The Sept. 11 demonstration in Barcelona was by far the largest celebration of the "Diada," Catalonia's national day, ever. Along with the unprecedented attendance, the event's carefully orchestrated rhetoric stood out. A New Catalan Separatism The goal of the protest, which was organized by Catalan political organization Asamblea Nacional Catalana and supported by the leadership of the region's ruling party, Convergencia i Unio, was to present a new Catalan independence movement without its historical association with anarchism and socialism. Unlike Basque separatism, this movement would eschew violence. The organizers succeeded to the extent that the protest had a family-friendly, festive air, with many demonstrators waving the Catalan national flag, or "senyera," in one hand and the EU flag in the other.