The Spanish civil war was not related at all to this issue and has no parallels whatsoever with the American civil war.

This is completely wrong, sorry. The 1936-1939 Spanish civil war was a coup from the right-wing against the left-wing government. Of course, Catalan autonomy was an issue there too and one of the motivations for the coup, it but was nowhere near the main reason. And no, catalan independence is absolutely not at all equivalent to neo-confederate secessionism.

Minus the whole slavery thing, no?

Yes, because Catalonia was resisting the fascist coup with their own revolutionary struggle to collectivize agriculture based on consent of the farmers, and worker ownership led by the labor unions who had been providing education and other community services for years.

Its a lesser known fact that George Orwell wrote a book on his experiences there, and that the people's struggle inspired him so much he took up arms and joined them. The guy who's work people claim is an indictment of socialism, fought for it against the rise of fascism.

I've never took to read Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, might as well do so

The resistance to Franco was far stronger in Madrid than in Catalunya.

> The guy who's work people claim is an indictment of socialism, fought for it against the rise of fascism

Orwell was a socialist before he went to Spain and remained one until his death regardless what some people might or might not claim.