LET CATALANS VOTE

A majority of Catalans have repeatedly expressed in different ways the wish to exercise their democratic right to vote on their political future.

This strong demand to vote is the result of longstanding dissension between the governments of Catalonia and Spain over the degree of cultural, political, and financial autonomy that Catalans should enjoy, despite several attempts to reach an acceptable solution.

As the precedents in Quebec and Scotland show, the best way to solve legitimate internal disputes is to employ the tools of democracy. To prevent the Catalans from voting seems to contradict the principles that inspire democratic societies.

Accordingly, we call on the Spanish government and institutions and their Catalan counterparts to work together to allow the citizens of Catalonia to vote on their political future and then negotiate in good faith based on the result.

• Desmond Tutu, Archbishop and Nobel Peace Laureate
• Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, sculptor and Nobel Peace Laureate
• Ken Loach, cinema director
• Saskia Sassen, Sociologist (Columbia University)
• Richard Sennett, Sociologist (New York University)
• Harold Bloom, literary critic (Yale University)
• António Lobo Antunes, writer
• Bill Shipsey, founder d'Art of Amesty Internacional
• Paul Preston, Historian and Hispanist (London School of Economics)
• Ambler Moss, former Ambassador of the United States of America