Since the emergence of the Gazte Koordinadora Sozialista (GKS), [click here to read more about the emergence of the communist youth movement, GKS] the official leadership of the Nationalist left (EH Bildu) in the Basque Country has treated them as a nuisance; maintaining an official appearance of ignoring them. Last year, Arkaitz Rodríguez, the general secretary of Sortu (the largest party in the EH Bildu coalition) described the group as

We have received this report from a comrade who participated in one of two demonstrations called in the Basque Country on 28 January. We think it is very significant that thousands of young people participated in these militant demonstrations under the banner of socialist revolution. This movement should be an inspiration for revolutionary Marxists around the world, and we congratulate the comrades of GKS on their success.

On the 20-23rd July, two comrades from the Marxist Student Federation were invited to attend the third Gazte Topagune Sozialista (Socialist Youth Gathering) held by GKS and the Ikasle Abertzaleak student organisation in the Basque Country. We were also joined by a comrade from Lucha de Clases, the section of the IMT in the Spanish State. GKS is a new socialist youth organisation in the Basque Country, with the aim of building a classless society with a particular slant against the class collaborationist tactics of the social democrats. 

The International Marxist Tendency (IMT) expresses its solidarity with the comrades of Mugimendu Sozialista (MS), who have been facing a prolonged campaign of harassment and intimidation from social democratic organisations and the leadership of EH Bildu – with the permissive attitude of the Basque right.

The comrades of the International Marxist Tendency are following with enormous interest and sympathy the Socialist Movement in the Basque Country, which promotes the emergence of a mass communist movement, and defends the international character of socialism. We publish here a brief article on the characteristics of this extraordinary occurrence, and its current development.