Arran's manual for boycotting stops by Aliança and Vox

BarcelonaThe Arran of Les Corts branch last January protested the destruction of an Aliança Catalana tent in Plaça Comas, Barcelona. During the attack, a far-right party militant fell to the ground after being pushed by a member of the pro-independence left and was evacuated to Sagrat Cor Hospital with a severe head injury. The Mossos would arrest three people a couple of months later who are awaiting trial.

Despite the judicialization of the case, Arran, the youth organization of the pro-independence left, maintains a frontal and active opposition against Aliança, but also against Vox, because they consider them far-right formations with racist stances contrary to the rights of the working class. In this crusade, Arran calls to combat their presence in institutions and on the streets.

Now they have taken a step further and published a manual encouraging direct action to boycott the stalls that Vox, but especially Aliança Catalana, organize every weekend in different cities and towns with an eye on the upcoming municipal elections. The booklet, titled "Països Catalans, terra de tothom, contains practical examples to prevent these two far-right parties from carrying out their events normally.

Thus, the youth of the pro-independence left propose some specific actions. Some of these advocate for direct confrontation with "a parallel demonstration to boycott the event." Here the range of actions is varied, and Arran suggests throwing eggs or paint, playing loud music through loudspeakers, or sounding an alarm to prevent them from speaking or giving speeches.

They also urge engaging in close combat with their supporters with "a scavenger hunt to see who can take more things from them." In this last point, Arran proposes burning the confiscated material in a drum to celebrate a sui generis castañada. "Don't leave for tomorrow the pamphlets you can burn today," it says in the booklet.

Other proposals, on the other hand, are low-intensity actions such as hanging banners, signposting with signs that say "Danger, fascists" in places where these parties want to hold their events, or cordoning off the area, the night before or on the same day, with a similar slogan. They also put on the table a more "performative" action, such as fumigating the space where the event took place the following day, as had already been done at the time with the visits made by the leader of Ciudadanos, Inés Arrimadas, in some sovereignist strongholds. "We cannot normalize their presence, their speeches, or their acceptance in any situation," concludes Arran to justify all these actions.