Anchovy Veto to Continue

This may sound like bad news to many but we agree that the stock needs to be replenished to make sure we do not really regret it in the future:

Anchovy veto gets year's extension on Gulf of Biscay

Staff

Before the ruling of the committed, the ban - which was due to be in force until 30th June 2009 - will be automatically extended. Basque fishermen say the decision represents "a massive blow for the fleet."

The EU's Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries confirmed on Monday the recent report by The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea which recommended that the current ban on anchovy-fishing currently in force in the Cantabrian Sea be maintained for another year, taking it up to July 2010.

In line with the ruling of the committee, which supports the view that there are still insufficient numbers of anchovies in the sea, the veto - originally in force until the end of June 2009 - will be automatically extended.

"According to the scientific verdict, the current bio-mass of anchovies is at 21,270 tonnes," in other words, at a level inferior to 24,000 tonnes, the minimum quantity at which the European Commission considers fishing to be permissible.

"As a consequence, the ban on anchovy fishing should remain until further reports indicate that the bio-mass has once again risen above the 24,000 mark."

Sources indicate that the next scientific report on the state of the fishing-ground will be published in June 2010.

Basque fishermen

Basque fishermen confirmed that the decision represented "a massive blow for the fleet" which were hoping to be able to go out fishing. Secretary for the Biscay Brotherhood Federation, Aurelio Bilbao, reiterated that the veto is already in its fifth year and was now becoming intolerable.

The note was published at EiTB.

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General Workers' Strike in Hegoalde

The government imposed by Madrid to the Basque Autonomous Community is facing its first test, barely two weeks after taking office against the will of the majoriy of the community's electorate.

Pro independence unions called a strike which, widely supported in the four Basque provinces occupied by Spain, was denounced as politically-inspired by the fascist government lead by Franco's heir Juan Carlos Borbon.

The new administration is the first non-Basque government in the community's history. Critics say it merely echoes the views of Madrid. Strike leaders said they were protesting at local job losses caused by Spain’s economic slump, but Prime Minister Francisco Javier Lopez insisted they had a deeper agenda.

“This is not a strike motivated by social or economic reasons, because the workers have not had any of their rights attacked or overturned,” said Lopez. “Therefore it is a political strike.”

Unlike his predecessor, Lopez supports the current level of autonomy the Basque Autonomous Community enjoys, and has ruled out any negotiations with the pro independence group ETA, and vowed to maintain the violent campaign by Spain against the Basques' civil, political and human rights.

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Basque Co-Operatives

This article was published at The Economist, I bet it will be a huge surprise for those who claim that the Basque Country could not compete in Europe's economy as one of the excuses to deny the Basques their self-determination. Here you have it:

All in this together

How is the co-operative model coping with the recession?

THESE are difficult times for the Fagor appliance factory in Mondragón, in northern Spain. Sales have seized up, as at many other white-goods companies. Workers had four weeks’ pay docked at Christmas. Some have been laid off. Now salaries are about to be cut by 8%. Time for Spain’s mighty unions to call a strike? Not at Fagor—for here the decisions are taken by the workers themselves.

Fagor is a workers’ co-operative, one of dozens that dot the valleys of Spain’s hilly northern Basque country. Most belong to the world’s biggest group of co-operatives, the Mondragón Corporation. It is Spain’s seventh-largest industrial group, with interests ranging from supermarkets and finance to white goods and car parts. It accounts for 4% of GDP in the Basque country, a region of 2m people. All this has made Mondragón a model for co-operatives from California to Queensland. How will co-ops, with their ideals of equity and democracy, cope in the recession?

Workers’ co-ops are often seen as hotbeds of radical, anti-capitalist thought. Images of hippies, earnest vegetarians or executives in blue overalls could not, however, be further from reality. “We are private companies that work in the same market as everybody else,” says Mikel Zabala, Mondragón’s human-resources chief. “We are exposed to the same conditions as our competitors.”

Problems may be shared with competitors, but solutions are not. A workers’ co-op has its hands tied. It cannot make members redundant or, in Mondragón’s case, sell companies or divisions. Losses in one unit are covered by the others. “It can be painful at times, when you are earning, to give to the rest,” Mr Zabala admits. Lossmaking co-ops can be closed, but members must be re-employed within a 50km (30-mile) radius. That may sound like a nightmare for managers battling recession. But co-ops also have their advantages. Lay-offs, short hours and wage cuts can be achieved without strikes, and agreements are reached faster than in companies that must negotiate with unions and government bodies under Spanish labour law.

The 13,000 members of Eroski, another co-operative in the Mondragón group and Spain’s second-largest retailer, have not just frozen their salaries this year. They have also given up their annual dividend on their individual stakes in the company. A constant flow of information to worker-owners, says Mr Zabala, makes them ready to take painful decisions.

It sounds conflict-free, but that is misleading. One of Mondragón’s many paradoxes is that worker-owners are also the bosses of other workers. People have been hired in far-flung places, from America to China, as the group has expanded. It now has more subsidiary companies than co-operatives. Mondragón has two employees for every co-op member. The result is a two-tier system. And when recession bites, non-member employees suffer most. They are already losing jobs as temporary contracts are not renewed. Like capitalist bosses, the Mondragón co-operativists must, indeed, occasionally handle strikes and trade-union trouble.

Some worry that Mondragón-style success kills the idealism on which most co-ops are based. Those within the Mondragón group are aware of the danger. Eroski wants to offer co-op membership to its 38,500 salaried employees.

The most successful co-ops, however, are those least shackled by ideology. Mondragón used to cap managers’ pay at three times that of the lowest-paid co-operativist, for example. But it realised it was losing its best managers, and that some non-member managers were earning more than member managers. The cap was raised to eight times. But this is still 30% below market rates, and some managers are still tempted away. “Frankly, it would be a bad sign if nobody was,” says Adrián Celaya, Mondragón’s general secretary.

Lately Mondragón has had trouble keeping successful co-operatives locked in. Irizar, a maker of luxury coaches, split off last year, reportedly because it no longer wanted to support lossmaking co-ops elsewhere in the group.

Henry Hansmann, a professor at Yale Law School, says co-ops often fall apart when worker-owners become too diverse. He points to United Airlines—not a co-operative, but once mainly owned by workers from competing trade unions—as an example of how clashing interests can kill worker ownership. By bringing in tens of thousands of new members at Eroski, many far from the Basque country, Mondragón risks falling into that trap. The group’s bosses believe, however, that the way forward is to promote the idea that co-operativism brings advantages. The global downturn may strengthen the group internally. As unemployment sweeps the globe, after all, there is no greater social glue than the fight to keep jobs.

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A Matter of Wealth

Do you ever wonder why has Spain resorted to such vicious and violent extremes to prevent the Basque Country from regaining its sovereignty?

This article published at Euroresidentes may dispel one of the many mysteries regarding Madrid's efforts to perpetuate its colonialist hold of Hegoalde, the southern portion of Nabarra:

Region in Spain with highest total personal income

Inhabitants in the Basque Country the richest in Spain

The Basque Country has overtaken Madrid as the area of Spain with the highest capita per inhabitant. Figures published yesterday by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) showed that GDP per inhabitant in Madrid was 29,965 euros compared to 30,599 for inhabitants in the Basque Country. Extremadura and Andalucía remained at the bottom of the list although figures show that the difference in GDP between parts of Spain is going down year by year. The average income per inhabitant in Spain is now estimated at 23,396 euros.

This is the first time that Madrid has lost its place at the top of the list since 1995 when the INE began to publish these figures although this change has been put down to more to changes in the Basque Country’s demography to its economic growth. In fact, the economy in the Basque Country has grown less than the national average over recent years. However, the population has hardly grown at all. Since 1995 it has only grown by 2.3% while the population of Madrid has increased by a massive 21%.

Income per inhabitant has fallen in the Balearic islands. Figures for 1995 showed that income per inhabitant was equivalent to 120% that of the national average while now it is just 108%. However, the population in this part of Spain has also grown by 37% over the last 12 years. Furthermore, the incorporation of more workers in its economy has not led to economic growth. The Canary islands is also a similar case.

The figures just published for 2007 show that Catalonia has the highest GDP in Spain valued at 196,000 euros, followed by Madrid, Andalucía, Valencia and the Basque Country. Aragón showed the biggest growth at 4.5% compared to an average growth in GDP of 3.8% for the rest of Spain. The INE showed that Aragón, Castilla-La Mancha and Galicia all had thriving economies with strong manufacturing sectors. Economic growth in Aragon was attributed mostly to building work in preparation for the Expo which starts in June.

Continues...

Oddly enough, some "pundits" insist that Nabarra could not survive economically on its own.

Same goes for Catalunya.

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