Learning Experience

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Bad Choices

Blanca Garza

With the re-establishment of monarchy, and regional low autonomy applied to the entire Spanish state, many Basques thought we could take those few crumbs given to us and put them into making our lives better by turning toward the pursuit of happiness.

And some of that did happen in the more industrialized territories, during the "Basque boom" in the 1990s. But only three years into a new century, the Basque territories under Spanish jurisdiction find themselves plagued by rising unemployment, the highest rate of labor accidents in the EU, and constricted civil liberties with the prospect of a thorough campaign of cultural repression. We may be heading to the worst of times.

The Spanish government and the regional governments of the divided Basque territories, tell us that it is entirely because of ETA that we face these difficulties, but the dark clouds that hang over the Basque nation are the result of their economic policies and an unresolved conflict.

Take the economy. Sure, an economic downturn was inevitable after the speculative excesses of the '90s, and the political conflict hurts the economy. But deregulation and privatization, cuts in public expenditure for social services, reform of the Spanish labor market along with other drastic measures, have been imposed on the Basque territories. Our governments lure companies with "tax relief" and other incentives while the lack of R&D for neglected agriculture, fishing and other traditional resources (Mikel Sorauren, Government is not about paving with asphalt, January 2002) prevents an efficient response to crisis as the Prestige crisis clearly demonstrated. The result is a very vulnerable situation

With regard to labor market quality, the Basque territories are behind EU average. The sustained increase in the labor accident rate in the Basque territories coincides with the development of the Spanish labor reform of 1994, which made the Basque labor market far more flexible. The characteristics of the Spanish labor market in the
last decade, such as the increase in precarious and temporary employment, the segmentation of employment and the decentralisation of production, have a clear influence on the conditions in which work is performed, and above all on the ability of workers to affect decision-making on this subject. Labor accident figures confirm the poor situation of the Basque territories in Spain in comparison with other European countries and the great social impact that this problem has on the health of workers and on Basque society in general.

That is not because of ETA; that is because of the policies of the central and regional governments.

Or take the ongoing wave of attacks directed at our culture and language: the destruction of our cultural patrimony, the political campaign to discredit the Basque schools, the banning of a Basque encyclopedia from the Internet and, most recently, the closure of the only newspaper published in the Basque language.

That is not because of ETA; that is because the Spanish government and its regional acolytes regard Basque culture, especially the language, as an excuse for and sign of independence just as the Franco regime did.

Our choice to pursue happiness without freedom did not take into account that Madrid is our landlord and that the Basque Nationalist Party, driven by a passion for office, will comply with the wishes of the central government. This complicity with Spain has been revealed throughout the years that the Basque Nationalist Party has held power in three Basque territories. For instance, when they backed and promoted Madrid's "anti-terrorism" law and the dispersion of ETA prisoners, and most recently, when they sent the "Basque police" to shut down the offices of the political party Batasuna and to repress a peaceful pro-Batasuna demonstration banned by a Spanish court.

But the question is how we got to this situation. We got here because of our bad choices.

The Basque Nationalist Party chose to align with Spain and play by Madrid's rules for them to keep political control of three Basque territories--Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa. In order to stay in power the PNV allied themselves with anybody in Spain--including the Socialists, who sponsored the dirty war against ETA militants, and the ruling right-wing Popular Party. Through an act of folly, many Basques went for the ride and chose to keep the Basque Nationalist Party in power.

The Basque Nationalist Party had a clear path before it: link the cessation of ETA violence to Madrid¹s acceptance of the Basque Nationalist Party demands while it sides with the Spanish government to isolate the Basque radicals, and use its considerable influence over Basque nationalists to absorb the radical vote.

In the process, we have become perilously immersed in our own separate worlds, isolated from each other, and running the risk of turning into sheep, dangerously easy to manipulate.

What it actually shows is that we managed to accomplish the one thing that doesn't make possible a concerted effort for the right approach to resolve the conflict with Spain and France: A vast gulf of reason between the moderate nationalists and the radicals.

Basques are shocked because the Spanish government shut down the Egunkaria newspaper. Two days ago the Spanish Civil Guard police searched and then board up the offices of Egunkaria. They arrested its editor-in-chief and 10 other workers accused of aiding ETA.

A Basque radio station asked Basque Nationalist Party MP Pepe Rubalkaba what would the "Basque police" had done if the Spanish National Court had asked them to close down the offices of the Egunkaria newspaper. Rubalkaba replied: "If the order had been given to the Basque police, the Basque police would have obeyed".

We will join demonstrations to protest the "unjust" closure of Egunkaria, send countless emails to the "mainstream" press and fellow "activists", organize our little pow-wows, and engage in those nice anti-Spain chats. But in the end, it will be business as usual. We are on a fast train to hell, and the question is when we Basques are going to decide we want to get off.

2003 February 22

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