"Fifty years later, we're taking Franco to Modelo prison; we're doing poetic justice," says historian Andreu Mayayo, who curates the project with fellow historian José Manuel Rua and the UB's Center for International Historical Studies. And after Franco, what? (1965-1975)The exhibition, which can be visited in the former prison in the Eixample district, is a journey through the final years of the dictatorship. It speaks of Franco's agony, but also of what might have happened and the different scenarios envisioned by the anti-Franco movement. At the end, there is a ballot box where visitors can vote among several alternatives: from a Franco regime without Franco to the political and social democracy of the communists, including Catalan third ways, among many other possibilities. When the exhibition closes on July 19, the results will be published.

It's already in the BOE: The Via Laietana police station in Barcelona has been declared a space of democratic memory by the Spanish government, Which means they'll put up plaques stating that torture was practiced there, but the National Police that occupies the building will not be relocated. Because, for the State, this isn't about memory but about power, specifically about the display and exercise of power, about continuing to have a Spanish flag hanging from a highly visible balcony in the capital of Catalonia, lest someone forget who's in charge here. The National Police were replaced by the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police force), and therefore, Minister Bolaños's argument that the officers will not leave because it's a "very important, central, and necessary police station for the regulation of citizen security" is a pure fallacy.

The Via Laietana police station is now formally a memory space, but will continue to host the Spanish National Police. Official State Gazette (BOE) this Tuesday published the Spanish government's resolution by which "the building located at Via Laietana, 43", headquarters of the Politico-Social Brigade during the Franco regime, is declared a "site of democratic memory". Contrary to what the memorial entities claimed and the Catalan parties, however, the formal resignification of the leadership will not imply the transfer of the Spanish police.

This year, the Spanish government is celebrating 50 years of freedom in Spain. That is, half a century since the death of the dictator Francisco Franco. Despite the fierce repression, there were always people who stood up to him. In the last years of the dictatorship there was violence, fear and, especially in Catalonia, thousands of citizens who took to the streets to defend freedoms, the Statute and social justice. The ARA has already recalled this before. How the peasants stood up and, in this second chapter, he recovers one of the most powerful anti-Franco movements: the workers' movement.