Big cities and rural regions now divided by "insurmountable political contradictions", nascent breakaway movements
By Matthew Ponsford
LONDON, Feb 1(Thomson Reuters Foundation) - First Brexit. Then Trump. Next stop - big city secession?
That is the scenario envisioned by a top Indian political essayist and author, who says the cultural chasm dividing big city dwellers from their fellow citizens could tear western nations apart.
"This divide has become sharper today because of mass immigration, and this conflict has greater potential for - I don't want to call it a 'civil war,' but certainly very serious internal divisions," Pankaj Mishra told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.
Mishra spoke after mass protests hit several cities in the United States and beyond as people rallied against President Donald Trump's order to ban travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries.
Mishra said the big cities and rural regions were now divided by "insurmountable political contradictions" and that nascent breakaway movements in urban areas could benefit.
"What we're witnessing now is large-scale secessionism."
CALIFORNIA DREAMING
Independence drives have gathered momentum - from Scotland to Texas to Montreal - and a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found one in three Californians support their state's peaceful withdrawal from the union following the U.S. election.
Trump alienated many voters in Democratic-leaning states and cities with his campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration and by singling out minorities for special treatment. This alienation has escalated into mass protests on the streets now Trump is in power.
"People in the cities are saying 'look, we're getting along fine with our immigrants, we're getting along fine with international trade,'" Mishra said in his home town of London.
"We're benefiting from it, we're flourishing from it, and we are going to carve out enclaves where refugees will be welcome'"
The split between urban and rural populations has been the primary divide in modernised societies for centuries, said Mishra, whose new book depicts the anti-establishment anger that propelled Trump to power and secured an unexpected victory for 'Brexit' - the British campaign to leave the European Union.
Mishra said the split is now flaring up and turning violent as those who feel powerless in globalised economies channel resentment at "out-of-touch" liberal elites and immigrants.
PASSPORT TO LONDON?
Mishra said the wave of protests in big western cities and airports against Trump's travel ban was a sign of "great hope".
Tens of thousands of people rallied at U.S. airports on Sunday to voice their outrage at the executive order, after New York's Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo directed his agencies to assist anyone detained at New York airports.
Until now, the notion of cities breaking away to become independent has been little more than a daydream for ambitious mayors and state leaders.
However a form of secession has begun to gather sober support from some city leaders and senators who are increasingly resisting central government plans that could constrain the rights of multinational city populations.
Long-standing supporters of the campaign for California to break away from the United States received approval on Thursday to begin collecting support for a ballot on the issue in 2018.
The Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll on 24 January showed that one in three Californians supports the most populous U.S. state's withdrawal from the union - up sharply from one in five in 2014.
In London, soon after winning election last May, Mayor Sadiq Khan demanded more autonomy for the British capital, repudiating Britain's Brexit vote by launching a campaign to boost the city's global standing, titled "London is open".
Khan has since said he is exploring the option of a "London visa" for foreign workers and has joked about the idea of becoming "El Presidente" of an independent London state.
In September, more than 60 mayors from around the globe joined forces to create an alliance dubbed the "Global Parliament of Mayors" to demand more power and better coordination between cities in different countries. (Reporting by Matthew Ponsford, Editing by Paola Totaro/Lyndsay Griffiths. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)
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