• Communication: The propaganda factory of Puigdemont
  • Communication: The Prat, the first nerve center of the protest: canceled flights, police charges and battlefield
  • Technology.Tsunami Decomocràtic: the independentism app to organize "civil disobedience"

The first video was from September 2. A video of just half a minute in which you see a saucepan with water on the fire until it breaks to boil. "We change the state of things: join in. You are the tsunami."

The clip, of an impeccable bill, was the letter of introduction of Tsunami Democràtic , a movement that is not known much but that has taken over from the mobilization in response to the ruling of the Supreme against the leaders of the so-called procés . If last year the calls left Crida Democràcia, now everything goes through Tsunami.

On September 2, they distributed a cover letter. "We are not a new organization, we are a constant, continuous and inexhaustible campaign . There is an answer. There is strategy. A new wave begins and you are the protagonist. You are the Tsunami."

His first message on social networks is from 9:12 in the morning of that day 2. At 9:27 Oriol Junqueras shared it from prison. At 9:32, Carles Puigdemont from Brussels. At 10:28, Quim Torra: "Sort i endavant" (luck and onward). In less than an hour, all the independence leaders helped distribute their message and gave it all the legitimacy as an official channel to communicate the mobilizations.

Yesterday, just a few hours after the Supreme Court ruling was known, Tsunami Democràtic managed to move the chaos to the Barcelona airport with just a couple of messages. The first called to stop the activity in El Prat. The second distributed a list of fake tickets for real flights in order to circumvent the first security checks.

In the afternoon, Pep Guardiola gave voice to that tsunami by reading a statement in English, subtitled in Spanish and Catalan and broadcast by the BBC and AFP.

"We have really effective intelligence and information services and do not doubt that we will end up knowing who is behind, " said acting Interior Minister Fernando Grande Marlaska this morning.

Behind are the main independent political parties and the movement has the connivance of several members of the Government, which causes such delusional situations as yesterday that Torra encouraged people to demonstrate while the Mossos charged against those protesters to contain the protests.

The tone of Tsunami's messages is almost childish, they distribute songs that seem taken from a summer camp, memes , slogans and posters. Yesterday at the airport, most protesters wore the same banner, a small blue sign with the black letters that read: "Tothom a l'aeroport" (Everyone at the airport). On September 30 they released a video that mixed images of the protests of women suffragettes of the early twentieth century with frames of Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Luther King or police charges of 1-O . "Power to the people."

It is a great theatrical performance and every ritual appeals directly to emotions

Joan Cubert i Soler

"The independence movement has been smarter, has understood very well that we have to constantly create headlines, whether they have content or not. Everything is very ritualistic and responds to the creation of great public ceremonies, it is a great theatrical performance and every ritual appeals directly to the emotions, "explained Joan Curbet i Soler , senior professor of Philology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​about the effective communication strategy of secessionism.

The profile of the protesters is very particular. Yesterday at the airport there were mostly young people, mobilized early in the morning in student calls. "Teachers, when the sentence comes out, make your voice of teachers and denunciation heard in the classrooms," said a tweet from the ANC education sector early. The rest of the protesters were mostly older people, many women. They are the clientele that has best understood the new communication network of independence. Through WhatsApp, mainly, the protest movements have managed to bring to the street what they call "hyperventilats" (hyperventilates), older people who thought they would never see an independent Catalonia and who is suddenly in a hurry to break with Spain. Yesterday hundreds of retirees who did not move to the airport had instructions on their mobile phone with the exact crossings to which they should go in the center of Barcelona, ​​or in their respective cities, to try to cut traffic. This morning, a neighbor told Rac1 that he had taken two weeks of vacations at work to be able to attend all the protests against the sentence.

"Everything is perfectly designed and very well designed," explains Verónica Fumanal, an expert in political communication. "Until a few weeks ago, the singing voice of the citizen mobilization was held by the CDRs, but as a result of the arrest of several members who were playing chemo at home, the independence movement realizes that the CDRs already have a negative connotation and change That concept is no longer useful and they move a new idea that sells a message that is completely democratic. No coverage of the protests at the airport spoke yesterday of the CDR and that is not something casual or spontaneous. "

They have a level of precision of mobilization experts and take advantage of the perfect storm

Veronica Fumanal

For weeks, Tsunami has been launching spoilers through social networks, heating the mobilization without detailing its plans. "Surely you understand that we still cannot tell you what we are going to do," said one of his last memes . "They don't count anything, but they are collecting databases, accumulating followers through messages from prescribers linked to independence," says Fumanal. Its Telegram channel has more than 230,000 followers, on Twitter they add 157,000 more. Yesterday they promoted their own app that just didn't work. "When the sentence came out they already had the posters printed and ready with all the steps to follow. They have a level of precision of experts in mobilization and grass roots (grassroots movements) and take advantage of the perfect storm. They knew that a conviction of the Supreme, whatever it was, it would ignite everything. "

A day after the sentence, Òmnium launched a new campaign: "Against the sentence, recidivism . " They distributed through their website (hotornaremafer.cat) a form to register themselves. "We fill the courts throughout Catalonia." Step 1, fill it out. Step 2. Print the PDF and check the calendar to find out what day and where to present it. Step 3. Share it on social networks with the #JoMinculpo tag. All accompanied by a video in which several personalities of Catalan civil society, including the wife of Jordi Cuixart, musicians, writers, actors and several TV3 presenters, self-incriminate. Torra and all his consellers have joined the campaign.

"The organization is almost perfect," says Àlex Comes , director of the LaBase communication studio. "The procés activists themselves are organized through digital columns through the different social networks and the commitment of each of them is brutal. If all the militants of any political party had the will of communication and mobilization that the independentists have, they they would fill meetings ten times greater than the current ones. That ultramobilization, the speed and the efficiency with which they do it we do not see it in any party. It is the last evolution of the political activism , they are the top ".

The strategy is the reverse of that of a conventional political campaign. If it is normally the party that distributes the content to its militants, here are the activists who generate and share each message. "It is an ideal strategy to keep them plugged in, for the first time leaders are nourished by their activists, " says Comes.

That ultramobilization, speed and efficiency with which they do not see it in any game. It is the latest evolution of political activism, the top

Alex Comes

And they do it by exploiting, above all, social networks such as WhatsApp or Telegram, converted (Vox already demonstrated in the last general elections) into the most effective political propaganda tools. "They get that the slogans do not reach you from any party but from people close to you, from your family, which gives a much greater credibility to the message. A politician does not tell you, but your brother-in-law, " says the director of LaBase . "In addition, these channels give you a confidentiality that does not have Twitter or Facebook. It is easier to share political messages on WhatsApp because nobody sees you except the person who receives it and nobody discusses it or disputes it."

"The power of WhatsApp or Telegram is that they generate a pyramid," insists Fumanal. "You start with a group of 10. If those 10 generate other groups of 10, you already have 100. And if those 100 have another 10, you no longer have 1,000, you have 10,000."

After the incidents last night at the Barcelona airport, Tsunami has lowered the pressure level today. Perhaps by order of the Government. His last message says: "Let's rest to return to the streets tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow. And the other. The # TsunamiDemocràtic has just begun." Emoji wave of the sea.

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