This article has been published by the Manu Robles Arangiz Foundation, translated into Basque by the publication Enbata, and has been brought to ARGIA under the license CC-By-SA.

The text ‘Souverainisme et souverainetés’ by David Lannes and Nicolas Goñi is a real contribution to the present Abertzale reflection, but also to some debates in the Hexagon that have been living for years. It puts on the table several important concepts to be clarified, in view of the crusade that Emmanuel Macron has undertaken against ‘separatism’ today. This crusade is a new version of the great ‘debate’ that Nicolas Sarkozy promoted on national identity. According to David and Nicholas, the singular conception of his sovereignty has its origin in: “of the connection between the inhabitants of the same territory (...), who want to resume the conditions of their lives. Often, this link is a strong collective identity, which is continually renewed, and which does not double before monochromatic and fixed identities defined from above. Many times, what is claimed and presented with the name of identity (based on flags, military songs, public snacks 'Pinard saucisson', etc. ), it's because collective identity is expired. That is, where there's a collective life on a human scale, where we're a part and a partner, that makes sense of what we do and takes our lives. On the contrary, when the dynamism of local life disappears (often as a combined consequence of the rural exodus, the collapse of a large economic network, metropolisation, cultural standardization, etc.). ), we are looking for something more to retain and on many occasions this attachment takes as its objective the last remaining collective indicator, the state nation and its symbols. And in this vague sense of local attachment, the far right finds material to develop a discourse around the national state based on external enemies and internal enemies.”

In the North too

This challenge is not just in the peripheries of the Banlieues, rural areas and French cities. In other words, in these desocialization and impoverishment places. Here we have the same dynamics, in which we will call the “Northern People’s Class” to make ourselves known clearly. Increasingly abandoned by the State of Providencia in collapse, ever further away from parties, unions and associations, they do not find a “gateway” to that Basque Country that is building; and this could be, should be, their optional community, which makes possible a “collective life on a human scale in which we are and collaborate; that gives meaning to what we do and takes root our lives”.

Double wager

On the one hand, these current dynamics, which isolate people, causing them to be more vulnerable and silenced, arouse the current trends of despair, and increase the feeling of uncertainty, powerlessness and lack of recognition. Hence the abstention, the “exile”, rage, the extreme right and fundamentalism of all kinds, useless violence and unceasing actions. These poisons even more the lives of citizens, who were already hit hard by the hardness and cruelty of capitalism.

On the other hand, the population sectors do not really participate at their proper level in a sovereign, sustainable and supportive Basque Country. In other words, what we are proposing as an alternative to the system. This remoteness will affect this project that we are collectively building and the possibility that it really represents the generality and plurality of our current society. Moreover, this disconnection weakens the Basque identity, ‘a strong collective identity (...), which is continually renewed’.

New collective challenge

On 10 October, Saturday, the general assembly will be held in Baiona for the creation of a new movement. The activity of this movement will be developed in the popular and popular neighborhoods of Ipar Euskal Herria and its objective will be collective organization. It is a question of betting on the basic rights and needs of the popular classes in their daily lives and in their environment, among others the world of work (housing, neighbourhood, employment, transport, schools, administration, banks and services, consumption, health, the environment, etc. ). ), in the framework of an Abertzale mass organization, from a radical perspective of social justice and environmentalism.

As for the actions and forms of mobilization he will use, he will focus on the Abertzale movement, the workers and alterglobalist movement and the “community organising”. The goal is to change and improve the way of life of people living in popular environments, but not just from the material point of view. For another objective will be to recover the recognition and respect that the citizens had before; to rebuild a social network, active solidarity and the popular cultural project; to achieve the place that is owed to them in local and global democratic life, and to connect them with the Basque society.

Too many people in those popular environments feel that the French State has left aside, but it does not find room for it in the Basque community. The purpose of this new movement is to make this connection possible, which for these popular classes is the gateway to our national project. This will enrich the project by providing a more progressive, supportive, inclusive and representative vision of the different realities of our society.