Tomás Etxabe Arakistain was received in 1949 in Zumaia, in the Bitarte farmhouse, studied mechanics and worked in the village before Vitoria. He began working in Forjas Alavesas, one of the main references of the local labor movement and Vitoria-Gasteiz. Years later he became ill, broke up with the past and returned to his homeland with his wife. But after forty years, his name continues to resonate strongly among the workers of Vitoria, along with Imanol Olabarria, Jesús Fernández Naves and others.

 

[Thomas Etxabe tells us before we ask ourselves]

I just leave the house.

Look, the other one!

You talk to a paralytic. I have spent half a life in an invalidity pension.

What is your handicap?

I have a tumor on the back of my head, a kind of chained ball. Apparently, I once had a blood stroke that affected some head nerve, and as a result, my vision, my speech, my balance… it has affected me, or it has assaulted me. I've recovered a few things, not all. I look at you, and I see you two -- Maybe I was born with a tumor, but when I was 34, I realized the tumor.

You, born in 1949, took possession of the disease in 1984…

More or less. I started seeing the same image in two different places. "Look, there's something wrong here! I said to myself. I was with the ophthalmologist and he took me to the neurologist. “Wow!” I was admitted to the Txagorritxu hospital in Vitoria-Gasteiz for three weeks. They didn't tell me exactly, but in a way it became apparent to me: “Malformation,” they told me. I walked with doctors on both sides, and I went to Catalonia to do resonance, because then there was none here. They confirmed to me what they had told me. And since then, I've struggled to take care of myself. And by doing memory exercise, I remember that at the time of strike in Vitoria, I felt something on my left leg. But then, lightning and thunder! There was nothing else!

And from there up?

A couple of years later I got invalidity and I'm collecting a pension since then. I've already attacked the left side of my body, both my leg and my hand, and I have to walk down the street with the cane. Now I look back and I know that the disease has conditioned me in my life. I am too suspicious of official medicine, I have deviated through the path of “alternative medicine”, energy medicine, etc. I've done several courses to get to know myself and the origin of my illness. When I was working in energy medicine, I was told that I had to cut off with the first ten years after diagnosing the disease. Totally cut.

What is “cutting with the first”?

The break with all previous contacts. I also made a quarantine in the monastery of Leyre, completely closed, no television, no radio, no telephone. Right there. Hold on. And I decided to break all my old relationships: my people, my union, whatever. Pause.

So your life has two parts!

Ha ha ha ha… Something like that!

I guess as a young man I would be a believer.

How well I was going for Herri Gaztedi!

I mean, you killed him, too, and you ignited him.

I left the factory at the age of 35 for a disability. I was in Forjas [Alavesas].

Did he continue to work at the Forjas Alavesas factory after the 1976 strikes? !

Yes. After the strike on 3 March, I was running for six months. But after a while I came back.

He was a foreman...

It's a way of saying, "head."

I mean other leaders, like Imanol Olabarria or the recently deceased Jesús Fernández Naves, were captured and held in Carabanchel...

From 3 March, they decided to show up. I hide. Even if it’s for a while… I’m remembering it right now… You have the blame! Talking in quotation marks, always. Immediately after the strike, when I hid, I entered the trunk of a car and went to Forjas to participate in the assembly. The store at the entrance of the factory was controlling people, knew their driver and let him in with the car, as usual. And I in the trunk! When he pulled the car off, I went out and talked in the assembly, saying that we had to go ahead, that it was encouraging. Then he got back into the trunk of the car and went out.

It has to happen!

Not inside, conviction! I remember the afternoon the police shot him, I put a wounded man in the car and took him to the hospital in Santiago. He was an employee of Forges. I had a bullet inside! It was called Vault, Riojano. The situation was frightening, yes, and maybe that's why I told the factory members that I would come in, even if it's secret, and that I would talk. And say and do: I showed up in the assembly and talked in front of the workers. I don't know what I said, except I had to go ahead.

Imanol Olabarria at this same ARGIA [February 18, 2018] told us that when Fernández Naves and he left Carabanchel the situation was very different in Vitoria and in the factories of Vitoria.

Following the death of the workers, several funerals were held in which thousands of people congregated in the new cathedral. After the ceremony, the bodies were transferred to the demonstration held in Gasteiz Square. The civil guards, located on both sides of the road, were waiting there. We got there ... The Imanolek-and they recognized it, they had that image. When they left prison, there was none of that and, on the other hand, parties and unions were being legalised. The workers were starting to join these organizations, as they had not done before, because there were no parties or unions before. In the factories, the assemblies lost strength. It was a big change, but it changed radically, because I don't know.

The assemblies were dissolved and the institutions were imposed.

From the factory to the factory, this happened differently. For example, in Forjas, the assembly lasted for many years. Trade unions, at least in Forges, the assembly was sacred. And Forges' representatives, whether or not they were affiliated with a trade union, respected the assembly. There were people who didn't want that, for example some from ALS, but no one opposed the assembly. Nobody dared. It's not my merit, and I increasingly like to talk about myself, but while I received the disability, the assembly was very strong in Forges, although it was beginning to weaken, because there were other references, unions and others. Imanol [Olabarria] worked in Cablenor, [Jesús Fernández] Naves in Mevosa, I in Forjas… Everyone lived his thing, but, I have already told him, in Forjas the meeting lasted longer than anywhere else.

They were priests Imanol Olabarria and Naves… Were you in the seminary?

No, but almost! Ajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajaja… Because in the farmhouse I needed a labor hand, if not, I would go closer! Ajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajajchess… Still, he walked by Herri Gaztedi. There we ideologize. My head was deep. Andrés Osa along with Xipri Muñagorri. And also a call called Izaskun. Here, in Zumaia, we were a crew in Herri Gaztedi, about ten people. We also participated Juanito Dorronsoro. Then we became Marxists. I studied mechanics, I worked in different workshops in Zumaia, and at 24 years old I went to Vitoria. My sister Pilar lived there, and first, I lived in her house. I started working in Forjas.

You went to Vitoria because you had your sister there.

No, because you had to go to the place where the worker was! I became a Marxist of Herri Gaztedi, I was at the OIC [Communist Left Organization], at the EMK [Communist Movement of the Basque Country]… I don’t know where I was, but I knew I had to go to the area where there were many workers, to make the revolution.

Oh, missionary!

Missionary! Yes, sir! Ha, ha… Another form of missionary! So I went to Forjas, and I also looked like a peasant, and to work! They made me a six-month contract and then they renewed it. I was thinking about staying there. I entered Forges at the age of 24, and the strike went to 26. Back then, we were in trenches. Meanwhile, in 1974, Franco lived, and the bravest or most knowledgeable of the factories of Vitoria, or I do not know how to say so, we met on the mountain, in the area of Olarizu. There was also another large factory, San Ignacio Enamels. These strikes in Vitoria-Gasteiz were carried out thanks to the work of the trenches. Then work had to be done, of course.

On 9 January 1976, they went on strike in Forjas.

And we kept the strike. Then came Mevosa, Aranzabal, Cablenor, Areitio… And the representatives of the factories, or some of them, went on strike in the trenches in which they worked. Most of them, men. Maybe Areitio was a woman. I don't remember.

Did the police not know?

The police were chasing ETA, not us! Before Franco died, the only thing we did was to hold mountain meetings and issue pamphlets. It was about raising the awareness of the worker. He was one of those who wrote pamphlets. I've always liked reading. There was a multicopist, a craftsman, and there we were throwing out the leaflets. We left my sister's house and rented a small floor on Errementari Street, and then we had the multicopist there.

Then Franco died...

And that’s when “they” (authorities and police) become disoriented. Maybe we're all pretty lost, they and we are. However, we thought it was the occasion, as they were on their way.

Looking at that time, do you see yourself as a leader?

At that time, yes. I am looking from today and I think that is of no use at all. People want references, and at that time I was the main reference in Forges, but not the only one. Workers' representatives included high-value people. Some who didn't have large schools but were worth a lot. Most of the time I spoke in the assemblies. At that time, we were more than a thousand workers. Large assemblies were held. I remember the first meeting we did within the factory, but outside the workplace. I went up to the small steps and, standing, I addressed the word to the workers.

What did you say?

I don't know! But I remember it was hard. The first meeting is always tough. You don’t know how it’s going to come out, if they’re going to listen to you, if they’re going to get you out of work, how people are going to respond… The assembly went well, we went on strike and some fired us. However, the bosses soon realized that this united and strengthened the workers, who had to try otherwise.

On 9 January, and until 3 March, on strike…

Yes, yes! Most of the workers at that time were immigrants, lived irregularly and in a house where more than one family lived. He earned very little. The day laborers almost doubled through the strike!… We, through our action and the pamphlets, showed the people that we had the opportunity to gain more, to work in better conditions, to have workers’ representatives recognised, to obtain union rights… Then, when we were thrown to us, they had another claim: to go back to work for the dismissed. “Without them, where are we going?” he said. And the petitions were obtained, but with five deaths came the petitions.

How was the two-month strike maintained?

Two months in Forjas. Mevosa did more months, and Aranzabal, Cablenor, Areitio… in Areitio all were women. And how do you stand it? It was a miracle! Resistance boxes were created and work commissions were set up to meet the needs of each other. In addition, several workers moved to different Alavese localities to collect potatoes. Later, these potatoes were distributed in the churches of the working-class neighborhood. Thanks to that work, we kept the strike.

Eating potatoes!

For example! Ha, ha… But, in addition, there is one important fact. And it hasn't been given enough importance: woman. The man was quickly frightened in the house. The money was carried by him, and if he didn't carry it, what? The woman said otherwise: “We’ll keep it even if potatoes are eaten! Contain.” And so it did. The woman did an important work of resistance. For example, many women went out to the demonstration with a bag in their hand. That for the first time in Euskal Herria so many women met and went out into the street! That is the point! And Euskal Herria and Spain knew that so many women were on the street, with empty bags. There is the protagonist role of the woman, at home and on the street. It was very important. And I know, for example, that the neighborhood association that formed after the strikes had a lot of strength, because the women who went on strike participated in it. In my opinion, when talking about 3 March, women have not been given the importance they deserve.

Between 9 January and March, you convened two general strikes.

None of them came out. And Forges, Mevosa, Cablenor, Areitio... It was six thousand workers on strike! He called a general strike and didn't go!

It came out on March 3!

But I don't know why! The third time, because I think so.

I spoke to a witness who was a student at that time and said that there was a strike atmosphere in Vitoria that day. And it was noon when the police shot him at Gasteiz Avenue.

Yes, it was a strike, among other things because we closed all the streets with bars, unlike the two previous calls. The atmosphere was favorable, but we didn't trust each other. And in the morning, it's true, there were shots. The students did a good job. Some may have their parents on strike. But the problem wasn't the student, it was the worker who worked. They could not strike, or they would be afraid… I don’t know. Everyone lives in their world, I cannot say it, but that day there was a total strike in Vitoria-Gasteiz. The picket wasn't even needed. During the strike we also tried to get Michelin out, but it didn't go out. If I had left, then yes! There were a lot of workers. We too, six thousand people, endure and endure for two months.

3 March 1976.

In the morning we did a street job to stop everything: shop, bar, street… Everything closed! At that time we were not afraid! Come on! That afternoon, the representatives of the workshops met in the church of Arana to prepare for the assembly of Zaramaga. It was our custom. When we left there and went to the church of Zaramaga, the police were already busy. "Hostile! We don’t have anything good today!” I said. The police were startled and drunk. They weren't many, but they were completely armed. While we were there, we told a priest that he was with us to talk to the police chief, saying yes, that the workers would leave the church. We didn't want confrotations. The police chief sent our priest, Felix Placer, to the hardware of the geese. “Out of here!” they told him. So I said to myself. “Thomas, here’s the red!”

Pedro Martínez Ocio, Francisco Aznar Clemente, Romualdo Barroso Chaparro, José Castillo García, Welcome Moral Pilgrida, hundreds of wounded. A massacre.

Yes, yes. The police were trying to get people out of the church. Gas boats were also launched and some of those inside shattered the windows’ crystals. They took him out of there. They were saved. But those who came out of the front door, some dead, others wounded by bullet… Five deaths and hundreds wounded by bullet. I couldn't be there! But in these kinds of moments, you don't think, you do something. Take José Luis, one of the gunshot wounded, Forjas, into the car and take you to Santiago Hospital! Blood and others! And when we left the hospital, Vitoria quietly, nobody in the street… We thought they would take the army out into the street. There are always the words of the Burgos military, who said to the government that he had the soldiers ready to take Vitoria. And it wasn't just Vitoria.

What do you mean?

It was the time of post-Francoism, and in Spain too, there were gorges and the government was drifting. The blue shirts were still there, starting to undress, but with the mind still blue. Transition or whatever. In Basauri, another worker was killed in Tarragona. And on day 9, or out there, there was a general strike in the Basque Country. There was a context. It is therefore not appropriate to focus only on Vitoria. There were also confidential movements, some of the bosses who called us to negotiate. And for example, I think there was a worker in Forges, and not the one who was left behind, who said maybe we had to go back to work and negotiate. We had almost jumped his neck! Forjas was the benchmark of the struggle at first, and our return to work meant leaving the five thousand workers on strike unprotected. The situation was complicated! In the meantime, continue!

Do you have any memory of the funeral that took place in the new cathedral of Vitoria?

I wasn't there because I had hidden myself. I was there on the first anniversary, and I talked live. I read a text, and in the end, I launched one of the slogans at the time. “Undo repressive forces.” And as we ate in Elorriaga [Council of Vitoria], I saw the secret cops. Also the food leapt into my throat: “Hostile, here they are!” And get two and go with them. I was fined 500,000 pesetas at Nanclares Prison. But I was on the street after a week, because people had picked up the money and paid the bond. We had to get the money back, and we gave it back to the people on the street for what was needed.

After the assassinations of Zaramaga, what came?

I hid, but I didn't stop meeting with factory representatives. We met at Laudio and talked about the problems of work. I followed up. And after six months of lockdown, amnesty was a kind of law. And it didn't stop me from working again. I was even paid for the six months I spent in secret. That means the assembly still had a lot of strength, although I wasn't there. How things are! Today it is unthinkable! So many strikes, so many lawsuits, so many deaths and injuries… and two days after those deaths the workers returned to work and the elders accepted everything we asked for. Guillermo Aranzabal was negotiable people, but Forjas, Mevosa and others were tough!

What do you feel about it?

That would not have been possible if not so many people had participated: pickets, raising money, going to the towns of Álava to pick up potatoes… The names are not important, but what made it possible for us to be there. I remember Forjas, Teodoro, Ángel -- workers who didn't have large schools, but were always there, on the front line. They were immigrants or children of immigrants. They are worth more than I am. I, after all, was ideologized, Marxist… whatever you want. They weren't Marxists, but they were there! Are we ideologized? The dog's violin! What did we want to save the world? The dog's violin! We did what we had to do, the police thought they were overcome and then started shooting. Apparently, he had drunk something, very hot, and he shot and shot. “Shoot to kill!” [Shoot to kill!] They had slogans.

Have the stress and tension of that time influenced your illness?

I am convinced that it is. I'm convinced that the tumor comes from birth. But if I hadn't gotten into that mess, maybe I wouldn't have gotten out. The tumor was always there, but the tension at the time caused a blood spill of the tumor. In these cases, you have two options: either you don't listen or you ask yourself. If I had not listened to him, I was already in the hole and you and I would not be here.

* * * * * * * * * * *

The Olarizu Revolution

“We were gathered on the mountain, in the weeds, about thirty people from different workshops, preparing our revolution. While we were there, a man appeared, and they all ran over the scrubs. What was it going to be, pastor! We lived in full tension. When we realized that he was a pastor, we took encouragement, we turned and we continued in the revolution.”

 

3 MARCH

“When I was working in energy medicine, the doctor told me to cut me off from the past. I listened to him. But one day, my wife and I took a bouquet of flowers and left it there, in Zaramaga, on the stone in honor of the dead. I cut it off with Vitoria, although that fact is always present. [Pedro] Martínez Ocio was a Forjas worker! And Francisco Aznar, son of a Forges worker! That worker I took to the hospital! And Felix Placer talking to the police chief! The tension is there, with what the doctor told me!”

 

LESS PURE

“Naves didn’t like my position: hide me. We had a confrontation at the cost of that. On the other hand, we created the union, ESK, and they were pure anticapitalists who only had in mind the assembly and the assembly. But we were apparently not so anti-capitalist pure. After March 3, some of us decided to play differently, while others decided that they should follow as before.”

 

LAST WORD

BETTER WORLD

“All responsibility is never on one side. Most of the responsibility may lie on one side, but the responsibility lies with both sides. Each has its own responsibility. At that time I did, that would be my responsibility, my task, and now I am in another field, always after a better world.”

 

Note of the Light: This dialogue is an extensive version of what is published in the number 2.723 of paper.