Former leaders of Tsunami prepare imminent actions to reactivate the streets

With the aim of independentism reclaiming the streets, former coordinators of Tsunami Democràtic are organising imminent actions based on disobedience that aim to test the state's control of the territory. Grassroots members of this clandestine organisation explain to ARA that they have decided to take action with a "constant presence in the street" to spur mobilisations after the protests over the sentence of the Independence bid stopped dead in their tracks and the pandemic cooled the movement. According to the same sources, the first action will come in the coming weeks. They are part of the collective Acció per la Independència, which under the mantle of CDRs (Committees for the Defence of the Republic) made themselves known this Sant Jordi with a statement and a massive hanging of banners throughout the territory organised by about twenty groups, all with the same slogan: "Disobedience. The road to independence".

This is the most combative sector of Tsunami, which advocated maintaining the blockade of El Prat Airport and the AP-7 and did not participate in the action in El Clásico in Camp Nou in disagreement with the line the platform was taking: spectators threw balls reading "Sit and talk" to the pitch, which later led to the negotiating table between governments. "The political control sank it, the Tsunami was killed by politics", denounce the promoters of the movement, who criticise that people close to parties and entities then deactivated the protests. "'Sit and talk', why? With what purpose?" they ask.

In fact, Acción per la Independència began to take shape because of the anger of many of the protesters who cut off the motorway at El Pertús mountain pass into France, when the leadership made a call to march home. Tempers were already flaring in this sector because the leadership had also called retreat at the airport despite the fact that the thousands of demonstrators who gathered forced the cancellation of more than a hundred flights. "We have had to go through a process of mourning and come to an agreement on what is really important, but the Tsunami also awakened the conscience of thousands of people and they are still there. It is our capital," remarked the same sources, who intend to revive the street again.

This new organisation, which aims to lift the suspension of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, was constituted in February at a meeting in the vicinity of Perpinyà with the presence of fifty participants, most of them linked to CDRs, who also announced that they have created a new nucleus under the brand CDR-Acció Directa, in a parallel but coinciding movement. They are communicating vessels. The preparation of the meeting starts just after the summer and does not materialise until now because of the pandemic and the repressive context, with more than 200 people appearing in two court cases in Girona and Figueres over the AP-7 roadblocks in November 2019. "The repression forces us to take precautions," report the coordinators of this new platform.

The meeting was not attended by representatives of political parties or pro-independence entities. Scared by the course taken by Tsunami Democràtic, its promoters did not want them to be present, although some individual councillors did attend. "The parties are welcome if they understand that they are as useful and necessary as the people they represent and behave as one more actor", they point out. In fact, after the Sant Jordi action there have been "informal contacts" through intermediaries with formations and entities, which according to the spokespersons of the movement have reacted differently. "Some see it better than others," they admit.

"What has not failed is the street"

Be that as it may, the diagnosis made by those present at the meeting in Rosselló is shared: they consider that parties, entities and repression have demobilised the independence movement and that whoever governs after the elections the scenario will hardly change. For this reason, they advocate taking the initiative and regaining the streets through centralised and decentralised actions. "The control of the territory is an important piece and we are able to do it," they say before declaring: "What has not failed is the street. The other leg of their future actions is insubordination. "Disobedience starts when you dare to say no. We have been bowing our heads for too long and complying with laws that are not ours," they add, while hinting that their debut will be along these lines: "The symbolic struggle is also important." With the experience of previous struggles and after months of preparation, Acció per la Independència hopes to reverse the grassroots' despondency. The first action, they warn, "will not take long"