Dublin Basque Solidarity Protest Against Presidency Of European Union

dublin | eu | press release Monday April 26, 2010 06:18 by Dublin Basque - Dublin Irish Basque Solidarity Committee

DUBLIN BASQUE SOLIDARITY PROTEST ACCUSES PRESIDENCY OF EUROPEAN UNION OF REPRESSION AND TORTURE OF BASQUE POLITICAL ACTIVISTS AND JOURNALISTS.

The Dublin branch of the Irish Basque Solidarity Committees protested the European Union Presidency being held by Spain, a state condemned for repression and torture by Amnesty International and by committees of the United Nations and of the European Union itself.

That the Presidency of the European Union is currently "in the hands of a repressive and torturing state", was the message clearly declared on the placards of a demonstration on Saturday afternoon (24th May 2010) in O'Connell Street, the main street of Dublin's capital. The demonstration was organised by the Dublin branch of the Irish Basque Solidarity Committees and was protesting repression and torture of Basques by the Spanish state, currently holding Presidency of the EU. Incidents of repression by the Spanish state included the banning of Basque political parties and electoral platforms as well as arrests of their activists, closure of Basque newspapers and radio stations and arrests of journalists, banning of youth organisations and arrests of their activists and cruel treatment of over 500 Basque political prisoners (another 200 are held by France).

Passing car-drivers signalled their support while pedestrians stopped to take leaflets and to discuss issues with the Basque solidarity activists, who included among them, as well as Irish and Basques, people from other backgrounds. Across the road from the Basque solidarity protest, a Catalan solidarity group was collecting signatures on a petition calling on the Catalan Autonomous Government to organise a referendum on Catalan independence (although a Spanish high court declared some time ago that a similar proposed referendum in the Basque Autonomous Community would be against the Spanish Constitution and illegal). Both groups exchanged solidarity greetings.

Indeed the day was a busy one with a number of actions in the city competing for support from political activists, with a protest against NAMA at Anglo-Irish Bank earlier in the day and carrying on until mid afternoon, and another in solidarity with the Palestinians protesting the LUAS-operating company Veolia and their activities in Israeli-occupied Palestinian lands.

The Dublin branch of the IBSC had organised the protest as one of a series of protests against Spains current Presidency of the EU while it acts as it does with repression and torture. Another two dates are scheduled for protests in at the Spanish Legation and EU offices in Dublin: Fridays 7th May and 4th June, the month that Spain's term of EU Presidency comes to an end. The first is intended also to mark the EU's official day which although on 9th May, is on a Sunday and not during normal office working hours of the Spanish Legation.