Spain's Political Repression Gamble in Euskadi

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Thursday May 05, 2011 03:38 by Adrian Boutureira

Spain's Tribunal Supremo (Supreme Court) has again politically capitulated to the pressures of its reactionary political establishment led by the Partido Popular (PP) and the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE), against efforts to allow for democratic participation of all political forces in Euskadi (Basque country).

In a nine to six vote the tribunal declared illegal all the candidatures presented by Bidu for the upcoming May 22 regional elections ( Bidu means "to gather" in Basque, and is a united coalition of leftist Basque nationalist forces, composed of Eusko Alkartasuna, Alternatiba, Araba Bai, Herritarron Garaia, and several other leftist independent groups) .

In addition to this decision, the tribunal also moved to declare illegal 10 of the 19 political affiliations presented by the state's attorney's office for certification.These are all Izquierda Abertzale (Patriotic Left) organizations.

These judicial decisions are the culmination of months of antidemocratic repressive efforts by the Spanish state -and it's right wing Basque collaborators- aimed at preventing the participation in the democratic process of any political organization that advances a radical leftist social economic agenda and supports sovereignty for Euskadi.

The justification again, as it was in the last bout of a very similar judicial process against another coalition named Sortu, is the coalitions supposed link to the armed independentist group, ETA and it's outlawed political wing, Herri Batasuna.

It would take a much lengthier piece than I've intended to produce here to explore the complex history of leftist Basque nationalist groups, or their relationship over the last 40 plus years to the armed group ETA. For now, and for the purposes of this particular piece, it is sufficient to say that ALL the members of Bidu have publicly renounced violence as a means for achieving independence.

This has always been the claimed critical expectation by the Spanish State of any group wishing to participate in the Basque democratic process. Yet, today, an organization rejecting violence as a way to achieve power no longer satisfies the State. They must now also "condemn" the choice of armed resistance of other organizations as well, even if they are not in anyway associated with that organization. Not doing so, immediately qualifies you as a sympathizer and prone to persecution, prosecution, violation of your constitutional rights and political marginalization.

So, what gives? Why would the Spanish state argue, and even fabricate evidence to determine that the these groups are being controlled by the mandates of ETA even when they've made a public and written commitment to non-violent participation in the democratic process? Why would Spain not desire the end of a bloody armed conflict with an enemy it has not been able to defeat in more than 40 years through the integration of it's primary ideological exponent into the democratic political process, not unlike what occurred in Northern Ireland with the IRA?

This is what continues to frustrate all Basques, even moderate rank and file members of the PNV (Partido Nacionalista Vasco). Time and time again, the Spanish State has used the threat of terrorism by Basque Nationalists as an excuse for the political persecution and militaristic intimidation of all leftist nationalist political militants. Violence has been often provoked, constitutional rights have been systemically violated and legal processes blatantly ignored and obscured, all under the banner of fighting Basque nationalist terrorism. All Basques are seeing through this infamy now, and they are as sick of it as they are of ETA's senseless violence against increasingly ridiculous targets.

Using ETA as an excuse, the right-wing Basque nationalist political party, the PNV, and the two major reactionary Spanish national establishment parties, have for almost 40 years been able to secure political control over Basque politics and national future. That is why ETA can not be allowed to disappear. A dissolution of ETA, as an armed struggle group deemed a terrorist organization, would eliminate any of the present excuses that have allowed Spain to "illegalize" the popular and politically significant civil society voices of leftist nationalism. These voices do have the capacity to challenge the present political status quo in Euskadi. Nobody presently in power is willing to let that happen, by whatever means necessary. Even if it means keeping a senseless bloody conflict alive for another 40 years.

On January 10th 2011, ETA declared a unilateral cease fire. It has since kept it's commitment and made several calls to the Spanish state to accept an internationally mediated dialogue to end the armed insurrection and facilitate the group's transition into the political process. The response by the Spanish state has been to intensify the military confrontations with the group and escalate the political persecution of anyone of any power and significance in the leftist independentist community.

It is clear to anyone that is paying attention, that the present Spanish regime is not only not interested in a negotiated end to the violent conflict, but that it actually aims to perpetrate it and provoke it by making it impossible for any revolutionary nationalist left force to participate in the existing democratic process.

The present Spanish state's failure to recognize the folly of its archaic, arrogant and totalitarian entrenchment not only with regards to the the Basque country, but also with regards to the aspirations of the people Catalunya and to a lesser degree of those of Galiza, may yet be the very thing that will eventually lead to braking Spain into four separate and fully independent states.

This unwillingness by the post Franco ruling political class to advance a comprehensive constitutional reform that provides a pathway for the formation of a federal republic, and providing the necessary constitutional guarantees for the just and equable integration of all four main nationalities in non-Portugal Iberia, betrays the eternal shortsightedness of Spain’s dominant Castilian political class.

Claiming to be defending the integrity of the nation as a whole, while blatantly and shamelessly criminalizing political dissent and violating its own constitutional guarantees to freedom of political assembly and expression in Euskadi, this long conceptually obsolete and always democratically deficient parliamentary monarchy system may actually be hammering the nails of it's own coffin much more effectively than any group of armed Basque nationalists could ever have.

Adrián Boutureira Sansberro
May 4, 2011