A slap in the face
Euskadi * ument amounts to an unprecedented novelty in the history of relations between the military organisation and the political organisations of the Basque nationalist left. All seemed to indicate that the promise shown by Euskal Herritarrok at the time it was set up (September 1998) to promote a process of refoundation of the Basque left
ETA's assassination of Spanish army lieutenant-colonel Pedro
Antonio García Blanco brought 100,000 people onto the streets of
Bilbao to demand simultaneously the restoration of the cease-fire, the liberation of political prisoners and the return of the Spanish government to political negotiations with ETA.
JOSE RAMON CASTANOS 'TROGLO' ut nobody now seems to be listenity of the Basque people. BIA ha:
implemented its threat to end its truce thus putting an end, at least temporarily, to the hopes created during 18 months of ceasefire.
On the other hand, there has been an unprecedented radicalisation of Spanish nationalism, which is in the process of creating a climate of unbearable political tension in Basque society. What is striking is the total absence of divisions between right and left, between the trade unions and employers in this "nationalist sacred union".
At the big demonstration against violence in Madrid at the end of January, the unity of action between the Socialist Party
(PSOE) and the United Left (IU), the
Popular Party (PP) and the Spanish
Episcopal Conference, the employers* associations and the CC.OO and UGT trade unions, was complete.
Basque nationalism criminalised
The most shocking thing in this new
"national front" is that its Spanish nationalism involves the criminalisation of
Basque nationalism and its legitimate aspirations to political sovereignty.
The appearance of this phenomenon of "national hatred" has been so strong that in the course of the demonstrations organised by this "front" in Euskadi, the old warcries of
Francoism ("Death to the Basques) reappeared. Some also demanded that the
Spanish army re-establish the state of law in the Basque country.
Without going as far as this in the use of force, the governmental programme proposed by the PSOE-IU electoral alliance does not deviate one millimetre from constitutional legality and the road of police repression. Now the Basque left (Euskal Herritarrok) is identified with Haider's FPÖ in Austria.
The idea of tolerance is equated with constitutional legality, whereas the affirmation of a Basque differentiation is likened to the idea of "ethnic cleansing" As a consequence of this enormous media pressure, some political parties have ended up sacrificing their dignity. Such is the case with the IU, which has obliged its Basque section to break with the Lizarra pact.
### Declaration of Lizarra
In such a tense political context, the Fourth Declaration of the Lizarra-Garazi forum (a broad coalition of nationalist forces) acquired a significance as decisive as the declaration setting the forum up There were four reasons for this:
1. The ability of the organisations within this pact to remain calm. Its sense of historic responsibility had led the Lizarra Forum to conserve unity as the most precious political capital that Basque society possessed.
2. The firmness of the nationalist bourgeoisie (the Basque Nationalist Party, PNV) in the maintenance of political alliances and commitments, despite the difficulties brought about by the ending of the cease-fire by ETA.
3. Confidence in the Basque people, their capacities of resistance and social mobilisation so as to oblige the state to sit down and negotiate.
4. The public distancing of Herri Batasuna (HB) from ETA's armed actions. The criticism of violence made in this dochad been confirmed.
The assassination of Fernando Buesa, socialist spokesperson in the Basque Parliament, on February 22, has unleashed hatred and political passions to such a point, that it appears difficult to keep calm in the midst of the torment.
We do not know what ETA's intentions are. Some say that the breaking of the cease-fire is a tactical rupture with the intention of its ultimate renewal. Others think that we are witnessing a change of political strategy which abandons the "impossible conquest" of a social majority with democratic methods in favour of armed resistance with a perspective of the long-term accumulation of forces.
### Political suicide
Whatever the truth, ETA's activity can be measured by its results, and these are visible to all. The first thing ETA has succeeded in has been to mobilise the majority of Basque society against it. It undoubtedly amounts to political suicide, all the less easy to understand in that it brutally destroys the progress made in the course of 18 months of cease-fire.
The demand for political sovereignty had conquered an unprecedented social legitimacy, and this has been lost because of the moral repulsion shared by the majority at political assassination as a means of defending a legitimate idea. Thus, the breaking of the cease-fire renders henceforth impossible the democratic alliance of Lizarra.
It is possible that the PNV will not return to the old alliances of antiterrorist pacts, but nor will it return to the Lizarra Forum if ETA does not offer guarantees of dissolution. Neither the Basque trade unions, nor the social movements will go back into Lizarra either if the armed struggle is pursued
They have reaffirmed that ETA was henceforth an obstacle to the political process of conquest of national sovereignty, and that the best service that it could render to the cause of the Basque people is to decide freely its own self-dissolution. International Viewpoint #320 April 2000 23
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of reason
The inevitable consequence of this attack the resolutions adopted by the recent HB
Fourth Declaration of the Lizarra-Garazi Forum
(adopted February 11th, prior to the assassination of Socialist Party politician Fernando Buesa which was to shatter the forum)
1. All the organisations participating in this Forum reaffirm their will to give impetus to a process of dialogue and negotiation in order to seek peace and the resolution of political conflict on democratic bases.
2. No political project can legitimately be imposed through violence; society has in its majority spoken on this question. We, members of the Forum, neither support nor justify any violent action, of whatever form, and we commit ourselves to the Basque country's right to construct its own future freely. The scenario of peace and democracy for the Basque country can only unfold if the whole of society enters into the process and commits itself to its success, by rejecting all the attitudes seeking to prevent it or block it, and demanding legitimacy for all democratic political options.
3. We demand insistently that the political forces who systematically oppose the Lizarra-Garazi Accord abandon this recurrent position of refusal and present their own positions offering a viable way out from the current situation of conflict. We, who respect the plurality of Basque society and who wish to construct a future of liberty and of tolerance, cannot resign ourselves to the current situation of violent confrontation, political stalemate and the prolongation of suffering which belongs more to the past than
4. We denounce the current attitude and strategy of the governments of José Maria Aznar and Lionel Jospin in seeking to resolve a problem as complex as that of the Basque situation solely through methods of police repression. We note that this strategy, in addition to repeating a historic error at a time when it is necessary to try to find solutions to a political conflict, demonstrates the notably media power, reveals again, if it was still necessary, their true Jacobinism.
5. We demand insistently that all parties present, each according to its own responsibilities, reconsider their attitudes and positions. The current demonstrations of violence, like the judicial decisions of an obvious political character, are the expression of strategies of confrontation, should be superseded through the development of the process already engaged upon, since they represent an obstacle to the pursuit of this process.
6. We renew our appeal to all citizens of Euskal Herria, to take an active part in the peace process, ruling out any action which supposes a violation of human rights. We commit ourselves to the definition and proposition of significant initiatives which can create a social climate allowing the consolidation of an irreversible peace process and a democratic solution to the political
Signatories: Political parties; Partido Nacional Vasco, Herri Batasuna, Abertzalen Batasuna, Eusko Alkartasuna,
Batzarre, Zutik, Partido Carlista. Trade unions; ELA, LAB, EHNE, ESK, STEE-EILAS, HIRU, ELB. Social organisations; GOGOA (Charter of Social Rights), Gestoras pro-Amnistia, Senideak, Bakea-Orain, Elkarri, Egizan, Herria 2000
Eliza, Gernika Batzordea, Autodeterminazioaren Biltzarra. *
* Euskadi is the loss of "practical reason", for one cannot demand respect for the decision made by the Basques when they demand the right to self-determination and deny them this respect when they demand an end to violence and terrorist attacks.
The critique of arms
Historic experience tells us that in the last 15 years ETA has on each occasion resolved its political crises in the same way: through putting a death (or several) on the table, thus obliging the civil organisations of the Basque left to choose between it and chaos, between fidelity and treason, between criticism and denunciation.
The self-criticism on the precedent of HASI (a political party dissolved by ETA because of its criticisms of the line of "blind" car bomb attacks) gives us reason to think that this time things will go differently. This hypothesis was strengthened by to the future.
con.flict 24 International Viewpoint #320 April 2000
Assembly, favourable to the engagement of a process of general refoundation of the Basque left, but also by the promises made by the political leaders to distance themselves from the armed struggle, as well as the solemn declarations signed in the Lizarra Forum.
Everybody hoped for a critical distancing on the part of the HB leaders, but these latter did not condemn the attack.
The naive would remark that for once they did not apologise for the violence as in the past, which is true, but it is a sad consolation, for this silence frustrates the hopes of a left which showed promise of renewal.
Those who hurry to rule out prematurely the prospect of renovation in HB are wrong also, for the conflict of direction between the military organisation (ETA) and the civil organisations of the nationalist left has not yet been concluded by the victory of one of the two parties.
Unlike before, the opposition of the LAB trade union (the most solid organisation of the Basque nationalist left to the armed struggle is now public, as is the defiance of the electorate and the militant base of the nationalist left.
These critical evolutions demand some time to come to maturity, and need to be nourished by groups and individuals who can accompany this critical reflection from the inside.
No doubt the refoundation of this Basque left will necessitate a renewed discourse and a critique of the armed struggle, but it is not with ETA, but with HB that we are committed to building a new left.
The abandonment of arms would facilitate things. But if this does not happen, the unity of the Basque left can all the same open a road, on the sole condition of a critique of arms on the part of Euskal Herritarrok and a public demand for a new cease-fire which re-establishes political rationality among our people. *