Activists have started at 9:00 in the morning from Usansolo, first on cars climbing on narrow roads and then on foot on mountain trails. Along the way, several activists have been separated from the group to report the appearance of the Police. The main group has arrived at about 10:00 hours to a fenced area full of eucalyptus, on the top of a mountain mountain. After overcoming the fence, eucalyptus has begun to cut the mountain in a broad row, with axes, azades or machetes in the hand. The Eucalyptus were young, the smallest of half a meter, the tallest of five or six meters.

Lunch has had a sweaty skin and a smile on the face. They have regained their work with renewed forces and have launched themselves to cut the fences that close the area to four of the entrepreneurs. In three hours, an area of tens of hectares has been “cleaned”, with hundreds of eucalyptus cut and the beginning broken by many points. There has also been time for the anecdote. A mountaineer who was walking through the area has seen several activists with their faces covered and, although they have been warned at first, in a few minutes they have started to talk and have encouraged them to move forward.

Planting of robles

At 10 a.m. and in the context of the ITA there is no Eucalyptus that has left Arantzazu, the Oak Tree, yes! The participants of the mountain march have been surprised by the activists, who have been informed that they would go through the place. Around one, a hundred Marchists have realized the action and when they hear the applause, the whistles, the cries of “Defend our forests!”, “No eucalyptus or anything!” They have also entered the area and planted dozens of oak outbreaks between the cut eucalyptus logs. One of the activists then addresses the Marchists: “We have cut the trees and the barriers of this private property full of eucalyptus to defend our forests and our nature in order to cause as much economic damage as possible. Long live direct action!” Masked activists have been lost in the forest and the Marchists have followed their path.

Disobedient mask

Activists cover their face with a red and green mask. The mask was first used in March 2017, when dozens of citizens, in response to an anonymous call, occupied the Iberdrola Tower in Bilbao and celebrated there what they called 'clandestine concert'. The promoters of the initiative invited all citizens to take the mask and organize “non-violent disobedient actions”. The clandestine concerts were shrivelled at two months. First, in the plenary of the City of Durango, to demand the resignation of Councilor Fran Garate, arrested for a sexual assault. Then in the Olympia elderly residence in Bilbao, in solidarity with the workers of the residences. After four years, disobedient masks have reappeared in a different action format. Will they have new uses?

Video of the action and explanation of the entrepreneurs

“We have decided to fight this eucalyptus plantation. This is a 25-hectare plantation located under the Ereño district in Bedia. It's just a sample of the young eucalyptus plantations that are growing in our landscape in recent months. Sample of the forestry industry promoting climate change and the ecological crisis in general. It shows a model that promotes the concentration of forest ownership and guarantees the profit rates of increasingly large companies. Mortgaging the means for this people to own themselves is nothing more than a demonstrator who questions the living conditions of society.” The entrepreneurs who made the eucalyptus court have released a video and a statement explaining the reasons for the court – the statement reads it in video a voice off.

A global crisis that is reflected in the Basque Country

The action is framed in the “global ecological crisis”, in the global crisis of the “capitalist, patriarchal and colonial” system: “No one can keep more dust under the carpet. Capital is questioning the life process that surrounds it and sustains it.”

In the Basque Country, entrepreneurs consider that this crisis and this model have their own reflection: “With the help of our beloved oligarchy, led by the PNV, we know all too well what it is to exploit the resources of this territory in the most predatory way”. They have denounced that forestry is a “perfect” example of the exploitation of people and nature: “The communal forest spaces that once were the heart and support of rural society, have become private property and have become the model of the most productive and commercially savage activity (...) in the gigantic forests cut through scrubs; tragic working conditions, in most migrant workers, causing losses of death and accidents, and incalculating accidents, which feed the paper industry.”

Eucalyptus new symbol

Pine has for years been the main symbol of this logging in the Basque Country, and activists have denounced that eucalyptus is replacing it: When the golden age of pine plantations is exhausted, they try to extend the age of eucalyptus. The need for unlimited growth that capital needs leads us to a blacker hole.

Invitation to citizenship

“They leave us no other choice. Direct action,” said the entrepreneurs in the statement: “The world goes to the devil and it’s not time to keep looking. Only the people can save the people.” They have completed the note by calling on the public to carry out similar actions: “We call on Euskal Herria to initiate such activities autonomously throughout our valleys and mountains.”