Thousands march in Basque for Civil Rights - Others in Madrid for Fascism

by % Sun Mar 11, 2007 01:25

If we judge the democratic value of the 2 obviously opposing demonstrations today by attendance of political parties & their share of the vote or opinion polled "intention to vote"- the Basque demonstration was the larger bringing moderate nationalists & government coalition PNV & EA together with the smaller leftwing independence Aralar and of course Batasuna behind the banner of "civil & political rights".

The Madrid demonstration reliant as always on the coach hiring logistics of the PP saw no other political party in the Spanish state attend. The PP might we remember lost a general election on March 14th 2004 & has no hope of entering government for at least another term, its course in the last years having ensured the only possibly coalition partner the conservative Catalan CiU won't touch it after "insults" to Catalan nationality.

by C Murray Sun Mar 11, 2007 09:16

The 5.30pm TV3 bulletin decided to cover the PP march- interestingly enough.

it was juxtaposed immeadiately afterwards with the report on the canonisation of
John Paul the second , which has been sped up by Pope Benedict the XVI, (by waiving the
usual canonisation process.)

The images from TV3:- were largely of people holding national flags and the average
age of the marchers was middle-aged to elderly.

weather looked nice..............................

by iosaf Sun Mar 11, 2007 22:02

an opinion piece for the Mexican "la Jornada" (large distribution left of centre newspaper) by Marcos Roitman Rosenmann who pretty much concurs with me on the "fascism" thing. He puts one thing very nicely though - that is not the case of a Spanish government yielding to ETA blackmail (the Zapatero regime gave Inaki de Juana Chaos house arrest as much in fear of ETA or ETA supporter violence as they did for the unsustainable human rights dilemma which his only being alive due to force-feeding caused). But rather it is the case of an opposition party calling foul. "all Spanish governments have yielded to such blackmail" none have had to face street moblisations for doing it. The analyst continues to reflect on the sole interest of the Madrid council (PP) is to destabilise the central government, which also explains their refusal to fund or recognise the association of victims of the Madrid 11th bombings (whose anniversary is today) & noted the 670 coaches hired to bring in PP faithful. http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/03/11/index.php?section...a1mun & its archive copy at bcn indymedia http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/295986/...x.php

The average age of those mobilised has been noted by bcn indymedia contributors as well as may be seen at this photo http://barcelona.indymedia.org/media/all/display/33451/...x.php & its accompanying article which tongue in cheek refers to the name of the PP youth wing & assures all that the future of Spain (under its Franco-ist slogan much in evidence yesterday) is assured. Judging by the "counter" cassolada (banging of pots and pans) which occurred yesterday in Bcn (barcelona) which though reviewed by its organisers as "very well attended" only had a handful. Admittedly they only put out the word in afternoon but I reckon most of us are quite un-phased by all this regular trooping of the colours of core & far right by the PP. It has been 3 years since M11 and just about "tonight 3 years ago" the drumbeats of fascist "coup d'etats" and mis-information & consequences of knee-jerk hatred were alltogether more disturbing.

The PP are in many ways carrying their own. In the last weeks as usual the "neo-falangists" had an outing of their own, but as of yet all which is ultra-traditional, sentimentalist & so on seems to have ample representation in the PP. Thus almost all those who are ultra-traditional, sentimental of Franco-ism and bitterly opposed to any perceived rendition to ETA (or perhaps worse) any lasting peace brokered by the Socialists are being catered for. That is in some small way - a very good thing.

It would be for most purposes quite problematic if the PP decided now they wanted to sit down to a peace process with not only ETA but any other species of mild nationalist (be they Basque or Catalan) after consistently insulting and attacking them for years. It would be just as problematic if the leadership of Batasuna told their own followers "the armed struggle" had lost & had no hope of winning. But that's how things go. You don't need to wear a funny hood & know secret passwords to see that. But the mass - wherever it is - does different things at different rates & thus comes to conclusions about its own myths, realities & history at different paces. Whether or not the "mass" see fit to, or benefit from such truth - is often connected to how much their present state of affairs are held to be "sufferable" or not. A grandmother whose grandchildren enjoy jobs and affluence she never saw may view their "mortal sins & transgressions" in another light. A business man who has amassed a fortune under a regime's policies is not want to question the true origin of that regime. A millionaire who has enjoyed further that regime's status in global trade has absolutely no interest in lessons on "secret" imperial re-organisation. The basques too are "carrying their own". But in very seperate bundles - we must wait on their municipal elections & not pay them too much attention - not feeling obliged to comment on the absence of violence, with time, they will evolve & be as splendid as any other European people with one advantage - people will already know what their flag looks like, no their language is very difficult & of course know that they gave the Spanish a run for their money (whatever the real reasons & causes). It won't though change their geography.