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How come European countries still, after centuries, can't face that lands well outside their reach have a right to go their own way?
If you dare mention Catalunya/Ceuta/Melilla, or probably the worst case, the Canary islands, you'll get the weirdest look from any Spaniard as well. Even centuries after losing territories in America, they still can't wrap their minds around a concept as simple as this.
It's because western economies are built on the exploitation of the colonized countries. Admitting that colonization is happening and allowing these countries self determination would result in a massive drop in living standards in the west.
As somebody who is pretty ignorant of the region and theory as regards multinationalism vs national self-determination, the Spanish system (within the Iberian landmass, saying nothing of the obvious historical exploitation relations with regard to overseas occupations) of "autonomous communities" superficially appears relatively progressive. Now, when we factor in that the side seeking further autonomy or independence is often left-aligned and struggling against a bourgeois dictatorship deeply ensconced in EU institutions, the case for support is clear. But on the other hand vulgar support for "national self-determination" is an imperial instrument of the liberal order that is selectively used to empower ultranationalists against multinational or pluralistic systems, as seen in Xinjiang, Yugoslavia, the USSR cases.
So I guess I'm asking, outside the scope of exploitation of one people by another and the superstructure (e.g., racialisation of an underclass) that emerges from this, what are the cases for supporting independence movements? And is there any recommended theory on this? I'm not talking about the obvious cases here (like "New Caledonia"), but for instance Scotland--critical support for the breakup of one of history's most brutal metropoles, but potentially at the cost of strengthening a modern institution of the hard right, the EU.
Well for one like nobody in Xinjiang wants independence. It's like a couple hundred fundamentalist Islamic terrorists that the ClA funded
Well, the Catalunya case is rather complex, because some independentist movements have followers who could perfectly settle for either a federal system or a republic. This is actually the case for the left wing independentist parties.
Overall, Catalunya's independence movements had a large surge during the past few years. However, this surge took place during the government of the previous president, M. Rajoy, who was very much in favor of silencing those passions. This caused the famous 8-second long Catalonian republic.
After some of the people involved moving out of the country and some others staying to face a trial that (they knew) would not win, the next (social-democrat) government changed course to a more dialogue-oriented strategy, providing an amnesty to those individuals involved. Your usual Spaniard's mind may not be able to comprehend this action for some reason I myself find impossible to grasp. Condemning people for doing what they were voted to do is not a good idea.
Regardless, amnesty and dialogue have been shown by leaps and bounds to be the right course of action, as the government party have won the election in Catalunya by not a modest margin.