Chirac's pogrom against
Basque refugees
THE EXTENSIVE raids against militant Basque nationalists in the
French-ruled part of the
Basque country in early
October were a major step up in a joint campaign by the rightist government in
France and the social-democratic government in the Spanish state. They provoked a joint report by French
Lawyers Union (SAF) and the Judges Union (SM).
The report concluded that the raids "constituted a flagrant and major violation of the independence of the courts and an exceptionally grave challenge to the rule of law." The following comment on the raids is from the October 17 issue of Zutik, paper of the
Fourth Internationalist organization in the
Spanish-ruled Basque country.
MAGES captured by the press photographers were reminiscent of the Nazi occupation of France. They showed the brutality of the Franco-Spanish joint police operation, the savage uprooting of the community of political refugees in the
International Viewpoint • November 9, 1987 northern Basque country (including a good nurnber of children), their deportation en masse and delivery into the hands of the torturers. This pogrom was backed up by a police onslaught in the southern Basque country, accompanied by abundant denunciations of "ill treatment," several victims in the hospital, the "fall" of a person being arrested down a stairwell and the rape (the "attempted rape," in judicial terms) of a woman in the central station of the Guardia
These events in the first days of October have been followed by anxiety and disquiet among a large part of the Basque population. On the other hand, the established parties have not shown any such worries. Those who three years ago still protested against the first extraditions [from the French state] have proved blind, deaf and durnb to the barbarism we have seen most recently. In fact, their hands are tied by their deals with the government.
### Military and political objectives
This operation was preceded by the whole flap over negotiations. [with the Basque nationalist organization ETA] during the summer. The events confirm the real intentions of both the French and Spanish governments — to provide themselves with a cover for an unprecedented escalation of repression, to able to claim to the general public and to their moderate nationalist allies that it is ETA that does not want to negotiate.
The objective of the operation launched on October 3 was two-fold. It had both police-military objectives and political ones. In the first place, they wanted to deal a blow that would make deep inroads into ETA's structure and operational capacity for a long time. At the same time, this could be capitalized on politically and electorally as a victory (the first!) in the so-called "struggle against terrorism." This is even though it was evident that a repressive success would not abolish either the political causes that led a great number of Basque youths to look to ETA and a large part of the population to collaborate with it, nor would it prevent new efforts to rebuild ETA's apparatus and operational capacity.
But the political objectives were no less important. Above all, this involved eradicating the Basque political refugees. This means eliminating not what is described in police language as "ETA's sanctuary," but the fact that these refugees are received in the French state as victims of political persecution, the fact that they are one of the closest symbols for the national resistance movement and a constant reminder of the violation of democratic rights in the Spanish state.
For the French government, this operation is part of a more general offensive against civil liberties and against the historic rights of the Basque people under French
-GORA
EUZKAD
ASKATUT
domination, which have come under new French chauvinist attack recently (the assault on Seaska [the Basque-language schools association], which the French government is trying to strangle financially, and the recent onslaught on Basque cultural and church circles). For the Spanish government, the operation fitted into a growing campaign against revolutionary nationalism involving a series of measures that amount to outlawing Herri Batasuna [HB, the revolutionary nationalist party].
They have tried to inflict a direct and clear defeat on the section of the Basque population that persists in a rebellious attitude (that part of the population in the Spanish state that recently voted for HB or those citizens of the French state who have participated in campaigns of support for the refugees), to demonstrate that the states are omnipotent and that resistance is
Brutal repression in the streets
The response to this attack has not been adequate. This is despite the great number of actions held in recent days, particularly around the October 7 Day of Struggle, seen fundamentally as a day of very small protests. It is true that it is difficult to organize anything in the workplaces, that there is a risk of brutal repression in the streets, that the threat of a ban [on the revolutionary nationalist organizations] is hanging over us like the Sword of Damocles, that the parties are more implicated in the system than ever. But still the answer was weak and did not help to break the feeling of social isolation. This raises serious problems for revolutionists, such as how to recover the perspective for a mobilization based on the workplaces and schools and on the organiz-
It is true that the weather ahead looks gloomy. A new anti-terrorist law is being prepared that will continue a de facto state of siege and permit police excesses. A deal is being negotiated with the moderate nationalist parties that have demonstrated their usefulness on this occasion. From all the dark holes of this rotten society voices are being raised demanding the outlawing of 250,000 Basque citizens. Facing these threats, neither depression or false optimism are much help. The important thing is to maintain the idea of resistance as a longterm perspective. *