Starting in 2012 and during the years of the process, the trajectory of Òmnium Cultural and the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) were explained almost in parallel. Much of the credit went to the good harmony between its leaders. The understanding was so good that it is difficult to separate in the independentist imagination Carme Forcadell from Muriel Casals, Jordi Sànchez from Jordi Cuixart (the Jordis, they were called when they were in prison), Elisenda Paluzie from Marcel.
Between Dolors Feliu and Xavier Antich it’s a bit different. There is deference and sympathy, but not so much understanding. In 2022 Òmnium learned to ignore what they say and chose to bluntly mark a more differentiated profile to that of the ANC. Òmnium demonstrated this by showing in public during its “Freedom Party” on last year’s Day the will to lead a strategic direction of independence, in the image of the General Staff that in the underground made it possible the 1-O, but incorporating many more actors.
A change was also revealed during the 11th of September demonstration organized by the ANC. “It’s not about looking for culprits, but about finding accomplices”, said Antich from the stage. It got him a good whistle. Or when, in the middle of a meeting at the Palau de la Generalitat with Pere Aragonès at the front, the leader of Òmnium reproached the president of the ANC for shortly before coming up with the idea of ??proclaiming a DUI in the second semester of 2023. And even more : in an interview with La Vanguardia, Antich made it clear that his organization would not go to the Assembly’s protest against the reform of the Penal Code. “We will not go to the ANC demonstration; we will not contribute to the confrontation between independence supporters”, he said.
However, the disputes have not gone further for months and on Friday, for example, they presented the National Pact for the Civil Movement for Independence, together with the AMI, the Intersyndical and the Council of the Republic.
But the history of Òmnium and the ANC began to differ earlier, with the numbers, both in terms of members and finances.
The ANC experienced a time of effervescence in the first years of the process, which was reflected in its increase in members. In 2012, just born, it had 5,000 full members (they are the ones who pay dues) and more than 3,600 supporters. In 2020, when a new secretariat was elected, the census reached 49,530 full members and 49,700 supporters. In total, there are 99,230. Since then the number of militants has dropped. Today, the same organization limits itself to saying that there are more than 40,000 dues-paying members. He does not elaborate further because he recognizes that he is going downhill. The internal struggles and the deep crisis that a few months ago led to the resignation of thirteen members of the management and its vice-president have not helped.
Omnium, on the other hand, has experienced very exponential growth. Founded in 1961, the association closed in 2012 with 32,100 members; in 2015 it had 54,000. But the most spectacular increase was in 2017, especially after the imprisonment of Cuixart, in October: from the 63,218 members it had in January, it went to 95,359 in December. The increase did not stop. Today it has 190,000 members. And they all pay a fee. It is the organization with the most members in Europe.
Both entities ensure that 100% of their income comes from their own funds. At Omnium, 89% of these funds come from members’ fees. It is 72.15% in the case of the ANC; of the remaining 28%, half comes from merchandising, especially from the sale of Diada t-shirts.
In any case, the difference in the number of partners also marks the difference in assets: Òmnium has 9 million euros in 2022 (at the end of 2011 it was 2 million); the ANC has 2.6 million today, and has been around this figure constantly since at least 2015 (that year, for example, it had 2,217,071).
In terms of territorial implementation, the ANC has nearly six hundred local and territorial assemblies, although recently it has had problems finding people to fill the secretariats of some of these assemblies, despite the competition that was seen with the emergence of the local councils of the Council of the Republic. It also has sixty sectoral assemblies and almost forty assemblies outside Catalonia.
Òmnium has much more modest numbers, at this point: 46 regional headquarters, 6 managers and the national headquarters, in Barcelona. Two more are added: that of Northern Catalonia and that of Alguer. In the coming months they will add a headquarters in Andorra.
