On November 14, 2012, reports the weekly news bulletin of the Abertzale Left nº101,15,000 people demonstrated in Bayonne under the slogan of “Hurbildu bakera, Giza eskubide guztiak, euskal preso eta iheslariak Euskal Herrira” (On the path to peace, all human rights, Basque prisoners and refugees to the Basque Country). The biggest demonstration in demand respect for the rights of prisoners and refugees to ever occur on the streets of Bayonne. The demonstration was led by the families of prisoners who carried photos of their loved ones.

By Gorka Elejabarrieta, head of the International Relations Department of the Basque Abertzale (Patriotic) Left

November 21, 2012 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- We are a national liberation movement that fights for an independent and socialist Basque Country (Euskadi). We are an internationalist movement that strongly believes in solidarity between peoples and struggles and that is the reason why we consider that both national and social struggles go together. From the Basque Country to the world, or as some say: think global and act local.

It is said that a good peace process is that one that has no winners and losers, or in different words, that in which everybody wins. That is one of the main difficulties of peace talks, finding compromises among rivals and enemies. Creating a win-win scenario is not easy but there is no other way than dialogue and negotiation between enemies on the path to the resolution of the conflict, in the Basque Country and elsewhere.

That is the reason that makes us believe that our political goals and our peace agenda should not be the same and in fact are not. There is no need to reach an independent and socialist Basque Country in order to solve the ongoing conflict. Nationalists and non-nationalists (though most of the time I believe that those defined as non-nationalist are the strongest nationalists, Spanish and French nationalists, of course) should agree on a new scenario for the Basque Country in which the right to self-determination is acknowledged. This is a win-win scenario for everybody, nationalist and non-nationalist. We should move from a non- democratic scenario into a democratic one, in which all political projects can be defended and are possible. Basque people should have the right to decide upon the Basque Country’s future, something that today it is not only not possible but illegal as well. How can it be illegal to exercise a democratic right?

A year has passed since the international conference to promote the resolution of the conflict in the Basque Country, most widely known as the Donostia–San Sebastian Peace Conference. In that conference Kofi Annan, Bertie Ahern, Gerry Adams, Jonathan Powell, Gro Harlem Brundtland and Pierre Joxe presented a road-map declaration for the resolution of the conflict that included a demand to Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA, Basque Homeland and Freedom) to end its armed campaign, a plea to Spanish and French governments to acknowledge this and to engage in a dialogue process with ETA to agree on all issues regarding consequences of the conflict (release of prisoners, decommissioning, justice for victims etc.) and a recommendation to political actors in the Basque Country to “meet and discuss political and other related issues”.

ETA announced the end of their armed campaign on October 20, 2011, three days after the international conference. A year later we can affirm with no doubt that October 2011 was an historic month for the Basque Country. The ground for the resolution of the conflict was created and agreed but don’t makea mistake when reading this article: the conflict remains unsolved to this day.

The disappearance of ETA's violence does not mean that violence is off the map and most importantly, the roots of the conflict have yet not been addressed. While the Spanish and French states continue with their everyday violence against our people and our activists, the Basque Country has not reached a democratic scenario. There are still more than 600 political prisoners, among them Arnaldo Otegi, leader of the Basque Abertzale Left, who is serving his sentence accused of promoting the peace process we are dealing with today. Thirteen of these prisoners are seriously ill, more than 60 have already served their sentence but continue to be held in prison (something which the European Court of Human Rights has recently condemned Spain for), almost every one of the 600 are dispersed to prisons hundreds of kilometres away from the Basque Country. Political activities in the Basque Country, demonstrations and marches are continuously banned, activists are kept constantly under surveillance etc.

There is a need to leave behind security policies and approaches behind and to respect human rights and move the process towards an inclusive political dialogue among the parties. In the last Basque Autonomous Community's elections, held on October 21, 2012, Euskal Herria Bildu (EH Bildu, Basque Country Assembly) a party coalition including us and other smaller left and nationalist parties, scored outstanding results, becoming the second-largest party, behind the moderate Basque Nationalist Party (PNV). This has also contributed enormously to the resolution process, as we should not forget that the existing parliament was not the outcome of the will of the Basque people because we were not allowed to participate in the previous election and therefore our constituency was not represented in these institutions.

Scotland is going to have a referendum on independence and we see with envy that all parties in Scotland and in England, no matter their political agenda, no matter if they are pro-independence or pro-union, defend the fact that Scotland should have the right to decide upon its future. We need to build a similar democratic scenario in the Basque Country.

We are facing an opportunity like never before to overcome the conflict in the Basque Country, we should not miss it.

Pernando Barrena : ' Independence must be the result of a democratic exercise '