[3] The ANC has 10 regional subdivisions which are represented on the national board as well as professional groups for various private sectors, and 37 foreign branches around the world.

[4] The origin of the organization was the National Conference for the Catalan State (Conferència Nacional per l'Estat Propi), held on 30 April 2011 in Barcelona, in which 1,500 people participated.

[5][6] The formal incorporation as a civic association was held on 10 March 2012, at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona.

It was a historic day for the separatist camp, both for the number of people in attendance as well as the markedly pro-independence tone of the march, never before seen in such a well-attended event (estimates of the crowds range widely, from 600,000 people quoted by some media,[9] statisticians such as Llorenç Badiella from the Autonomous University of Barcelona[10] or the delegation of the Spanish government in Catalonia[11][12][13] to 1.5 million according to Catalan public sources such as Barcelona's Municipal Police or Catalonia's Department of the Interior, with a maximum estimate of about 2 million according to the organizers)[9] Two days after the demonstration, the president of the ANC, Carme Forcadell, and four additional members of the group's board were officially received at the Catalan Government Palace by then president Artur Mas.

[citation needed] As a result of the demonstration, Mas called a snap election to the Catalan Parliament for 25 November 2012 and made clear in his speech in the inaugural session of the General Policy Debates that he was convinced that the Parliament that came out of the new elections would have as its mission the exercise of the right to self-determination of Catalonia.

From May to July, 2013, they organized a crowdfunding campaign at totSuma in order to offer support to all the interested parties.

[citation needed] After the demonstration, then Catalan President Artur Mas received Mrs. Forcadell at the Government Palace and committed to listen to the will of the people and to organising a consultation on the region's future.

[17] In part due to a campaign led by the ANC encouraging pro-Catalan independence voters to boycott the election,[19] pro-independence parties lost 46% of the votes they won in the previous election, materializing in the loss of 9 seats and the exit from the Congress of the anti-capitalists of the Popular Unity Candidacy.