BACKGROUND The fieroe repression which has been meted out to the militants of the ETA over several years and which reached its climax with the Burgos trial, reveals better than anything else the burning actuality of the national question in 1. The roots of this problem are deeply embedded in Spanish history:
The Spanish bourgeoisie, because of its peculia rities and the specificity of the development of capitalism in Spain, proved itself incapable of achieving the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic revolution in Spain at a time when they were being achieved by the other bourgeoisies in Europe.
Faced with the dangers of the yo Spanish working class learning and assimilating the lessons of its European comrades, the Spanish bourgeoisie made an alliance with the reactionary layers of the landlords and hid behind a strong dictatorship to ensure its continued domination. It is this historical incapacity of the Spanish bourgeoisie to liberate the peasant masses from the yoke of feudalism, to unify the different nationalibies of Spain into one cohesive nation, in short, it is this abortion of the bourgeois democratic revolution which represents the historical roots of the problem of nationalities as it exists in Spain at the present moment. 2. The bloody counter-revolution which put into power the fascist Franco dictatorship has meant a further historical regression in all fields. in order to reassert capitalist domination throughout Spain, the Franco regime carried out the most ferocious repression against all the differing national characteristics of the population, including imprisonment for those who spoke Catalan or Euskera, and even to the extent of erasing names from streets and funera stones.
The growing working class movement which was rising with new strength from the ashes of the severe defeat it had suffered found it impos sible to get rid of the reformist carcass of it traditional leadership. As a result of this naDonalist organisations such as ETA have been able to act as the vanguard of the struggle against the Franco dictatorship. The article that we publish below was written after a discussion with some militants of the ETA who recently escaped tro Franco's jails.
The Birth of ETA In 1953 after agreements had been ratifie between the Spanish Statn, the Vatican United States imperialism, the Basque list Party virtually ceased all its activities.
It is in 1958 that the ETA appears on the scene. It was founded by voung nathonalists Who had split from the youth organisation of Nationalist Party (PNB). At this S2ue HaMi stuge the ETA tonk over the old programme of the PNB, apart from the question of clericalism and hoped to put into practice some of the concepts on which the PRB leaders had only theorised The changing international context, particularly in the sami colonial world such as the victory of the Cuban revolution, the growing Vietnariese revolution, had a big offuct on the ETA militants. in a text written in 1963 they air preoccupation with the question of "Armied Insurrection"
In 1967 at its 5th Congress the ETA openly defines itself as o revolutionacy socialist organi sation, but the orientatibn still remains vague and confused and the struggle of the Basque proletariat is still conducted within a purely nationalist Yamourk. No links are savisaged with the saugains of the rest of the Spanish proletariat The documents of the Congress are La translation of the Vietnamese exper ace. The ETA sets the struggle on fo front Huers front Military front bultural front politicul front Many ETA militants begin to read Debray's Revolution in the Revolution and talk about the setting un uf a NLF against the Franco regime. An analogy is made between the Basque people and that of neo-colonised proples, Dut Ip practice the military activity predominates. The Creation of a Workers Front During the winter of 1967 the ETA militants create a larger structure (of course underground) in order to lead the economic and political struggles in the factories. This structure they call The Workers Front From the very beginning the ETA militants refuse to allow trade-union ureaucrats of the Spanish C.P. to participate the front and try and dominate it bureaucratically as they do the Workers' Commissions in certain areas. During the February 1969 strike wave the Workers Front played a considerabie part and particularly in Biscaye and Giposkoa where there was the biggest Basque strike since 1947, Involving 50,000 workers. The strike brings to the fore the contradictions in the ETA leadership, which was bypassed during the strike by the spontancous militancy of the workers, In desperation the ETA loadershig organises a military adventure involving a minority. Twelve bombs explode in the army barracks, the Stock Exchange and in some offices of the official trade unions. The Franco government answers this with fierce repression, The entire leadership falls Forty militonts ard arrested in April, May and June 1989, Two hundred militants go into exile. The new feedership which emerges and builds the organisation up again has emerged from within the Workers' Front.
The Split from Nationalism and Militarism The new leadership created immediately organi sational structures oriented towards the realisa. tion of their professed socialist aims. They realised that it was essential to and the period of armed populism: the real task that confronted them was to bulld an organisation which could penetrate into the Basque working class and poor peasantry und this set into mation a mass vement At the same time an ideological debate took place inside the ETA. The break from nationalism which had already bean taking place was given a further impetus by the killing of Spanish workers in Grahada by the police. The ETA solidarised itself with the Gransda workers Py despatching a few well-timed Molotov cocktails in the direction of the Spanish police (Guardia Civil) in several Basque towns. For the first time they demonstrated concretely thair soli darity with other fellow workers in Spain.
At the Sth Congress held in September 1970 all the tendencies of the ETA were represented. The nationalist fraction denounced the majority for evolving towards Marxism and attacked the leadership for its "Espanalismo". After heated debates the nationalist fraction was expelled at the end of the conference. The fraction, very small in size, continued to use the name ETA and was responsible for kidnapping the West German official in San Sebastian, Today this nationalist fraction is linked with the old PNB elements and with reactionary Spanish and American interests. The Spanish bourgeoisie and American imperialism are both interested in using this "nationalism" in an attempt to stop the formation of a united class front including both Spanish and Basque workers.
-towards revolutionary Marxist positions de not take place overnight. Tha comrades of the ETA are today Involved in a period of res arch and discussion. Some of them are in favour of a reeolutionary party embrecing the whole of Spain and uniting the Spanish working class for a struggle against the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Others stress the socialist character of the revolution and the hegemony of the proletariat in the coming struggles. Today these discussions still continue. What characterises the militants of the ETA today is an enthusiastic search for new ideas combined with the fact that for them it is not an academic question. They cannot afford to dabble in ideas. They move towards revolutionary Marxism while experiencing the most ferocious repression and displaying a fantastic courage in the face of the enemy. The ETA militants are a decisive part of the new revolutionary vanguard which is today being forged in the Iberian peninsula.
The revolutionary movement in Europe and elsewhere must try and play a decisive role in ensuring that Izko and his comrades are released It is our responsibility to organise a campaig of solidarity with the Burgus prisoners. What we are witnessing are the opening shots of the new civil war in Spain, which will continue until capitalism has been overthrown in Spain. Those who betrayed this struggle in the past, stand exposed before the revolutionary movement throughout the world today. The new revolutionary brganisations in Spain will not lat Stalinism stand in their way. They have learnt this lesson the hard way. [ETA starids for Euzkadi Ta Azkatasuna which means "Freedom for the Basques"/ giving to capitalist exploitation and its political