This polychromatic fascism
“The entire basement was a terrifying expanse of dead men, and examining them all, one by one, was a harsh test of my endurance. The thought of finding Planes there troubled me more than the thought of not finding him. He was there, however, and before recognizing the person, I identified a navy blue suit with white pinstripes, which I had seen him wear many times. He also wore an unmistakable sky-blue shirt. I leaned over him until my face was level with his, and there was no longer any hesitation, despite an unknown grimace of terror that had remained frozen on his lips”.
Only Avel·lí Artís Gener (Tísner) could identify the body of his friend, the journalist Josep Maria Planes: murdered with seven shots to the head by a FAI squad in the assault on August 24, 1936. Planes and Tísner investigated the murder of Miquel and Josep Badia on April 28, 1936, at the hands of FAI gunmen. In response to the reports they published, they were threatened by Solidaridad Obrera: “In this situation it is not surprising that there are those in Barcelona who are willing to FORCE THE VILLAINOUS CALUMNIATORS TO BE SILENCED”. And bang, bang, bang. Planes shot and Tísner in exile.
The murder of the Badia brothers silenced Catalonia (90 years ago now, and the Reeixida Foundation is holding events to request their recognition). It was not possible. Two young men from Torregrossa, from humble backgrounds, came to Barcelona. In 1922, they believed in Francesc Macià's Estat Català. Prison and repression. After the amnesty, Miquel became head of the Youth of Esquerra Republicana-Estat Català in 1931. In 1934, head of Public Order of the Generalitat. Exile due to the October Events. Josep always by his side. They return and in 1936 they are murdered. They are murdered by a fascism that announces the other fascism that will arrive in July. Eugeni Xammar – a journalist of extraterrestrial lucidity – writes in May 1936: “Who are the murderers of the Badia brothers? The anarchists and the fascists”. Pantone fascism, polychromatic, iridescent. The fascism of all colors against one color.
Catalonia, the Catalans, murdered by some and by others. Why are we always killed? But it is more deadly. Why do they kill us and tell us they haven't killed us? Why are some deaths worth more than others? Why are there dead in our cemeteries who are less dead than other dead?
In Montjuïc, in Plaça de la Fe, there is an exact, precise, real triangle. The tomb of Francesc Macià, that of Manuel Carrasco i Formiguera, and that of the Badia brothers. The Badia brothers murdered by the fascism of the FAI. Carrasco threatened with death by the FAI in 1936 and later murdered by Francoist fascism in 1938. But today the Badia brothers, Carrasco, and Macià are called fascists by the polychromatic fascists of all time. Like Joan Sales, who risked everything, and wrote in 1937: “One begins to suspect that one is a patriot everywhere in the world except in Catalonia; this alone would explain why we have been going backwards for four centuries. With our universalist ideas, we are increasingly pushing ourselves into a sad dead end; despised by all others, who must take us for an alien people since we do not remember our pasts”.
The cleaning machine is total. Whether you are dead or alive. Because the murderers of the body and spirit are also gravediggers for hire and hatred. 90 years later, we stop polychromatic fascism. They are coming for you. Why? Because it is you.