A balance sheet of the 13th May Basque elections: In Defence of Democratic Rights

The Basque elections have produced some most unexpected results, not least the success of the PNV (Basque Nationalist Party) who obtained 600,000 votes (43%) which translates into 33 MPs (six more than before) out of a total of 75 in the Basque Parliament.

The PP (Partido Popular) has witnessed the failure of its strategy in the Basque Country: they've gained just one extra seat, at the expense of the PSOE (the Socialist Party), increasing their representation to 19 members of parliament, while the PSOE got 13 seats (one less than last time). EH (Euskal Herritarrok), the party closest to ETA, was to suffer the heaviest losses. In 1998 they had 14 MPs and 18% of the popular vote. This time they obtained just 7 MPs and 10% of the votes. IU (Izquierda Unida), which had two MPs, now has three.

The political polarisation before the elections led to a record turnout of 79.9%. The turnout in 1998 was 10% lower.

In last year's Spanish general election the working class expressed its dissatisfaction by abstaining. This time, the turnout was massive. Workers' first reactions to the results have been generally positive, in that they've blocked the PP lead by former Minister of the Interior, Jaime Mayor Oreja.

The results are a big defeat for the PP. They are in government in Madrid and have been continually attacking the gains of the working class. Not even support from anti-ETA campaigners or from the leader of the Workers' Commissions (CCOO) or from the Socialist Party has saved the PP this time. The PP's scare tactics have only served to frighten their own voters. The special character of these elections means that to be objective they should be compared not with the last Basque elections of 1998 (after ETA's cease-fire), but with last year's Spanish general elections.

If we look at the PP's results they have dropped from 29% of the vote one year ago to 23% on May 13th.

This shows that, behind the government rhetoric that everything's going well 'España va bien', there is enormous discontent amongst the working class and in society as a whole. The PP won last year thanks to one and a half million abstentions amongst working class voters. The problems of the Right have only just begun and, in this sense, the PP's failure in the Basque elections is the beginning of the end for a weak government based on an equally weak Spanish bourgeoisie.

On the Basque national question, the Spanish capitalist class knows only one language - that of repression. During the pre-election campaign they attacked the Basque language and culture and supported the outlawing of the left nationalist youth organisation 'Haika' just before the election, provoking people to close ranks in defence of democratic rights.

If it has been mainly the PNV who benefited from the campaign of the PP, the blame lies mainly with the leadership of the PSOE who have given the PP carte blanche in Euskadi (Basque Country) - including the signing of another 'anti-terrorist' agreement in Madrid. Far from benefiting electorally, the PSOE's vote has fallen from 24% last year to 18% now.

In the rank and file of the PSOE a lot of anger has built up against the leadership cozying up to the PP. This came out in factories and offices across the Basque Country as well as in meetings of the UGT and Socialist Party. Working class families were faced with a terrible dilemma: voting PSOE could bring the PP to power!

It was only the lack of any credible alternative to the left of the PSOE that prevented their complete electoral collapse.

For the first time ever, the PNV has won a majority in the traditional Socialist Party strongholds in and around Bilbao. The PSOE leadership's tail ending of the PP could have had worse results if it were not for the fundamentally working class character of their electoral base, but a lot of people in PSOE have spoken out against the policy of pacts with the PP. Odon Elorza (Socialist Party mayor of San Sebastian) has been one of the first to criticise the PSOE leaders, although this is somewhat undermined by the fact that he is running the city council with the support of the PP.

ETA's continued bomb attacks in Zaragoza and Madrid during the pre-election campaign have not served to achieve the change the PP proposed, but they have had an effect on the radical left which sees ETA's methods for the dead end they are.

On May 16th, the newspaper 'GARA', which is politically close to EH, said that "the results obtained were worse than the worst predictions. It is not just a minor loss, it is a major flood of votes (away from EH) of a surprising magnitude. The loss of 50% of the vote!"

In whatever town or village you look the drop in EH's vote is matched almost exactly by the increase in the PNV's.

Just a few moths ago, ETA declared that it was not concerned about the possibility of a PP Lehendakari (the Basque President). It is precisely this 'strategy' of ETA that has been massively rejected, in particular by former EH voters.

In this context EH leader Arnaldo Otegi has complained of political polarisation and scare tactics. But has not EH's strategy been to encourage precisely this polarisation, ignoring those who have being warning that ETA's only achievement was to strengthen the right and the repressive apparatus? Have not EH benefited from just that polarisation during the last twenty years? Have not they given a 'carte blanche' to the PNV, supporting their government's budget proposals in the name of a 'sovereignty' strategy? The EH voters have shown their rejection of both the EH leadership's strategy and ETA's methods of individual terrorism.

The day after the elections the EH leadership had to cancel a press conference in order to 'assess the results more thoroughly'. The reason being that such a dramatic collapse in the EH vote has brought into the open an internal crisis which has been on the cards for several years now.

With the ETA cease-fire the left nationalists were very optimistic about the possibility of an 'Irish' solution to the Basque national question. The 1998 Basque elections gave EH 18% - one of their best results ever. Then, EH pushed a so-called 'Batasuna' (Unity) process - with the idea of organising all those sectors of society that had supported EH. ETA justified the cease-fire by declaring that the Basque bourgeoisie had moved towards a pro-independence position. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The PNV was quite happy to sign the Lizarra accords because it meant an end to ETA activity in exchange for the creation of 'Udalbiltza' - an assembly of all the municipalities in the seven Basque provinces (both those in Spain and those in France). This strategy also allowed the PNV to count on EH's support in parliament. During the cease-fire, the PP refused to do anything that might have seemed like a concession - like the repatriation of ETA prisoners to prisons in the Basque Country. When ETA nominated a group of go-betweens for possible negotiations, the PP had them arrested. After more than a year of achieving nothing, the end of the cease-fire exposed the failure of relying on the PNV. The 'Batasuna' process only served to turn the internal discontent outwards. Five currents were formed inside EH, of very different characters - the majority of which were very critical of ETA and of the EH leadership's turn to the right, abandoning the struggle for socialism. At least two of these currents identified with some sort of communist orientation, although of a very confused nature. The current which has received the most attention in the media has been the 'Aralar' current, which has its main strength in Navarra and whose politics are ever closer to those of PNV. Their spokesperson, Patxi Zabaleta, calls for an indefinite ETA ceasefire and a strategic alliance with PNV.

In 1998 the PNV formed a minority government supported by EH , its 14 MPs giving the PNV a majority in the Basque parliament. But when ETA's ceasefire ended EH abandoned parliament, leaving the PNV to the mercy of the opposition parties (the PP and the PSOE) who defeated the PNV government in more than 50 parliamentary votes. Finally, they were forced to call early elections, which took place on May 13th. The absence of EH in parliament meant that the left lost a number of important votes, for example on the 'Social Charter' which would have provided a minimum 'Income Support' for the unemployed, something which does not currently exist.

All of this had the effect of deepening the divisions in and around EH. The 'Aralar' current, for example, called for a vote for the PNV in the May elections.

Not surprisingly, the bad electoral results have just made things worse. This is a crisis that had been developing for years but has emerged slowly due to the effects of repression and persecution - something which affects all radical nationalist organisations. Activists in these organisations feel the need to always be prepared for the possibility of having to work in conditions of illegality should they be outlawed by the government or judiciary. A whole series of people have been sentenced to very heavy prison terms, organisations and demonstrations have been declared illegal and the nationalist daily 'Egin' was closed down by Judge Baltasar Garzon. This repression has helped to maintain internal unity but now sharp differences cannot help but come to the surface.

The tactics of individual terrorism are in conflict with the greater participation of the masses in politics - and not just in the electoral field. ETA is seen by a large majority as an obstacle whose activity only benefits the reactionaries. Secondly, the leadership of EH has adopted the idea of 'Independence within Europe'. According to them, "the Basque Country meets all the conditions of the Maastricht Treaty" and if the Basque government were to declare independence, "Europe would have no choice but to accept our independence".

This is nothing short of wishful thinking. First of all, the PNV has not the slightest interest in pushing for independence as it knows that would mean open confrontation with the French and Spanish states. Secondly, neither the PNV nor the capitalist class have anything to gain from it. The Basque bourgeoisie have enormous interests in common with the Spanish bourgeoisie, jointly running the big financial institutions. The furthest the Basque bourgeoisie goes is to politely ask for a seat at the table when the EU is discussing the issues which most directly affect it.

Meanwhile, the Spanish bourgeoisie is still defending the idea of the 'United and Strong' Spanish fatherland and would never accept the independence of Euskadi as this would fundamentally weaken the Spanish state and open the door to the independence of Catalunya, Galicia and possibly other regions or nationalities. Therefore, to imagine that the Basque capitalists are going to move towards independence is a joke. To centre EH's strategy on supporting Basque bourgeois independence is to tie themselves hand and foot. To base oneself on support for ETA is to alienate oneself from the working class, which is the only class that can offer a solution to the national question in Euskadi and the rest of the Spanish state. The working class has in its hands the power to transform French and Spanish society, guaranteeing the democratic rights of the historic nationalities, like the right to self-determination, at the same time as it starts to build socialism.

Each and every terrorist attack provokes the further rejection of ETA. Earlier this year ETA set off a car bomb in Martutene (Gipuzkoa) as a PSOE municipal councillor, his bodyguards and a group of workers from Ericcson were passing. The councillor survived but several of the workers died. In the weeks before the election ETA killed a leading member of the PP in Zaragoza and set off a car bomb in Madrid. We have seen the results. Some people are trying to explain it away saying, 'EH has lost the 80,000 less committed voters but we have still got a core of 140,000'. Refusing to learn any lessons from this year's elections will only sharpen the conflict between those who look towards the capitalist class and those who look towards the working class and are looking for a Marxist alternative in order to transform society.

The Basque elections of May 13th, 2001 have highlighted something is changing in the depths of society, both in the Basque Country and in the Spanish state as a whole, but which only occasionally comes to the surface.

The new Basque government will be, from the very outset, a weak government. The bourgeoisie is trying to convince the PSOE to back the PNV government, and at least a section of the PSOE leadership seems open to the idea. In any case, any PNV government will carry out the same right-wing policies it has been carrying out for almost a generation. Support from either the PSOE or EH will not change that. It has not in the past and will not in the future. Any such government can count on coming into increasing conflict with the Basque working class. The more intelligent sections of the bourgeoisie are in favour of as strong and as stable a government as possible. The only alternative is a policy of class independence, that is to say, to put our trust only and exclusively in our own strength and the ideas of Marxism in order to transform society.

Some explanatory notes on the background to the Basque Question

The Basque national question is a political problem with its roots in the historical inability of a weak and backward Spanish bourgeoisie to create a nation state. The brutal repression of the Franco dictatorship went as far as outlawing the use of Euskara (the Basque language), even on gravestones. The Basque bourgeoisie showed their true colours when they handed over Bilbao to Franco's troops and by the mid-1950s was making very handsome profits at the cost of the super exploitation of the Basque working class. A sector of radicalised nationalist youth were pushed, in the 1960s, towards the methods of individual terrorism. In those days, ETA's activities were aimed mainly at the state's repressive apparatus. The day Franco's successor Carrero Blanco's car flew over the church - with him inside - was without doubt the high point of a process where a sector of Basque youth thought they could use these methods to pressurise the state and force it to recognize Euskadi's national democratic rights.

In fact, these methods could not bring down the Franco regime and only served to strengthen a repressive apparatus which was - and is - used against workers and youth in struggle. The regime finally collapsed as a result of the massive mobilisations of workers and youth across the Spanish state. The struggle for Basque national democratic rights, against repression, for an amnesty for political prisoners, for the right to self-determination - all of these had had majority support amongst the Spanish workers. The first elected Basque leader, after the fall of the dictatorship, was a socialist and the bourgeoisie had to make concessions like the statute of Gernika at the same time as drawing up a new Spanish constitution which defended private property and the role of the army as guarantor of the Spanish state's unity and which denied the right to self-determination for the historic nationalities. When the referendum was held on the constitution - and all the political parties called for a 'yes' vote, the majority of Basques voted 'no'.

The Spanish capitalists - with the full collaboration of PSOE and PCE leaders - managed to divide the Basque working class. The 'Basque Autonomous Region' (Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Alava) and Navarra are different autonomous regions with different statutes. The aim is to divide and weaken not just the Basque Country, but also other historic nationalities like Catalunya and Galicia.

With the PSOE leaders turning their backs on Marxism and the policies of class collaboration being followed by the PCE - then led by Santiago Carrillo - it was left to the bourgeoisie to 'solve' the national question, something they have failed to do in the last twenty years just as they had failed in the previous two hundred.

As we expected, the state used the methods of repression, a dirty war and state terrorism - for example the 'Batallon Vasco-Español', the 'AAA' and later 'GAL' under the PSOE governments, who also brought in a series of 'anti-terrorist' laws and introduced the policy of prisoner-dispersal whereby Basque prisoners served their time in prisons which were up to 1000 Km from the Basque Country - causing enormous suffering for their family and friends, as well as for the prisoners themselves. There have been important mobilisations around the demand for the relocation of Basque prisoners to the Basque Country - including demonstrations of more than 100,000 in Bilbao.

A year ago, the leaders of ETA and EH were insisting that national liberation would come in collaboration with the Basque bourgeoisie and their parties. Meanwhile, Marxists were arguing that this was politically wrong, and that it was creating false hopes. The Basque capitalists have never fought for the right to national self-determination. They are organically tied to the Spanish capitalists. The Basque capitalists are just as responsible as their Spanish counterparts for unemployment (there are still more than 2.5 million), injuries at work (more than 1200 deaths in the year 2000 - that is 25 a week), speed ups, the lack of job security, the increased use of temporary contracts and temping agencies, the attacks on public education and the public health service.

The PNV leaders demagogically exploit national sentiment in their own interests. For them, it is a question of forcing the Spanish government to transfer more powers to the Basque government so that the Basque capitalists can better exploit us - but when push comes to shove they always reach an agreement. The Basque bourgeoisie has tried to play the part of the 'good cop', trying to win the more moderate elements away from the methods of ETA and to participate in a would-be 'Basque national construction' where, in reality, the only real winners are the Basque capitalists themselves.

During the cease-fire, EH supported the Basque government's budget proposals in the Basque parliament and the nationalist trade unions - ELA and LAB - signed a Social Contract with the government - this despite the success of the general strike of May 21st, 1999 for a 35-hour week. This was one of the demands which (according to these same trade unions) Basque 'national construction' was to provide - we are still waiting. The so-called 'national construction' did not solve ANY of our most pressing problems. That is why the cease-fire ended. The more hard-line sector of ETA, basing itself on some of the nationalist youth organisations, found it had enough support to go back to the bullet and bomb, carrying out a new round of terrorist attacks - as if what had failed in the past would succeed now. The state's response, as always, is that of repression. The PP is intransigent against the Basque nationalist left. It refuses to repatriate ETA prisoners. It refuses to recognize the right to self-determination. Activists are harassed and arrested. The bourgeoisie knows no other language. There are increasing elements of militarization in the Basque Country. The number of police per person is 30% higher than that in the rest of Spain and 40% higher than the average for the countries of the European Union.

So, where has the policy of class collaboration got us? Every step of the way, the PP has counted on the support of PSOE who, instead of breaking with the right, have added their arguments to those of the right in opposing the right to self-determination. These same leaders still have not made any criticism of the role of the PSOE in the dirty war and the organisation of 'GAL'. Once again, the PSOE's role is to give leftist cover to, and 'progressive' alibis for, the Spanish capitalist class.

The Socialist Party, led by Felipe Gonzalez, was in power for fourteen years and, instead of leading the working class in the struggle to transform society, based themselves on the most reactionary sections of the army and Civil Guard to 'solve' the national question. With GAL came a whole series of attacks on democratic rights in the Basque Country which, together with various 'labour reforms' and other attacks on the working class, created a situation which in the end led to the massive abstention in the elections of 1996, permitting the Right to win power.

The recent signing of the 'anti-terrorist' pact with the PP is pretty much on a par with the methods of the PSOE leaders, ignoring as usual their own rank and file who, in the aftermath of Ernest Llunch's assassination, demanded dialogue and a search for solutions.

But the PSOE leaders do not have a monopoly on making pacts with the Right. The last PNV government was formed and sustained with the support of EH, who supported the PNV budgets despite these being characterised by the Basque trade unions, ELA and LAB, as right-wing and anti-social!

Basque workers and youth can have NO confidence in the PNV. EH and ETA were very wrong when they abandoned the fight for socialism in order to throw themselves into the arms of the Basque capitalist class, who want to use the left nationalists to justify their anti-working class policies - as has already happened when EH supported the PNV budgets or when the general strike for the 35 hour week was not followed up. Against the methods of individual terrorism and class collaboration the Basque working class needs a united fight for socialism.

Last year, Bilbao's University of Deusto carried out an investigation which was reported in the 'El Pais' newspaper on August 27th, 2000. The investigation found that some 30% of Basque youth supported both ETA and the 'kale borroka' (political street violence) and that 9% were willing to take up arms if asked to do so. According to the article in 'El Pais' they think that, 'any sacrifice is small if it liberates the Basque mother country from French and Spanish capitalism and puts in its place the most orthodox socialism'. They seem brave and they are seriously angry with the world in general and with Spanish democracy in particular.

How is it possible to force the bourgeoisie to concede the right to self-determination? It is clear that neither the French state nor the Spanish state are in any hurry to make this concession. Only the working class with revolutionary methods, like the general strike and the insurrection, has the power to transform society.

Faced with this situation we can ask ourselves whether ETA's methods have achieved its aims. As Marxists we say that they have not. Not only have they not achieved their aims but their methods have given excuses to strengthen the state apparatus, to spread the most reactionary prejudices both inside and outside Euskadi [the Basque Country] separating Navarra from the rest of the Basque Country, strengthening the PP and burning out a whole generation of fighters. Like it or not, these are the facts.

Formal independence as part of a free market economy would not solve any of the problems faced by workers and youth in Euskadi. At most it would change the oppressor but not the oppression. There have been many examples in Europe in recent years - especially in the former Yugoslavia - which answer those who defended supposed 'realistic solutions'.

The national-democratic aspirations of the Basque People would be met only if that struggle were linked to the struggle against capitalism and for socialism. In order to achieve authentic national and social liberation the Basque people need a different type of political framework. Under capitalism that is impossible. What we want is a free society, without exploiters, without unemployment, repression or poverty. A society where everyone has housing, health care, and free public education - throughout their whole life, a society where the Basque people can exercise their cultural and linguistic rights and can freely develop.

Marxists defend the right to self-determination as being the right of the Basque people to freely decide what sort of relationship they want to have with the rest of the Spanish state, up to and including independence - if that were the option the majority went for.

At the same time, we defend the unity of the international working class across national frontiers in order to struggle for an Iberian Socialist Federation as the first step towards a European Socialist Federation and a Socialist World.

GLOSSARY

PNV: Basque Nationalist Party (Bourgeois nationalists)

EA: Eusko Alkartasuna.(Split off from PNV) now running for the elections together with the PNV.

PSOE: Socialist Party

IU: United Left (Coalition of left wing groups around the Communist Party)

EH: Euskal Herritarrok (Radical Basque nationalists)

ETA: Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (Basque Country and Freedom), armed group linked to EH.

Haika: Radical nationalist youth of EH.

PP: Popular Party (right wing ruling Spanish party)

UA: Unidad Alavesa (regionalist split-off from the PP) now running for election together with the PP.

CCOO: (Comisiones Obreras) (Workers Commissions) One of the main trade unions together with the UGT, set up by the Communist Party.

UGT: (Union General de Trabajadores) (General Union of Workers) set up by Socialist Party.

ELA: (Euskal Langileen Alkartasuna) (Solidarity of the Basque Workers) Nationalist trade union set up by the PNV.

LAB: (Langile Abertzale Batzordea) (Basque Nationalist Workers Coordinating Committee) Nationalist trade union set up by EH.