ETA was founded in the late 1960s by members of the youth section of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), the traditional political force of the Basque independence movement. Facing severe repression by Franco’s dictatorship, it saw the armed struggle as the most efficient way to destabilize the Spanish state and resist the occupation of Basque lands. Long perceived to be the most dangerous and important internal enemy of the Spanish State, ETA has led an armed campaign of assassinations, bombings, and kidnappings of prominent political and military figures of both Franco’s regime and the post-1978 democratically elected governments of Spain. Over eight hundred victims, among them politicians, members of the military and the civil guard, as well as innocent bystanders and civilians were killed from 1968 until its final ceasefire in 2010. [...]
They have sought to rival the traditional political force within Basque politics, the center-right Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), by simultaneously advocating for national independence and the economic and social policies associated with the Abertzale left project — nationalization of key industries (particularly energy companies) and banks, higher taxes on the rich, opposition to nuclear energy, support for refugees, and solidarity with other national liberation causes and movements around the world (particularly in Catalonia, Galicia, Ireland, Palestine, and Kurdistan). [...]
I think we are witnessing the end of a large global cycle with the passing of outstanding figures like Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, Manuel Marulanda, and Martin McGuiness, and that’s the context in which I think the disarming of ETA, a group that has carried out armed struggle for fifty years in our country, has to be seen. We are very pleased that this is the case, we are convinced — not only in political terms but also in terms of revolutionary morality — that in building the road forward to overcoming our condition as an oppressed people, we have to ensure peaceful and democratic methods. We think that this is the pathway, and I believe that in the end ETA will rise to the challenge by making an historic contribution to the independence movement with its own disarmament. [...]
When is there going to be a Europe-wide general strike against austerity policies? These sorts of demands need to be put to a global scale, or at least European scale, forum that can start to tackle these issues. Not so much a forum for theoretical debate but a practical forum that can develop answers on a global scale. We are going to make the effort to raise this thinking wherever we are — with our small forces and with great humility — but we really think it is necessary to move forward in this area. [...]
We have good relations with left-wing movements from around the world, because for us, we do not form part of the nationalist movement but rather of the pro-independence movement. We believe that independence will provide us with the tools for advancing alternative social policies: demanding national and popular sovereignty means a fight over that ground with the oligarchies who have hijacked our democracy.
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