We have received the following eyewitness account of the protests in Barcelona against the arrests of high ranking Catalan officials and police searches in official buildings of the Catalan government (described in the article we published earlier: https://www.marxist.com/repression-against-catalan-independ…):
"I have just arrived from the Conselleria, the atmosphere was explosive, a lot of people of all kinds, young, old, students, workers who have left their jobs, very radi...cal slogans which have become more radicalized throughout the morning, "general strike" was the most repeated slogan. They told the Mossos (Catalan police) "you do not deserve the senyera (Catalan flag) you carry". Other slogans were: "unilateral declaration of independence","today begins our independence","Long live the Repúblic","Catalunya is antifascist","this also happened with Franco","without your guns you are nothing".
"The Civil Guard is still inside the Conselleria building, they can not go out, people discuss what to do, they talk to each other, "what will we do tonight", "we will spend the night here" others say, "
"Some have orgniased to go to the headquarters of the CUP which are surrounded by police. They were also talking about the incidents in Via Layetana. A lady asked "but who was attacking, (in Via Layetana), the Civil Guard or the Mossos?" and when she was told it had been the Mossos she was livid.
"The consciousness of the people is being shaken very sharply, it is an incredible situation, all the people you see in the center are people running, with flags, up and down, all talking about the same thing. It is a totally explosive situation, I had never seen anything like it, people make comparisons with the 15M (indignados movement) with the Diada (Catalan national day), a man has said that the Diada will be a child's game compared to what is going to happen today. A really explosive situation. "