Press
release
13/ 10/ 2005
Why we are
in Carcassonne today 22 octobre 2005 ?
the French State
has tried to eradicate it and to brainwash the Occitans, as well as the
Bretons, The Basques, The Flemish, the Alsatians, the Corsicans and the
Catalans to make them believe that they are French.
It has not yet
been entirely successful in this attempt at cultural genocide
France may well be
a member of the European Union, which is in favour of linguistic diversity, it
did not ratify the European Charter of minority languages, neither has
it modified article 2 of its constitution, which imposes French monolingualism
within the Republic.
No wonder then
that the presence of Occitan/oc language is minimal in the media, artistic
creation, education and public life.
The Occitan
Nation Party is logically demonstrating in Carcassonne today, October 22,
2005, to support Occitan because we don’t want our language, our
culture and our way of life to disappear.
There are many
ways to defend and promote what makes us, who are torn between three states, a
people that is different from the French, Spanish or Italian people.
We can feel
ourselves Occitan through sports, cuisine, traditional or more modern music and
architecture.
We can work for
Occitania at school, at the university, in newspapers and magazines.
Nevertheless, the
defence, promotion and socialisation of our language can only be achieved
through consciousness-raising. Too many Occitans, whether they were born here or
came from elsewhere, have no idea they are Occitan.
We should not be
satisfied with cultural work and believe in the goodwill of the State, the
Regions and French political parties.
What we should do
is manage to wield enough clout through nationalist activism.
It means
systematically standing for elections wherever we can to implement or
have the regions, the departments and the municipalities implement a
full-fledged linguistic policy in favour of Occitan and contribute to the
emancipation of our people.
The Val d’Aran ( a
small Occitan enclave within Spanish Catalonia) where Occitan is one of the
official languages, shows us what Occitania might look like in the future.
Last but not
least, our Occitan nation, one day, will have to sever its links of dependence
from the French State and become a reunified federal republic with full
respect for its domestic diversity.
Occitan
Nation Party : 04 66 82 71 94
B.P. 44
30201
Bagnols sur Cèze