The Catalan right chooses its enemy: the "woke"

BarcelonaThe term woke It has been a weapon in the hands of the extreme right for years. Donald Trump, Elon Musk and Javier Milei use it without complexes to attack a sector of the left that, in his opinion, intends to put minorities ahead of majorities. The use of woke In a pejorative sense, it has also landed in Catalonia. The PP, Vox and Aliança Catalana –and social networks– have adopted it to disqualify policies in defense of LGBTI and racialized groups that, in Catalonia, have been implemented when Esquerra, from the Generalitat, and the Comuns, in the Barcelona City Council, have governed. Even Junts has joined the bandwagon and in the draft of its political report it even raised the need to battle against "thought" woke– the militancy amended it and, in the final version, the word appears goodism–. Why?

The term woke –in English, to be awake–in its originIt had no negative connotation. It was the way progressive movements born in American universities during the 2010s began to call themselves, that urged awareness (or awakening, hence the adjective) of the oppressions of certain minorities, whether due to racial or religious issues or due to their gender identity or sexual orientation. The Black Lives Matter movement and the fourth wave of feminism also took hold. It soon triggered a "countercultural reaction," explains Pablo Simón, professor of political science at the Carlos III University of Madrid. "This causes a segment of the population, the white angry men [angry white men], they feel displaced," he details.

How does this reach Europe, Spain and Catalonia? Far-right influencers have begun to popularize the term to argue that, behind the claims of minorities, there is a desire to establish a "social construction" that attacks those who consider traditional values and that wants to dissolve Western society. "The use of the label woke On the right side is, mutatis mutandis, what the left does with the label of fascist," he exemplifies. A similar parallel was used this week by the ERC spokesman in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, who complained that every progressive position was singled out with this label: "The climate emergency is woke. Equality between men and women is woke. Women's rights are woke. Being gay, trans and lesbian is woke. (...) Europe is woke, the UN is woke, unions are woke. Paying taxes is woke [...] In short, not being a damn fascist is woke, seems".

An alien label

These antecedents are what have led the Catalan parties that could identify with this ideology to distance themselves from the terminology woke. Esquerra, the Comuns and the CUP do not recognise themselves in this term, according to sources from the three formations who have told ARA. "The term was created to discredit what the left has always done to assert the rights of all people," argue Republican sources. The Comuns add and underline that the right has transformed it into a derogatory concept to discredit certain progressive struggles, presenting them as "exaggerated." The CUP members point out that talking about this concept and dressing it up as a global trend "is entering and buying into its framework," accepting that what was previously assumed to be the defence of human rights "is now a trend that bothers."

Despite distancing themselves from the concept, this has not spared them from their political adversaries on the other side of the hemicycle using it against them. For the leader of the PP, Alejandro Fernández, culture woke It is the "natural deformation of communism." "Now they are softer; it is a velvet perversity. Since they cannot send anyone to the gulag, they impose their values through cancellation," he said in the podcast entitled, precisely, La Catalunya Woke. Juntos has also used this term in Parliament on occasion and the deputy Agustí Coromines has been especially belligerent with what it represents: "The drift towards ideologywokeis as worrying as the national populism of Aliança Catalana", has written on his blog. The satellites of the Catalan Alliance on the networks also attack ERC, the CUP and the Comuns, as does Vox.

Why the right sees attacks on the demands woke An electoral goldmine? The professor of moral and political philosophy at UPF, Jordi Mir, explains that it is an easy flank through which to grow electorally within majorities that consider themselves alien to the struggles of minorities. The expert also points out that the label woke It is being used as a weapon within progressive movements: "Left-wing groups more concerned with material living conditions consider woke "Those who focus too much, in their opinion, on gender or diversity issues," she maintains. This is the case of the feminist movement that questions, within the same movement, the defense of the rights of trans people, for example.