William J. Furney, “Constant Aggression, Repression by Spain Is Helping Catalonian Independence”

Mike Eastabrook is a UK-based vice president of the advocacy group Foreign Friends of Catalonia, which seeks to counter what he calls “the crude repression of the Spanish state against any who see their future differently” as the protest-hit region of northeast Spain convulses amid failed attempts at independence and those leading the political charge jailed.

“For me, as a democrat who also has a connection through marriage and familiarity to Catalonia, what is happening there has big implications for Europe and the future of western democracies — turning a blind eye for political convenience is not good enough,” Eastabrook told me earlier this week. “All Catalans deserve to be respected and to determine their own futures, and as EU citizens we should be demanding basic standards of democratic freedom to apply to all states,” he said.