Broadfield House, a Grade II listed building, was home to a glass museum and hot glass studio, owned and operated by Dudley Council museum service and was located in Kingswinford, West Midlands, England. The museum closed on 30 September 2015.

It displayed a huge variety of glass objects, dating from the 17th century to the present day, across nine galleries. In addition to the glass displays were several paintings that demonstrate glass making and the local landscape. The museum also displayed glass making tools and ephemera produced by the glass industry. Various events and temporary exhibitions were held throughout its history. To complete the visitor experience it had a shop that sold various souvenirs, books, vintage glassware and products from contemporary glassmakers.

The collection is now displayed at Stourbridge Glass Museum.

History of the building
The building has hosted many contrasting occupants. The original structure was a modest two-storey farmhouse built in the mid or late 18th century and faced Barnett Lane. The threshing barn (now the Hot Glass Studio) dates from the same period and serves as a reminder that two hundred years ago this area was open country and farmland. In the early 1800s the house was transformed into a much grander residence when a fine three-storey Regency block with sash windows and portico was built onto the back of the original building. This then formed the main entrance, reversing the orientation of the original house.

In 1943 the house, along with 16 acres, was purchased by Kenneth George MacMaster, an engineering contactor and property developer. The following year MacMaster sold the house to Dennis Smith from Tividale. Smith was the last private owner of Broadfield House and lived here with his family until 1949. In 1949 the house was acquired by Staffordshire County Council for use as a Mothercraft Hostel.

Following local government reorganisation in 1966 ownership was transferred to the enlarged County Borough of Dudley. In 1969 Broadfield House became an Old People's Home. It was not a suitable site, as illustrated by the 44 stairs and no lift. Following the creation of Dudley MBC in 1974, the Council closed the home and began looking at alternative uses for the building. Inevitably the Mothercraft Hostel and Old People's Home left their mark on the building and features remain that are suggestive of an institutional use.

In 1976 the idea emerged of using the building as a new home for the Council's Brierley Hill and Stourbridge Glass Collections. This met with considerable opposition as the people of Brierley Hill and Stourbridge were very protective of their collections and did not want them moved from their respective towns. At the final Council meeting, the decision to go ahead won by only one vote! Conversion work began in 1979 and Broadfield House Glass Museum was officially opened by Princess Michael of Kent on 2 April 1980.

The museum closed on 30 September 2015. The collection is now displayed at Stourbridge Glass Museum, which opened on 9 April 2022.

Exhibitions
The museum held various temporary exhibitions, with local, national and international artists represented, featuring historical and contemporary glassworks.

The Studio

The Hot Glass Studio is sponsored by The Hulbert Group of Dudley and has been made available for use by graduates and established glass-blowers.

Archives and Library
The museum housed archives from various sources, containing such items as pattern books, catalogues, description books and invoices. In addition, there is a large collection of images and recorded material providing insight into the people and the manufacturing process. It also housed an extensive reference library of books and information on glassworking, including the entire library of Robert Charleston, former head of glass and ceramics at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The Charleston library includes approximately 700 books as well as his own collection of papers, articles and archival material.
Both the library and archive will continue to be in the care of DMBC Museum Service.

References

External links

 The Friends of Broadfield House Glass Museum
 @Glass_museum on Twitter
 BHGM Flickr album

Grade II listed buildings in the West Midlands (county)
Glass museums and galleries
Museums in the West Midlands (county)
Buildings and structures in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley
Art museums and galleries in the West Midlands (county)
Decorative arts museums in England
Museums established in 1980

Broadfield House Glass Museum


Anila Amrutlal Dalal is Gujarati critic and translator.

Life
Dalal was born on 21 October 1933 in Ahmedabad to Amritlal Dalal. She completed SSC in 1949, BA in English in 1954, MA in English in 1956 and later Ph.D. from Gujarat University. She received MS from University of Illinois in 1959. She is a retired professor and Head of the Department of English at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Arts College, Ahmedabad where she taught from June 1960 to 1990s. She received PhD in 1990 from Gujarat University for her thesis on novels of Iris Murdoch.

Works
Ravindranath ane Sharatchandrana Katha Sahityama Nari (1979) is two parts work on criticism on females in works of Rabindranath Tagore and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. The first part has seven articles on works of Tagore while second part has five articles on works of Chattopadhyay. Deshantar (1981) is a work on literature of several languages; German, Russian, Hebrew, French, Greek, Italian, Spanish and laureates; Ted Hughes, Harold Pinter, Philip Larkin, Bertolt Brecht, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Iris Murdoch. Darpannu Nagar (1987), Manushi - Shityama Nari (1993), Navalkathama Chetanapravah (1994) and Nivedan (1999) are her other works of criticism.

She translated three Bengali novels of Sunil Gangopadhyay; Radhakrishna (1981), Aranyaman  Deen Raat (1983) and Pratidwandwi (1986). She translated Bimal Kar's Balika Vadhu (1989) and Prachhanna (1991) from Bengali. She translated Devesh Ray's Tistakanthanu Vrutant (1997). She also translated Mahabharata: Ek Aadhunik Drishtikon (1980) by Buddhadeb Bosu, Maharshi Devendranath Thakur (1980) by Narayan Chaudhary, Chaudhari, Laxminath Bejbarua (1985) by Hem Barua. She also translated several essays of Tagore in Ravindra Nibandhmala Part 2 (1976) and more than seventy songs of Tagore in Geet Panchshati (1978). She also translated letters of Tagore as Chinna Patra Marmar (1993). She also translated The Later Novels of Iris Murdoch (1993) from English. She translated Tarashankar Bandopadyay (1994) by Mahasweta Devi, Ravindra Sanchay, Vrindavan Morli Vage Chhe. She translated Rama Mehta's English novel Inside the Haveli as Havelini Andar (2003).

Awards
She received the Gujarati Sahitya Parishad award in 1994, the Gujarat Sahitya Academy award in 1994 and the Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize in 1993 for Prachhanna.

See also
 List of Gujarati-language writers

References

1933 births
Living people
Women writers from Gujarat
Gujarati-language writers
Writers from Ahmedabad
Gujarati people
20th-century Indian translators
Indian literary critics
20th-century Indian women writers
Indian women literary critics
Indian women translators
Translators to Gujarati
Translators of Rabindranath Tagore
Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Prize for Translation

Anila Dalal


MC5 is an American rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan, in 1963. The classic line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson. MC5 were listed by Parade as one of the best rock bands of all time. The band's first three albums are regarded by many as staples of rock music, and their 1969 song "Kick Out the Jams" is widely covered.

"Crystallizing the counterculture movement at its most volatile and threatening", according to AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine, MC5's leftist political ties and anti-establishment lyrics and music positioned them as emerging pioneers of the punk movement in the United States. Their loud, energetic style of back-to-basics rock and roll included elements of garage rock, hard rock, blues rock, and psychedelic rock.

MC5 had a promising beginning that earned them a January 1969 cover appearance on Rolling Stone and a story written by Eric Ehrmann before their debut live album was released. They developed a reputation for energetic and polemical live performances, one of which was recorded as their 1969 debut album Kick Out the Jams before the group disbanded in 1972.

Vocalist Tyner died of a heart attack in late 1991 at the age of 46 and was followed by Fred Smith, who also died of a heart attack, in 1994 at the age of 46. The remaining three members of the band reformed in 2003 with The Dictators' singer Handsome Dick Manitoba as its new vocalist, and this reformed line-up occasionally performed live over the next nine years until Davis died of liver failure in 2012 at the age of 68.

In 2022, Kramer announced that a tour under the banner of We Are All MC5 would take place that spring, and that a new MC5 studio album with producer Bob Ezrin would also be released later that year with original MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson playing on two tracks.

History

1963–1967: Formation and early years
The origins of MC5 can be traced to the friendship between guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith. Friends since their teen years, they were both fans of R&B music, blues, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and what later was called garage rock: they adored any music with speed, energy and a rebellious attitude. Each guitarist/singer formed and led a rock group (Smith's Vibratones and Kramer's Bounty Hunters). As members of both groups left for college or straight jobs, the most committed members eventually united (under Kramer's leadership and the "Bounty Hunters" name) with Billy Vargo on guitar and Leo LeDuc on drums (at this point Smith played bass). They were popular and successful enough in and around Detroit that the musicians were able to quit their day jobs and make a living from the group.

Kramer felt they needed a manager, which led him to Rob Derminer, a few years older than the others, and deeply involved in Detroit's hipster and left-wing political scenes. Derminer originally auditioned as a bass guitarist (a role which he held briefly in 1964, with Smith switching to guitar to replace Vargo and with Bob Gaspar replacing LeDuc). They quickly realized that Derminer's talents could be better used as a lead singer: Though not conventionally attractive and rather paunchy by traditional frontman standards, he nonetheless had a commanding stage presence, and a booming baritone voice that evidenced his abiding love of American soul and gospel music. Derminer renamed himself Rob Tyner (after John Coltrane's pianist McCoy Tyner). Instead of Derminer, their manager ended up being Ann Marston, a former national archery champion and beauty pageant winner.

Tyner also conceived their new name, MC5, short for "Motor City Five" based on  their Detroit roots. In some ways the group was similar to other garage bands of the period, composing soon-to-be historic workouts such as "Black to Comm" during their mid-teens in the basement of the home of Kramer's mother. Upon Tyner's switch from bassist to vocalist, he was initially replaced by Patrick Burrows before the line-up stabilized in 1965 with the arrival of Michael Davis and Dennis Thompson to replace Burrows and Gaspar, respectively.

The music also reflected Smith and Kramer's increasing interest in free jazz—the guitarists were inspired by the likes of Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and late period John Coltrane, and tried to imitate the ecstatic sounds of the squealing, high-pitched saxophonists they adored. MC5 even later opened a few U.S. midwest shows for Sun Ra, whose influence is obvious in "Starship". Kramer and Smith were also deeply inspired by Sonny Sharrock, one of the few electric guitarists working in free jazz, and they eventually developed a unique interlocking style that was like little heard before: Kramer's solos often used a heavy, irregular vibrato, while Smith's rhythms contained an uncommon explosive energy, including patterns that conveyed great excitement, as evidenced in "Black to Comm" and many other songs.

Playing almost nightly any place they could in and around Detroit, MC5 quickly earned a reputation for high-energy live performances and won a sizeable local following, regularly drawing sellout audiences of 1000 or more. Contemporary rock writer Robert Bixby stated that their sound was like "a catastrophic force of nature the band was barely able to control". Don McLeese noted that fans compared the aftermath of an MC5 performance to the delirious exhaustion after "a street rumble or an orgy".

"When I first saw them, it was before they wrote songs, or it was before they met John Sinclair," recalled Iggy Pop. "They were just a really fuckin' good big city cover band, and they covered basically The Stones, Hendrix, The Who, all that shit, real well. And then they knew a little Ray Charles and shit. As they developed, I thought there was an overlay of jazz, but a lot of the music values were very hard rock. Not too bluesy."

MC5 released a cover of Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything", backed with their own "One of the Guys", on the tiny AMG label in 1967.

1968–1969: Kick Out the Jams
In early 1968, the band's second single was released by Trans-Love Energies on A-Square records (though without the knowledge of that label's owner Jeep Holland).  Housed in a striking picture sleeve, it comprised two original songs: "Borderline" and "Looking at You". The first pressing sold out in a few weeks, and by year's end it had gone through more pressings totaling several thousand copies.  A third single that coupled "I Can Only Give You Everything" with the original "I Just Don't Know" appeared at about the same time on the AMG label, as well.

That summer MC5 toured the U.S. East Coast, which generated an enormous response, with the group often overshadowing the more famous acts they opened up for: McLeese writes that when opening for Big Brother and the Holding Company audiences regularly demanded multiple encores of MC5, and at a memorable series of concerts, Cream—one of the leading hard rock groups of the era—"left the stage vanquished". This same east coast tour led to the rapturous aforementioned Rolling Stone cover story that praised MC5 with nearly evangelistic zeal, and also to an association with the radical group Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers.

MC5 became the leading band in a burgeoning hard rock scene, serving as mentors to fellow South-Eastern Michigan bands The Stooges and The Up, and major record labels expressed an interest in the group. As related in the notes for reissued editions of the Stooges' debut album, Danny Fields of Elektra Records came to Detroit to see MC5. At Kramer's recommendation, he went to see The Stooges. Fields was so impressed that he ended up offering contracts to both bands in September 1968. They were the first hard rock groups signed to Elektra Records.

According to Kramer, MC5 of this period was politically influenced by the Marxism of the Black Panther Party and Fred Hampton, and poets of the Beat Generation such as Allen Ginsberg and Ed Sanders, or Modernist poets like Charles Olson.  Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton prompted John Sinclair to found the White Panthers, a militant leftist organization of white people working to assist the Black Panthers.  Shortly after, Sinclair was arrested for possession of marijuana.

Under the "guidance" of John Sinclair (who dubbed his enterprise "Trans-Love Energies" and refused to be categorized as a traditional manager), MC5 were soon involved in left-wing politics: Sinclair was active with the White Panther Party and Fifth Estate.  In their early career, MC5 had a politically provocative stage show: They appeared onstage toting unloaded rifles, and at the climax of a performance, an unseen "sniper" would shoot Tyner. The band members were also all using the drugs LSD and marijuana.

The band performed as part of the protests against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that were broken up by a police riot. The group's appearance at the convention is also notable for their lengthy performance. In an interview featured in the documentary Get Up, Stand Up, Kramer reported that while many musicians were scheduled to perform at a day-long concert, only the MC5 initially appeared. The MC5 played for over eight hours straight. Of the other scheduled performers, Kramer stated in Get Up, Stand Up that only Neil Young actually arrived, though due to the chaos at the convention, Young didn't perform.  Dennis Thompson asserted years later that Country Joe McDonald (of Country Joe and the Fish) was also present at the scene. Other performers at the convention included the protest folk singer Phil Ochs.

MC5 earned national attention with their first album, Kick Out the Jams, recorded live on October 30 and 31, 1968, at Detroit's Grande Ballroom. Elektra executive Jac Holzman and producer Bruce Botnick recognized that MC5 were at their best when playing for a receptive audience. Containing such songs as the proto-punk classics "Kick Out the Jams" and "Rocket Reducer No. 62 (Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa)", the spaced-out "Starship" (co-credited to Sun Ra because the lyrics were partly cribbed from one of Ra's poems), and an extended cover of John Lee Hooker's "Motor City Is Burning" wherein Tyner praises the role of the Black Panthers during the Detroit riots of 1967.  Critic Mark Deming writes that Kick out the Jams "is one of the most powerfully energetic live albums ever made ... this is an album that refuses to be played quietly."

The album caused some controversy due to Sinclair's inflammatory liner notes and the title track's rallying cry of "Kick out the jams, motherfuckers!" According to Kramer, the band recorded this as "Kick out the jams, brothers and sisters!" for the single released for radio play; Tyner claimed this was done without group consensus. The edited version also appeared in some LP copies, which also withdrew Sinclair's excitable comments. The album was released in January 1969; reviews were mixed, but the album was relatively successful, quickly selling over 100,000 copies and peaking at #30 on the Billboard album chart in May 1969 during a 23-week stay.

When Hudson's, a Detroit-based department store chain, refused to stock Kick Out the Jams due to the obscenity, MC5 responded with a full page advertisement in the local underground magazine Fifth Estate saying "Stick Alive with the MC5, and Fuck Hudson's!", prominently including the logo of MC5's label, Elektra Records, in the ad. Hudson's pulled all Elektra records from their stores, and in the ensuing controversy, Jac Holzman, the head of Elektra, dropped the band from their contract. MC5 then signed with Atlantic Records.

1970–1971: Back in the USA and High Time
Their second album, Back in the USA, produced by future Bruce Springsteen mentor Jon Landau, virtually provided a prototype for punk rock with its short, fast, hard-edged angry guitar rock. Released on Atlantic with a vastly different production and marketing effort, the band's sound radically differed from Kick Out the Jams, to such an extent that, except for Tyner's vocals, they were "barely recognizable as the same band." The second album's production also sounded compressed and somewhat limited in the band's sonic palette compared to their earlier — band members later said that Landau was overbearing and heavy-handed in production, trying to shape the group to his own liking.

Reviews were again mixed, resulting in mediocre sales (it only peaked at #137 in the American charts in March 1970 during a seven-week stay), while the band's tours were not as well-received as before. Exhaustion was partly to blame, from the band's heavy touring schedule and increasingly heavy drug use.

They had fallen out with Sinclair as well, and were conspicuously not allowed to play at the December 1971 John Sinclair Freedom Rally, organized to protest his incarceration on marijuana possession, even though they were at the gig.
The band's third album, High Time, produced by Geoffrey Haslam and recorded by Artie Fields, proved influential on 1970s hard rock bands. The album was poorly promoted, and sales were worse than ever, but High Time was the best-reviewed of the band's original records upon its initial release. The group had much more creative control, and were very satisfied with the results. This release saw the band stretch out with longer, more experimental pieces like "Future/Now" and the Sun Ra-influenced "Skunk (Sonicly Speaking)" [sic].

1972–1991: Disbandment and post-break up
Both Back in the USA and High Time lost money for Atlantic Records, which dropped the band.  Early in 1972, the band toured Europe, playing dates in England including Cambridge with Syd Barrett's band Stars and Canterbury with former Tyrannosaurus Rex percussionist Steve Peregrin Took, as well as a TV session in Bremen, Germany for Beat Club.

On February 13, 1972, Michael Davis left the band (he was using heroin and was all but forced out by the others), and was replaced by a series of bassists (Steve Moorhouse, Derek Hughes, and Ray Craig). The remaining members recorded three new songs—"Gold" (also known as "Gold Rush"), "Train Music" and "Inside Out"—in London shortly afterwards for the soundtrack of a film called Gold. This was the band's final recording session.

The group limped along a while longer, eventually reduced to Kramer, Smith, and Tyner touring and playing with Ritchie Dharma on drums and Derek Hughes on bass, playing R&B covers as much as their original material.

MC5 reunited for a farewell show on December 31, 1972 at the Grande Ballroom. The venue that had only a few years before hosted over a thousand eager fans now had a few dozen people, and, distraught, Kramer left the stage after a few songs. The band dissolved not long after the event.

In 1973 Fred "Sonic" Smith formed a new group called Ascension, consisting of Smith on guitar, Thompson on drums, Davis on piano, and to replace Davis on bass a local working bass player, John Hefty, was brought in. They assembled a set of mostly original music and a few R&B and rock covers. Smith said the name Ascension symbolized the music and the band ascending to new heights and in new directions. They brought in a new manager, Chato Hill. They played only a few live performances and disbanded after less than a year. One live recording was made but never edited or released.

After this, Smith formed a new group called Sonic's Rendezvous Band, married singer Patti Smith, retired from music to raise a family, and died in 1994. Sonic's Rendezvous Band released only the "City Slang" single during their initial time as a group, though later recordings were released posthumously, and a reconstituted Rendezvous Band (including original member Scott Morgan, of The Rationals and a newly added Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman) reunited in tribute, years afterward. Smith also co-produced his wife's 1988 album Dream of Life and co-wrote all the songs with her, including the single "People Have the Power."

Wayne Kramer recruited Mark Manko on rhythm guitar, Tim Schafe on bass, Bob Schultz on organ, and Frank Lowenberg on drums for a new lineup of the MC5 in 1974, with Kramer singing most of the vocals. He also made scattered appearances on other people's records before being incarcerated in 1975 for two years for drug offenses. While in federal prison in Kentucky, he was unexpectedly reunited with MC5 bassist Michael Davis, also behind bars on a drug charge. After his parole, Kramer worked straight jobs for several years and focused on kicking drugs. In 1979 he played with Johnny Thunders in the band Gang War. By the early 1990s, he returned to the music industry and subsequently released several well-received albums.

Rob Tyner performed under his own name for many years but also performed under "The MC5" for some live gigs for a brief period. He also collaborated with Eddie and the Hot Rods, releasing a 7" with them in 1979. During the mid-1980s, Tyner produced a single for Detroit band Vertical Pillows, and occasionally made brief guest appearances during some of their live shows, singing MC5 covers. Tyner became a successful producer, manager and promoter in Detroit, and released the warmly-reviewed Blood Brothers album in 1990, a year before his death in September 1991.

Michael Davis joined Detroit band Destroy All Monsters for several years in the late 70s /early 80s; the band broke up in 1983. Dennis Thompson played with various bands, including The New Order, New Race, The Motor City Bad Boys, and The Secrets.

1992–present: Reunions and later years
The first public reunion of the band after their recording years as a group was as a four-piece, at a performance celebrating the life of the late Rob Tyner, a concert event at the State Theater in Detroit on February 22, 1992. The event was heavily attended, and included The Rationals, Scott Richardson (SRC), The Romantics, Dee Dee Ramone, The Cult, and other musicians. The band on this evening was unbilled, but their appearance had been rumored—Wayne Kramer was the only group member advertised—and the set lasted about thirty minutes. The recording of this show remains unreleased.

2003 saw the three surviving members of MC5—Kramer, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson (Smith had died in 1994)—performing as the MC5 at the 100 Club in London with Fred "Sonic" Smith's place temporarily being taken by Nicke Andersson of The Hellacopters, vocals at that time being taken variously by David Vanian of The Damned, Lemmy of Motörhead, Ian Astbury of The Cult, and singer Kate O'Brien, as well as seeing Charles Moore and Buzzy Jones reprise their roles in the brass section from the High Time album.

In 2004, the band set out on an extensive world tour using the name DKT/MC5. As with the 100 Club concert, a host of special guests joined them on tour such as Mark Arm of Mudhoney, Nicke Royale of The Hellacopters, Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, Marshall Crenshaw, Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman, Lisa Kekaula of the Bellrays, and others.

In 2005, MC5 stabilized into a new lineup, consisting of Kramer, Thompson, and Davis, with Handsome Dick Manitoba, vocalist of the 1970s New York punk band The Dictators, singing lead, along with Gilby Clarke, formerly of Guns and Roses, playing rhythm guitar. This lineup continued to exist until Michael Davis' death in February 2012, upon which the band dissolved.

In 2006, MC5 was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.

In May 2006, Davis injured his back in a motorcycle accident. In August 2007, Davis joined the Lords of Altamont on bass. He also founded and led the Michael H. Davis Music Is Revolution Foundation, dedicated to supporting music education programs in public schools. Davis died of liver failure in February 2012 at the age of 68.

In May 2018, Wayne Kramer announced the MC50 tour to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kick Out the Jams, with a line-up including himself, plus rock stalwarts Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron of Soundgarden, Brendan Canty of Fugazi, and Doug Pinnick of King's X, as well as Marcus Durant and Don Was. Pinnick was eventually replaced by Faith No More bassist Billy Gould.

In 2022, Kramer announced that a tour under the banner of We Are All MC5 would take place that spring, and that a new MC5 studio album with veteran producer Bob Ezrin would also be released later that year with original MC5 drummer Dennis Thompson playing on two tracks. Joining Kramer on "The Heavy Lifting Tour" is singer Brad Brooks, guitarist Stevie Salas, bassist Vicki Randle, and drummer Winston Watson, who replaces originally named drummer Stephen Perkins. In addition to San Francisco Bay area singer-songwriter Brooks, Native American Salas is a former advisor of contemporary music at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Randle is known as the first permanent female member of The Tonight Show Band from 1992 to 2010, and Watson performed 400 shows with Bob Dylan from 1992 over five years of his Never Ending Tour.

Band members

Current members
Wayne Kramer – lead guitar, backing and lead vocals (1963–1972, 1974—1975, 1992, 2003–2012, 2018, 2022–present)
Dennis Thompson — drums (1965—1972, 1992, 2003—2012, 2022—present)

Former members
Fred "Sonic" Smith – bass guitar (1963–1964), rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1964–1972, 1992; died 1994)
Rob Tyner – bass guitar (1964), lead vocals (1965–1972; died 1991)
Michael Davis – bass guitar (1965–1972, 1992, 2003–2012; died 2012)
Leo LeDuc – drums (1963—1964)
Billy Vargo – rhythm guitar (1963–1964)
Bob Gaspar – drums (1964—1965)
Patrick Burrows – bass guitar (1964–1965)
Steve "Annapurna" Moorhouse – bass guitar (1972)
Derek Hughes – bass guitar (1972, 1972)
Ray Craig – bass guitar (1972)
Ritchie Dharma – drums (1972)
Richard Manitoba – lead vocals (2005–2012)
Gilby Clarke – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2005–2012)
Marcus Durant – lead vocals (2018)
Kim Thayil – rhythm guitar (2018)
Doug Pinnick – bass guitar (2018)
Billy Gould – bass guitar (2018)
Matt Cameron – drums (2018)
Don Was – bass guitar (2018)
Brendan Canty – drums (2018)

Touring members
Mark Manko - rhythm guitar (1974—1975)
Tim Schafe - bass guitar (1974—1975)
Bob Schultz - organ (1974—1975)
Frank Lowenberg - drums (1974—1975)
Brad Brooks — lead vocals (2022—present)
Stevie Salas — rhythm guitar (2022—present)
Vicki Randle — bass guitar, backing vocals (2022—present)

Timeline

Discography
Studio
 Back in the USA (1970) #137 US
 High Time (1971) #191 US

Live
 Kick Out the Jams (1969) #30 US; #37 Canada
 Live On Saturn (Unreleased)
 Teen Age Lust (recorded 1970, released 1996)
 Phun City, UK (recorded 1970, released 1996)
 Live at the Sturgis Armoury (recorded 1968, released 1998)
 Are You Ready to Testify?: The Live Bootleg Anthology (2005)
 Live at the Grande Ballroom 68 (2006)

Compilations
 Babes in Arms (1983)
 Black to Comm (1994)
 Power Trip (1994)
 Looking at You (1995)
 The American Ruse (1995)
 Ice Pick Slim (1997)
 66 Breakout (1999)
 Thunder Express (1999) (Recorded in 1972)
 The Big Bang!: Best of the MC5 (2000)
 Part Of The Problem Or Part Of The Solution (2012)
 Kick Out the Jams Motherf*cker (2015)
 The Motor City Five (2017) (Rhino Entertainment Company, by Run Out Groove), ROGV-003

Box sets
 Purity Accuracy (2004)
 Total Assault (2018)

Singles
 "I Can Only Give You Everything" (1967)
 "Looking at You" (1968)
 "Kick Out the Jams" (1969)
 "Ramblin' Rose" (1969)
 "Tonight" (1969)
 "I Can Only Give You Everything" (Re-issue) (1969)
 "Shakin' Street" (1970)
 "Back In The USA" (1970)
 "Over and Over"/"Sister Anne" (1971) (never officially released, only test pressings exist)

Other Appearances
Gold (film) (1972)
Gold - Original Soundtrack (1972)
Rubáiyát - Plunderphonics (1991)

Filmography
 MC5: Kick Out the Jams, 1999
 MC5: A True Testimonial, 2002
 Danny Says, 2016

See also
 1960s counterculture
 Fifth Estate
 Music and politics
 Music of Detroit
 New Left
 John Sinclair
 Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers
 White Panther Party

References

 Sources

Further reading
 Bartkowiak, Matthew J. "Motor City Burning: Rock and Rebellion in the WPP and the MC5," Journal for the Study of Radicalism, vol. 1, no. 2 (Summer 2007), pp. 55–76. in JSTOR

External links

 MC5 GATEWAY - Detailed site on the MC5
 All-MC5 webguide

1963 establishments in Michigan
American blues rock musical groups
Garage rock groups from Michigan
Psychedelic rock music groups from Michigan
Acid rock music groups
Articles containing video clips
Articles which contain graphical timelines
Atlantic Records artists
Elektra Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from Michigan
Kerrang! Awards winners
Musical groups disestablished in 1972
Musical groups disestablished in 1992
Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Musical groups established in 1963
Musical groups reestablished in 1992
Musical groups reestablished in 2003
American musical quintets
Protopunk groups
ROIR artists
Rhino Records artists
Freak scene musicians
Yippies

MC5


Jon Green (born 16 July 1985) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer.

Early life
Green was born in Southport, Queensland, Australia.

Green lived in Perth and played junior footy for South Perth Lions in the Western Australia Rugby League competition. He then commenced his professional career playing for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, St. George Illawarra Dragons, Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and Brisbane Broncos.

Career
Green began playing in the National Rugby League in 2006 for the Bulldogs club, playing six games for them over the next seasons.

Green joined the St. George Illawarra Dragons club in 2007, and was generally assigned to play for St. George Illawarra Dragons's feeder club (the Shellharbour Dragons) as a . Green was afforded the opportunity to play for St. George Illawarra Dragons from time to time, mainly during the representative season. In August 2010, it was confirmed that Green had his contract extended for a further season to see him stay at St. George Illawarra Dragons until the end of the 2011 season.
Green has signed with the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks for the 2012 NRL season. He was signed to help replace the loss of Luke Douglas and Kade Snowden. Green joined the Brisbane Broncos in 2014. In 2015, Green announced his retirement from league after playing for the Brisbane feeder club.

References

External links
2011 St. George Illawarra Dragons profile

1985 births
Living people
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs players
Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks players
Redcliffe Dolphins players
Rugby league players from the Gold Coast, Queensland
Rugby league props
Shellharbour City Dragons players
St. George Illawarra Dragons players

Jon Green


Wallace Howard Pike (22 December 1899 – 11 April 1999) was the last known Newfoundland World War I veteran.

Life
He enlisted as a volunteer in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment as an underage soldier. He saw action on the Western Front as a stretcher-bearer where he was wounded twice, once in the leg and once in the hand. At the end of his military service, he held the rank of private. He was honored by Newfoundland Premier Brian Tobin as a veteran who "represented what would later become a Canadian tradition in times of conflict—that of humanitarian and life-saver". France awarded Pike its highest accolade, The Legion of Honour. The award was commemorated in 1998 by French Ambassador Denis Bauchard who praised Pike saying, "Through your courage you sealed forever the eternal bonds of friendship, solidarity and affection between our two countries." Wallace Pike died on April 11, 1999, aged 99—just one month after the deaths of Newfoundland World War I veterans John Brinson and Alexander White.

References

See also
List of last surviving World War I veterans by country

1899 births
1999 deaths
Newfoundland military personnel of World War I
Recipients of the Legion of Honour
Royal Newfoundland Regiment soldiers
Child soldiers in World War I

Wallace Pike


Sikhs form a very small minority in Iran, with a 2011 estimate stating some 60 to 100 families to be residing in Iran. Members of the community speak Punjabi among themselves, and Persian and Balochi with the larger community. Most Sikhs living in Iran are Iranian citizens.

History
The first presence of Sikhs to Iran began in the 1900, when both Sikh business people as well as Sikh troops in the British military during its occupation of Iran. The primary target of Sikh immigration was initially the hamlet of Zahedan, near the border with then British India (now Pakistan) during the 1920s when the Trans-Iranian Railway project was started. According to a  folk etymology it is believed that when Reza Shah visited the city he saw Sikhs in white robes living there and thus changed the name from Dozdab (Land of thieves) to Zahedan (plural of the persian word  (), meaning 'pious') after the Sikhs who were considered zâhid (Sages) by him.

An Indian school was started in 1930s located in Zahedan serving Sikh families. It was shifted to Tehran in 1952 and became Kendriya Vidyalaya Tehran in 2004.

In 1979 there were around 250 Sikhs in Zahedan who own motor parts distributorships, construction firms and import-export companies. After the Iranian Revolution a number Sikhs left for India and Europe and remaining shifted to the capital city of Tehran.

In 2019 State Government of Punjab, India announced that a chair will be installed in the name of Guru Nanak in 11 universities, of which seven are in Punjab, three in other parts of India and one University of Religions and Denominations in Iran. The Chair will conduct research on life and teachings of Guru Nanak.

See also
 Masjid-e-Hindan
 Buddhism in Iran

References

Sikhism in Iran


The Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance (DCNA) is a regional partnership of conservation organisations, including the national parks on the six islands of the Dutch Caribbean (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Maarten) and is intended to support and strengthen the nature on the islands.

The purpose of DCNA is to protect the extensive biological resources and promote sustainable development of the natural resources of these islands, both on land and at sea. To do so, DCNA is developing sustainable funding sources such as a trust fund, building capacity through training workshops and promoting the overwhelmingly beautiful and unique nature, ranging from exuberant rainforest to coral reefs and pearl white sand dunes.

The extensive biological resources are the basis of one of the main sources of income on the islands: nature tourism. DCNA not only focuses on the sustainable management of existing protected areas, but also to increase awareness and knowledge of the value of nature.

The Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance is a non-governmental, not-for-profit foundation that is designed to assist the national park organisations of the islands of the Dutch Caribbean, i.e. the islands of Aruba (Parke Nacional Arikok), Bonaire (STINAPA Bonaire), Curaçao, Saba (Saba Conservation Foundation), St. Eustatius (STENAPA) and St. Maarten (St. Maarten Nature Foundation). The central office of the DCNA is on Bonaire.

DCNA's mission statement is to "safeguard the biodiversity and promote the sustainable management of the natural resources of the islands of the Dutch Caribbean, both on land and in the water, for the benefit of present and future generations, by supporting and assisting the protected area management organisations and nature conservation activities in the Dutch Caribbean".

DCNA is funded by the Dutch National Postcode Lottery and the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Princess Beatrix is one of DCNA's patrons.

References

 Bonaire Insider.com: "Grant of 1 million Euros to DCNA" (2006)

External links
 Official DCNA−Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance website—
 Official DCNA website—

Nature conservation organizations based in North America
Environment of the Dutch Caribbean
Nature conservation in Curaçao
Environment of the Caribbean
Environmental organisations based in the Netherlands
Organisations based in Bonaire

Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance


John Montgomery Ward (March 3, 1860 – March 4, 1925), known as Monte Ward, was an American Major League Baseball pitcher, shortstop, second baseman, third baseman, manager, executive, union organizer, owner and author. Ward, of English descent, was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania  and grew up in Renovo, Pennsylvania. He led the formation of the first professional sports players union and a new baseball league, the Players' League.

Early life
Ward attended the Bellefonte Academy in the early 1870s, and at 13 years of age, he was sent to Pennsylvania State University. In his short time there, he helped jumpstart a baseball program and is often credited for developing the first curveball. However, he was kicked out of school for pushing an upperclassman who attempted to haze him down a flight of stairs, and stealing chickens.

The following year, in 1874, his parents James and Ruth died. He tried to make it as a travelling salesman, but when that proved unsuccessful, he returned to his hometown. There, he rediscovered baseball. In , the semiprofessional team for which he was playing folded, which opened the door for him to move on to a new opportunity. He was offered a contract to pitch for the Providence Grays of the still new National League, an all-professional major league that had begun its operations in .

Providence Grays
Ward's first season with the Grays was a successful one, going 22–13 with a 1.51 ERA. He played that season exclusively as a pitcher, but during the following two seasons he played increasingly in the outfield and at third base. Ward had his two finest seasons as a pitcher, going 47–19 with 239 strikeouts and a 2.15 ERA in 1879 and 39–24 with 230 strikeouts and a 1.74 ERA in 1880. He pitched nearly 600 innings each year (587.0 in 1879 and 595.0 in 1880). As a 19-year-old pitcher, he won 47 games and led the  Providence Grays to a first-place finish.

In , he began to play other positions. On June 17, 1880, Ward pitched the second perfect game in baseball history, defeating future Hall of Famer Pud Galvin and the Buffalo Bisons, 5–0. Lee Richmond had thrown baseball's first perfect game just five days before, on June 12. The next perfect game by a National League pitcher would not happen for 84 years, when Jim Bunning pitched a perfect game in 1964. Ward also expanded his leadership role to include managing when he became a player-manager for the team's final 32 games, winning 18 of them, as the Grays finished in second place.

The seasons of  and  were the first in which he played more games in the outfield than he pitched. This was due to a nagging arm injury he originally incurred sliding into a base. He still pitched well when he did pitch, winning 37 games over those two seasons and having ERAs of 2.13 and 2.59 respectively, and on August 17, 1882, he pitched the longest complete game shutout in history, blanking the Detroit Wolverines 1–0 in 18 innings. By this time, however, the Grays felt his best days were behind him and sold their former ace hurler to the New York Giants.

New York and reserve clause
Ward moved to the new New York NL club in 1883. An injury to his right arm while running the bases during the 1884 season ended Ward's pitching career. As he could not wait for his arm to heal before he returned to the field, he taught himself to throw left-handed so he could play center field for the remainder of the 1884 season. He replaced Jim Price as the Giants' manager for the final 16 games of the 1884 season.

With his arm fully recuperated, he became the everyday shortstop in 1885.

Ward graduated from Columbia Law School in 1885 and led the players in forming the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players, the first sports labor union. Ward and the players had become frustrated with the owners' reserve clause, which allowed them to sign players to one-year contracts and then not allow them to negotiate with other teams when those contracts expired. The players felt that the owners had absolute power. At first, the players had some success, gaining the freedom to negotiate with other teams when they were asked to take a pay cut by their current team. In October 1887, Ward married actress Helen Dauvray.

In , after the Giants had finished first in the National League, and had won a playoff series known today as a "World Series", they played the St. Louis Browns of the American Association for the "Dauvray Cup", which was named after Ward's wife.  Ward then captained an All-Star team which, paired with Cap Anson's Chicago club, headed off on a barnstorming world tour. The owners held their winter meetings, and created a classification system that would determine a player's salary. Under the system, the most a player could earn was $2,500 (). The Giants then sold Ward to the Washington Nationals for a record price of $12,000. Ward was furious and left the tour early. He then demanded a meeting with the owners, and said he would refuse to play for Washington unless he received a large portion of his record sale price. Washington eventually refused payment on the transaction, nullifying the deal.

The owners denied Ward's request for a meeting to discuss the new classification system, saying no talks would be held until after the upcoming season. Though Ward and the union fought hard for these issues, this did not distract him or his Giants team, as he hit .299 and helped the Giants capture their second-straight "World Series" title in .

Amidst Ward's commitments as a ballplayer and union organizer, he still found time for a third occupation, that of author.  His 1888 book, Base-Ball: How to Become a Player, with the Origin, History and Explanation of the Game was the first published effort to explore baseball's development from its early roots.

The Players' League
Ward realized that negotiations with the owners were going nowhere and threatened to create a Players' League. The owners thought of it as nothing more than an idle threat but had failed to realize Ward's connections in the business community, and he began to launch the new league. This new Players' League included a profit sharing system for the players and had no reserve clause or classification plan.

The season began in  with over half of the National League's players from the previous year in its ranks. Ward acted as a player-manager for the Brooklyn club, nicknamed the Ward's Wonders, and finished seventh in the league with a .335 batting average. While the Players' League drew well at the box office, the teams' owners grew nervous when the money did not come in as expected because of the profit sharing system. Soon they began holding secret meetings with their National League counterparts and, one by one, sold their teams to the rival league.

Later career
Due to an agreement after the dissolution of the Players' League, Ward stayed in Brooklyn as player-manager for the National League team, the Brooklyn Grooms. Following the  season, Ward expressed his desire to return to the Giants and was sold to his former club for $6,000. Despite his declining bat, Ward led the league in stolen bases in 1893. Following the 1894 season, he retired at the age of 34. He finished his career with a .275 average, 2,104 hits, and 540 stolen bases. He is the only man in history to win over 100 games as a pitcher and collect over 2,000 hits.

Post-career
Ward retired from baseball at age 34 in order to enter the legal profession. As a successful lawyer he represented baseball players against the National League. Later he acted as president and part-owner of the Boston Braves franchise and became an official in the short-lived Federal League in 1914, acting as the business manager of the Brooklyn Tip-Tops.

In the last quarter century of his life, Ward's sporting passion became golf. He won several championships around New York, played all over Europe, and competed regularly in the United States Golf Association U.S. Amateur. He finished second in the prestigious North and South Amateur Championship at Pinehurst Country Club in North Carolina in 1903. The North and South Amateur was the equal of any major golf event at the turn of the century. The first North and South event took place in 1901. Ever the organizer, he was one of the founders of the New York Golf Association and the Long Island Golf Association.

Ward died in Augusta, Georgia, the day after his 65th birthday on March 4, 1925, after a bout of pneumonia, and is interred in Greenfield Cemetery in Hempstead, Long Island, New York.
Named in the Honor Rolls of Baseball in 1946, Ward was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1964. He was inducted into the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame on Long Island in the Baseball and Historic Recognition Categories with the Class of 2000.

See also

 List of Major League Baseball annual ERA leaders
 List of Major League Baseball perfect games
 List of Major League Baseball player-managers
 List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders
 List of Major League Baseball annual saves leaders
 List of Major League Baseball annual stolen base leaders
 List of Major League Baseball annual strikeout leaders
 List of Major League Baseball annual wins leaders

References
Bibliography

In-line citations

External links

 Retrosheet
 Box score for Ward's perfect game

National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Providence Grays players
New York Gothams players
New York Giants (NL) players
Brooklyn Ward's Wonders players
Brooklyn Grooms players
New York Gothams managers
Brooklyn Bridegrooms managers
New York Giants (NL) managers
Providence Grays managers
Major League Baseball shortstops
Major League Baseball second basemen
Major League Baseball pitchers
Major League Baseball outfielders
Major League Baseball pitchers who have pitched a perfect game
Major League Baseball player-managers
19th-century baseball players
National League ERA champions
National League strikeout champions
National League wins champions
National League stolen base champions
Baseball players from Pennsylvania
Penn State Nittany Lions baseball players
Philadelphia Athletic players
Philadelphia (minor league baseball) players
Janesville Mutual players
Buffalo (minor league baseball) players
Binghamton Crickets (1870s) players
Baseball developers
Sports labor leaders
Columbia Law School alumni
Pennsylvania State University alumni
Burials in New York (state)
1860 births
1925 deaths
Deaths from pneumonia in Georgia (U.S. state)
American people of English descent
Players' League

John Montgomery Ward


A constitutional crisis took place in Spain from 2017 to 2018 as the result of a political conflict between the Government of Spain and the Generalitat de Catalunya under the then-President Carles Puigdemont—the government of the autonomous community of Catalonia until 28 October 2017—over the issue of Catalan independence. It started after the law intending to allow the 2017 Catalan independence referendum was denounced by the Spanish government under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and subsequently suspended by the Constitutional Court until it ruled on the issue. Some international media outlets have described the events as "one of the worst political crises in modern Spanish history".

Puigdemont's government announced that neither central Spanish authorities nor the courts would halt their plans and that it intended to hold the vote anyway, sparking a legal backlash that quickly spread from the Spanish and Catalan governments to Catalan municipalities—as local mayors were urged by the Generalitat to provide logistical support and help for the electoral process to be carried out—as well as to the Constitutional Court, the High Court of Justice of Catalonia and state prosecutors. By 15 September, as pro-Catalan independence parties began their referendum campaigns, the Spanish government had launched an all-out legal offensive to thwart the upcoming vote, including threats of a financial takeover of much of the Catalan budget, police seizing pro-referendum posters, pamphlets and leaflets which had been regarded as illegal and criminal investigations ordered on the over 700 local mayors who had publicly agreed to help stage the referendum. Tensions between the two sides reached a critical point after Spanish police raided the Catalan government headquarters in Barcelona on 20 September, at the start of Operation Anubis, and arrested fourteen senior Catalan officials. This led to protests outside the Catalan economy department which saw Civil Guard officers trapped inside the building for hours and several vehicles vandalized. The referendum was eventually held, albeit without meeting minimum standards for elections and amid low turnout and a police crackdown ended with hundreds injured. Also Spanish Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that up to 431 officers were injured bruised or even bitten.

On 10 October, Puigdemont ambiguously declared and suspended independence during a speech in the Parliament of Catalonia, arguing his move was directed at entering talks with Spain. The Spanish government required Puigdemont to clarify whether he had declared independence or not, to which it received no clear answer. A further requirement was met with an implicit threat from the Generalitat that it would lift the suspension on the independence declaration if Spain "continued its repression", in response to the imprisonment of the leaders of pro-independence Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural, accused of sedition by the National Court because of their involvement in the 20 September events. On 21 October, it was announced by Prime Minister Rajoy that Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution would be invoked, leading to direct rule over Catalonia by the Spanish government once approved by the Senate.

On 27 October, the Catalan parliament voted in a secret ballot to unilaterally declare independence from Spain, with most deputies of the opposition boycotting a vote considered illegal for violating the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Spain, as the lawyers of the Parliament of Catalonia warned. As a result, the government of Spain invoked the Constitution to remove the regional authorities and enforce direct rule the next day, with a regional election being subsequently called for 21 December 2017 to elect a new Parliament of Catalonia. Puigdemont and part of his cabinet fled to Belgium after being ousted, as the Spanish Attorney General pressed for charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds against them.

Background
The recent increase in support for Catalan independence has its roots in a Constitutional Court ruling in 2010, which struck down parts of the regional 2006 Statute of Autonomy that granted new powers of self-rule to the region. The ruling came after four years of deliberation concerning a constitutional appeal filed by the conservative People's Party (PP) under Mariano Rajoy—then the country's second-largest party, in opposition to the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's Spanish Socialist Workers' Party—and was met with anger and street protests in Catalonia. Shortly afterward the PP took power in Spain, and after a massive independence demonstration took place in Barcelona on 11 September 2012—Catalonia's National Day—the Catalan government under Artur Mas called a snap regional election and set out to initiate Catalonia's process towards independence.

After a pro-independence coalition formed by the Junts pel Sí alliance and the Popular Unity Candidacy won a slim majority in the Parliament in the 2015 regional election, Carles Puigdemont replaced Mas as President of the Generalitat. Puigdemont promised to organise a binding independence referendum based on results from a multi-question, non-binding vote in 2014, when about 80% of those who voted were believed to have backed independence for the region, and up to 91.8% supported Catalonia becoming a state—albeit on an estimated turnout around or below 40%. The Catalan government invoked the right of people to self-determination and Catalonia's political, economical and cultural background to back up its proposal for a referendum on Catalan independence. The Government of Spain, now with Mariano Rajoy as Prime Minister, opposed such a vote, arguing that any referendum on Catalan independence would go against the country's 1978 Constitution, as it made no provision for a vote on self-determination.

On 9 June 2017, Puigdemont announced that the planned independence referendum would be held on 1 October the same year. The Catalan government criticised the attitude of the Spanish government in refusing to negotiate a referendum and accused it of behaving undemocratically.

Start of crisis

Referendum suspended

On 6 September 2017, the ruling Junts pel Sí (JxSí) coalition and its parliamentary partner, the Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), passed the Law on the Referendum on Self-determination of Catalonia in the Parliament of Catalonia that was to provide the legal framework for the intended independence referendum scheduled for 1 October. The way in which the law had been pushed through Parliament and the clear unconstitutionality of the law became an issue of controversy. Catalan opposition parties accused JxSí and CUP of fast-tracking the law through parliament, not allowing them to appeal the law before being put up to vote. In 2018, the Constitutional Court ruled that the rights of the opposition were indeed undermined. Shortly after the parliamentary vote, in which most of the opposition MPs walked out from the chamber without voting on the bill, the Catalan regional government signed the decree calling the referendum. On 7 September and under a similar procedure as the previous day, pro-independence lawmakers in the Parliament of Catalonia passed the Law of transitional jurisprudence and foundation of the Republic, aimed at superseding the Spanish Constitution and the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia with a new legal framework should a simple majority vote 'Yes' to the independence choice with no minimum participation required. Besides its unconstitutional character, the law was criticized for being approved with a simple majority, in contrast with the two thirds needed to reform the Statute of Autonomy or the Spanish Constitution, the generous control it afforded the executive power over the new judicial branch and the extensive degree of immunity offered to the president of the new republic.

The People's Party-led Spanish government under Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced that it would appeal the bill to the Constitutional Court, which agreed to hear all four of its unconstitutionality appeals and subsequently suspended the law and the referendum until it could rule upon the matter. Despite the referendum suspension, the Catalan government announced it would proceed with the vote anyway. This prompted Attorney General José Manuel Maza to ask security forces to investigate possible preparations from the Catalan government to hold the vote, as well as announcing he would present criminal charges against members of both the regional parliament and government for voting and signing off the referendum. The national government proceeded to deploy a series of legal measures intended to nullify the referendum, while also warning local councils in Catalonia to either impede or paralyse efforts to carry out the vote. Previously, local mayors had been given 48 hours by the regional government to confirm the availability of polling stations for 1 October.

Within the next two days, nearly 74% of Catalan municipalities—comprising about 43% of the Catalan population—had agreed to provide the necessary polling stations for the referendum, whereas many of the most-populated urban areas—representing 24% of Catalan inhabitants—had voiced their opposition to the vote. The largest city and capital of Catalonia, Barcelona—accounting for about 20% of the region's population—was caught in the middle, with its local mayor, Ada Colau, refusing to make a statement whether the municipality would provide logistic support to the referendum or not while rejecting putting public servants at risk; she, however, voiced her support for the people's right to vote in a fair and legal referendum. Concurrently, President of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont, Vice-president Oriol Junqueras, the entire Catalan government as well as parliamentary officials allowing the referendum law to be put to vote in Parliament—including Parliament Speaker Carme Forcadell—faced charges of disobedience, misusing public funds and making deliberately unlawful decisions as elected officials as the High Court of Justice of Catalonia agreed to hear the criminal complaints filled by state prosecutors.

Judicial and police action

On 8 September the Attorney General of Catalonia, José María Romero de Tejada, presented two complaints to the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) against him Government and the Bureau of Parliament for crimes of disobedience, prevarication and misappropriation of public funds, as announced the day before the Attorney General José Manuel Maza. These complaints included the guarantee request for the members of the Government as well as a request for a notification to all mayors of Catalonia to prevent any "personal or material resource, including local" resources being provided for the celebration of referendum. The court was also asked to notify the Catalan media managers of the prohibition of inserting institutional advertising or propaganda of the referendum.

These complaints were admitted by the TSJC on 14 September without accepting the request for a deposit for the members of the Government.

A decision on 13 September from Spain's public prosecutors to order a criminal probe of all local mayors who had publicly announced they would help stage the independence referendum—totalling over 700—came the day after the Constitutional Court had accepted the Spanish government's request to suspend the second of the two laws that had been approved by the secessionist majority in the Catalan parliament the previous week. The probe meant that prosecutors could choose to present criminal charges—or even arrest, if failing to answer the summons—local mayors who disobeyed the Constitutional Court's ruling. As part of a series of moves to block the Catalan referendum, prosecutors had also instructed police officials to seize ballot boxes, election flyers and other items that could be of use in the illegal vote, whereas the Constitutional Court had instructed regional government officials to show how they were preventing the vote from going ahead within a 48-hour deadline. In response, the Catalan government sent a letter to Treasury Minister Cristóbal Montoro announcing that it would stop sending weekly financial accounts to Spain's central government, a previously established obligation that was meant to verify whether the region was using public money for the promotion of its independence drive as well as a requirement for the region's access to a funding programme to autonomous communities established in 2012. The Spanish government then proceeded to take direct control of most of Catalonia's invoice payments.

In a search on 19 September, Spanish police seized significant election material which had been in store by referendum organizers at the offices of a private delivery company in Terrassa. These included voting cards contained in envelopes with the Catalan government's logo. The next day, the Civil Guard raided Generalitat offices and arrested fourteen senior officials from the Catalan government—most notably, these included , deputy to regional Vice-president Oriol Junqueras. This came after mayors from towns supporting the referendum were questioned in court by state prosecutors. Regional premier Carles Puigdemont condemned the actions as "anti-democratic and totalitarian", accusing the Spanish government of 'de facto' imposing a state of emergency and of suspending Catalonia's autonomy after it took effective control over Catalan finances. Public protests occurred in Barcelona after news of the arrests emerged, with left-wing political party Podemos and Barcelona mayor Ada Colau joining the growing criticism of Mariano Rajoy's government crackdown on public servants, dubbing it as an "authoritarian regression". The previous day, the Congress of Deputies had voted down a motion from Ciudadanos to support the Spanish government's response to the referendum, which was rejected by 166 votes to 158. Rajoy defended his government's actions in that "What we're seeing in Catalonia is an attempt to eliminate the constitution and the autonomous statute of Catalonia... Logically, the state has to react. There is no democratic state in the world that would accept what these people are trying to do. They've been warned and they know the referendum can't take place". Rajoy also called for the Catalonia government to give up its "escalation of radicalism and disobedience", calling for them to "Go back to the law and democracy" and dubbing the referendum a "chimera", as tens of thousands gathered in the streets of Barcelona and other Catalan cities to protest police actions. The Spanish government did not rule out invoking Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, which would allow the central government to adopt "the necessary measures to compel regional authorities to obey the law"—in practice, allowing for the autonomy's effective suspension and direct rule of the region.

On 21 September, the Catalan government acknowledged that the raid and arrests in the previous day severely hampered the referendum's logistics by preventing any alternative election data centre to be established in time for the vote to take place. Nonetheless, Catalan Vice-president Junqueras called for people to turn out and mobilise on 1 October, turning the social response into a "censure motion to Rajoy", stating that "If there is any possibility of change in Spain, democracy must triumph in Catalonia". As street protests continued throughout Catalonia, additional police reinforcements were sent by the Spanish government to block any moves to hold the referendum on 1 October. Spanish prosecutors formally accused some protesters in Barcelona of sedition, after several Civil Guard patrol cars had been vandalised on Wednesday night. By 23 September, the Spanish government announced that the Mossos d'Esquadra—the regional police force—were to be subordinated to a single command dependent of the Spanish government and that the Interior Ministry would assume co-ordination over all security forces in Catalonia. The previous day, several hundred students had announced a permanent occupation of the historic building of the University of Barcelona, protesting the state's actions.

Development

Referendum and subsequent events

Despite the suspension, the Catalan referendum was held on 1 October 2017, as scheduled by the Generalitat. The absention rate was 58%, with the 2,044,038 voters in favour of independence amounting to 39% of all 5,313,564 registered voters. Over 12,000 officers from the National Police Corps and the Civil Guard were deployed throughout Catalonia in an effort to close off polling stations and seize all election material to prevent the vote from taking place. The Spanish government was forced to call off police raids after clashes with protesters resulted in two people seriously injured, one for a gum ball shot against the eye and the other one due to a heart attack. 893 civilians and 111 agents of the Nacional Police and the Civil Guard were reported to have been injured. According to some Spanish media these previously reported figures may have been exaggerated. The Guardian's columnist, Peter Preston, said the number of injured "hadn't been independently checked" while he still described the police action as "violent and frightening".

However, the Official College of Doctors of Barcelona (Col·legi de Metges de Barcelona) stated that "professionalism and independence of doctors can not be questioned because they act under a deontological code to attend and diagnose patients". The judge who is currently investigating the accusations of police violence had already identified 218 people injured on 10 October, 20 of whom were police officers.

The events of 1 October sparked a public outcry in Catalonia, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets to protest Spanish police violence.

On 3 October 2017, as huge protest rallies and a general strike took place in Catalonia, King Felipe VI delivered an unusually strongly worded televised address in which he condemned the referendum organizers for acting "outside the law", accusing them of "unacceptable disloyalty" and of "eroding the harmony and co-existence within Catalan society itself". He also warned the referendum could put the economy of the entire north-east region of Spain at risk. Reactions to the King's speech were mixed. Party officials from the PP and Ciudadanos praised the King's "commitment to legality", whereas leaders from Unidos Podemos and Catalunya en Comú criticised it as "unworthy and irresponsible", paving the way for a harsh intervention in Catalan autonomy. PSOE's leaders expressed support for the King's words in public, but were reported to be privately dissatisfied that the King had not made any call to encourage understanding or dialogue between the Spanish and Catalan governments. On 5 October the Constitutional Court of Spain suspended a future parliamentary session (scheduled for 9 October) that was planned in order to push for a Declaration of Independence.

On 5 October, Banco Sabadell, the second-largest bank based in Catalonia, announced its decision to move its legal headquarters out of the region amid economic uncertainty over the future of Catalonia's political situation ahead of a projected unilateral declaration of independence the ensuing week, which had seen sharp falls in the group's share prices the previous day and rating agencies downgrading the region. Concurrently, CaixaBank, the biggest bank in the region and the third largest in Spain, also announced it was considering redomiciling outside Catalonia. This sparked a massive business exit in the ensuing hours, with companies such as Abertis, Gas Natural, Grifols, Fersa Energias Renovables, Agbar, Freixenet, Codorníu, Idilia Foods, San Miguel Beer and Planeta Group also announcing or considering their intention to move their HQs out of Catalonia. The Spanish government announced on Friday 6 October that it would issue a decree allowing companies based in Catalonia to move out of the region without holding a shareholders' meeting. On 11 October, Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art announced that it was repatriating its collection of Art & Language works on loan at Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) since 2010. Within two weeks, more than 1,000 business and firms would move out of Catalonia.

On 7 October, tens of thousands of demonstrators rallied in Madrid and Barcelona dressed in white and without flags with the slogan 'Shall we talk?', asking for a deescalation of the political conflict. On 8 October, the largest demonstration against Catalan independence in recent Spanish history took place in Barcelona, the local police estimating at about 400,000 the number of participants. Later High Representative of the European Union Josep Borrell, Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa and several representatives of the opposition parties in the Catalan parliament delivered speeches against the independence process.

Simultaneously, pro-unity groups increasingly took to the streets throughout Spain, with some gatherings leading to scuffles in Barcelona and Valencia. The Mossos d'Esquadra were put under investigation for disobedience, accused of not complying with a command from the High Court of Justice of Catalonia to prevent the referendum and with their passivity allowing polling stations to open.

In an ambiguous speech during a parliamentary session in the Parliament of Catalonia on 10 October, Puigdemont declared that "Catalonia had earned the right to be an independent state" and that he defended "the mandate of the people of Catalonia to become an independent republic". However, he immediately announced that parliament would suspend a formal declaration of independence in order to pursue dialogue with the Spanish government. Puigdemont and other pro-independence deputies then signed a symbolic declaration of independence with no legal effect. Puigdemont's move came after pressure resulting from the business exit on the previous days as well as pleas from Barcelona's mayor Ada Colau and European Council President Donald Tusk urging him to step back from declaring independence. This was met with disappointment from thousands of pro-independence supporters who had gathered nearby to watch the session on giant screens, as well as criticism from the CUP, who voiced their discontent at Puigdemont's decision not to proclaim a Catalan republic right away and did not rule out abandoning the Parliament until the signed declaration of independence was effective.

On 17 October, the National Court ordered Jordi Sànchez and Jordi Cuixart—leaders of pro-independence groups Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural—to be preventively put into jail without bail pending an investigation into alleged sedition for having played central roles in orchestrating massive protests aimed at hindering Civil Guard activity. They were accused of leading the protest of tens of thousands of people that surrounded the Catalan economy department offices on 20–21 September 2017 heeding a call made by Òmnium Cultural and ANC, during which three vehicles of the Civil Guard were vandalised and their occupants forced to flee into the Economy Department building, a court clerk remained trapped until midnight inside the building and had to flee by the roof, while several agents were trapped throughout the night as demonstrators shouted outside "You won't get out!". The Civil Guard agents cornered into the building made 6 calls for help to the autonomous police force of Catalonia Mossos d'Esquadra which were ignored, the first of them performed at 9:14 am with the subject: "Urgent - Request for support to Mossos". According to the judge the actions of Sànchez and Cruixat are into the scope of sedition, a felony regulated by the article 544 and subsequents of the Spanish Criminal Code:

Pro-independence politicians and organizations, including Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, have referred to Cuixart and Sànchez as political prisoners. The Spanish Justice Minister Rafael Catalá argued that they were not "political prisoners" but "imprisoned politicians". An article published in El País argued that according to the criteria established by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Sànchez and Cuixart could not be considered "political prisoners". Amnesty International issued an official statement considering the charge of sedition and the preventive imprisonment as "excessive" and called for their immediate release, but several days later made it clear that it did not consider them "political prisoners". Some Catalan media, such as La Vanguardia, reported that footage from the incident showed Cuixart and Sànchez trying to call off the protests, contradicting that part of the judicial order imprisoning them which said that they had not tried "to call off the demonstration".

Independence declaration and direct rule

On 11 October, after a special cabinet meeting intended to address the events on the previous day, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced he was formally requiring the Catalan government to confirm whether it had declared independence before 16 October at 10am, with a further 3-day deadline until 19 October to revoke all deemed illegal acts if an affirmative answer—or no answer at all—was obtained. This requirement was a formal requisite needed to trigger article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, a so-called "nuclear option" that would allow the Spanish government to suspend Catalonia's political autonomy and impose direct rule from Madrid. Pressure mounted within the pro-independence coalition as the Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP) demanded an unambiguous affirmation of Catalan independence, threatening to withdraw its parliamentary support from Puigdemont's government if he rescinded his independence claim. In his formal response to Rajoy's requirement hurrying the initial five-day deadline, Puigdemont failed to clarify whether independence had been declared and instead called for negotiations over the following two months. The Spanish government replied that this was not a valid response to its requirement and doubted that Puigdemont's offer for dialogue was sincere due to his lack of "clarity". The refusal from the Catalan government to either confirm or deny independence triggered a second deadline for them to backtrack before direct rule was imposed. The Spanish government subsequently offered to abort the incoming move to suspend self-rule if the Catalan government called for a regional election, but this was ruled out by the latter.

On 19 October, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy confirmed that the Spanish government would trigger Article 155 and move to suspend Catalonia's autonomy after a cabinet meeting scheduled for 21 October, following a letter from Puigdemont in which he said that the independence declaration remained suspended but that the Catalan parliament could choose to vote on it if Spain continued its "repression". Subsequently, Rajoy announced the Spanish government would take direct control over the Generalitat of Catalonia, proceeding to remove Puigdemont and the entire Catalan government from their offices and call a regional election within six months, pending Senate approval.

On 26 October, one day ahead of the scheduled enforcement of Article 155 by the Spanish Senate, it was announced that Puigdemont had chosen to dissolve the Parliament of Catalonia within the coming hours and call for an emergency snap election on or around 20 December in order to prevent direct rule from Madrid. This move sparked an outcry within pro-independence ranks, as they wished to hold a vote for a unilateral declaration of independence in response to the Spanish government's move to trigger Article 155. In the end Puigdemont chose not to dissolve Parliament, allegedly because of the Spanish government's refusal to call off the Article 155 procedure even though an election was called by Puigdemont. A debate over a possible declaration of independence then went ahead as planned in the Parliament of Catalonia later that day and into the next morning, simultaneous to the Spanish Senate debating the enforcement of Article 155. At the end of the debate, the Catalan parliament voted for a unilateral declaration of independence, by secret ballot, which was backed 70–10, with two MPs casting a blank ballot, with all MPs from Citizens, the Socialists' Party of Catalonia and the People's Party boycotting the vote because of its illegality for violating the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Spain, as the lawyers of the Parliament of Catalonia warned. Soon after that, the Senate of Spain approved the activation of article 155 of the Constitution for Catalonia in a 214–47 vote, with one abstention.

Subsequently, on 28 October, Mariano Rajoy dismissed the Executive Council of Catalonia, dissolved the Parliament of Catalonia and called a snap regional election for 21 December 2017 and handed coordination over Generalitat of Catalonia functions to Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría. On 30 October, as Spanish Attorney General José Manuel Maza called for charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement against Puigdemont and other Catalan leaders, it transpired that the ousted President and five of his ministers had fled to Belgium. Puigdemont, however, declared that he was not in Belgium "to seek asylum" and that he would respect the 21 December election, but also noting that he would not return home until "a fair judicial process was guaranteed" in Spain. Concurrently, lack of civil unrest and work resuming as normal throughout Catalonia showed direct rule from Madrid taking hold, with Spanish authorities reasserting administrative control over Catalan territory with little resistance. On 31 October, the independence declaration was suspended by the Constitutional Court of Spain.

Spain's National Court () summoned Puigdemont and 13 other members of his dismissed government to appear on 2 November to respond to the criminal charges pressed against them. It was later ordered by the judge that eight members of the deposed Catalan government—including Puigdemont's deputy and ERC leader, Oriol Junqueras—be remanded in custody without bail after testifying for posing a flight risk, with a ninth—Santi Vila—being granted a €50,000 bail. Spanish prosecutors sought a European Arrest Warrant for Puigdemont and four other members who had remained in Belgium and refused to attend the hearing. The EAW demanding Puigdemont and his allies' arrest was officially issued to Belgium the next day, on 3 November, which Belgium said they would "study" before making any decisions. The detention of the former Generalitat members led to increased protests in Catalonia, with thousands calling for "freedom" for whom they viewed as "political prisoners". Puigdemont declared from an undisclosed location in Belgium that he regarded the detentions as "an act that breaks with the basic principles of democracy". In contrast, a separate case against other Catalan lawmakers was adjourned by the Supreme Court () after all six of them, including Catalan parliament speaker Carme Forcadell, showed up to the summons. Puigdemont and the four other cabinet members turned themselves in to Belgian authorities on 5 November, awaiting a decision by the federal prosecutor on whether to hand them over to Spain or decline the warrant. They were released by the judge on the same day on conditions, such as they would not be able to leave the country without prior consent and would have to provide details to the police about their accommodation. On 5 December, six jailed members of the deposed government were freed on bail, while four others, including Oriol Junqueras, were required to remain imprisoned. The next day, Spain withdrew the EAW against Puigdemont just over a month after issuing it to Belgian authorities. On 18 November, while in office, Attorney General José Manuel Maza suddenly died and was succeeded ad interim by Luis Navajas until the appointment on 11 December of Julián Sánchez Melgar.

Regional election and investiture

The 21 December regional election called by Rajoy resulted in pro-independence parties retaining a reduced majority with 70 seats overall, with Puigdemont's coalition, Together for Catalonia, performing above expectations. With 36 seats, the main anti-independence party, Citizens, emerged as the largest in the Parliament, whereas Rajoy's People's Party was severely mauled after being reduced to 4.2% of the share and 4 out of 135 seats.

Inés Arrimadas, Citizens' leader in the region, announced she would not try to form a government on her own, instead waiting and see how negotiations between pro-independence parties evolved, due to them commanding a majority against her hypothetical candidacy. As the candidate of the most-voted party within the pro-independence bloc, Puigdemont intended to be re-elected as president, but this was hampered by the fact he risked being arrested by Spanish authorities upon returning from Brussels. Further, pro-independence parties could only command 62 seats—six short of a majority—as in practice eight of their elected deputies were either in Brussels with Puigdemont or in preventive detention.

After the Catalan parliament elected Roger Torrent as new speaker, Puigdemont was proposed as candidate for re-election as President of the Generalitat. However, facing arrest on possible charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds, the Catalan parliament delayed Puigdemont's investiture after Constitutional Court ruled that he could not assume the presidency from abroad. With other pro-independence leaders assuring the pro-independence movement should outlive Puigdemont in order to end the political deadlock, the former Catalan president announced on 1 March he would step his claim aside in order to allow detained activist Jordi Sànchez, from his Together for Catalonia alliance, to become president instead. However, as Spain's Supreme Court did not allow Sànchez to be freed from jail to attend his investiture ceremony, Sànchez ended up giving up his candidacy on 21 March in favour of former Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull, who was also under investigation for his role in the referendum.

Turull was defeated in the first ballot of a hastily convened investiture session held on 22 March, with only his Together for Catalonia alliance and ERC voting for him and the Popular Unity Candidacy abstaining, resulting in a 64–65 defeat. The next day and less than 24 hours before he was due to attend the second ballot, the Supreme Court announced that thirteen senior Catalan leaders—including Turull—would be charged with rebellion over their roles in the 2017 unilateral referendum and subsequent declaration of independence. Llarena sent five of them, including Turull and Carme Forcadell, previous Catalan Parliament speaker, to preventive jail; being the others already in preventive jail or exile. In anticipation of this ruling and in order to avoid appearing in court, Marta Rovira—ERC's general secretary and deputy leader to jailed Oriol Junqueras—fled the country to Switzerland in self-exile. As a result, the Parliament speaker Roger Torrent cancelled Turull's second investiture ballot. Thousands took the streets of dozens of Catalan cities to show discomfort with the decision of the court.

The European Arrest Warrant against Puigdemont was reactivated just as he was in a visit to Finland, but he had already left the country for Belgium before Finnish authorities received it. On his way to Belgium on 25 March he was caught and detained in Germany while crossing the border from Denmark. On 4 April he was released on bail after the state court in Schleswig rejected extraditing him for rebellion, though he may still be extradited on corruption charges. Ultimately, though, Spain dropped its European arrest warrant, ending the extradition attempt. Puigdemont was once again free to travel, and chose to return to Belgium.

Alleged international interference

Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned Catalonia's independence referendum as "illegal". However, an analysis by the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs of over five million social media messages found that some Russian media and accounts on social networks related to Venezuela allegedly collaborated on disseminating negative propaganda against the Spanish government days before and after the referendum. Russia's RT and Sputnik would use Venezuelan social bots that would typically promote the Bolivarian government in Venezuela to criticize the Spanish government and police violence against citizens in Catalonia. Social bots, anonymous accounts and official state media accounts shared 97% of the anti-Spain messages while only 3% of the messages were shared by real social media members. Leaders of the George Washington University study displayed concern about the findings, stating that "democratic systems have the obligation to investigate these signs and implement systematic methods of monitoring and responding to alleged disruptions of foreign agents" and that it appeared the authors of the propaganda are the same as the ones who allegedly interfered in the 2016 United States presidential election and Brexit.

The Spanish Ministry of Defence and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation later said it had confirmed that Russian actors and Venezuela had attempted to destabilize the nation and Europe by means of propaganda, though it would not confirm if the Russian government was directly involved and warned that similar misinformation actions may take place in future elections. NATO officials also made comments stating that Russia has been attempting to undermine Western governments through disinformation campaigns.

Members of Catalonia's separatist groups have denied allegations of foreign interference. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in response: "Probably they are arranging this kind of scandalous, sensational hysteria in order to distract the attention of their electorate from their inability to resolve their problems at home." Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on 15 November: "The Spanish authorities, NATO, and the newspapers did not bring up a single worthwhile argument to back these claims. We consider these claims to be groundless, and more likely a deliberate or inadvertent continuation of the same hysteria that is now happening in the United States and a number of other countries."

According to the investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), in Barcelona on the evening of 26 October 2017, the day before the unilateral declaration of independence by the Parliament of Catalonia, Catalan president Carles Puigdemont met with the envoys of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Led by businessman Nikolay Sadovnikov, the Russian emissaries offered to give the Catalan government 10,000 armed Russian soldiers for the fight for independence against the Spanish state as well as an improbable sum of $500 billion in aid to pay all the Catalan debt. In return for their support, the Russian delegation requested that the Catalan government passes the necessary legislation to turn Catalonia into a new Switzerland of cryptocurrency. Although the meeting ended without a deal, the relationship between the Russians and the Catalan government has continued even after the failure of the push for independence with Puigdemont's associate, Víctor Terradellas, as the main interlocutor.

References

2017 in Catalonia
Spain
Spain
Spain
2018 in Catalonia
Spain
Spanish constitutional crisis
Catalan independence movement
Spain
Politics of Catalonia
Politics of Spain
Protests in Spain
Spain
September 2017 events in Spain
October 2017 events in Spain
November 2017 events in Spain
December 2017 events in Spain
January 2018 events in Spain
Russia–Spain relations
Foreign electoral intervention
Russia intelligence operations

2017–2018 Spanish constitutional crisis


El Siete Machos (aka The Seven Macho Men) is a 1951 Mexican comedy western film directed by Miguel M. Delgado, and starring Cantinflas, Alma Rosa Aguirre, and Miguel Ángel Ferriz.

Plot
After the tragic death of her father, who had been ambushed and killed years ago, Rosario returns to the ranch that had belonged to him. Rosario arrives with the desire to meet "El Siete Machos" ("The Seven Macho Men"), an outlaw who in the style of Robin Hood distributes the loot of his robberies among the poor, called like that because "he possesses the courage of seven macho men". Along the way, Rosario meets Margarito, a naive but rogueish ranch hand who looks identical to El Siete Machos.

Cast
 Cantinflas as Margarito / El Siete Machos
 Alma Rosa Aguirre as Rosario
 Miguel Ángel Ferriz as Don Carmelo
 Miguel Inclán as Toño
 Delia Magaña as Chole
 Carlos Martínez Baena as Padre Guzmán (as Carlos M. Baena)
 Rafael Icardo as Don Ceferino
 José Elías Moreno as El Chacal
 Antonio R. Frausto as Jefe municipal
 Enriqueta Reza as Yerbera
 Ernesto Finance as Miembro de la banda del Siete Machos
 Carlos Múzquiz as  Manuel
 Ángel Infante as Don Guadalupe
 Víctor Alcocer (uncredited)
 José Chávez (uncredited)
 Edmundo Espino como Maestro (uncredited)
 José Luis Fernández as Miembro de la banda (uncredited)
 Jesús García as Peón (uncredited)
 Leonor Gómez as Cocinera (uncredited)
 Cecilia Leger as Invitada a fiesta (uncredited)
 Kika Meyer as Mujer en cantina (uncredited)
 José Muñoz as Florentino (uncredited)
 José Pardavé as Peón (uncredited)
 Aurora Ruiz as Felisa (uncredited)

References

External links

1951 films
1950s Spanish-language films
1950s Western (genre) comedy films
Films directed by Miguel M. Delgado
Mexican black-and-white films
Mexican Western (genre) comedy films
1951 comedy films
1950s Mexican films

El Siete Machos


The Podgorica–Shkodër railway is a railway connecting Albania and Montenegro, used for freight-purposes only. It is Albania's only international rail link. Although initially built between 1984 and 1985, it fell into disuse in 1991 and later fully reopened in 2003.

The rail infrastructure is operated by Montenegrin ŽICG on Montenegrin territory and Hekurudha Shqiptare (Albanian Railways) on Albanian territory. Nevertheless, train services are usually operated by Montenegrin operator ŽPCG between Podgorica and the Albanian Bajzë station and by Hekurudha Shqiptare between Bajzë and Shkodër only.

The line connects to Belgrade–Bar railway and Nikšić–Podgorica railway in Podgorica and Shkodër–Vorë railway in Shkodër.

Overview
Podgorica–Shkodër is a  long standard gauge railway, of which  runs through Albania and the remaining  through Montenegro. Like other railways throughout Albania, the railway is not electrified. The line's last station in Albania is the Bajzë Rail Station.

History
Built between 1984 and 1985, the Podgorica–Shkodër freight line was the first international railway of Albania. It began operations on 11 January 1985 with regular traffic beginning 6 August 1986. The line fell into disuse in 1991 due to trade sanctions in Yugoslavia. The Bajzë-Shkodër line (with the exception of Hani i Hotit) was reopened for use in February 1996. A reopening of the Hani i Hotit-Bajzë line was scheduled for 15 November 1996 but was cancelled. The track was later badly damaged due to civil unrest in 1997.

In April 2002, reconstruction of the line between the Montenegrin border at Hani i Hotit and Bajzë were completed. By March 2003, the line between Bajzë and Shkodër was completed with 365 million lek funded by the Albanian government. A ceremony held on 6 March 2003 officially marked the opening of the Bajzë–Shkodër. As a sign of mutual cooperation, then-Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano and a then-Montenegrin Deputy Prime Minister travelled to Tuzi in Montenegro on a special train operating on this line.

Future Plans
Long-term plans currently exist for the establishment and operation of passenger service on this railway.

There are other plans involving the construction of a new high-speed rail line between Podgorica and Shkodër.

References

See also
 Albanian Railways
 Railways of Montenegro

Railway lines in Albania
Railway lines in Montenegro
Railway lines opened in 1985
Albania–Montenegro relations
International railway lines

Podgorica–Shkodër railway


The Fokker F-32 was a passenger aircraft built by the Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America in 1929 in their Teterboro, New Jersey factory.
It was the first four-engined aircraft designed and built in the United States. Ten examples were built, but they only entered limited commercial service; their high cost and problems with the cooling of the aft engines proved prohibitive. The United States Army Air Corps evaluated the F-32 as the YC-20, but did not purchase it.

Crash

The first F-32 crashed on November 27, 1929, during a demonstration of a three-engined takeoff from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York. One of the two port engines was stopped, but the other failed shortly after takeoff, causing a loss of control. The aircraft came down on a house in nearby Carle Place, and was totally destroyed in the crash and subsequent fire.  Nobody was killed, although the pilot and a passenger were injured.

This crash was witnessed by famous American poet Ogden Nash, who wrote of it to his then-fiancée Frances (later his wife). Nash's account is found in Loving Letters from Ogden Nash: A Family Album, edited by Linell Nash Smith (Nash's daughter).

Power issues
The crash displayed the F-32's most notable problem; it was underpowered, which was made worse by the aircraft's back-to-back engine configuration, with an engine on each end of the underwing nacelles. The front engine powered a two-bladed propeller and the rear engine a three-bladed one. The aft propellers, working in the disturbed air from the front, were inefficient, and their engines suffered from cooling problems. The underpowering problem was partially solved by replacing the prototype's Pratt & Whitney Wasp engines with more powerful Pratt & Whitney R-1860 Hornet Bs on later planes, but the other issues remained with the planes throughout their short service lives.

Orders
Initially, Western Air Express and Universal Air Lines each ordered five aircraft, and there was interest from other airlines, including KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines). However, despite the painting of a prototype for Universal, they cancelled their order, and WAE only picked up two instead of the planned five, largely because of the Great Depression.

Service with Western Air Express
Western Air Express were the only purchasers of the F-32, buying two of them.
They operated out of Alhambra Airport in Alhambra, California and later Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale, California, flying to Oakland International Airport (Oakland, California) and other West Coast destinations.

U.S. Army Air Corps trial
In 1930, the U.S. Army Air Corps borrowed an F-32 for testing, designating it YC-20. Just as with the Boeing Y1C-18, the aircraft remained the property of the manufacturer and was returned after testing. It was the largest transport aircraft tested by the USAAC, at the time, and would remain so until the late 1930s.

Operators

 Universal Air Lines
 United States Army Air Corps
 Western Air Express

Specifications

References

Gunston, Bill (ed.) The Illustrated Encyclopeida of Propeller Airliners. London:Phoebus, 1980. .

1920s United States airliners
F 32
Four-engined push-pull aircraft
High-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1929

Fokker F-32