New Spanish Authorities Attack On Basque Pro-independence Left

by o as if Wed Oct 14, 2009 20:47

That the abertzale movement has been turning over strategies and ideas for the last months was very openly known. That the basque nationalists have also been turning over the new facts of their loss of power for the first time in the regional parliament was also a badly kept secret. 6 of the 10 people detained are very clearly proponents of an abertzale strategy which continues without armed struggle. Yet the Spanish state and more importantly its now tarnished super prosecutor Garzon claim they were meeting in the nationalist LAB trade union offices on the orders of ETA in an attempt to reconstitute Batasuna.

hmmmmm.....,

Last Monday was Colombus day as we all know. To each cow its calf and each book its copy. Spain does a military parade in Madrid and the King looks at a well-polished cross section of all his men and all his horses and quite a lot of well placed women soldiers too. The Basque first minister attended being the first to hold the Lehendakari's (taoiseach's) baton to make the trip to Madrid on October 12. Garzon had just got through questioning 2 pirates, earstwhile workers with the generally termed "Somalian" syndicates who had been captured in the ongoing drama of a basque trawler held hostage on the sea route to India. New ETA prisoners appeared as peculiar names across the newspapers with the usual pitch and accompanying uncovering of arms stashes. All pretty normal. Meanwhile not quite secretly the abertzales were moving right up close to proposing something which really would be a challenge for all & sundry .

But of course you wouldn't have noticed that if it hadn't been framed properly.

LAB was founded in 1974. It acounts for 17% of all trade union memberships in the Basque region. It also operates in the French Basque. It is completely affiliated to the international trade workers union conference and junket circuits & carries all the membership cards. I daresay each person detained in the offices of LAB was or is a member.

Ah...

hmmm....

This is the first time LAB has been raided & its new secretary general noting the detention of the last secretary general (his first time to be swooped so) [that's an oblique reference to a Lou Reed song] has announced Basque wide mobilisations of said trade union tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. By which stage we will be half way into a new week.

Now someone has attention (be it a Spanish someone or a Basque someone or even who pulls the strings on the Somalian pirate syndicates)

let's see what they do or ahem can do with it.

magnifying glass man is a pirate, his syndicate want 2.7mil Euros & the release of 2 of Garzon's prisoners for the return of the Basque trawler Alakrana

by Louise Michel - Dublin Basque Solidarity Campaign Fri Oct 16, 2009 01:49

I can't really make out what "o as if" is trying to say in his contribution but a couple of points in what he said need clarification.
The general workers' trade union LAB had 17% of the southern Basque workers some time ago -- it may have more, or less, by now. Their militancy in defending their members and in taking action on injuries or deaths to workers has won them increases in membership, as has their waging of a general strike some months ago (along with ELA, another Basque union; between them they counted for around 60% of southern Basque workers). On the other hand, obviously the current economic crisis will see a reduction in union membership across the board as workers get sacked or businesses close down.

The Basques didn't lose power in the elections. The Abertzales (pro-Independence Left) were PREVENTED FROM STANDING and the conservative nationalist PNV (a bit like Fianna Fáil) lost some seats but were still the majority party. However, the pro-Spanish parties of Labour and Conservatives joined in voting and with a combined majority of ONE, the Spanish parties were able to impose a pro-Spanish hegemony President (from the local Labour Party) on the "Autonomous" Government . Had the Abertzales been elected, they probably would have voted with the PNV to ensure that a Basque nationalist was the president of the Basque 'Autonomous' Regional Government. That accounts for three of the Southern provinces; the fourth, Navarra, has been under pro-Spanish conservative (PP) rule for decades. Of course, the French government doesn't grant the northern Basques any kind of even limited autonomy.

In reality, Basques have not held any kind of real power since medieval times except in the south during the Spanish Republic in 1936, which is one of the reasons that the three provinces committed themselves against Franco -- for which he made them pay with bombing, bombardment, captivity in terrible conditions, torture, executions, cultural 'cleansing' and plantation of ethnic Spaniards (the social base of the pro-Spanish hegemony parties today).

by o as if Fri Oct 16, 2009 09:50

All the trade unions in the Basque region have come together to call strike actions and demonstrations.

The Basques lost power in the last election, if they had not then they would still be in power. They of course did that because the abertzale weren't allowed stand and also because the previously unthinkable occured - the unionist right wing party the PP supported the unionist liberal party the PSOE.

If the basques hadn't lost power, then the Lehandakari would still be a member of the PNV and the abertzale movement would be sending much of its vitriol against it (As it had done for the last decades)

However, since Basque nationalism lost power it has arguably found itself where it should have been all along - in opposition to the central government and political party system of the Spanish state not only at the central government level of Congress and Senate but also in its own house of the Basque regional assemblies.

Very ironically as these developments or rather lack of developments occur, for only the very dim would wonder aloud why arrest the 10 pro-peace & pro-ceasefire abertzales now? without seeing the problems in any prosecutor's case (that they were attempting to reconstitute batasuna). On this website we have seen a press release published by Batasuna. Those who watched Basque TV (like me) in the last days saw the press conference aired. So obviosuly Batasuna continue to exist...,

But the irony is this - The central Spanish state government is now considering allowing its fishing fleet to arm itself. The debate to allow trawlers employ mercenaries and carry heavy machine guns which has arisen from the hostage situation of the Basque trawler in Somali waters is really so ironic it's ridiculous.

I'd suggest to basque solidarity commentators in Ireland to now take it for granted that most people, especially those who use this site, understand what has happened in the Basque in the last decades and years. If they are seriously interested in explaining what is occuring now, & how it is very different from what occured before then they could deal with the real news and real comments from across the spectrum of Basque society.

The leader of the PNV has said in the Basque parliament that the Spanish government needs ETA to continue existing. The implications are as extraordinary as the statement. The words would never have been heard from a PNV mouth if the PNV were still in power.