BASQUE COUNTRY
Basque organizations EA: Eusko Alkartasuna (Basque Sol
Idarity). A 1984 split from the PNV, led by the former president of the
Basque government, Lendakarl
Carlos Garalkoetxea.
EE: Euzkadiko Ezkerra (Basque
Left). Formed in the beginning by former members of the politicalmilitary wing of the ETA, who had abandoned armed struggle, this organization has since become openly reformist.
EMK: Euskadi Communist Movement. The Communist Movement
(MC) organization in Euskadl. ETA: Euskadl ta Azkatasuna
(Basque Nation and Freedom).
Founded in 1960, under the Franco dictatorship, a radical reaction against the conservatism of the HB: Herrl Batasuna (Popular Unity). KAS: Patriotic Socialist Coordination. Political platform of HB, of which the three most Important points are the right to self- determination, the reintegration of
Navarra with the Basque territory, and amnesty.
LKI: Revolutionary Communist
League. The Euskadi organization of the Fourth International's sec tion in the Spanish state, It came out of the fusion in 1970 between the Spanish LCR and a spilt from the ETA (ETA 6, the Sixth Assembly of the ETA).
PNV: Basque Nationalist Party.
Created in the last century by Sa bino Arana, considered the founder of Basque nationalism. positive aspects, but also its weaknesses. Its far too rigid application was the cause of many lost opportunities. Yoldi's intervention in the Basque parliament inaugurated a more even-handed tactical approach.
PSOE launches attacks on Euskadi
Tejero's attempted putsch on February 23, 1981 marked the end of this phase. Faced with the danger of a coup, HB and the ETA did not adjust their position. Explaining it away as a sort of internal military coup, they did not give the situation the serious attention it deserved, and did not respond to the real fear which was developing in the entire population.
After taking over governmental responsibility, the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) launched harsh attacks on Euskadi, directed, though with differing forms and intensities, both against the autonomy statute and the radical resistance. The autonomy statute was stymied and the PNV split, trying to find a way out. The "officials" decided to
----- photo credits and running heads -----
9
BASQUE COUNTRY give into centralism, while the garaikoetxeistas (EA) held to the earlier tactic, which they baptized the third road. On the other side, the only way in which the PSOE communicated with the ETA and HB was through the language of repression.
At the same time, the PSOE attacked the labor movement and succeeded in weakening it in the course of some very hard strug gles. Finally, turning its back on the anti-NATO movement, it organized the manipulation-referendum, getting a majority to vote for NATO membership by means of political blackmail.
### Differences among revolutionaries
This whole process was not without its impact. It had a double effect in the statute's defenders' camp. On the one hand the autonomy statute appeared more and more dependent on the good will of the state, which proved Herri Batasuna's case. But on the other, part of the nationalist movement went over to the centralists, which increased HB's isolation.
All of this put a definite end (whether this was planned or not) to the positions supported up until then by the PNV on the refugees, the repression, and negotiations. Among the resistance, neither the fact that HB had maintained and slightly strengthened its electoral position despite the difficult circumstances — with its victory in the European elections — nor the success of legal mobilizations, nor the result of the NATO referendum could obscure the diminishing capacity for mobilization in response to attacks.
Behind some triumphalist speeches, which failed to cover up this concern, it is becoming clear that the ETA and HB, confronted with the change in this situation, are giving more and more importance to
INFKİ Baran-
" ASE SINADON
diaran
ERRUDUNEI
ZIGORRA
the strategy of negotiation. Although the latter was linked for a while with a total break with the status quo, today it is taking on another meaning. Seeing that the situation is at an impasse, they are searching for
Throughout these years, especially on the initiative of the KAS, an organizational process has been developing within HB that has replaced the originally more open way of functioning. The current situation requires that we close ranks, especially since the movement is at low tide, and it is for this reason that we must stress organization. We think now that it is possible to find an equilibrium that will not necessarily have to be established at the expense either of pluralism or the unity of the
It is true that some of Herri Batasuna's stands bother us, like certain proposals on negotiation, some economic proposals about Basque national reconstruction, certain positions on a national front, and the separation into distinct phases of national and social liberation. But these are differences among revolutionaries. We place our general assessment of ten years of struggle above everything else. Herri Batasuna and its influence have had a very positive impact on revolutionary struggle. The majority of Basque revolutionaries are in Herri Batasuna. It is a broad mass movement which has contronted the regime, and above all a popular grouping organized around a project that has kept faith with the ETA, a revolutionary organization. That is something.
An organization that, like HB, has been capable of continuing the struggle for ten years - and what a struggle - deserves all of our respect, all of our esteem, and all of our support. We hope and wish that many years "of joy and of combat" lie before us, until we get real freedom: an independent socialist Euskadi. *
"A tactical
and strategic
alliance between the working class and the popular masses"