They have little to do with Zeruko Argia, who was born a hundred years ago, and the current weekly. In addition to the name, frequency, ownership and contents of the journal have undergone a considerable transformation. In this process, highlighting the 1980s is a fundamental exercise. In 1980 the workers took command of the religious figure that until then belonged to the Capuchins and had to fight to obtain the first numbers of Argia that we have in our hands. Joxemi Zumalabe, Joxe Mari Ostolaza, Josu Landa, Pello Zubiria, Iñaki Uria and Jon Barandiaran played a very special role in the company’s new ownership model. They dreamed of making a standardized press in Euskera, based on Vasquism, solidarity and prevention, in which the first workers took the new technologies as an opportunity.

Although today we can say that the idea of the cooperative has become a reality, it has been a path full of curves: to face a debt of eight million pesetas, the initial team worked not only as a journalist, but also as a professor or translator; the resources were scarce, although their technical knowledge was useful; in the year of the founding of the cooperative they published no more than 24 numbers, etc.

Hard work, however, paid off more quickly than expected. In a few years the debt was paid, the work team was professionalized and two new companies were created that have contributed to the maintenance of Argia: Apika Informatics and Printing Antza.

Today we only have to look back and thank you. Because the work of the religious journal is carried out by others, but who can assure us that if it were not for all the work done in the 1980s, today we had a free weekly in Euskera entirely?