2008/I/11
Several assessments of the character of the spanish goverment and their repressive strategy(I)

Independentzia eta Sozialismorantz
EUSKAL HERRIA STEP by STEP
ASKAPENA's information service Nº204

The result of the wave of repression promoted by Madrid, coordinated with Paris, has been the ongoing state of emergency in the Basque Country: false trials, massive arrests, persecution of the freedom of expression, endless illegalizations, extreme tortures ... Faced with these outrages, there are many people who remain impassive or even applaud the repressive measures. But, luckily, there are also many lucid minds and people feeling the solidarity who, out of the Basque Country, denounce all theses outrages that are taking place. In this bulletin we select some of this testimonies. We hope the quoted text do not loose part of their meaning when taken out of its context.

* To the "españolistas" [Spanish nationalists]: "...You are the enemies of Spain; ?españolistas? taking refuge in the national Catholicism and in the ?Franquismo?. ?Españolistas? taking refuge en a centralist and predator ?socialist? party. ?Españolistas? from a domesticated dog-like left, active members of parties satellites of the Spanish Communist Party ... You, all together, never will be able to stop the people who are determined to be what they are. There are no prisons that imprison the identity will ... With the echoes of the shooting in Las Landas [where two guardias civiles died] and when we see the Basque people in prison because they are Basque, we think that Spain has been the maid of the rich kids, the ones who still think that Spain belongs to them and that it is a part of their personal belongings" (Manuel F. Trillo, Law Professor)


* Where does Spain think it is going? "...The sad European Cinderella is sinking. Hundreds of thousands cry inside the State that they are nor Spanish neither they want to be Spanish... Spain crush democracy beside Franco's coffin, and prostituted it with Aznar's unscrupulousness and the PSOE's indulgence. It keep in force the same agreements, it has the same fascists conceptions, the same antiterrorist legislation and the same war strategy against the Basque people ... It decided the failure of the resolution process, and of the peaceful and negotiating way with the Basque people ... They are filling jails with opponents. Do they have enough jails? Its right wing society is still silent, but where do they think they go refusing rights, illegalizing parties, imprisoning opponents ...?" (Daniel C. Bilbao. Journalist and writer)


* The problem of the freedom "...All the history of Spain has been on the margin of freedom, under the rule of the Caudillo, deliver to an homogeneous and "heroic" thinking which is the one that violently clashes with element where it acts because is unable to rule it . Spain has always rejected freedom; it has been afraid of it, and it has replaced it with raids against everything that means the offer of change, or historical and social mature responsibility. As Ortega said, it is correct to said that in Spain the government has almost always been reduced to command, to the Empire. Spain is not a nation, but an estate... Stripped the Spanish masses of all critical sense regarding the politics that is subjugating them, has been developing during the last two hundred years a colonial spirit that occupies all, from the very being Spanish to peoples as the Basque one or the Catalonian one, whose claim of freedoms has been considered as a demonstration of delinquency ... Therefore, we are in a situation extremely serious because of the institutional attack against democracy, equivalent to a coup d'etat" (Antonio Álvarez- Solís. Journalist)


* The safety of the Spanish people "After the detention of 46 defendants in the summary 18/98, PSOE boast about their ?the strength against terrorism?; PP express their very deep satisfaction, and the Spanish people, of course, we feel happier and much safer ... Why the violation of all the foundations of law make us feel so happy and safe outside the Basque Country? Only a worrying combination of extremely dense social alienation and extremely low democratic culture can explain this mystery. After all, the majority of the Spanish people we are in the same situation than the imprisoned: nobody can prove that we have no link with ETA... Suffice it to not want the independence of the Basque Country, even trough peaceful and democratic ways? I am afraid not. After mal, if the Basque Country were located in Serbia or in Turkey, many Spanish people would speak now about the brave and oppressed Basque people, as we talk about the people in Kosovo or about the Kurds, and many other we would talk about leftist people that suffer reprisals and are pursued, as we talk about many trade unionist in Colombia..." (Santiago Alba and Carlos Fernández Liria. Philosophers)


* Permanent state of emergency "32 years after Franco's death, in Spain thoughts are still imprisoned, and everyone who thinks in a different way is arrested. The parallelism with times that should have passed is quite curious. We are at the height of a camouflaged state of emergency and, what is even worse, approved or accepted by the political class, including the ones that claim to be leftists... In my opinion, two are the unquestionable facts in order to reach peace in the Euskadi*: the right of self-determination, and to bring backthe Basque prisoners to Euskadi. Both should have happened at the beginning of the truce, when the Basque Left and ETA clearly and categorically bet on peace. Of course, one need to be not very intelligent, and lack sensitivity and intuition if do not understand that is was a real bet ... The silence of the intellectuals regarding what happens in the Basque Country is obscene. PNV either they did not show many solidarity. I hope there will be a firm an clear answer to the extremely serious facts that are taking place..." (Cristina Maristany. Writer)


* SOS from the Basque Country "..This is time to bear witness, with all the pain and anger of feeling this land, rode roughshod over by a dictatorship like the ones we suffered in Latin America in the 60' and 70'. Although it seems hard to believe for the ones who are far from here, what every day is felt in the Basque Country is a fascist offensive with all its letters. I am not exaggerating at all: there is not another word to call the behavior of a power (the Spanish and French States) that unleash their anger against the Basque pro-independence movement through the cry of the rebels. They want to make the Basque disappear, as Pinochet, Videla and Montt tried to make disappear thousand of Latin American. There, they used methods learnt in the terror schools, that France applied in Algeria or USA created in Corea and Vietnam. Here, sending hundreds of young people to prison and making them rot in it during tens of years... This happens in a ?democracy? that really is one of the worst militar dictatorships. A dictatorship with a civil facade where policemen beat, torture and humiliate with an impunity given by the political class ..." (Carlos Aznárez. Journalist, editor of Resumen Latinoamericano).


*Euskadi is the name for the three Basque provinces in Spain, that form the Basque Government.

Euskal Herria, January 11, 2008.