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Two Perspectives on Political Independence

Twenty Reections on Wales in the World
I have lived all my life among people with a heightened sense of collective identity. I was born in Yorkshire, and for most of my life have lived in Aberystwyth. In 1997 I voted for devolution. Planets invitation to reflect on the issue of so-called political independence for Wales offered me an opportunity to bring together my life in Wales and my career as an academic specialising in International Relations: I thank the editor for the invitation. On Nations and their Histories 1 The best one-liner about national histories is that attributed to the Czech-born political thinker Karl Deutsch: a nation is a group of people united by a mistaken view about the past and a hatred of their neighbours.

Ken Booth

2 We are human before we are national. We do not belong to

nations, we are their (usually happy and unthinking) slaves. Joseph de Maistre, a Counter-Enlightenment figure, wrote: there is no such

Ken Booth FBA is currently Senior Research Fellow, Director of the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies, and Editor of the journal International Relations in the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University. He was formerly E.H. Carr Professor and Head of Department. His publications mostly focus on the theory and practice of security in world politics, and have shaped the development of the inuential Aberystwyth School of Critical Security Studies.

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thing in the world as Man. In the course of my life, I have seen Frenchmen, Italians, Russians, etc.... But, as for Man, I declare that I have never met him in my life. (1797) This superficial view of reality ignores the more fundamental reality of the social, cultural, and political work that has first to be invested in nationalising humans.

3 Nations are not natural; they are historical inventions. Living

4 The imagined communities (Benedict Anderson) that are nations are relatively recent phenomena. They grew out of the French Revolution (which falsely equated the people and the nation), and then the rise of powerful states mobilising the national idea to promote industrialisation, the development of capitalism, social unity, and strength in war.

globally could have taken different trajectories. Languages were local before they became nationalised. Leo Spitzer, a founder of comparative literature, insisted that languages first belong to humanity and then to ... peoples. (1934)

5 The US philosopher Martha Nussbaum calls nations a morally irrelevant category. Where and when we are born is a matter of the roll of the cosmic dice. If we truly believe all humans are equal, those who look and sound like ourselves should not have special moral significance. To be proud of ones nation is mere cultural, political, and historical narcissism.

On Nationalism and the Nation-State 6 The principle of national self-determination has always been a recipe for chaos. How could there be a stable international order based on the statehood of the approximately 1500 cultural groups across the world that have claim to recognition?

Nation-states homogenise. Most sovereign states comprise several national groups. Nations miniaturise identity (Amartya Sen) and identity represents the theft of the self (Estee Martin).

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The people and the nation are not synonymous. Especially under globalisation, the citizens of states are increasingly mixed: ethnically, culturally, linguistically, and nationally. Citizens should never be made to feel excluded because they are not of the nation.

11 The notion of national independence is like the Cheshire Cat. The smile remains but the reality has disappeared. Even the most powerful states must adjust to political and economic interdependence. Todays democratic institutions are creatures of global capitalism, and the smaller the state, the less the leverage on decisions made elsewhere. 12 Internationalism is a feel-good slogan for nationalists. If

10 The concept of civic-nationalism (so-called good nationalism) is ambiguous. If one is serious about equal citizenship, why do advocates of civic-nationalism insist on tying the idea of an association of citizens with the inevitably ethnic implications of nationalism?

determination all the way down. Anti-colonial victors in Africa for example kept the state boundaries drawn by the former colonial powers. Dont hold your breath for Alex Salmond to endorse a (separate) right of self-determination (to be independent? to join Norway? to stay in the UK?) for the people of the Orkneys and Shetlands (with their oil).

9 Within their boundaries, dominant nations always resist self-

it means a predisposition to co-operation between nations, who is not in favour of such co-operation if it works? Who is in favour of it if it does not? It is no accident that this meaningless concept has virtually disappeared from the academic literature of International Relations.

On Humanitys Great Reckoning 13 The world does not work for billions of humans or for nature. The structures of ideas that have constructed human society globally patriarchy, proselytising religions, capitalism, statism,

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nationalism, racism, consumerism etc have created a witches brew that exile humans from each other and destroy the environment. Global reform is urgent.

14 Global business-as-usual will not work in the face of climate change, population growth, food and water insecurity etc. Morbid symptoms (Gramsci) proliferate everywhere, with human societies trapped in the iron cage of old ideas like nationalism. Moving towards a long-term project of world government has never been more politically rational or politically marginal.
On Europe and its Future(s) 15 For all its problems and ambiguities, the EU represents humankinds most hopeful model of inter-state evolution. It is now at a decisive turning-point, caught between the dream (for some) of becoming a community of peoples without nationalism and states without statism, and an organisation (for others) committed only to securing the national interests of its nation-state members.

16 Human emancipation is a cosmopolitan project. My ideal Europe contributing to the goal of a global domestic policy (Jrgen Habermas) would entail a federal British republic in a federal EU: post-national, post-statist, social-democratic, antimilitarist, and outward looking. 17 Todays Europe needs a united UK. A Dutch international
lawyer, speculating about the possible break-up of the UK, insists that the EUs smaller members need the UK as a balance against the decision-making power of Germany and France.

On Wales and its People(s) 18 Independence in Europe is a shallow slogan. It is irrational to fixate on political independence in an EU whose politicoeconomic core is contemplating deeper integration. Political responsibility always demands an understanding of the workings

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20 Wales in the world, not Wales out of the UK should be the vision. In a highly unequal world people are too often exiled from each other by class, wealth, gender, and race as well as by nation. A harmonious and emancipated global future rests on cementing solidarities across traditional exclusions. Let voters in Wales resist the fetishisation of national independence a 19th-century answer to 21st-century global challenges.

19 Who is Wales? In this globalising world, with the free movement of people within the EU in particular, we should hear more reference to the people(s) or citizens of Wales, with phrases such as the Welsh people or the nation being reserved for their appropriate contexts. Let civil society in Wales be standard-setting for semantic inclusiveness.

of power. In the latter spirit, the Polish Foreign Minister (Radek Sikorski) recently said that he now feared German power less than he feared German inactivity. Let the political class in Wales be equally realistic.

Independentisme and Catalonia

For thirty years Catalonias mainstream nationalists have dilly-dallied about their relationship with Spain. When Franco died in 1975, they decided to play at reforming Spain into a modern State, along federalist lines, and thus ensure respect for Catalonia. Now that all
Toni Strubell i Trueta is an MP for Girona province in the Catalan Parliament. He represents Solidaritat Catalana per la Independncia. Born in Oxford into an exiled Catalan anti-Franco family, he moved back to Catalonia in 1975 when Franco died. He has worked in Civil Rights movements regarding the recovery of the Salamanca Papers (documents stolen by Franco) with the Dignity Commission. In the Parliament he centres on issues associated with Education, Energy, the Sahara Question, the Ombudsman Oce, Infancy and Culture. Strubell has also written for El Punt newspaper in the Basque Country, where he taught at Deusto University.

Toni Strubell i Trueta

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faith in that project has been dispelled, more and more Catalans are opting for secessionism. The view that there is little or no future within the Spanish state is trending as a high-profile topic, as Spains nostalgic return to harsh nationalist centralism is no longer a threat but a reality. This stance has pushed large sectors of hitherto nonseparatist Catalan nationalists to adopt more or less overt independentisme, albeit, in some cases, as a last resort. While independentisme is an evolving concept that is envisaged differently by right and left, much of its recent popularity has occurred more out of a sense of outrage at Madrid policies than any great ideological revelation. Didnt Gandhi once say that Indian independence had been caused more by British blunders than by Congress Party successes? Whatever the case, the word outraged (emprenyat) has since 2007 become a media favourite when defining the overriding sentiment within Catalan politics. A former president of the Catalan government, Jordi Pujol (in power between 1980 and 2003), has claimed that Catalonia must now choose between independence and what he terms residuality. It is another question whether his party, CDC (a centrist, proCatalan nationalist party, which is part of the ruling coalition), will opt for independence. This is pretty much Catalonias 60 million question right now. Although a recent CDC Congress placed a Catalan state as an objective on the horizon, independentists are sceptical about the exact distance to that horizon. While the Catalan government have created an observatory to monitor Alex Salmonds progress, the coalition government (CiU) seems to be more concerned with a rather futile project of demanding a new Fiscal Agreement with Spain that has less chances of prospering that an ice cube has in an oven. Nevertheless the left-wing proCatalan nationalist party Esquerra (ERC) seems to be persuaded by this objective. A new party, Solidaritat Catalana per la Independncia, has been created in response to the passivity of CiU and ERC. Why have things come to a head in recent years? The State and the two dominant parties in Madrid (the PP and PSOE) have quite obviously decided to put an end to the agreement that marked the end of the Franco regime regarding the self-government of the

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regions. The spirit of the Transition has been swept away. Now no one in Spain remembers the definition of Spain as the State of the Autonomies that was common currency in the 1980s and 1990s. Jos Mara Aznars second term of office (2000-2004) saw the implementation of a comprehensive plan to restore the preeminence of Madrid as the unique holder of power in Spain. In the subsequent period under Prime Minister Zapatero, this trend was consolidated when the legitimate attempt to update Catalonias Statute of Autonomy was shot down in flames by Zapatero himself (despite his promise to respect Catalonia) and the Constitutional Court. The will of 89% of the Catalan Government to achieve enhanced powers and competences in different fields (the Treasury, territorial policy, the judiciary, national sports teams, economic policy, language etc.) was refused. Adverse Constitutional and Supreme Court rulings since then have fully set alight the feelings of Catalanists across the board. However, it is the economic and infrastructure situation that has most upset people in Catalonia recently. Figures regarding the balance of payments between Spain and Catalonia made public on Catalan demand as of 2007, has justifiably fuelled Catalan outrage. It is now clear that the fiscal spoliation of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands is one of the highest in the world. As much as 10% of the Catalan GDP is creamed off to Madrid yearly, leading to a situation described by one visiting USA economist as a wonder that the Catalan economy can survive at all. Another factor infuriating Catalans is the government budget fulfilment ratio in relation to Madrid and other regions. Almost yearly, the Spanish government spends more than budgeted on Madrid but only 70% of the designated budget for Catalonia. This has led to a serious investment deficit that finally exploded in 2007. In the summer of that year, infrastructure in Barcelona collapsed. The city was left without local railways and electricity for weeks. The fifty-year-old railway lines along the coast were the source of monthly derailments and other accidents. Catalan attitudes towards the transport situation are currently aggravated by the fact that Catalans (Catalonia covers 7% of the State territory) pay over 40% of the States toll highways, there being hardly any workable untolled exits

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from Barcelona. In contrast, Madrid has free highways in all directions. All this has led to the huge no vull pagar (I dont want to pay) protests of 2012, in which the independentist party Solidaritat played a leading role. Another area in which Catalan unrest has been fanned is the language. The thirty-five-year consensus with Madrid regarding the fact that Catalan was Catalonias preferential language (and thus, the basic language of the administration and schooling system) was swept away. Recently, major public institutions such as Barcelona City Hall have been instructed not to give Catalan any kind of preferential treatment, whereas the granting of primary status to Catalan was formerly tolerated as a way of ensuring protection for a language otherwise hugely downstaged by Spanish (for example, only 1.5% of Catalan High Court rulings are issued in Catalan). As regards schooling, five Spanish families who went to court to seek their childrens exemption from education in Catalan won their case at the Supreme Court in late 2011, a step which effectively opened the door to dismantling a successful schooling system which for thirty years has had Catalan as the main language of education. Mercifully, this call for exemption is a minority demand at present. But Spanish parties will doubtlessly be putting pressure on Spanish parents to pursue this objective. What so many Catalans are now realising is the fact that without the creation of a Catalan state, none of these problems will be solved. It is only as a state that Catalonia can take steps to improve and reshape the economy and preserve the identity of the nation.