Casablanca and Catalonia two anthems against tyrrany,

This is not the first time I have alluded to the film Casablanca but as we see an authoritarian  government  trying to crush the independence movement in Catalonia  its worth revisiting this moment.

The visiting Nazi party decides to celebrate at Rick’s club, by starting a chorus of Die Wacht am Rhein much to the chagrin of everybody around them. Having had enough of it, freedom fighter Victor Laszlo starts up the band and with Rick’s approving nod they begin to play the French national anthem La Marseillaise. Soon all of the refugees from the Nazi’s war on Europe begin to sing along out the Nazi officers who eventually are forced to give up.

 

But it Madeleine Lebeau face that sums it all up

In Casablanca Lebeau's Yvonne was rejected by Bogart's Rick following a one-night stand.

She was seen drowning her sorrows at his nightclub, before making another drunken pass at him, after which he tasked a bartender with taking her home.

Yvonne later returned on the arm of a German soldier

The camera captures the (genuine) tears on her face, and later at the end of the anthem when she cries out Vive la France. France had fallen to Nazi forces, and many of the actors including Lebeaau performing in the scene were real life refugees from Europe^.

^{I write this because  the Independence movement  in Catalonia has been portrayed as a rich "region" of Spain wishing to stop subsidising  the rest of the country.}

 ^{The truth is that it is as a result of a long a long history of seeking independence  the last seeing  in 1914, the four Catalan provinces formed a commonwealth, and with the return of democracy during the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939), the Generalitat of Catalonia was restored as an autonomous government. After the Spanish Civil War, the Francoist dictatorship enacted repressive measures, abolishing Catalan institutions and banning the official use of the Catalan language again.}

^{It is not a crude Blood and Soil Nationalism indeed the proponents argue they are not Nationalists but Indpendistas.}

For them however The reapers Catalonia´s national anthem is as potent as La Marseillaise

Els Segadors “The reapers” was already regarded as national anthem of Catalonia long before the Catalan government made that official in 1931. However, during Franco’s dictatorship, after the Spanish civil war, the song was forbidden and singing the hymn (or just talking Catalan) was punished heavily.
For 45 years the hymn survived nonetheless, and in 1976 people were allowed to sing it again. However, another 17 years had to pass, before the song, was officially declared national anthem of Catalonia for the second time in 1993.
The anthem is about the Guerra dels Segadors, (“The reapers’ war”), between 1640 and 1659. In its war with France (1635-1659) Spain had demanded that Catalunya supplies money and men to the Castilian army and forced Catalan peasants (mostly reapers) to accomodate Castilian soldiers.
The reapers suffered abuse, violence and exploitation which in May 1640 led to an uprising and The Reapers’ War that would last 19 years.

In Casablanca the singing of La Marseillaise was seen as a defiance of fascist tyranny . Today it  Els Segadors that is sound bacdeop of a stand against fasist tyranny.

Unfortunately most of Europe is not listening.