Basque Left Nationalists Respond to Banning

national | miscellaneous | news report Saturday April 12, 2003 22:49 by Cllr Eoin O'Broin - Sinn Fein eoinobroin at hotmail dot com

local government elections this May

Following last months banning by the Spanish courts of the Basque Left Nationalist party Batasuna (Unity) a new electoral platform has been launched to contest next months local government elections. The following is a statement from the new platform

THE NEW POLITICAL PLATFORM
“AUTODETERMINAZIORAKO BILGUNEA - AUB”

The government of the Spanish president Jose María Aznar, allied to the USA and Great Britain in their attack against Iraq, has at the same time, silently and hidden by war noises, illegalised the groups Herri Batasuna, Euskal Herritarrok and Batasuna, which have been for the last 25 years the political representatives of the national and social liberation movement in the Basque Country, denying their basic civil and political rights to the most struggling sector of our society.

In this terrible reality, the independentist and left-wing sectors, seeing that it was vital to keep on working for the social change and the freedom of the Basque Country, created the political platform called Autodeterminaziorako Bilgunea-AuB, helped by many different sectors of Basque society. We thought it would be interesting to interview one of the representatives, José Ramon ETXEBERRIA in order to know AuB.

1,. Why was Autodeterminaziorako Bilgunea-AuB created and which are their objectives?

José Ramon ETXEBERRIA.
For a start, because we saw that we needed a new political tool to work for the future of the Basque Country. Our People has known a lot of social and political changes these last years, and we think that we have reached a historical crossroads again. We think that this special situation deserves a reflexion and new efforts from all of us, mainly because we see that the political moment of the majority of Basque society situated around leftist values and self-determination has come. Autodeterminazioaren Bilgunea is here in order to gather and organise this social majority, overcoming the present political mixture and division. We are born with the objective of being the political reference of this new age that is spreading in the Basque Country. The name itself explains it: Self-determination is what unites us. Our target is to stimulate the popular dynamics so as to achieve the recognition of self-determination and to make it definitive. This is precisely the most important duty for this new era, and we will face all the different challenges keeping this objective in mind, in the most suitable way each time.
In addition to this, we think we also have something to do with the uniforming and globalising model which neoliberalism imposes on us, as people and as committed individuals, in Europe and throughout the world. On the one hand, it is our duty to achieve the economic, social, cultural and institutional means that the Basque Country needs so that it has its own place in that globalisation, which we dislike and is imposed on us, and on the other hand, it is our duty to root out economic imbalances, injustices and impositions, inside our societies and between the peoples, in the Basque Country and internationally. This is also going to be one of the main targets of Autodeterminaziorako Bilgunea.

2.- What is the political balance done by Autodeterminaziorako Bilgunea-Aub?
José Ramon ETXEBERRIA.

For centuries, the Basque Country has been refused its collective rights as a people, either by force of weapons or by foreign laws. The different political regimes have been unable to change the hard situation our people is suffering. In Spain and in France, in a dictatorship or in a democracy, the Basques have had no rights. In either situations, all have been refused to us. The assimilation process which the Spanish state started 25 years ago in South Basque Country with autonomism has not fulfilled its objectives, and we think that the phase of servitude to the state is over forever.

We must praise all the efforts made by Basque society for years and years, centuries, in one way or another, to keep the Basque Country alive, and specially those made by the most committed part of Basque society, the Independentist Left. Thanks to the position of the Independentist Left, and under the influence of the work done with the other sectors, the popular majority in favour of the Basque Country has been completed now, the social conditions to self-determination are in settled. Unfortunatelly, there are in our country some who despise the ability and courage of our society and who have turned their back to the political elaboration in favour of the recognition of self- determination. These sectors, after having supported autonomism for 25 years, still nowadays reject the new model that a real political change can bring into the Basque Country and are working in opposition to the popular sectors which are struggling for it. Their aim is to get a new state pact, in order to achieve their political stability and to continue managing their economic, cultural and political interests. They place their project above the project of society once and again.

3.-Which are the bases and the summons of Autodeterminazioaren Bilgunea-Aub’s proposal?
José Ramon ETXEBERRIA.
a) First, commitment in favour of self-determination:

Self-determination is the axis of the political change that the Basque Country needs, as it is what will bring into this country the guarantee for all civil and political rights. As time for self- determination has arrived for the Basque Country, we want to promote a real and dynamic process aiming at its recognition, planning different dynamics, collaborating with all the individuals and movements that are working for it. Here, we want to emphasize the contribution of Udalbiltza, which gathers town councillors from all the Basque Country, both for its defence of the rights of our people and for the exemplary steps they have taken. Everybody can get, for example, the “Charter of the political and civil rights of the Basques” published by them for the International Conference held in the Basque Country in December 2002. A qualitative contribution, without a doubt.

b) Second, commitment to give the conflict a political solution :

In this moment when the states only offer this people a situation of exception, a violation of their rights and the permanence of the conflict, we want to raise the peace flag and claim for its necessity. We need a peace based on freedom and justice, because it is vital that the pain suffered by this people during centuries end up. That is the reason why we make ours what was said by the Lizarra Garazi Agreement, signed by the political, trade union and social majority of the Basque Country in 1998, during ETA’s cease-fire: the Basque people must be given the right to speak and its decisions respected, demanding the way in favour of the dialogue between us all.

c) Third, commitment to confront fascism:

When winds of fascism are shaking our country from side to side, it is becoming more necessary than ever to give a strong and firm answer as people. They want to destroy the heart and the future of the Basque Country, sentencing Basque society to living in a situation of exception. Thus, the police, judicial and political attacks have become the only axis of the State’s policy. Autodeterminaziorako Bilgune-AuB is going to confront this situation, defeating the fascist strategy in our country, providing Basque society with the necessary means, supplying anybody in this country willing to work in favour of democracy.

d) Fourth, commitment in favour of change and equality:

Just as we want a free Basque Country , we favour a new model of society, based on social justice and equality. We want to improve the living conditions of all the people who live in the Basque Country, and this is not only necessary but also possible provided that the wealth generated in our country is shared in a suitable way and that we make a balanced exploitation of the resources of our country.We want to work in favour of equality, which is the first pillar of justice, in order to eradicate all discrimination of origin, gender or ideas forever. Solidarity among the different nations and peoples is our symbol.

e) Fith, commitment in favour of the Basque language and culture:

Like in the other areas, the pupils must have their own educational system, from the age of 0 to university, so that in addition to being Basque all new generations own the Basque culture, a complete preparation and progressive social values. It is necessary to guarantee from now on the right of our people to live in Basque, starting from education but spreading to all social areas. Autodeterminaziorako Bilgunea-Aub will therefore submerge itself, speaking Basque, in the development of Basque culture, because this is the richest contribution we can make to universal culture.

Town Council elections of 25th May 2003

Batasuna, because it has been banned, won’t be able to stand for the next Town Council elections. In the last Town Council elections, in 1999, it was the second political force and thus, fulfilling the wish of the government of Madrid, the Supreme Court has banned the political group which obtained almost one thousand elected councillors.

For its part, Autodeterminaziorako Bilgunea-AuB has decided to run for the regional elections of the four provinces situated in the Spanish state. In the towns and cities, on the contrary, people have started organising town platforms and candidacies which have nothing to do with AuB. In fact, the political, trade union and social majority, which is against the banning of Batasuna, has considered antidemocratic to remove one of the political expressions of Basque society out of the elections. AuB and the town platforms, therefore, are not substitutes of Batasuna but projects created by the Basque society in this political situation.

However, the most important communication means, which are fed by the political class of Madrid, the judicature world and by the Ministry of the Interior, have already started saying that these political expressions too must be left out before the Town Council elections, underlining in this way the situation of exception that the Basque Country is living in.

Batasuna, April 10th 2003