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The contradictions of an independent Catalonia
The Catalan nationalists and ruling oligarchy want their cake and they want to eat it too, writes PHIL HALL

WHILE Catalonia has the right to secede and no-one has the right to stop it, Catalan nationalism in its present form has elements that are deeply unattractive. 

There is a ruling oligarchy in power in Catalonia that circulates most of the wealth and the jobs among itself. Prejudice and cronyism are rife.

A large percentage of Catalans are actually from other parts of Spain. Miguel Cardenas, for example, was born in Andalucia. 
At the age of 14 in the sixties he was on the streets demonstrating against Franco and against Franco’s treatment of Catalonia and getting beaten up and jailed for doing so.

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