Andoni Arrizabalaga 1941 - 1984
On September 23, the Mitterrand government, which was elected in 1981 largely on a wave of revulsion against the undemocratic practices of the right, became the first French government to order the turning over of Basque national liberation fighters to the Madrid authorities.
The Spanish authorities had demanded the extradition of seven Basque national.
On August 1, comrade Andoni Arrizabalaga met his death in a climbing accident on Mont Blanc du Tacul, at the age of 43.
On October 27, 1969, Andoni was condemned to death by the military tribunal at Burgos, and two of his comrades, natives of Ondarroa in the Basque country like himself, were sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.
on the fact that the three had spoken 'in an unknown language', that is, in Euskerra. Andoni's death sentence was later commuted to perpetual imprisonment by the head of state. A general strike broke out in Ondarroa and the industrial zones of Euskadi when this sentence was announced.
Andoni began his political activity in 1969 as a member of ETA. He was arrested for the first time in 1964, tortured and held in Larrinaga prison with almost paralysed hands. After his release, he continued his activity, participating in all the cultural activities and democratic mobilisations against the dictatorship's oppression of the Basque people in the following years. to organise as a militant worker in the Elgoibar enterprise where he worked.
In 1966 he was elected as a union representative. as a representative of Elgoibar, in the assembly which laid the basis for establishing the workers' commissions of Guipuzcoa.
Andoni was arrested a second time in 1968, after the execution by ETA of the torturer Meliton Manzanas. Once again, he was badly tortured. released 5 months later, he was once again arrested and condemned to death in 1969. He was to spend seven years in prison, first at Puerto Santa Maria for twoand-a-half years, then at Segovia, then back in Puerto Santa Maria where he was transferred after an escape scheme was discovered at Segovia in 1975.
It was, therefore, while in prison that he took a position in favour of the ETASixth Assembly, which then evolved towards internationalist positions and joined the Fourth International in 1972, by fusing with the Liga Comunista Revolucionaria. For Andoni, the struggle continued in prison. organisation of political prisoners and in several hunger strikes. This resistance brought him 450 days, one-and-a-half years, of solitary confinement during his seven years incarceration!
Freed in 1977 after the death of Franco, Andoni Arrizabalaga continued as an active and steadfast member of his organisation, the Fourth International in the Spanish state. great moral authority. He was an example of a generation that had been able to make a bridge between the revolt of young Basques against oppression and the struggle of the workers' movement for socialism. had to suffer those who, despite his long trials, called him an 'espagnolista' [i.e., one who ignores the specific struggle of the Basque people for the broader ques tions in the Spanish state ] because he proved able to broaden the national demands to the struggle for social emancipation.
Deeply loved and respected, Andoni's funeral in his native village was marked by the unanimous homage paid to his memory.
Jose Iriarte, 'Bikila', saluted him in Euskerra on behalf of the LCR-LKI leadership. Jon Echave, the tribute of his prison comrades. Sabino Arana, also an LKI member, who during the 1970s was the most lengstanding of the ETA prisoners, read the message of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International before his coffin. The telegram read, 'It was from the depths of his prison that Andoni became our comrade. At first, he was a faceless name, a symbol. tance to the Franco dictatorship, and was an example of that generation of revolutionary activists whose intransigent struggle against national oppression brought them to proletarian internationalism. came dear and familiar to us through the campaigns of solidarity against the repres
His faithfulness to our struggle, when others succumbed to disappointment or disenchantment strengthened the link between us. deeply by his faraway friends. In their name we not only pay a last internationalist homage to a revolutionary activist, but bear witness to their respect and affection for a comrade.'
Andoni died as he had lived, risking his life. He always said that he had two International Viewpoint 1 October 1984
The judgement particularly
At the same time he began
That year, he participated,
He took an active part in the
LCR-LKI, section of the
Modest and self-effacing, Andoni had a
A convinced internationalist, he
The houses were covered with ikurformer priest and LKI activist, brought
He represented the unshakeable resis-
An unknown comrade, he nevertheless be-
This is why his loss is felt so ists. The Mitterrand government decided Lujambio Galdeanu, Jose Carlos Garcia Balestegui. It, however, to appeal to the constitutional court.
Of the three, two are accused of killing members of the Guardia Nacional, one of assassinating an industrialist. The other four Basques on Madrid's list were ordered deported to Togo. Basques have already been deported to Latin America.
The Mitterrand government defended this decision by arguing that there is now democracy in Spain and that the three concerned are accused of violent actions.
In the September 24 issue of the Paris daily Liberation, an editorial excoriated the hypocrisy of the "left" government: "When the Swiss federal government refused to extradite the leaders of the FLN during the Algerian war, it was not because it denied that there was real democracy in France, but because the Algerian rebellion, inspired entirely by nationalism, could not be reduced to a mere matter of criminal law."
In a "Letter to the Peoples and Nations of the World," a wide spectrum of Basque cultural and human-rights groups pointed out the following about the situation of the Basque people under the rule of Mitterrand's "socialist" comrade, Felipe Gonzalez.
"Some 60% of the Basque people voted against or abstained on the present constitution. All the Basque political parties, representing 70% of the Basque people, oppose the present settlement on autonomy, or at least the implementation of it. More than 700 persons from the Basque country are in prison [for political reasons]. Thousands of Basques remain in exile....There is one policeman for every 125 inhabitants of the Basque country. In the first six months of 1984, 743 persons have been arrested for political causes..
"Torture remains standard in the prisons. More than 3,500 cases were reported from January 1981 to July 30, 1984."
In these conditions, the meaning of these threatened extraditions is clear. A worldwide campaign of protests is essential.
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