FROM THE WORLD TO THE BASQUE COUNTRY
|
|
07/IV/16
THE IRRESPONSIBLE BLINDNESS OF POWER
Towards Independence and Socialism,
EUSKAL HERRIA-BASQUE COUNTRY, STEP BY STEP,
ASKAPENA's Informative Service, N. 173
Since the very beginning, the attempt to solve the Basque conflict in a dialogued way has been affected by the Law About Political Parties, which is a dictatorial legal measure agreed by consensus by PSOE as well as PP, in the government at that moment. Due to its incapacity to finish with ETA, these parties increased the repression against the Basque left political organizations. Spain repeated in the Basque Country the long Franquism night: those who were not close to the regime were deprived of their basic political rights. Only after specifically declaring their non violent methods in the confrontation among parties, the Basque left will be allow to join the political scenario.
A democracy spoiled at the roots
As a result of the implementation of this Law there have been countless violations of the Basque left rights: the Basque left is declared illegal and therefore unable to take part in the different electoral process; there is a permanent apartheid situation; there is a serious democratic deficit in the institutions because they are not the expression of the people's will; the rest of the political forces have an over-representation in the institutions because they have appropriate the posts belonging to the Basque Left, so this posts are spoiled by complicity and collaborationism; justice has become politicize as long as it devotes itself to persecute and crush any public initiative promoted by the declared illegal organization.
A source of tension and contradictions
When the dialogue to find a negotiated solution started, the government was bound to maintain a permanent dialogue with Batasuna, a political force that officially do not exist. The government do not want to abolish the Law About Political Parties, but in certain circumstances it demand the judiciary to permissively implement this Law; most of the judiciary are against the process and use this Law to prevent the government from becoming more permissive. On the other hand, the judiciary held the government responsible for changing this Law. The President of the Basque Government thinks that he must meet with all the political forces, and this belief makes him a potential delinquent; the Basque Government repeats it is against the Law About Political Parties at the same time that it implements this Law every time the Spanish
High Court bans an act organized by the declared illegal Batasuna; Zapatero's government repeats that it would like to try ways to solve the conflict which are similar to the ones used in Ireland, and at the same time says it will keep out of the law the Basque "Sinn Fein".
The Basque Left tries to make things easier
Since the Law About Political Parties was implemented, the Basque left has denounced many violations of its rights. And since the beginning of the steps to begin a dialogue, Batasuna has been demanding equal opportunities; it is not possible to demand the Basque left to give priority to the political activity and at the same time not allow them to practice it. Nevertheless, the Basque Left is the political organization that has made the biggest efforts submitting new proposals in order to create a new democratic frame. On 2004 it submit its resolution method based on two negotiation tables, which now is commonly considered the best one. At the beginning of this year it makes another step to make meeting points easier: it accepts an Autonomic model for the Basque Country as long as it will allow in the future a national configuration if it is the wish of the Basque people. All this proposal always have the same answer from the Spanish State and from its many collaborators: it is not enough, the Basque Left has to finish up with Batasuna and it has to register itself as a new political force that specifically commits itself to a democratic way.
The left has accepted this condition: moving within the very narrow margins left by Law About Political Parties it registers the a new political mark on March 27: the new group is called Abertzalen Socialista Batasuna (Unity of the Basque Socialists). There is not an specific condemn of the violence, but it is not required by the law. But, as it is required by law, it specifically expresses its commitment with the democratic and politic ways.
The Spanish State dictatorial reactionl
We refer to the shameful "tripartite" constituted de facto: the PP Spanish right, the PNV Basque right and the obstinate PSOE government. Since the very beginning, the three of them have disqualified the very difficult new Basque left initiative. They are using all kind of arguments to do so: "it is Batasuna continuation because people from this organization belong to the new one" (but, who could work in a political organization but its own leaders?); "they use the same name" (in Basque batasuna means unity); "they don not specifically condemn violence" (as we said, it is not required by law), "and after the Barajas attack they have to do so" (so, this "tripartite" is not considering the new initiative on the basis of the law, but on the basis of a political context which is favorable for them); "it is an electoral decoy (but it is mach more than an electoral bet: for the Basque left, it is a question of having a recognized mark in order to have the condition of political). Therefore, it is not possible to accept the new group and it has to be prosecuted because it is not legal. They are not interesting in overcoming violence but in compelling the left to condemn; it is not a question of building the future using dialogue, but of humiliating and degrading the Basque left.
these ideas are followed by repression. The Spanish government summarily reacts, and three hours after the new group was registered, it refuses it and asks the public prosecutor's office to open an investigation; on March 27 the Spanish state launches an operation against ETA and arrests 11 alleged members of this organization; the next day it is the French one that arrest two people in their fifties who declared themselves to be members of the ETA negotiating team. The Spanish government warns that if there is any reference to the new organization during the act organized by the Basque left that will take place on March 31, it would be banned.
Basque left appraisal
In this case, the PP keeps on the same line. The PSOE, and its assistant the PNV, apply their usual and agreed among them strategy: they make no proposals, but to disqualify the ones made by the Basque left; they always demand the Basque left to take new steps because the ones it is taking are never enough, and using the illegalization-repression, they push the Basque left to the abyss obliging it to choose between surrender or disappear ("if they do not surrender they will disappear as a piece of sugar"). But they are not considering the generalized disappointment that would mean a new illegalization, and the way this disappointment would operate; it would absolutely affect the process; if the left is not allowed to be a political subject and it has not the possibility to exercise its right, there would be a backward step towards the previous situation that the Basque left is trying everything it could to overcome.
Euskal Herria, April 18, 2007.
|
|
Deialdiak
|
2008 - Abuztua |
| A |
A |
A |
O |
O |
L |
I |
| |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
| 11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
| 18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
| 25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
|
|
Movement against the Globalization
|
