The majority of Catalan pro-independence groups, whether political parties or civil society organizations, gathered at Barcelona's Plaça Universitat on Monday evening to show their support for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
On the day that the extradition hearing for the Australian activist got underway in London, a number of cities throughout Europe held protest rallies under the slogan "Journalism is not a crime", and Barcelona was among them.
The rally in the Catalan capital, promoted by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), brought about 600 people onto the street, according to Barcelona city police. Represented were the three main pro-independence political parties JxCat, ERC and the CUP, as well as the pro-independence cultural group, Òmnium, and the Catalan National Assembly (ANC).
Political representatives Francesc de Dalmases (JxCat), Albert Botran (CUP) and Eva Baró (ERC ) read a statement that the Catalan Parliament's Parties Committee is set to pass tomorrow with support from the pro-independence parties and the left-wing Commons. The text warns of the "trembling silence" surrounding the Assange case, which puts the WikiLeaks founder in "an international context of defencelessness."
Dalmases also stated that Assange's situation is a "metaphor for the crisis of political values" that much of the world is suffering, "a threat" which also hangs over the Spanish state. He added that "journalism is an essential counterweight" that must be defended.
ANC president Elisenda Paluzie and Òmnium's Xavier Antich then spoke, with Antich framing Assange's case in a "global context of receding rights and freedoms". In the face of this, he said, we "need to stay mobilized." "We have an obligation not to falter and to keep denouncing and unmasking all the retrograde moves."
Paluzie, for her part, recalled that Assange repeatedly showed his support "for the right to self-determination in Catalonia" and the most iconic image of that support was given in a video conference organized by the Universities for the Republic platform, which took place in the Plaça Universitat - the same place where the rally was held today.
Assange asserted in his message, reproduced in Barcelona, that "people all over the West will learn from [Catalonia's] experience" and insisted that "wherever Catalonia goes, other states will follow", as well as asserting that the 1st October referendum was "a turning point in the history of the West".
Paluzie concluded her speech calling for "the right to freedom of the press, the right to freedom of expression and the right to self-determination." The protest finished with chants calling for Assange's release, and the singing of the Catalan national anthem.