AGAINST INTERNATIONAL FASCISM!

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Wednesday March 17, 2004 11:59 by Basque & Catalan Solidarity Ireland basquebelfast at hotmail dot com

THE ONLY INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM!

We are a group of Basque and Catalan activists living in Ireland (occupied six counties). This is a statement from our group following the recent Madrid bombings.

This text will be distributed during national demonstrations in Ireland on March 20th against the continuing Occupation and War in Iraq.

AGAINST INTERNATIONAL FASCISM: THE ONLY INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

From last Thursday March 11th the news that appear in all newspapers, television and radio headlines is the death of 200 people in Madrid due to a bomb attack and its consequences. Only the effects of things turn into news, but we are never informed about the causes.

This is why we believe it is necessary to inform about the causes.
Once more, we have witnessed the pathetic answer from the Spanish state government when facing the facts, affirming and reaffirming, that is, lying and relying, that the authors of the action had been the Basque liberation group ETA, when Al-Qaeda had already reclaimed the action and ETA had denied any links. But this time, the criminalization of national and social liberation movements by the Spanish government hasn’t been successful in the international arena, since internationally, all the forces have assumed that Al-Qaeda is responsible for the attack in Madrid in response to the Spanish intervention in the war and occupation against Iraq. Thus, the direct cause of the 200 deaths is the Spanish state itself and its allies (USA, Britain, Italy…). But things are very different in the international arena than in the Spanish state, a state that we can’t forget is a repressor, police-controlled state which directly descends from fascism. There, disinformation and lies have monopolized the media.

All this situation has coincided with the Spanish state elections. PP (Popular Party), the party in the government, has taken advantage from the impotence feelings of the population in front of this massacre, as part of their electoral campaign, based on the fight against a so-called “international terrorism”, which they have been using as an argument to justify their repressive campaign against the national and social liberation movements of the different peoples submissed by the Spanish state.
This manipulation has created a general intolerance climate towards all the social groups that defy an oppressive and dehumanizing system. The political prisoners (which are more than 700 altogether) of ETA and GRAPO are being beaten with impunity in the Spanish jails. In Euskal Herria (Basque Country), a baker has been murdered by a Spanish policeman because he refused to hang an “ETA no” poster in his shop, and thus to participate in the media manipulation. After that, the police attacked the mourners who attended the place where the body was being kept. The next day, a protest was organized to complain about these facts and the police attacked the protestors again. The result was the death of a woman who was not assisted when she suffered a heart attack. In Catalonia, a young man was arrested during the elections because he went to vote with a “No war on Iraq” T-shirt.

In Madrid and other cities in the Spanish state, numerous people have been protesting at the PP offices, blaming the government for the 200 dead civilians. In Galicia, where the PP historically gets a great number of votes, the angry population has burnt an office of this party.

All these people’s reactions have been declared illegal by the PP government, arguing that any political expression is forbidden within 48 hours before the elections, because they would be considered as part of the pre-electoral campaign.

All these facts have to be analysed not as something isolated. On the contrary we can relate them to an international situation of repressive imperialism against the peoples. Since the eastern block disappeared, the capitalist powers have had to look for other excuses to act with impunity against the civil rights of the peoples. They can’t argue the “communist danger” any more to intervene in other countries. But now, from September 11th 2001, they have taken advantage from the New York attack to create an international state of paranoia and justify the fight against what they call “international terrorism”, which allows them to act with impunity above the civil rights of the individuals and the peoples. But it is our duty to realize who the real terrorists are. We must identify and denounce the terror created by the repressive states (such as USA, Spanish State and Britain), by the exploiting social classes, by the murderous transnational corporations (Coca-cola, Nike…).

We want to call the population to adopt a critical position in front of this global-lies-ation, because if we don’t react now it may be too late. Passivity is complicity!!!!