Under Surveillance: Social Movement Organizing and State Repression in Catalonia

The literature on repression in social movement studies has focused mainly on protest behavior and neglected other aspects of activism. This paper aims to expand this literature by looking at how state repression affects organizing in social movements. I explore this question empirically using semi-structured interviews with key activists from the Catalan Independence Movement. For a long time, the movement did not engage in particularly conflictual relationships with its opponents, but has faced severe state repression since announcing to hold a referendum without the consent of Spanish political authorities in late 2017. Repressive action against the movement includes raids of associations and private homes, police violence against voters and protesters on the day of the referendum itself, as well as detentions and imprisonment of its leaders. The interview data reveal that this general context of repression leads to a perceived climate of surveillance among activists. In response to repression, there are three important transformations in the ways in which pro-independence activists organize. First, there is a shift towards the use of encrypted ICTs. Organizers in the Independence Movement change from WhatsApp to Telegram and Signal, which are perceived as more secure messenger apps. Second, face-to-face communication in meetings and conversations becomes more important vis-à-vis digital means of communication. Activists avoid written and mediated communication when they feel surveilled. Third, decision-making processes are removed from open settings to closed meetings. This is particularly the case when activist discuss disruptive and confrontational actions. I suggest the mechanism driving these changes is a shift in relationships of trust among activists. Surveillance puts into jeopardy the generalized trust that is required for open social movement assemblies and messenger channels. Instead, activists rely on relationships of personal trust and on face-to-face communication. These findings show the profound impact of repression on organizational practices in social movements. Moreover, by emphasizing the necessity of face-to-face communication, they point to the limits of digital organizing in a context of state repression. As such, the paper represents an important contribution to the debate on connective action.