25 years of success

The Plataforma per la Llengua was created in 1993 from the Col·lectiu l'Esbarzer, a group of young activists linked to the association-forming fabric of the Town of Gràcia in Barcelona who sought to improve the status of Catalan language. Its members came mainly from the world of choir groups, hiking clubs and organisations with roots in our popular and traditional culture.

At the beginning of the 90s, the dissolution of la Crida a la Solidaritat left a vacuum for language protection that had to be filled. Hence, the Pro-Language Platform drew from the experience and civic activism of la Crida and modernised the pro-Catalan language discourse, always driven by its main values: efficiency, efficacy, pragmatism and obtaining tangible results.

Following the initial stage of meetings held in the historic Lluïsos de Gràcia premises, the organisation gradually grew and took on a structure based on territorial commissions and nuclei, establishing synergies with other associations involved in the language issue.

The Plataforma per la Llengua has gradually grown and consolidated its status as the civil society's reference organisation in language matters, constructing its own space and a discourse that distinguishes it, that of the Catalan-language NGO.

Since the beginning of the 21st Century, the organisation has had an advisory Consultative Board and publishes a corporate journal called La Corbella. Moreover, over the years, different artists of the ilk of Perejaume, Guinovart, Brossa, Alcaraz or Tàpies have offered their pictorial creations to assist the organisation.

Since 2014, the Plataforma per la Llengua has been awarding the Premis Martí Gasull i Roig (awards) in recognition of the organisation's founder and driving force who died in a mountain accident in Manaslu.

25 years on from the birth of this NGO, which now has more than 16,000 members, numerous volunteers and a technical structure that responds to the projects undertaken, the Plataforma per la Llengua continues to work to make Catalan the common language and the language of social cohesion.

- - - The history of the Catalan-language NGO can be consulted at: MARCO PALAU, Francesc. Plataforma per la Llengua. 20 anys defensant el català. Barcelona: editorial Base, 2014.