How the Spaniards Took Over the BAC's Government

This article was published at Green Left:

Basque Country: Spanish chauvinists oust nationalists

Emma Clancy


In the regional elections held on March 1 in the south-west Basque region (Bascongadas), the Spanish state banned left-wing Basque nationalist parties from taking part.

Combined with an alliance between rival Spanish chauvinist parties, the result was that for the first time since limited autonomy was granted to the region in 1979, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) has lost control of the Parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community.

The Basque Country (Euskal Herria) straddles the Spanish and French borders. The majority of the 3 million Basques live within the Spanish state.

The Basque people have waged a long struggle for self-determination from Spanish rule.

The Bascongadas regional elections (comprising the Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Araba regions) disenfranchised about 15-20 % of citizens by banning political parties Spanish authorities claimed were linked to either the armed nationalist group ETA, or Batasuna — the pro-independence political party outlawed in 2003.

The PNV won the highest number of votes, but failed to win an outright majority in the 75-seat parliament. The two main Spanish parties, the local section of the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (the PSE) and the right-wing Popular Party (PP), who between them took 38 seats, struck a deal on April 1 to form a coalition government on the basis of opposition to Basque self determination.

In the lead-up to the poll, the Spanish judiciary increased its repression of the pro-independence movement. The Supreme Court banned two more parties — Democracy 3 Million and Askatasuna (Freedom) — from standing candidates.

The left-nationalists, who generally poll 15-20%, were entirely excluded. They have no representatives in the new parliament.

The left-nationalists responded by printing and distributing illegal ballots, with which more than 100,000 people voted. Including these ballots, a majority of voters (around 640,000) backed pro-self determination parties. The PSE and PP won 482,000 votes combined.

The pro-Spanish parties, bitter rivals in Madrid, agreed to make PSE leader Patxi Lopez regional government president in return for the PP taking the presidency of the Basque parliament.

Repression

The coalition has already indicated it intends to increase repression against the pro-independence movement. Plans include bolstering the security forces, and attacks on the Basque language and cultural rights.

In a particularly vindictive move, Lopez has announced plans to cut government travel aid to the families of hundreds of Basque political prisoners that helps them visit relatives in jails throughout Spain and France.

On March 23, top Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, who is on a personal crusade against Basque nationalism, filed “terrorism”' charges against 44 pro-independence activists.

The activists are alleged to be members of banned parties, including Batasuna, the Communist Party of the Basque Lands (PCTV) and Basque Nationalist Action (ANV).

Among those charged is Mondragon Mayor Maria Inocencia Galparsoro.

In a December 16 report, the UN human rights special rapporteur Martin Scheinin said he was “troubled” by Spain’s Law of Political Parties, which provides the legislative basis to ban political organisations. He said it defined “terrorism” so vaguely that it “might be interpreted to include any political party which through peaceful political means seeks similar political objectives” as those pursued by armed organisations.

This reveals that it is not the tactics, but the political goals of the pro-independence parties that Spain seeks to repress.

Scheinin said the law against “glorifying terrorism” should “include the requirements of an intent to incite the commission of a terrorist offence, as well as the existence of an actual risk that such an offence will be committed as a consequence”.

The Spanish authorities are using this law to try to extradite former ETA prisoner Inaki de Juana Chaos, who served 21 years in Spanish jails, from Belfast, where he moved after his release last August.

A Spanish court is basing its extradition efforts on the flimsiest grounds. Its evidence is one media report that, at an August rally in Donostia, which de Juana Chaos did not even attend, someone said, “Kick the ball forward”. This is alleged to be a call to commit terrorist acts, although there is no evidence the statement was made by de Juana Chaos or that it was an incitement to terrorism.

In March, a Belfast judge ruled against de Juana Chaos, accepting the advice of the Spanish authorities that the phrase constituted “praising terrorism”. De Juana Chaos is appealing the ruling.

On April 21, 32-year-old Basque activist Arturo Villanueva Arteaga, who has lived in west Belfast running a tourism business for the past four years, was arrested under a European warrant issued by the Spanish authorities.

Spain is seeking his extradition on unspecified terror charges reportedly relating to proscribed left-wing nationalist youth organisation Segi. The extradition hearing is set for May 13.

The UN report also criticised the interpretation of kale borroka, or street fighting between young people and the security forces, as “urban terrorism”. This definition subjects those who take part in street fighting to anti-terror laws, including incommunicado detention.

The report slammed the fact that all the political cases are judged by National Bench, descended from fascist dictator General Franco’s Public Order Tribunal. The Supreme Court has only a limited ability to review the bench’s judgements.

Prisoners

The UN report criticised human rights abuses. These include the denial of the rights of “terror suspects”, who may be dheld incommunicado for up to 13 days without charge.

The UN report noted the frequent allegations of torture by those detained incommunicado, as well as the failure of the Spanish authorities to investigate these claims properly.

The Basque human rights NGO, Group Against Torture (TAT), has listed testimonies of torture from 62 people in 2008, most of whom had been held incommunicado. The allegations include beatings, sexual assault, plastic bag asphyxiation, food and sleep deprivation, use of stress positions, and threats to rape or kill detainees or their family members.

Another alleged common abuse was being forced to sing the Spanish national anthem or fascist anthems.

There are now 765 Basque political prisoners, the highest number since the Franco dictatorship fell in 1975. They are spread out in more than 80 prisons in Spain and France — on average about 600km from the Basque Country.

The return of prisoners to the Basque Country has long been a central demand of the Basque people.

Spanish chauvinists now also control the central institution that Basque nationalists have historically used to exercise a degree of autonomy — the Basque Autonomous Community parliament.

The opportunist alliance of the social democratic PSE with the right-wing, neo-Francoist PP brings into sharp relief the fact that self-determination remains the defining issue facing the Basque Country.

The conservative nationalist PNV must also realise that the Spanish state’s strategy of fostering division and trying to isolate the radical nationalists also hurts the PNV. It has lost the limited power it had, demonstrating its dependence on the left-nationalists.

In power, the PNV failed seriously to oppose the persecution of the left. Such collaboration with Madrid's anti-democratic policies, out of narrow self-interest, has backfired.

A new nationalist united front, with a strategy of extra-parliamentary mass mobilisation, will be vital to defend the political, cultural and economic rights of Basque people against attacks from the chauvinist coalition.

Left-nationalists have begun holding meetings to discuss the way forward. Basque nationalist trade unions have called a general strike for May 21.

International support for a serious, inclusive peace process — in which the Spanish and French states acknowledge the Basque people’s democratic and national rights — is now more important than ever.

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The "Decline" of Basque Nationalism

The article you're about to read was published at The Politonomist, it is a fine example of the way the international media is reading the outcome of the recent electoral process in the Basque Autonomous Community:

The Decline of Basque Nationalism

by Lindsay Amantea

March 9th, 2009 at 5:23 pm

In an interesting change during the regional elections in Spain on March 1st, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) lost it’s 29 year hold on the parliament in the Basque Autonomous Community. Approximately 1.7 million Basques of the 2.1 million living in the region are eligible to vote. The new government is expected to be made up of a coalition between the Basque Socialist Party, a non-nationalist group led by Patxi López, and the People’s Party (PP), which has a right-wing conservative platform. This also marks the first election without Batasuna, one of the parties that was banned by the federal government for its connection with the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), which is a militant Basque group fighting for an independent nation state. There are calls for a re-election, as the votes that were cast for the banned parties were not counted, and theoretically could have gone to giving one of the other parties (namely the PNV) a majority. While ETA related groups were not allowed at the polls, there were no attacks from the militants during the campaign.

Actually, the Basque Socialist Party led by Patxi Lopez is a rabidly nationalist party, only that it is a Spanish nationalist party, their only goal is to erode the Basque identity of the province in favor of the Spanish identity.

Now, a couple of important facts:

a) The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV for its initials in Spanish) did not lose any of its electoral power, they actually managed to retain their votes and even attract some voters from a former political partner, the Eusko Alkartasuna party.

b) More important, pro independence party D3M (Democracy Three Million) obtained a total of 100,000 votes and seven seats in the parliament. These votes were voided later during the electoral process which consitutes a clear violation of the political rights of the Basque people. The decision to declare these votes void amounts to Apartheid and Spain should be taken to court for this.

c) Aralar, the other openly pro-independence party increased its presence in the parliament from one seat to a total of four seats.

But let us continue with the article:

Basque nationalism has been alive for more than two hundred years, with justifiable right. The Basque region, which spans the Pyrenees between France and Spain, is home to possibly the least assimilated group of the Palaeolithic inhabitants of Western Europe. According to the most believed theory, while the rest of Europe was being assimilated into the Roman Empire, Basque society developed outside of its influence. They created their own language, Batua, which is still spoken by about 650,000 people, almost all of whom live in what is considered Basque country. The Basque people were largely autonomous until the French Revolution in France and the Carlist Wars in Spain at which point the governments of both countries took an interest in their rule.

There is a minor mistake in this paragraph, the language spoken by the Basque people is called Euskara which is divided in seven different dialects. Batua is the unified language that was created to bridge the gap between dialects and provide the language with a common grammar and lexicon to use at government insitutions and even written literature.

Since the early 1800s there has been a significant movement towards an autonomous Basque region or for complete independence from Spain and France. As it currently stands, about 60% of those living in the Spanish Basque Autonomous Community want some sort of an autonomous state for the Basques, while only 25% want to see an independent country spanning the Spanish-French border. There has also been a movement away from living in the Autonomous Community in recent years. While there are about 2.1 million people living there now, over the last 25 years approximately 380,000 people have left the area, many of which have settled in other regions in Spain. One of the most cited reasons for this exodus has been the violent tactics used by ETA.

ETA was founded in August 1959 as a group that advocated for cultural traditions of the Basque people. It has since evolved into a paramilitary operation which has been responsible for an estimated eight hundred twenty five deaths, thousands of injuries and dozens of kidnappings since it first took a violent stance in 1968. Hundreds of members of ETA are currently imprisoned in France and Spain, and most countries, including all of the EU, Canada, and the United States consider them a terrorist organization. Between 1983 and 1987 a sort of war raged between ETA and Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberacion (GAL). GAL kidnapped, tortured and killed members of ETA, as well as their family members and even some people who had no connection to ETA. This war is what prompted thousands to flee the area. In 2006 ETA announced a ceasefire, which was subsequently broken in 2007.

After hundreds of years of repression and forty years of violence, the people of the Basque country are ready to try to come to a peaceful agreement. While a majority would like some sort of autonomy and recognition as a distinct people, they do not want this at the expense of the lives of their brothers and sisters. The history of the Basque people has been hard, but it is no longer the time to fight for things that they will never get. As a people they are free, they are prosperous and they are happy. Their children can learn in their native tongue, and no one tells them that they cannot have their culture. The Basques no longer have a cause to fight for. They are content with what they have as a people, and do not need anything more.

Well, actually, the Basque right to self determination is protected by the UN Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Basques really have no need to "fight" to regain their sovereignty, if France and Spain were to respect the rights of the Basque people then all of them could seat down and negotiate a diplomatic way out of the 5oo years of colonialist rule over the Basque Country.

No one can claim that just because you live a good life you should give up your right to the independence of your people. The Colonials were enjoying excellent lives and yet they fought against the English crown because they did not want to share their profits. Same goes for Canada, Australia, New Zealand, all of them were wealthy societies that decided to part from England. Right now Scotland and Wales have strong pro-independence movements and they are not poor and uneducated.

Now, regarding language and culture the author should double check Patxi's political agenda, he has not been annointed as the president of the Basque Autonomous Community yet and he's already launching attacks against the Basque language which happens to be the corner stone of Basque culture.

Basque may be wealthy and happy, but the stark truth is, they are divided in three different political entities and at any time Madrid or Paris (or both) can decide if they want to put limits to the development of Basque culture. Let us remember that Spain has already launched direct attacks against the freedom of speech by shutting down Basque newspapers, magazines and radio stations.

We Basque are missing one thing, it is called self-determination, we want to be what we are, nothing more, nothing less.

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Anti-Democratic Campaign

This article was published at WW4 Report:

Spain escalates anti-democratic campaign in Basque Country

Submitted by WW4 Report

Having already barred two pro-independence parties (3DM and Askatasuna) from taking part in the Basque Country's regional parliamentary elections March 1, Spanish judge Baltazar Garzón last week went further and banned all their activities and ordered the closing of their offices and websites. Eight people remain in prison for trying to organize pro-independence election platforms.

Despite being barred from the elections and the continuous attacks against their activities, the pro-independence parties are carrying on with their campaigns. They have called on the Basque people to carry out a massive action of civil disobedience by voting for the "illegal" slates.

The repression has also prompted an armed response. In the early hours of Feb. 23, an ETA bomb destroyed the Socialist Party's offices in the Basque town of Lazkao. There were no casualties. ETA claimed responsibility in a phone call to the authorities before the blast. The Socialists, who rule nationally, stand a good chance of unseating the Basque Country's long-ruling moderate Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) in the upcoming elections. (Euskal Herria News, Feb. 26; DPA, Feb. 23)

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Ballots of Dignity

Pro-independence Basque citizens show ballots of the outlawed Basque party, Democracy 3 Million or D3M, in Bilbao. The Spanish government has ordered the General Attorney to outlaw D3M, in order to ensure that the ruling party's candidate, Patxi Lopez, stands a chance to win the Basque Autonomous Community's presidency. Since there is no separation of powers in Spain like in other advanced and democratic states, judge Baltasar proceeded to obey and resorted to an Apartheid like law that enables Spain to outlaw any Basque political party they want, which is why no one can understand how is it that Nadine Gordimer decided to become such an ardent opponent of the Basque right to self determination after everything she allegedly did in her own country, South Africa.

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Police Brutality in Bilbao

Ertzaintza's officers acting on direct orders from Madrid attacked demonstrators and arrested five people Saturday at a protest over the banning of pro-independence parties from regional elections next month.

The demonstrators set fire to rubbish bins and blocked roads in the protest in the Basque city of Bilbao, held in defiance of a ban on the gathering by authoritarian Judge Baltasar Garzon.

Leftist Basque activists called the demonstration to protest a Supreme Court decision last week to ban two pro-independence parties, Askatasuna and the Democracy Three Million (D3M), from March 1 regional elections.

Among the protesters Saturday were some ex-leaders of Batasuna and the spokesman of the D3M.

Spain has been blamed for the deaths of dozens of thousands of Basques in a five-century genocidal colonialist occupation.

Basque parties that favor both independence and complete sovereignty draw support from approximately 10 percent of Spain's Basque voters. Those voters have been denied access to the democratic principle known as universal suffrage due to an Apartheid style Spanish law designed exclusively to restrict the civil and political rights of the Basques living in Hegoalde, the southern portion of Euskal Herria.

We have to remember that those civil and political rights are protected by an UN treaty and that just a few days ago the UN's Highs Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report in which it stated that Spain applies the term "terrorist" too liberally and that in doing so violates the rights of the Basque people.

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Spain Bans D3M and Askatasuna

Like I mentioned in the previous entry about how the UN has unmasked Spain as a human an political rights' violator, yet Zapatero has ordered two more Basque political parties banned.

You can read about it at this article found at Google News:

Spanish top court bars two parties from Basque polls


MADRID (AFP) — Spain's supreme court backed Sunday a government request to bar two Basque pro-independence parties from regional elections next month, judicial sources said.

The justices "have annulled the candidacies of the D3M and Askatasuna" in the March 1 elections, the sources told AFP.

The government and prosecutors charged that Democracy Three Million (D3M) and Askatasuna have links to the armed Basque separatist group ETA and its political arm Batasuna, which the court outlawed in 2003.

Anti-terrorist Judge Baltasar Garzon is to hand down a separate decision Tuesday on whether to suspend the parties' political activities.

Radical Basque separatist parties draw support from approximately 10 percent of Spain's Basque voters.

Spanish courts blocked two radical Basque parties, PCTV (Party of Basque Lands) and ANV (Nationalist Basque Action), from running in legislative elections last March over alleged links to ETA.

What Zapatero want is for the candidate for his own party, Patxi López, to win the elections so they can both dismantle what Basque society has built in the Basque autonomous community for the last 30 years.

Funny thing, the Zapatero's PSOE deployed the terrorist group known as GAL but somehow his party is not being banned, talk about Apartheid.

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Spain's Political Apartheid

Although they somehow managed to hire Nadine Gordimer to take part in their anti-Basque campaign, Spain's political class indulges in the kind of behavior that she allegedly fought against back in her own country, South Africa

Judge Baltasar Garzon charged 13 members of two electoral lists, D3M and Askatasuna, who are planning to stand in upcoming regional elections, to do so, once again, Garzon alleged that the Basque politicians work for ETA.

Garzon, who is well-known in the world for his repressive campaign against Basque activists, said he will question the 13 at the National Audience, the country's top criminal court and a remnant of Franco's regime, on Friday.

He has said the two new parties are simply fronts for Batasuna, which was outlawed by Spain's Supreme Court in 2003 for its ties to ETA, something that has not been proved before a court of law yet.

Polls show the moderately nationalist Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), which has ruled the Basque region since 1980, largely in coalition with other parties, is at risk of losing power to the Socialists in the upcoming polls. This is why Juan Carlos Borbon and Zapatero ordered Garzon to violate the political rights of the Basque electorate.

In national elections last March, two other Basque political parties were prevented from running for the same reason.

The last major crackdown on Batasuna was in October 2007 when 20 of its alleged leaders were arrested, after two years they have not been charged, in clear violation of the law principles observed by democratic states.

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Spain Jails Basque Activists

This article concerning the fascist clampdown on Basque political parties and against Basque activists was published at World War 4:

Spain expands crackdown on Basque political parties

About a dozen members of the new leadership of the Basque political opposition were arrested in several towns across Spain's País Vasco Jan. 23. The arrests follow a court order by the Spanish High Court magistrate Baltasar Garzón, who claims that 3DM and Askatasuna, two new parties fielding candidates in the forthcoming local elections, are fronts for the outlawed Batasuna party.

Spain's Supreme Court banned Batasuna in 2003 on the grounds that it was a front for the armed organization ETA, closing down its offices and barring it from all political activity. Prior to its prohibition, Batasuna used to garner some 12% of the vote in Basque Country elections. According to Spanish news agencies, the police are gathering evidence of links between the outlawed Batasuna and the new parties 3DM and Askatasuna. Police also reportedly carried out searches on the homes of several prominent Basque militants, including Tasio Erkizia, Mariné Pueyo, Santi Kiroga and Joxerra Etxebarria. None were arrested. (EiTB, Bilbao, Jan. 23)

This operation and the incarceration of eight Basque activists ordered by inquisitor Baltasar Garzón brings the number of Basque political prisoners close to 800, a figure that surpasses the all time high during Francisco Franco's murderous regime. Which pretty much means that Spain IS NOT a democratic state.

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