The declaration by ETA of the cessation of armed activity is certainly good news that helps open up a new stage in the fight for the legitimate national rights of the Basque country.
With this decision, ETA responds unambiguously, whatever the media and others say, to the clamour for the end of the violence that has long been spreading both in Basque and in Spanish society, as was highlighted at the recent International Conference held in Aiete.
Beyond the media confrontation that now occurs as to the interpretation of the various factors that have contributed to this decision, what is important is that it starts a new period in which the central discussion should revolve around a dialogue-based and non-violent solution to the Basque conflict. A conflict with a long history that wasn’t resolved democratically in the mythologized Spanish political transition and that must now be dealt with without excuses and with the political will of all the parties to reach an agreement that allows the recognition of the right of the Basque people to decide their future.
In this process we consider it necessary to also respond favourably to demands like the return of Basque prisoners to Basque country, the repeal of the “Parot doctrine” or the application of prison benefits without restrictions, as well as the legalization of Sortu, today pending resolution by the Constitutional Court. Also, the discretion and arbitrariness that have been tried by that emergency court, the Audencia Nacional, means that large numbers of people have been falsely accused of belonging to ETA, by virtue of being linked to different organizations of the abertzale left; this should be revised to take into account even acquittals such as those of Egunkaria and Udalbiltza. This reconsideration of an “anti-terrorist” policy that has violated the most basic legal guarantees should lead to generous action by the State like the absolution of people such as Otegi and Díez Usabiaga, who have played a key role in pressure on ETA to abandon violence and yet are today imprisoned.
This new political phase also opens a new opportunity for the establishment of new links between the Basque radical left, in all its components, and that which is being reconstructing at the scale of the Spanish state in their common struggle to offer a radical democratic project, a multinational and anti-capitalist front against exclusionary Spanish nationalism and a system in deep crisis. Greater convergence in action through social mobilization and institutional action in its service will help to generate new hopes for breaking with the transition not only in the Basque country but also in the Spanish state as a whole.
Izquierda Anticapitalista
Friday October 21st, 2011