Don't make a fuss, don't confront, don't victimize... and obey. As oppressed subjects, in this case as Basques, we talk, how many times have we had to listen to them? Ironically, two years ago, at the Euskalale Independentiston Meeting, Esne Arzallus said: "We have arrived here, like everyone else, well oppressed by the states, raped, and only we could do it with seduction. We will be the most genuine in the world! ".

It seems that we should proclaim our rights quietly, not too loudly, and preferably without disturbing or hurting anyone. It seems that the demand to live in Basque is not legitimate or at least not so that it can be brought to the front line and get too much buzz. It seems that all this is just a “whim”. We have received such messages from those who, paradoxically, have guaranteed the right to live in their mother tongue. In this way, they want to fill us with complexes, but we Basques have strong antibodies and, as was clear in last year’s Corriza, the Basque Country is a country that prides itself on being Basque.

The Spanish and French states want us to adopt a submissive and obedient attitude towards their rules, laws, practices... For what purpose? To perpetuate structural oppression and exclusion over the Basques. Therefore, in order to reverse the situation, we believe that it is essential to strengthen the attitudes of disobedience, to continue making the way towards the Republic of Euskera and to visualize and confront the situation of oppression in which we live. To bow to the oppressors at all times is nothing more than a restriction of our rights and our freedom, and the experiences of the struggles that have been waged to this day are proof of this. Feminist struggles, of the LGBTI+ collective, environmentalists, of the working class, antimilitarists... have we achieved today’s rights without creating commotion or confrontation? Maybe the struggle is an exception, and we haven’t figured it out yet?

Those who want to bring about change and empower themselves will be tumultuous and uncomfortable for some simply by opening their mouths; in most cases, for those who do not want change and are comfortable in their position of power. For this reason, it is incumbent on us Basques to stimulate and confront struggles, always acting responsibly and organising them collectively, with a clear definition of objectives and goals. By combining work and quiet, and taking the Republic of Euskera to the north, we are laying solid foundations. Euskara and the Basques are in a state of emergency and that is why now is the time to bring the struggle for the Basque language to the center and strengthen the new wave that we have talked about several times. A little more than half a century ago, our people managed to get out of the darker hole than the current one; even now, we are sure, we will do it!

On December 3, at the Palace of Justice in Bayonne, we proclaimed justice for the Basque language. For some of us, we have created too much fuss, we have taken the clamor for our language rights too far; we are "delinquents" and therefore, on April 11, we will be judged. What will the structures responsible for oppression and legitimizing oppression itself do to us? To punish them and try to stop them, they have very effective tools: both police and economic repression and the fear they provoke with all this. In the name of obedience they want to oppress us, so that we do not respond to oppression with obedience!

On the 11th of April, not only two people will be sentenced, but a whole village fighting for Basque and freedom. Therefore, let us respond collectively to the oppression and injustice in which we live and, on April 6, let us fill the streets of Bayonne to demand justice for the Basque people and for the Basques.

Haritz Larrageta, Ibon Leibar, Intze Gurrutxaga and Luken Etxabe, members of the EHE committee.