THERE’S only one story in town: Catalonia. And there’s only one question: where do we go from here? First up, can an independent Catalonia win international recognition as a state? The historical experience suggests this is very hard unless the international community is split, with some states thinking it might be in their interests to support the secessionists (if I may use that word). Take a few examples.

Ireland won’t recognise Catalonia’s UDI, which is a trifle disingenuous given that she also was born out of the UDI of Easter 1916. This was followed by the 1918 UK General Election in which Sinn Fein candidates stood on a platform of unilaterally creating an Irish state, and won 73 of the 105 seats on the island, with 49 per cent of the vote. The Sinn Fein MPs – minus 33 the British had jailed - then met separately in Dublin and declared themselves the independent Irish Parliament, Dáil Éireann. They proceeded to set up their own law courts and civil administration. Result: in September 1919 the British declared Dáil Éireann illegal and sent in the Black and Tan paramilitaries.

The Catalans, for the record, have no intention of giving the Spanish state cause for inflicting more violence. After all, there are still thousands of Catalans murdered by the Franco regime lying in unmarked graves because the Popular Party government in Madrid flouts international law by refusing to investigate these crimes against humanity. However, the Irish case is pertinent.

Like the Catalans now, the secessionist Irish parliament attempted to gain international recognition as a way of forcing Britain to the negotiating table, thus avoiding violence. A group of Irish MPs led by a future President of Ireland, Seán O’Kelly, were dispatched to Paris, to lobby the Versailles Peace Conference. Under the influence of US President Woodrow Wilson, the conference was trying to sort out the mess created by the Great War. One solution was recognising a host of new countries, such as Poland and Czechoslovakia. The Irish thought they could join the list. But Wilson needed British support for his pet project, the League of Nations, and wasn’t going to rock the boat.

Ironically, the United States itself was born out of a UDI from Britain in 1776, which makes the State Department’s refusal to recognise Catalonia deeply hypocritical. However, unlike the Irish or the Catalans, the new American Republic was quickly recognised. The French, motivated by their global rivalry with the British, were happy to accept Ben Franklin as US ambassador. Alas, Donald Trump is not going to recognise Barcelona any time soon, assuming he knows where it is. Nor is Chancellor Merkel, who needs Madrid to press on with its austerity measures in order to save those big German banks daft enough to subsidise the Spanish property bubble.

Where does that leave the infant Catalan Republic? Obviously it needs to find ways of catalysing international support. The priority is international solidarity and doing everything we can to stop the Catalans being isolated diplomatically. One way would be for the Catalan Government to offer honorary citizenship to its individual friends abroad. This would be symbolic but setting up a web site and enlisting, say, a million honorary citizens around the globe would show Catalans they were not alone. In Scotland, every town possible should twin with a Catalan municipality and fly the Catalan flag, starting with Glasgow. And our External Affairs Secretary, Fiona Hyslop, should take her holidays in Catalonia very soon. I’m sure she would get a warm welcome.

IN passing, we should note that Sabadell, which owns TSB in the UK, announced on Friday it was moving its key management out of Barcelona, not just its registered office. Jaime Guardiola, the chief executive, has also moved bank funds out of Catalonia. The TSB website proudly proclaims “we’ve a lot in common with the Sabadell Group” and “TSB will always be your local bank”. Perhaps, but those of you with TSB accounts might care to write to Guardiola asking what he is up to, and to Paul Pester, the boss of TSB, to ask what happens if Scotland becomes independent.

Ultimately, a free Catalonia will live or die by the democratic will and resilience of its own citizens – not by the degree of international recognition. A long list of Catalan institutions are lining up to say they will not recognise rule imposed from Madrid – particularly the teachers’ union, because one of the first things Spain wants to do is reverse Catalan school policy protecting the Catalan language. The Spanish state is reverting to type and using repression. More than 150 Catalan officials and civil servants have been “dismissed” under direct rule measures, though most are still at work. We can also expect elected Catalan leaders, including President Puigdemont, to be arrested.

Which brings us to the $64,000 question: should the independence parties boycott the elections, imposed by the Spanish state for 21 December? The far-left CUP party has already said it will not stand – it has 10 seats in the present Catalan Parliament. The other pro-independence parties are making up their minds. Oriol Junqueras, the Catalan Vice President and a senior figure in the Left Republic Party (which is close to the SNP) was studiously vague on the question, in an article in Sunday’s press – but he hinted about using local elections as a way of strengthening support for the independence movement.

The crucial issue here is that Madrid wants to demobilise and split the independence movement by channelling popular action on the streets into elections rigidly controlled by Spanish party elites. Elections from which the leadership of the independence movement will be debarred from standing because they will be under arrest. Elections imposed by what is – in Catalan terms – a foreign state seeking to undermine Catalonia’s declaration of independence.

So it is imperative that – whatever the choice is regarding participating in December 21 – the political priority has to remain with mobilising and actually empowering the sovereign Catalan people. It is no surprise that representatives of the troika of the IMF, EU Central Bank and European Commission have just flown into Madrid to check on Spain’s commitment to austerity. The independent Catalan Government must reach out to those Catalans still doubtful of UDI with a bold plan to end austerity and build a new state based on social justice. All forms of popular power should be expanded – in neighbourhoods, schools, and workplaces. A new state should be built from the bottom up, with popular democratic involvement. That includes making banks such as Sabadell serve social interests, not those of the troika.

This Saturday, the second Scottish Independence Convention is meeting at the Usher Hall in Edinburgh. It is a chance to show solidarity with Catalonia – indeed, a keynote speaker will be Anna Arqué, one of the leaders of the grassroots Catalan National Assembly. But the Convention is also a fabulous opportunity to remind ourselves why we want independence in the first place – to build a better, fairer society run by the people themselves. Catalonia is a great experiment in direct democracy. The best way of showing our solidarity is by doing the same thing in Scotland.