The commuter rail users' platform is calling for a demonstration separate from the ANC.
The Assembly warns that it does not intend to call off the march and criticizes the lack of unity.
BarcelonaThe commuter rail chaos will not turn into a large, unified demonstration like the one in 2007. Back then, thousands of people—200,000 according to the police and 700,000 according to the organizers—responded to the call of the Platform for the Right to Decide (PDD) and brought the center of Barcelona to a standstill to protest the arrival of the AVE high-speed train. The Network of Train User Platforms of Catalonia, which includes about ten organizations, announced this Tuesday that it is calling a demonstration on Saturday, February 7, at 5:00 p.m. In doing so, the network is distancing itself from the march called by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) for the same day at noon. In a conversation with ARA, the platform's spokesperson, Adrià Ramírez, explained that they don't want the march to be pro-independence, but rather to focus on railway issues: "The demonstration should be sector-specific, and the ANC links trains to independence." The representative of the organizations emphasized the diverse range of users to underscore the need for the demonstration to be apolitical: "We have people with different perspectives, and we want it to be inclusive." In fact, the Network of Train User Platforms of Catalonia (Red de Plataformas de Tren de Usuarios de Catalunya) asserts that they spoke with the leadership of the Assemblea before they called the demonstration to inform them that they had planned to organize one, but that the ANC didn't want to wait. "We respect their decision, but before they called it, we told them to wait," says Ramírez, who regrets that they couldn't reach an agreement.
ANC sources deny prior talks and make it clear they have no intention of calling off the demonstration: "Unity must be built on what already exists, not by asking those who took the first step to withdraw when others call for action days later." In this regard, the Assembly maintains that its call to action seeks to address the root of the problem. "The call to action by the ANC and the Council of the Republic has a clear objective: to denounce the structural causes of the commuter rail debacle: dependency, underfunding, and lack of sovereignty. To reduce this context to a strictly protest focused on demands or solely on immediate impact would depoliticize the conflict and obscure its underlying responsibilities," they argue.
"We called for this first, with a clear framework, and we can't be asked to disappear because other actors—including political parties—have decided to join another proposal," these same sources from the Assembly add, who believe that the other call only focuses on "the functioning." The Commons have already announced their participation in the users' protest and have called for the mobilization to be "as massive as possible." "If unity requires excluding talk of independence, it's not full unity. It's partial unity that leaves out the fundamental debate, precisely what explains why the problem repeats itself year after year," the NC concludes.
The users, at the center
The Network of Rail User Platforms of Catalonia prefers not to engage in an escalation of recriminations and is confident that both demonstrations will be a success. They point out that separate demonstrations are already held on important dates such as Labor Day and Catalonia Day. "Having two demonstrations doesn't necessarily diminish their impact because the discontent is widespread," says Ramírez, who admits that behind the rail chaos lies a "political issue of management, investment, and jurisdiction." In any case, the spokesperson for the coordinating body believes that the users themselves should lead the initiative: "We have been fighting for thirty years and have been coordinating among the different organizations for a year, and we are the ones who should lead the demonstration," he says. He emphasizes that they are working with various organizations to encourage their participation and are also open to political parties, not to take the lead, but to urge them to call for participation and attend individually.
