviolent, Spain sees their activities in a different light. A female activist was arrested this week on suspicion of terrorism while six other people were detained for public disturbances in connection with pro-independence protests in January.

The defense committees include people of all ages and walks of life. Josep, a 56-year-old economist who declined to give his last name for fear of being arrested, attended an assembly by the defense committee in his Barcelona neighborhood for the first time last week.

“Only good intentions, nonviolent marches and yellow ribbons haven’t been enough,” he said, referring to the ribbons that many pro-independence activists wear in support of jailed Catalan leaders they regard as political prisoners.

The defense committees were created last year in around 60 towns across Catalonia. Originally named Committees for the Defense of the Referendum, their primary goal was to safeguard voting centers where the banned independence referendum was held on Oct. 1.

Today, members say there is a network of over 300 committees. Many have their own unique logos and separate profile pages on social media platforms, which they use to gather people to their protests.

Some rural committees have just four people, while others in Barcelona draw over 200 participants to their assemblies.

The Spanish government views such actions as sabotage against the state. Interior minister Juan Ignacio Zoido has described the committees as “organized cells capable of causing damage, disturbances and of breaking normality.”