Treacherous Spanish Marxists promote destabilization of España

Three Marxists devoted to the break-up of España: Podemos
leader Iglesias, Catalan separatist Junqueras, and
self-professed Marxist billionaire Roures

by Sean Jobst
7 November 2017

On 26 August, an important dinner-meeting was held at the Barcelona home of the self-professed Marxist billionaire Jaume Roures, at a conclave sponsored by Catalan separatist businessman Oriol Soler. The guests of honor included Catalan leftist historian Xavier Domènech, Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias, and Catalan separatist and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) leader Oriol Junqueras. The order of business: Formulate joint strategies for the break-up of España, not only in Catalonia but nationwide.

Photos were leaked to El Confidencial of Iglesias and Junqueras arriving at the meeting. Their strategy was to create a new "Popular Front" between Podemos, ERC, Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE), and separatist groups. Iglesias and Junqueras discussed close cooperation between Podemos and ERC, with Iglesias being so devoted to separatism he sold out the regional branch of his own party, in preference for direct deals with the ERC. If we examine the activities of each of these individuals, we reveal their motives and how deep is this effort to destabilize the nation.



Roures is managing partner of the Barcelona-based media conglomerate Mediapro, with several TV networks and newspapers under his control. He is best known outside Spain as producer of several Woody Allen films set in Europe; he attempted to turn an art school that was used by Picasso into a museum dedicated to Woody Allen but scrapped the plan after local opposition against this blatant eradication of history. "Unfortunately, Spanish culture prevails in the media," Roures lamented in an interview with the New York Times in 2016.

During the Franco era, Roures was an activist with the underground Trotskyite Liga Comunista Revolucionaria (LCR), which merged with a splinter-group of the Basque armed separatist ETA in 1973. The group consistently supported communist separatist groups in Valencia, Catalonia, and the Basque Country. Representing the transition from economics into Cultural Marxism centered on social issues, LCR was involved in organizing Spain's earliest "Gay Pride" parades. Pablo Iglesias founded Podemos from a splinter of the LCR.

Roures is dedicated to the famous approach of Italian Communist theoretician Antonio Gramsci, that instead of an armed revolution a society can be changed through the culture. He openly admits the goal of his newspapers, "La Sexta" and "Público", to ending what he termed the "regime of 78". This refers to the Constitution that gave unprecedented autonomy to his native Catalonia; two of its seven framers were Catalans, and which was overwhelmingly ratified in Catalonia at a higher percentage than other regions of Spain. Catalan independentistas push a historical myth of an oppressed Catalonia. The facts and privileges of autonomy are an embarrassing thorn in the side of the false narrative promoted by the independentistas.

He has used the pages of Público to promote what he defines as "culture". On 7th Nov. 2009, he printed the entirety of Leon Trotsky's "The Permanent Revolution" in Público as one such "cultural promotion". His film productions include the pro-Putin American director Oliver Stone's 2003 film "Comandante" idolizing Fidel Castro. Roures also produced the documentary "Las colocas de Interior", which aired throughout Catalonia on his three TV networks - TV3, Público TV, and Gol TV. With testimony from Pablo Iglesias and other prominent separatists and communists, the documentary presented a "corrupt and authoritarian" Spain in its "dirty war against Catalan sovereignty". It was clearly designed to manufacture public opinion towards the separatist cause, being aired during the lead-up to the referendum.

Roures is the epitome of the champagne socialist, daydreaming about "the Revolution" while counting the profits from his media empire. "I read 'The Communist Manifesto' and it does not say anywhere that people have to be poor", as he justified it to the New York Times. Roures' Mediapro exploits its rights to broadcast Spanish football and the UEFA Champions' League, by politicizing football through FC Barcelona. The club has long been a focal point of Catalan nationalists, and recently released an official statement supportive of the independentistas. Preferring to stay in the background is Roures' fellow Catalan oligarch Oriol Soler, known for his separatist intrigues and tasked with coordinating their efforts with the Generalitat.




Leader of a "Spanish" national party proudly
holds the Basque separatist flag

The specter of any manifestation of Spanish nationalism is an obsession of Iglesias, even while he actively promotes the nationalism of regions. He has recently led demonstrations in Madrid in coordination with Basque, Catalan, and Valencian separatist groups. He is so eager with the Catalan independence prospect that he rushed again to Barcelona on the eve of the referendum, to express his solidarity with the independentistas. In the Andalusian city of Málaga, the Podemos "cultural center" of La Casa Invisible portrayed a Spanish flag as a hanging noose, while the North Korean flag continued to fly unhindered above. This was their statement against the "repression" of Spain against Catalonia, while simultaneously extolling the "freedom" of their Communist paradise of North Korea.




Podemos' Casa Invisible en Málaga

Iglesias speaks constantly about "political prisoners in Spain", while not saying a word about political prisoners living under regimes he praises, including Venezuela and North Korea. Indeed, he hosts a show called "Fort Apache" on HispanTV, a Spanish-language news station operated by IRIB, Iran's state-owned public broadcasting corporation, and with links to other state-owned networks such as RT and teleSUR. All of these stations have been actively promoting Catalan separatists and presenting Spanish unionists as "fascists" and exaggerating the Spanish police "repression", which is laughable considering the situation in those countries. One can only conclude that Iglesias bases his loyalty on the money he gets from foreign regimes, while blatantly supporting every cause meant to weaken anything patriotic or traditionalist in Spain.

Despite his own paychecks from TV networks owned by foreign governments, at a press conference in Brussels on 9 Sept. 2014 Iglesias dismissed Spain as "not independent of NATO" due to its policy against the Russian annexation of Crimea. "We must not forget that the European Union favored an illegal transfer of power in Ukraine and the entry of a neo-Nazi party into the Government of Ukraine," said the Kremlin mouthpiece Iglesias. His faithful towing of the Russian line didn't go unnoticed by the Kremlin: "Russian leader Vladimir Putin has invited the Spanish leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, to meet in Moscow as part of a strategy to gather support from European alternative social movements after his recent meeting in St. Petersburg with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras," according to a June 2015 report by mil21.es. "Putin seeks in Iglesias and Tsipras two 'holds' with which to try to weaken the Euro-Atlantic offensive against Russia."

Yarmulke-wearing Iglesias at Wailing Wall in Jerusalem,
an obligatory ritual for any opportunist politician


Iglesias' predilection for opportunism can be seen in his photo-op of wearing a yarmulke at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, despite his party's lip service to the Palestinian cause. His partner at the Roures meeting was Republican Left of Catalonia leader Oriol Junqueras, former vice-president of the Generalitat. Junqueras met Oren Bar-El, minister of political affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Madrid, on 26 April 2012, in a meeting described as "intense" and "positive" by the Catalan Nació Digital. This was only one out of the many Israeli links to Catalan separatist leaders. Junqueras stood alongside Puigdemont at the Catalan declaration of independence.

Junqueras' ERC is the same party cited by Salafist imam Abdelwahab Houzi in his speech calling for the "Islamization" of Catalonia. His party has actively promoted mass-immigration, perhaps to change its declining fortunes, while rejecting Catalans' relationship to other Spaniards. On 27 August 2008, Junqueras wrote a column for Catalan nationalist newspaper Avuí wherein he fantasized about their genetic distinctiveness: "In particular, the Catalans have more genetic proximity with French than with the Spaniards, more with the Italians than with the Portuguese, and a little with the Swiss; while the Spaniards have more proximity with the Portuguese than to the Catalans and very little with the French."

Iglesias with the Qatari Ambassador to Spain

Its indeed strange that an admitted Marxist would engage in such fantastic racial theories, obsessed at separating from Spain, and even stranger that same party actively promotes the demographic change in its own region so long as the migrants will speak Catalan and vote for the ERC, unlike the Spaniards who move from other regions. Its interesting to consider Qatar's funding of a massive mosque project in Barcelona, with Pablo Iglesias' own meeting with the Qatari Ambassador to Spain, Mohammed Al Kuwari. This project is expected to profit not only the Qatari government but the local Catalan government, which would receive cuts from the contracts. Iglesias has his own questionable financial links, being listed as an "ally" in documents from Soros' Open Society European Policy Institute, with such "Open Society" networks funding Catalan separatist think-tanks.

Andalusian separatist leaders Pedro Altamirano and
Salvador Urbano meeting with Junqueras in Barcelona

Following the same pattern is an upstart separatist movement in Andalusia, led by poet and playwright Pedro Ignacio Altamirano. Centered in Málaga, he has admitted contact with Podemos,  and has posted a picture with Junqueras on his Twitter. In fact, he declared the establishment of the Andalusian National Assembly (ANA) while a guest of the ERC in Barcelona. Like Roures, he is a figure in the cultural realm with a Marxist activist background and political ambitions. "If Catalonia leaves, we'll be the next to follow suit," Altamirano declared at a presentation in Barcelona on 18 May 2017. This Twitter revolutionary who revels in media attention given to him as aspiring leader of his own state, says that ANA will declare Andalusia's independence "on social media" on 4th December.

These separatist movements promote a historical myth, and in the ANA's case it is the oft-promoted liberal myth of a Moorish convivencia at odds with an España they view with contempt. Altamirano has praised Málaga as "the City of Paradise" under the Moors. He rewrites history by lamenting the Reconquista as the "expulsion of Andalusians", about whom he fantastically claims "are a very old people, 3,500 years-old", as he told Russia Today. "In the toughest period of the Franco regime, I was meeting with Jews and Muslims," Altamirano boasted in an interview with a Catalan website. "The great Andalus has always aspired to recover the independence of the Caliphate. In terms of today, we are not talking about a Muslim Andalusia, but it does recover that."

Andalusian separatists meet with Russian parliamentarians in
occupied Crimea. Altamirano is fourth from the left

Like their separatist counterparts in Barcelona, the ANA project their own imperialism against an España that "oppresses" them from Madrid. The expansionist Altamirano aspires to lead more than the province of Andalusia: "We claim Murcia, the Portuguese Algarve and the Rif of Morocco. All this is Andalusia. This is our Andalusia." Another phony "separatist" movement not sincere about devolution, but aspiring to central control over its own expanding state. Like the Catalan separatists and the Italian Lega Nord, the ANA is headed by privileged, wealthy elites who propagandize by peddling ahistorical fictions on social media and promoted by media outlets linked to a foreign power.

The Ukrainians are right to warn about "an element of Russia's hybrid war" when a delegation of Altamirano and other Andalusian separatists visited Russian-occupied Crimea on 10 April 2017. They met with Russian parliamentarians in Simferopol, with the stated objective to establish contacts with businessmen who operate with impunity under the Russian occupiers. In his social media networks, Altamirano boasted at his "treatment at the level of Head of State" by the Russians. Much like the disproportionate media attention it gave to Lega Nord and Catalan separatists, Russia Today highlighted the delegation for a special program on "the Andalusian and Catalan policy", wherein Altamirano stressed "future ways of international collaboration between both parties and between Crimea and Andalusia." Altamirano and his sidekick, Salvador Garcia Urbano, told the Kremlin network that the sanctions against Russia have "damaged our country Andalusia", invoking the same business concerns as the Lega Nord elitists: "It's excellent what we have seen in terms of investment and the future of Crimea after its integration with Russia." Not one to rest his imagination, Altamirano spoke of Ukraine as "the worst dictatorship" while meeting with representatives of Putin's Russia.

Terra Lliure

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, militants from the ERC's youth wing trained with the ETA, as did the armed communist group Terra Lliure, which fought for an independent Catalonia. ERC leaders and other Catalan leftists, such as Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, have lionized these armed militants as heroes. The various separatist groups in Spain have been mostly Communist in ideology and inspiration, as are the current leaders promoting the destabilization of Spain. And behind every "good" communist is the deep pockets of those on whose hand the glove moves their "revolution".

Sigue el dinero

Avigdor Eskin, the Zionist Fanatic behind Duginism

by Sean Jobst
6 November 2017

A hardcore Jewish-Zionist named Avigdor Eskin operates a leading position in the Kabbalist Dugin's Eurasianist networks. This adds another overlap between the Duginist and Zionist programs to destabilize Europe, while advancing the interests of Russia and Israel among certain co-opted "nationalist" and "far-right" movements that form Trojan Horses within our nations.

Eskin is the fanatic who extolled Russians and Jews as "the spiritual and messianic people" to a thunderous applause on Russian State TV in 2014. Eskin was born in Moscow in 1960, into an assimilated Jewish family with no connection to Judaism. He had an "awakening" as a youth, rediscovering his Jewishness and converting to Orthodox Judaism. He also became a devoted Zionist, only too eager to make "aliyah" to Israel while still maintaining a "foot in the door" back in Russia.

While still in Moscow, Eskin studied Hebrew under Leo Ginblum, a member of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), the Jewish terrorist group associated with the Kach movement of Brooklyn-born Rabbi Meir Kahane. Eskin was so impressed by Kahane that he translated Kahane's "Never Again" into Russian and upon immigrating to Israel in 1979, he met Kahane and became one of his leading spokesman and associates. Kach is an extremist group that calls for the establishment of a Jewish theocracy within an expansionist Israel, devoted to the Torah and Talmud. Yet, this didn't stop Kahanists from fighting against "anti-Semitism" and opposition to Israel in the U.S. and Europe with a series of terrorist bombings and street attacks, forming a Zionist terror network within our societies.

Eskin served a stint in the Israeli Army in Lebanon and also began working as a journalist for several Russian media in Israel. He travelled to the U.S. on a JDL fundraising trip for Soviet Jewry in the early 1980s. He actively lobbied politicians and was credited as the one who turned Senator Jesse Helms, a conservative then known for his opposition to U.S. foreign aid to Israel, into a staunch Zionist. Eskin made a successful deal with Helms, that he would support Reagan's policies in Central America in exchange for Helms' crucial support for Israel. Eskin admits involvement with some elements in the Iran-Contra Affair.

Dugin and Eskin at a Kabbalistic conference in France

He left the Kach movement over tactical issues, but still maintained a close friendship with Kahane, and a close overlap remains between Eskin's groups and Kach members. It was a shared interest in the Kabbalah that first drew Eskin and Dugin together. "The Russians consider him a very interesting figure. He has good ties in the Kremlin and is considered a distinguished representative of Israeli
society," Dugin told Haaretz about his fellow Kabbalist. Eskin introduced Dugin to several oligarchs who funded the Eurasianist movement from its inception:

"The main benefit to Dugin from the acquaintance, however, was one Mikhail Gagloev, a wealthy South Ossetian banker and friend of Eskin's, who came to sponsor Dugin's various political activities for much of the coming decade. Gagloev's business activities focused on Moscow's army football club, CSKA, and he was a key player in a 'business group' known informally in Moscow circles as the Luzhniki group, after the city's main football stadium where CSKA played. The business front for the group - which included a Ukrainian ex-mobster, Evgeny Giner, and the deputy speaker of Russia's parliament, Alexander Babakov - was a UK Channel Islands-registered company called Bluecastle Enterprises. Gagloev's Tempbank had the distinction of financing all Bluecastle's transactions." (Charles Clover, Black Wind, White Snow: The Rise of Russia's New Nationalism, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015)

Gagloev was both CEO of the Kremlin-linked Tempbank and vice-chairman of Dugin's International Eurasianist Movement (MED). Yevgeny Giner is a Jewish businessman very active in Russian football clubs. In 2012, Putin appointed Babakov as his envoy to Russian organizations abroad, a role which includes subverting countries such as Ukraine, Moldova and the Baltic states through Russian-speaking minorities. Babakov met with two officers from Marine Le Pen's Front National to arrange a loan with a Latvian bank known for its links to the Kremlin. Both Dugin and Eskin have close links with Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Duma's foreign affairs committee and then ambassador to NATO.

Along with his Kach associate Yossi Dayan, Eskin participated in a Kabbalistic ritual called pulsa dinura (lashes of fire), which invoked a "death curse" against Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for the Oslo Accords in 1995. Rabin was assassinated, but after the 30 day period that the "death curse" is supposed to work. In December 1997, Eskin was arrested with Chaim Pakovitch for plotting to throw a pig's head with the Qur'an stuffed in its mouth, into the complex housing the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque. They also planned on placing a pig's head on the tomb of Izzadin Qassam, the Palestinian guerilla fighter who fought the Zionists in the 1930s, and set fire to the offices of the leftist Dor Shalom organization, the Jerusalem Post revealed during their trial for incitement.

After his brief prison sentence, Eskin returned to Russia where Dugin gave him a seat on the newly-founded Eurasia Party in 2001. He continued his Zionist activities within Russia, appearing on a TV program hosted by Vladimir Solovyev, a member of the Russian Jewish Congress whose other prominent members includes the Chabad Rabbi Berel Lazar and oligarch Mikhail Fridman. On the program, Eskin called for the destruction of the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and its replacement by a Jewish Temple, and called Palestinians "the people of Antichrist". An undoubted boon for Dugin's idolization of "chaos" for the sake of chaos and his transcontinental effort at destabilization.

Working alongside Eskin and Dugin are Russian-born, West Bank-based Rabbi Avram Shmulevich, co-leader with Eskin of Be'ad Artzeinu (For Our Land), a fanatical Zionist group that supports an anti-Western, pro-Russian Eurasianist policy for an expansionist Israel. Shmulevich was elected to the leadership of the Eurasian movement at its constituent congress in Moscow on 21 April 2001, an event where he praised the examples of "the ancient Mongol empire and the Khazar kaganate" and where he represented Berel Lazar, Chief Rabbi of Russia and member of the Jewish supremacist Chabad movement. They represent a growing segment of Israeli leaders who advocate the Russian-Israeli alliance, with Eskin promoting the false line of Israel allegedly being "subservient" to the United States rather than AIPAC subverting U.S. foreign policy. This fits in perfectly with the Duginist propaganda that identifies "the West" as the epitome of evil.

Member of the Israeli wing of the Eurasian Youth
Movement tears up Ukrainian flags in Tel Aviv

Towards this end, Eskin is a leader of the Israeli branch of the Eurasian Youth Movement, whose members have held anti-Ukrainian protests where they tear up and desecrate Ukrainian flags while adopting the Dugin/Boris Spiegel/Kremlin line of Ukrainians being "Nazis". From the very beginning of the Maidan Revolution, Eskin called for a Russian invasion of Ukraine and has lobbied the Israeli government for support of the Donbass and Novorussia separatists. According to Haaretz: "Although Eskin is currently persona non grata in the United States (possibly because of his Kach background; ten years ago he was refused entry to the country) he still possesses a certain political power there. Thus he was able to help muster the support of 10 congressmen for his candidate for presidency of Ukraine: Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian candidate who won the election in February. Eskin also appended the signatures of 36 Israeli MKs to letters opposing the glorification of Ukrainian heroes [Stephan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych], who collaborated with the Germans during the Nazi occupation."

Alarmed at the cooperation between Ukrainian and Baltic nationalists, such as at a March 2015 rally in Vilnius that brought together thousands of nationalists from countries targeted by the Kremlin, Eskin has referred to "European thugs" forming a "Neo-Nazi international". He is a frequent guest on Russia Today, whether its slandering "Neo-Banderists" in Ukraine or guilt-tripping Poles for their history of "anti-Semitism". Banned from the Republic of Georgia for his subversive activities, Eskin is nevertheless a frequent guest in both Armenia and Azerbajan, where he plays off those two countries' hostility towards each other for the benefit of Duginite-Zionist destabilization. The two causes are linked, as Eskin's Knesset friends sent a letter to the European Parliament, against the "anti-Semitism and Russophobia" among "the Nazi trend" in Ukraine. And not surprising given the role of both Israeli and Russian interests in Catalonia, Eskin has also expressed support for Catalan separatists in their destabilization efforts against Spain.

Eskin is a leading figure in the outreach of right-wing Zionist Jews to American alt-right and certain nationalist movement in Western Europe, turning them into useful "goyim" in their own civil war against the more leftist, liberal Zionist Jews. Like Dugin, Eskin misdirects all their attention away from Jewish dominance and towards "Globalists" instead, downplaying the Jewish role in the media and banking system or the power of Israel's lobbies. One Alt-Right linked publication known for its watering-down of the J.Q. gave a glowing interview of Eskin as "a fascinating figure".

It should be clear to any true European nationalist that such right-wing Zionists are not our allies. Eskin is a perfect example of why, because not satisfied with just living in Israel he actively promotes subversive activities in our midst. He slanders our nationalist brothers in Ukraine and the Baltic states, promoting secession whenever it serves Israel and Russia's interests, and he promotes the breakup of European countries such as Spain, parroting the same claims made on Kremlin media outlets and even on Marxist outlets sympathetic towards Putin. And he constantly guilt-trips entire European nations for "anti-Semitism" and their "Nazi" past. This belies all his ideological claims of an alliance, because what unites all of these trends is a shared hatred of Europa.

Duginist publication calls Russians and Jews "chosen peoples"

Duginist publication calls Russians and Jews "chosen peoples"

by Sean Jobst
1 November 2017

Dugin with his Kahanist Zionist associate, Avigdor Eskin

Go beyond the false claims of "traditionalism" and you find Dugin's works to be an assorted mishmash of using and distorting any ideas that can be manipulated towards "chaos"; demoralizing Europa towards his imperialistic vision of "Eurasia". Yet there is a distinctly Jewish inspiration behind Duginism. In 2002, Dugin's AGRAF publishing house published Evrei i Evraziia (The Jews and Eurasia), a collection of writings by the self-proclaimed Jewish Eurasianist of the 1920s and '30s, Yakov Bromberg, and Dugin's modern Zionist associate, Avigdor Eskin. Excerpts from the compilation were published on an Israeli Eurasianist website and are cited throughout this article.

The volume was part of an effort to strengthen ties between the Eurasianist movement and Chabad and far-right-wing Zionist movements, approvingly quoting one of Bromberg's contemporaries (Lev Karsavin, who greeted the Soviet regime) about the "primordial tie between the Jewish people and Russia". Dugin has praised the predominant Jewish role in Bolshevism as representing a continued  "positive" Jewry, that can now contribute to "the general struggle against Western culture" and to the founding of the "Great Eurasian Empire". He extolled "messianic national-bolshevism" as "the spiritual union of Jewish and Russian eurasists".

Eurasianist propaganda meme promotes
continuity with Bolshevism, complete with
the Soviet "Victory" monument

Continuing this tradition, Dugin has opened his organizations to a number of Jews beyond their proportion of the Russian population - with Kahanist Avigdor Eskin, MAOF Analytical Group head Vladimir Boukharsky, and leader of the hardline-Zionist Be'ad Artzeinu and Hassidic Rabbi Avram Shmulevich all holding leading positions in the Eurasianist apparatus. Shmulevich maintains links with the Jewish supremacist and messianic Chabad movement, via Putin's Rabbi, Berel Lazar. This is not surprising, given Dugin's interest in Jewish messianism, including the Kabbala and Hasidism, of which Chabad is one branch.

Rabbi Avram Shmulevich

When Eskin in early 2014, "made a presentation on one of the leading Russian TV channels praising both Jews and Russians as the true spiritual and messianic people - the audience responded with a standing ovation", noted the Jerusalem Post at the time. Similarly, with Eurasianism Bromberg envisioned a Jewish revival of "the stream of messianic-eschatological energies that has dried up in our spiritual life" (Bromberg, Evrei i Evraziia, Moscow: AGRAF, 2002, pp. 168-169).

Dugin has posited a similar "messianic mission" for Eurasianist Russians, proposing "our special Russian truth" in an interview with BBC's Newsnight in October 2016. His is not a truly nationalist vision, as shown by his criticism of Russian nationalists throughout his article because they oppose the influence of Jewish oligarchs and messianists in Dugin's movement and Putin's regime, and also since they despise the same Bolsheviks that Dugin extols. He had earlier repudiated the nationalists' idea of an ethno-state, since for him Russia "never made its goal the creation of a mono-ethnic, racially uniform state" (Dugin, The Foundations of Geopolitics, Moscow: Arktogeia, 1997, p. 190).

His Jewish inspiration is evident when he praises Jews for "that vaguely guessed solidarity with another tragic and beautiful people of history, too elected, chosen by God, the Russian people - all this cannot be uprooted from a definite part of hebraism, it is inseparable from its unique destiny". As he expressed earlier in The Foundations of Geopolitics, Russians are "the bearers of a unique civilization", a messianic people who possess "universal, pan-human significance" (p. 189), so they have a duty to recreate a great Eurasian "supra-national empire" where ethnic Russians would occupy "a privileged position" (pp. 251-252).

The Kalergi Plan, advocated by Count Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi in his 1925 book, Practical Idealism, is well-known. So too was his extolling the "purity" of the Jews, who constituted a "spiritual nobility of Europe", while he advocated that all Gentile peoples become one "Eurasian-Negroid" mixture. Less well-known is an interesting quote that finds parallels with Dugin's Eurasianism: "The precursor of the planetary man of the future is the Russian Slavic-Tatar-Finnish mongrel of modern Europe; because he, among all the peoples of Europe, is the race of the typical multi-soul people with a wide ranging, encompassing soul" (Praktischer-Idealismus, Wien/Leipzig: Pan-Europa-Verlag, 1925, p. 23).

In his 1999 article for a Kabbalistic website, Dugin praised the Jewish supremacist concept of "Tikkun Olum" as a resolution between what he termed a conflict between "manifestationism" and "creationism". Tikkum Olum is the concept of "repair of the world", used by Jewish supremacists to refer to the special role of Jews in "bringing light to the nations (goyim)". Dugin has a special affinity towards Kabbalah, with his friend Eskin famously invoking a Kabbalistic "pulsa dinura" (death curse)against Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. The Kabbalah is the common link between various Hassidic streams represented by Shmulevich, the Kahanist/Kachist Eskin, and Chabad. Quite unusual for a non-Jew, Dugin has spoken as a guest at Kabbalistic functions in France:

"While in France, Dugin spoke alongside Jewish Orthodox rabbis who are into Kabbalah teaching and belong either to the Haredi or to the Zionist-religious movement. On January 9, 2011, on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of Guénon's death, the Tikkoun Olam Center, led by Rav Leo Guez from Nice, convened a conference whose main speakers were Dugin; Bouchet; Avigdor Eskin, a militant of the Israeli extreme right Kahana Haï movement; and the renowned Jerusalem Kabbalist, Rav Mordekhai Chriqui. The goal of the meeting was to bring together Jews and Christians who aim at countering modernity." (Jean-Yves Camus, "A Long-Lasting Friendship: Alexander Dugin and the French Radical Right," in Eurasianism and the European Far Right: Reshaping the Europe-Russia Relationship, ed. Marlene Laruelle, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015, p. 89)

Putin and Berel Lazar conferring in front of picture of
Chabad "messiah" Menachem Schneerson

Yakov Bromberg distinguished between two types of Jews, each including a religious and a secular stream. One was "Jewish occidentalism", or an "Atlanticist Jewry" which manifests religiously as Rationalistic and Maimonidic, and in secular form is humanistic, bourgeois-capitalistic, liberal-democratic. The other was "Jewish orientalism", or a "Eurasianist Jewry" that manifests religiously as Hassidic, Kabbalistic and Sabbatean, and in secular form as Marxist, revolutionary, Bolshevik. He praised the latter, while the Eurasianist Mikhail Agursky more explicitly called this latter stream "Jewish national-bolshevism". Dugin sees no contradiction here between religious and secular Jews, stating his affinity towards a "Chasidic-Marxist milieu" (Bromberg, op. cit., p. 280). This fits his assertion elsewhere that Marxism is "tremendously useful and applicable" (Dugin, The Fourth Political Theory, 2012, p. 50).

Following in their Nazbol godfather's footsteps, Duginist agents in the West and most notably the "Alt-Right" cucks such as Richard Spencer toy with the idea of an alliance with the most hardcore, right-wing, fanatical Zionists. Spencer made the case in his 2010 article, "An Alliance With The Jews". This is based on an ignorance of the true nature of Zionism, assuming those Kahanist, Kachist, settler elements are somehow content with Israel and so allegedly desire to leave the West alone. Spencer asks, "Who knows? Israeli nationalists might want to help finance the far Right in Europe and North America. Certainly, if the two camps could grasp that their interests are complimentary, an improbable grand alliance might be in the cards."

Yet, even these most extreme elements in Israel still have no problem with the subversion of U.S. and European policies towards a pro-Israel policy, and the lobbying of its political leaders to serve as the cash-cow and mercenary "goyim" for this "Eretz Yisrael". Nor do these elements cease with their constant guilt-tripping about "the Holocaust" or "anti-Semitism". Many of these elements are part of the same networks involved in the Kremlin's subversion and the Israeli theft of the West's technology and cyber-security known as Operation Talpiot. The cash flow continues into the pockets of the many dual-citizen Russian-Israeli oligarchs that enjoy the confidence of both Netanyahu and Putin.

For all their appeals about "white identity" and a "pan-European imperium", the "Alt-Right" Nazbol cucks such as Richard Spencer and his ilk are lackeys of Israeli-Russian imperialism against Europa and America....in their endless search for shekels and rubles, their tireless devotion to Dugin's (and the Jewish Kabbalists behind him) demoralization against Europa and the Occident, betrays their hallowed words about "identity".

Lega Nord separatists align with Kremlin against Italia and Europa

Lega Nord separatists align with Kremlin against Italia and Europa

by Sean Jobst
28 October 2017

Lega Nord chairman and Putin fanboy Matteo Salvini in Moscow

On their way to meeting with Catalan separatists, a Kremlin-linked delegation led by de-facto South Ossetian "foreign minister" Dimitri Medoev met with separatist leaders in the Italian regions of Lombardy and Veneto, a recent report by Spanish media confirmed. This coincided with referendums in those regions to determine more autonomy from Rome. Anatoly Bibilov, leader of breakaway South Ossetia which split from the Republic of Georgia and is only recognized by Russia, Venezuela and Nicaragua, has affirmed his contacts with Lega Nord, which lobbies for South Ossetia's recognition within the Italian Parliament.

Representing the devolutionist side in the referendum are Liga Veneta and Lega Lombarda, both branches of Lega Nord, the secessionist group that seeks to carve out a new nation called "Padania" out of northern Italy. Pro-secessionist posters in Veneto are being displayed linking their cause to that of Catalan separatists, while Lega Nord leaders have consistently expressed support for Catalan independence since at least 2013. They have condemned Spain for "the worst pages of democracy" in its alleged violent suppression of Catalonia, and Lega Nord has held pro-separatist demonstrations outside the Spanish consulate in Milan.

Lega Nord deputies in Italian Parliament show

solidarity with Catalan separatists

Lega Nord has been deepening its political and economic links with Russia in recent years, with the Kremlin treating it de-facto as a separate entity from Italy. This includes a "cooperation protocol" Lega Nord signed with Putin's United Russia party in Moscow early this March. Lega Nord calls for lifting EU sanctions against Russia following its annexation of Crimea, showing its support with delegations to Crimea. Lega Nord-led regional assemblies have passed pro-Russian resolutions.

Matteo Salvini, Lega Nord chairman, has praised Russia as "an example for all the European nations" for its "open elections". His lavish praise of Putin's Russia is in stark contrast to his contempt for Europe, which he claims "does not exist. It doesn't exist culturally, it doesn't exist politically, it doesn't exist as a currency". This places him firmly as a willing stooge in the Kremlin's destabilization efforts in Europa. In 2016, Dugin and Salvini openly plotted the EU's dismembership for the Eurasianist Katehon think-tank.

Russian oligarch Alexey Komov at Lega Nord’s Congress in 2013

On 22 June 2015, Dugin was guest of honor at a Milan conference on "The Revival of an Empire - Vladimir Putin's Russia", presided over by the Lega Nord-linked Lombardy-Russian Cultural Association, whose honorary president is Alexey Komov, close associate of Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev. An associate of Dugin, Malofeev was the employer of Alexander Borodai, self-proclaimed "Prime Minister" of the Russian-sponsored "Donetsk People's Republic" in eastern Ukraine, as well as of its "Defense Minister" Igor Girkin. Girkin is the Russian FSB colonel and Dugin ally who has admitted leading Spetsnaz posing as a Crimean militia that worked to undermine Ukraine.

Another participant at the Milan conference was Lega Nord deputy and foreign relations secretary Claudio D'Amico, whose article supporting a Russian-directed "multipolar world" appears simultaneously on the Duginist Katehon and Geopolitica websites. He regurgitated Kremlin propaganda about Crimea in an interview with Sputnik. He was one of the 26 election "observers" representing various pro-Russian parties throughout Europe, that rubber-stamped the Russian annexation of Crimea on 16 March 2014.

Claudio D’Amico meets Putin

Even while desiring to separate from the Italian nation he holds in contempt, Salvini and Lega Nord have spearheaded a parliamentary "Friends of Putin" movement. Lega Nord leaders have developed close trade and financial links with Russia, which it envisions as the favored trade partner in a separatist "Padania". Salvini has been "a friend of Russia" since the beginning of his career in 2013. "Russia is a western democracy with which I want to pursue dialogue and build peace as well as doing business," he told RT in December 2014.

The Kremlin has treated Salvini like a head of state, preferring him to the Italian government. Salvini received a standing ovation in the Russian Duma during an October 2014 trip to Moscow. Amidst the various world leaders he met with at the ASEM Summit in Milan, Putin met with Salvini. Putin has received warm receptions at rallies in Milan, the city that would be the capital of Lega Nord's Padania. Salvini has also met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, another indication of the Kremlin's embrace of his separatist cause.

Lega Nord affiliates in the different regions have actively wooed Russia as a precursor to undermining the unity of Italia, making foreign policy decisions much like the Catalan separatist regime's Diplocat has been doing against España. The separatist branches in Venice and Liguria have recognized Russia's annexation of Crimea, an obvious contradiction in such separatist movements own push for devolution away from their national entities. In Orwellian doublespeak, Putin has drawn comparisons of Russia gobbling up the Crimea to regionalist movements in Europa that seek to form their own nations - a contradiction that has been obediently repeated in the Kremlin amen-corner's media outlets.

Propaganda is at work in both Catalonia and "Padania". Like their Catalan counterparts, Lega Nord represents a wealthy region that portrays itself as "oppressed" by the rest of the country. Both separatist movements are based on historical myths: Catalonia was never an independent country, always being linked to the Crown of Aragón, while northern Italy was a collection of various dukedoms, principalities and republics before the Italian Risorgimento - never a separate or united region called "Padania". As with Catalonia, there are certain political elites financed and supported by foreign interests and linked to oligarchs, that peddle in such myths to give a legitimacy to what is nothing but a power-grab through Balkanization.

Lombardia-Russia Association, with their map of "Padania"'s
destiny linked with Russia and promoting Dugin's Katehon

The Kremlin's media have been magnifying these separatist movements, linking their causes. For example, interviewing Venetian separatist Stefano Valdegamberi on Catalonia: "The Veneto region and the Veneto people are very close to the Catalan people. We want to recognize that the will of Catalans is the most important thing for the international community. Spain recognizes other countries like Montenegro but they don't accept something similar for themselves. They demonstrated they are not a democratic government." Yet, while passing such judgement on the Spanish and Italian governments they give a free pass to Putin's Russia as some kind of paragon of "democracy". This is part of Putin's double diplomatic game of projecting his own double standards onto España.

Unlike the outright independence push of Catalonia, the Veneto and Lombardy referendums are about autonomy. But its nevertheless understood as a "first step" towards separatism. "Now the right-wing Lega Nord party are calling for a referendum on separating the region of Emilia-Romagna into two sections," a recent report by the Sunday Express stated. "And Lega Nord leader, Matteo Salvini pledged that, if Sunday's votes are successful, there could be more across Italy." Like their counterparts in Barcelona, this makes Lega Nord agents in the Kremlin's demoralization campaign to weaken Europa.

Salafist imam calls for Islamization through Catalan independence

Salafist imam calls for Islamization through Catalan independence

by Sean Jobst

26 October 2017

Underscoring once again the common anti-European agenda of Israel, the Kremlin, and open border Globalists, leading Islamists in Catalonia have revealed their plan to Islamize the region through using the Catalan separatist movement. This adds another component behind the relentless effort to break down and destabilize Spain.

Abdelwahab Houzi is the Moroccan Salafist imam in the city of Lleida. As an Islamist, he openly flouts values and laws of the Spanish "kuffar", setting up a parallel state of Shari'a patrols and Islamic cultural hegemony in the neighborhoods under his guidance. This is even while he courts local politicians, whom he lobbies for special accommodations for his religious sensibilities.

As revealed by a Moroccan eyewitness who videotaped the speech and sent it to Spanish media on condition of anonymity due to the imam's influence, at a meeting in his Lleida Nord mosque on 11 July 2010, Houzi bluntly advocated working through the pro-independence, far-leftist Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) to Islamize the region of Catalonia:

"We must take advantage of the independentistas because they rely on us to get votes, but what they do not know is that when they let us vote we will all vote for the Islamic parties because we do not believe in left and right. This will make us win local councils, and as we begin to accumulate power in the Catalan autonomous region, Islam will begin to be implemented."

There are indeed a rising number of Islamic parties throughout Europe, to advocate for the cultural interests of Muslims in much the same way as Jewish Zionist organizations have successfully lobbied for Jewish interests at the expense of Europeans. Until such a time as they grow in prominence, Islamists advocate alliances with leftist parties, whose Cultural Marxist agenda and shame/guilt complex against their own European identity makes them all-too willing participants.

The Islamist-Separatist alliance is so strong within Catalonia that up to 10,000 Catalans with links to the separatist movement have converted to Islam in recent years. Its estimated that two out of every ten Catalan radicals from the far-left ERC, a party that idolizes the Communist movement strong in Catalonia during the Guerra Civil, are converts to Islam who then "engage in proselytizing, especially among the more radical Catalan nationalists."

These converts join the much-larger "Ummah" that has been firmly established in Catalonia through the pro-migrant open border policy of the independentista regional government. With an estimated 450,000 Muslims out of a total population of 7,5 million - a proportion of 6% - an independent Catalonia would have the third-largest Muslim population in Western Europe, after France and Belgium. In some Catalan towns and cities, such as Salt where Salafists are seeking to build a Saudi-financed mega-mosque that would be one of the largest in Europe, the proportion is as high as 40%.

Both the Spanish National Intelligence Center (CNI) and American diplomatic cables have expressed alarm at the large number of Salafists and Islamists in Catalonia, with a large presence in Tarragona, Salt, Lleida, and no less than five Salafi mosques in Barcelona. ISIS fanatics released a video after the Barcelona terrorist attack, citing the expulsion of 1492 and the Spanish Inquisition much like their Jewish supremacist cousins, who also use that history to guilt-trip Spaniards; bringing up that history to shame the Spanish "goyim" or "kuffar" for their legacy of "anti-Semitism" and "Islamophobia". Many are nostalgic for the time when Jews aided and cooperated with Muslims during the Moorish occupation.

For decades, Catalan separatists have encouraged mass-immigration from Muslim countries such as Morocco and Pakistan, on the understanding they would be more willing to speak Catalan instead of Spanish and to be reliable votes for the independentista parties. They prefer these foreign migrants even to other Spaniards from other regions who have moved to Catalonia. Unscrupulous politicians holding onto a historical myth of a Catalan nation separate from Spain, have sought support among not only Muslims but also Sikhs and other non-European immigrants to split Catalonia from España.

Islamists such as Abdelwahab Houzi mock and ridicule the same leftist and other separatist useful idiots who want to make "good Catalans" out of them, while they defiantly express the supremacy of their faith against even the "kuffar" who accommodate them. The parallel society they have established includes "sharia patrols" that condemn women to death for adultery, threats to burn down the homes of "apostates" who befriend non-Muslims or don't wear hijabs, openly advocating wife-beating, harassment of non-Muslim school-children for eating pork, the death by poisoning of dozens of dogs for being "unclean" animals prohibited by Islam, and demanding bans on dogs in public transportation and other public spaces so as not to "offend Muslims".

The phony "nationalists" who proclaim a Catalonia separate from España, are purely civic nationalists who define Catalans in purely linguistic terms, separate from ethnicity and culture. To the separatists, the ends will justify the means, even if it means a Barcelona mega-mosque financed by the Emir of Qatar, whose minarets will dwarf the iconic Sagrada Familia that now graces Barcelona's skyline. This 2,2 billion Euro project would be the third-largest mosque in the world, after those of Mecca and Medina. The pro-business wing of the independence movement, represented by the likes of Artur Mas and Carles Puigdemont, has also pandered to Muslim voters: "If you support us in the referendum, there will be a mosque."

Myth of an Historical Independent Catalonia

Myth of an Historical Independent Catalonia

by Sean Jobst
24 October 2017

Una región entre muchas

The separatists are promoting a myth of an "independent" Catalonia that never existed. Genuine self-determination movements receive my sympathy, but not phony movements pushed by privileged elites who make up historical myths whilst making common cause with foreign interests. Such is the case with the current Catalan independence movement.

The earliest time there was a "Catalonia" was as part of la Marcha Hispánica (the Spanish March), established by the Franks as a defensive buffer zone in 795 between their Carolingian Kingdom and Moorish-occupied Iberia. But even in this region the population was quite diverse, also including Aragonese, Basques, Visigoths and other non-Catalans.

Under the Franks, the Catalans became culturally close to the Occitans of Southern France. The noble family of Barcelona, the Berenguers, were related to that of Provence. Nevertheless, the region was a part of the Iberian Peninsula in both spirit and reality, joining with other Iberian regions in that la Reconquista. In 1137, Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona, married the Queen of Aragón, Petronilla. Thus was combined the Berenguers with the Jiménez dynasty of Aragón.

Catalonia was thereafter indistinguishable from the Crown of Aragón, which combined the regions of Catalonia, Aragon, Murcia and Valencia. It was this combined Corona de Aragón that expanded into the Mediterranean, conquering the Islas Baleares, Corsica, Sardinia, and southern half of the Italian Peninsula. Even the modern Catalan flag was based on that of Aragón, so doesn't represent some mythological independent Catalonia of the past.

So contrary to their own hypocritical narrative of Catalonia "oppressed" by an "imperialist" Spain, many Catalan nationalists actually look nostalgically to this time when their composite monarchy with Aragón presided over an empire of their own. This includes waxing irredentist dreams about reclaiming "Els Països Catalans". In fact, it was the role of Catalan merchants and the imperial policies of their composite monarchy that led to the growth of the anti-Spanish Leyenda Negra (Black Legend) within Italy, according to the Swedish scholar Sverker Arnoldsson:

"The intervention of Spanish monarchs and their soldiery - their victories and conquest in Sicily, Sardinia, and the Italian Peninsula - is certainly one of the important factors in explanation of the oldest Italian version of the Leyenda Negra. In all this, there is rooted the image of the hidalgo as a rustic, uncultured human type, barbarous and ridiculously ceremonious. Another factor is the competition of Catalan merchants with Italians, as well as Catalan piracy in Greek and Italian waters. Here is the basis for the view of the Catalan as treacherous, avaricious, and unscrupulous. A third factor is the migration of Spanish strumpets to Italy and observation of certain customs in the Aragonese-Neapolitan court; and also, the atmosphere around the Valencian Pope Alexander Borgia. In these things, there is founded the image of the excessively sensual and immoral Spaniard."(Sverker Arnoldsson, The Black Legend: A Study of its Origins, Göteborg, Sweden: Göteborgs Universitets Årsskrift, LXVI, No. 3, 1960, pp. 22-23; quoted in Philip Wayne Powell, Tree of Hate, New York/London: Basic Books, 1971, pp. 40-41)

 

As the empire was later inherited by the united Crowns of Castilla and Aragón which encompassed all of modern España, it would be the policies of the "imperialist" Castilians that changed Italian perceptions of Spaniards, after the negative perceptions arising from a swarm of Catalan merchants that flooded into the Italian Peninsula. We have to know this history to truly challenge the myths of Catalan nationalists, who use Castilla as archetype for their aspersions upon Spanish history - much like they rant against the proverbial "Madrid" nowadays. This is quite ironic, because these merchants were among the historic 300 elite families of Catalonia that include many modern leaders of the Catalan independence movement.

"Until the opening of the sixteenth century, these antagonistic views of Spaniards referred mainly to Catalans, Aragonese, and Valencians, who constituted almost exclusively the Spanish presence in Italy. But after 1500 Castile more and more entered into the Italian scene and during the course of the Cinquecento it became leader of politico-military action in Italy, defender of Italy against Moslems, and, near midcentury, acknowledged leader of Roman Catholicism against the Protestant Revolt. Thus, Italian views of Spaniards, in the main antagonistic, were increasingly fashioned by observance of the Castilian as the 'true' Spanish type." (Philip Wayne Powell, Tree of Hate: Propaganda and Prejudice Affecting United States Relation with the Hispanic World, New York/London: Basic Books, 1971, p. 41)

 

 

The Myth of 1714

Its no surprise that Catalan independence advocates generally date the alleged end of "independent" Catalonia to the abolition of the Corona de Aragón by the Nueva Planta decrees of 1716, following what they date as their "lost" in 1714. An example of this was an article written by six pro-independence Catalans, "Give Catalonia its freedom to vote" (The Independent, 10 October 2014), which drew comparisons with American Revolutionaries of 1776. Calculated to score sympathetic points among Americans, but nevertheless a false comparison.

The truth about the War of the Spanish Succession is far different. When Carlos II died without a male heir in 1700, the Spanish Crown was claimed by the Hapsburgs of Austria through Archduke Charles and the Bourbons of France through Philip of Anjou. The war pitted various European rivals against each other, as well as rival Spanish factions that supported one or the other foreign claimants. Initially, the principality of Catalonia supported the Bourbon side enthusiastically. But after the local merchant families felt threatened by French merchants, they switched allegiance to the Hapsburgs.

Thus, it was a mostly economic event and had nothing to do with asserting an independent Catalonia. The war was not one of Catalans versus the other regions, but rather a political conflict about foreign monarchs succeeding to the Throne of all Spain. In case of victory, the monarch supported by Catalan elites would have assumed the Spanish Throne and not a separate Catalan kingdom. But despite the alleged "lost", the aftermath of the war actually increased the economic fortunes of this Catalan elite.

What About the War of the Reapers?

A historical backdrop to the modern claims of Catalonia being "overburdened" by taxes compared to the rest of Spain, can be found in the burdens of empire itself. Spain inherited the Italian empire of the Aragonese-Catalan composite monarchy, and so too the burdens of that empire more than what was borne by the Catalan merchant elite. "It is sometimes overlooked, too, that Castile bore a greater burden of taxation than the Italians for empire upkeep and defense of Italy against the Moslems. Thus, Spain, as in the case of the New World taxation, bled herself more than her overseas possessions for imperial maintenance" (Powell, op. cit., p. 42).

Despite the Catalan national anthem "Els Segadors" (The Reapers) being based upon it, the Catalan separatists have surprisingly not evoked the War of the Reapers (Guerra dels Segadors) of 1640 as much as citing 1714 as their year of "lost independence". Its my contention this is because that event highlights the same myths about taxes currently used by those separatists. The revolt occurred after Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares and chief minister of Rey Felipe IV, tried to distribute more evently the huge economic and military burden of Empire then supported mainly by the Crown of Castilla. One can see obvious parallels here with current myths of Catalonia being unfairly "taxed" more than any other region of Spain, ignoring the large tax burdens upon Madrid and Basque regions; as well as the fact of Catalonia having more control over its finances than other regions.

Its ironic this chapter of history isn't evoked more, for it led to the establishment of a short-lived Catalan Republic under the auspices of the French in 1641. Why don't the Catalan separatists speak against the historical complicity of their revolutionary heroes in the French occupation of some "Els Països Catalans" and only agitate against España? Successive generations of Catalan nationalists looked to a liberal France for inspiration, even while many of these French revolutionaries centralized the State against even regional languages such as Catalan. Even during the Ancien Régime, Louis XIV in a 1700 decree stated how he found use of Catalan "repugnant" and "offensive" to the honor of a centralized French identity. Modern Catalan nationalists bat not an eyelid about the suppression of their Catalan-speaking brothers across the Pyrenees, while enjoying official and privileged status in their province doesn't prevent their agitation against Spain.

Catalan Independence and the 300 Families

Ironically, given their staged ranting about an "imperialist" Spain "oppressing" Catalonia from Madrid, it was Catalan commercial interests that pushed the most for Spain to cling onto its disintegrating empire throughout the 19th century. This empire was a serious drain upon Spain's economy, while these Catalan merchant interests profited immensely. These are known within Catalonia as the 300 families, which traditionally run the region in conglomerate fashion.

These 300 families have had influence within Catalonia at least as far back as 1311, and genealogists have documented these families still dominate Catalonia. One Spanish blogger has traced their links to political Catalanism and the Generalitat that is currently pushing for independence. Historically, it was these families, such as the well-known Bacardis, involved in the slavery and sugar-trade within the Spanish colonial possessions. Throughout the 19th-century, their clout dictated economic policies of all Spain to the financial ruin and detriment of the masses. These aristocratic merchant families were especially bitter after Spain lost its colonial possessions, seeing it as a challenge to their profits.

Its no coincidence this coincided with the rise of political Catalanism, viewing the Catalans as a special nation separate from the rest of Spain. This manifested in the past to looking towards foreign inspiration - French liberal ideas, and later Communism and an alliance with Soviet Russia. This only increased their sense of "superiority" vis-à-vis the more traditionalist Spain. At least the rank and file, for at the top it was mostly pushed by these pro-business interests. Its no accident each agitation for Catalan independence occurs whenever leaders such as Jordi Pujol, Artur Mas or Carles Puigdemont are being investigated for corruption.

There's clearly more than meets the eye when it comes to the simplistic narrative of "oppressed" Catalonia "milked" by a jealous Spain. History challenges their myths; their own statements and expressions betray an arrogance and sense of "superiority" against other Spaniards. The timing of their independence pushes indicate ulterior, selfish financial motives - no higher ideal except what they can manipulate from a sizable minority (not even a majority, it must be stressed) of the Catalan population....The manipulation of history is a very powerful psycho-political tool.

The two aren't exclusionary, despite the lies of the mythmakers