Dublin acts in 3rd International Basque Solidarity Week

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Monday February 15, 2010 12:16

by Vincent

Basque Solidarity Protestors in O'Connell St.

Over 50 people participated yesterday afternoon (Saturday 13th February) in a Basque solidarity rally in O’Connell Street

Main Banner of Basque solidarity protestors O'Connell St. Dublin

Dublin acts in 3rd International Basque Solidarity Week
Dublin Basque Solidarity

Over 50 people participated yesterday afternoon (Saturday 13th February) in a Basque solidarity rally in O’Connell Street and more attended a solidarity social later that evening. Both events were organised by the Dublin branch of the Irish Basque Solidarity Committees.

For nearly two hours people shopping in Dublin’s main street, including visitors from abroad, witnessed over 50 people standing with a very large banner in red and green, bearing the legend: SPANISH AND FRENCH STATE REPRESSION WILL NOT SILENCE BASQUE EXPRESSION! The participants stood on both sides of the central reservation of O’Connell Street and also held a number of other placards, including large Valentine’s Day “cards” proclaiming “No Time for Love in the Basque Country” (drawing on the Irish band Moving Hearts’ anti-repression song from the 1980s). Among the legends carried on other placards were: Franco Lives On in the Spanish Government! Freedom of Political Representation, Assembly, Press & Media! Spanish State Tortures Detainees! 756 Political Prisoners!

One of the placards also pointed to the disappearance of Jon Anza, missing since February in France – a fact which appears to substantiate the widely-held view in the Basque Country that Spanish police undercover squads are operating on both sides of the border. The belief is that Jon Anza, an ex-political prisoner with serious health problems but still working for ETA, the armed Basque organisation, was kidnapped by one of the squads and died under interrogation and torture. In the 1980s such squads, operating under the name of GAL, kidnapped, tortured and assassinated people on both sides of the border; some years later the Spanish chief of police and socialist party Minister of Justice were both convicted of directing these squads and received short prison sentences.

Using a megaphone, the Coordinator of the Dublin Basque Solidarity Committee reminded passers-by and participants that Spain currently holds the EU Presidency. Pointing out that the Spanish state has closed newspapers and a radio station and tortured journalists, has arrested and tortured political activists and has banned political and social organisations, he concluded that “the European Union is currently being led by a torturer -- a state that denies civil, human and political rights to a significant part of its population.”

The Dublin event was notably supported by some members of the Limerick Basque Solidarity Committee, by a number of Irish Republican organisations (both from those supporting the Good Friday Agreement and those opposing it) and by a number of people active in international solidarity from a socialist or anarchist perspective.

Demonstrations were also held either on the same day or earlier during the International Solidarity week in Belfast, Glasgow, Turin and Milan, Germany, Slovenia, Sweden, Paris, Portugal, Catalalonia, Spain (Valladolid); solidarity acts in Latin American countries included those in Venezuela and Argentina. These events around the world were organised at the request of Askapena, the Basque internationalist movement of solidarity against state repression.

The evening social at a central Dublin venue on the Liffey Quays attracted a lively crowd of mostly young people who heard a couple of Irish musicians play folk music from various parts of the world, an Irish performer who sang No Time for Love and a song about a Basque martyr in Euskara (Basque language), as well as recordings of Basque bands and solo artists. Then the headline act, Erik Noon & the Future Gypsies, took the lid off the evening as people danced to their reggae and ska rythms, with lyrics about love and anti-repression in Spanish, English and Euskara.

The venue of the social was decorated with ikurrinak (Basque flags), streamers in the green, red and white national colours, a poster with hundreds of photographs of political prisoners and “Freedom for the Basque Country!” ‘Posters’.

In between dancing or listening to music, the attendance of Basques, Irish and a sprinkling of people from other countries (including Spain) ate from the large selection of Basque (and some Catalan) traditional pintxos.

Addressing the crowd while Erik Noon & the Future Gypsies took a break, the Coordinator of the Dublin Committee thanked those attending, the performers and those who prepared the food. “We are here in solidarity with the Basque people and their struggle for freedom, for self-determination” he began. He continued, pointing out that “All people want freedom – why should the Basques not be entitled to it? He concluded in saying that: “We are here, not against
the people of any country, but in solidarity with a people struggling for civil rights and political rights, for human and for cultural rights, against repression – and for the fundamental right of self-determination.”

Erik Noon & the Future Gypsies played their last song in the early hours of the morning and tired but happy people took themselves off to different parts of Dublin and the suburbs. The agur and gabon (“good bye” and “good night” in Euskara) mingled with good night, slán and oíche mhaith! “We must do this again soon!” said many.

Ends
Dublin Basque Solidarity Committee (dublinbasque@gmail.com) Irish Basque Solidarity Committees (irishbasquecommittees@gmail.com)