The European Union is in the hands of the global institutions of capitalism and the big corporations. It always gives priority to the needs of financial capital and is constantly increasing the gap between rich and poor. Likewise, the peoples of their territory continue to lose their sovereignty and the rights of their citizens are also in a continuous process of restriction. Decisions are made by a few to serve the interests of a few.

Those coming from France and Spain are not more promising trends. The right is trying to take advantage of the anger and disorientation of the population that has been left defenseless by both the economic crisis and the restrictions on rights. The leftist alternatives that have appeared in recent years have not been embodied as government alternatives. The Catalan process has shown that the consensus between the national parties on the unity of Spain is almost absolute. On top of that, we do not lack the signs that the events of recent months are a corrupt, racist, patriarchal, repressive and anti-democratic state.

We have entered a new era in the Basque Country. ETA has decided to put an end to the armed initiative for independence and socialism and dissolve itself. But the effects of the conflict of the last decades are still alive. The exceptional prison policies against Basque political prisoners, the irrefoulement of fugitives and deportees, the massive presence of police and military forces in our territory, the recognition of any violation of human rights and the lack of justice... The construction of a scenario of peace in this country through the solution of these issues is one of the priority tasks of this new era.

The second duty is to embody the renewed strategy of left-wing independence and to shape the process of independence that will lead us to the creation of the Basque Republic. In Madrid and Paris, the distribution of the pensions of Basque citizens is decided; far from our lands, the working conditions that exploit and condemn the Basque working class to precariousness are regulated; Basques who speak or fight freely are punished in foreign courts and impunity is guaranteed to those who oppress the citizens. But at the same time, many of our other living conditions are outside our decision: what we eat, how we inform ourselves, where and how we live, what relationships we have or how we take care of our health. All of these are currently in the area of what can be marketed and traded. The women and men who make up the vast majority of society are the ones who have to respond to the loss of power.

For this reason, the Basque Republic is a state that must be built by the Basque people in order to achieve full sovereignty; it is an organizational model that must be built from the bottom up in order to collectively meet the needs of our lives. This need to build from the bottom up and collectively means that it is something that needs to be built from our day to day. The choices we make in our homes, in our workplaces, in our neighborhoods and villages, in our communities or in our schools, the decisions we make, must be directed towards sovereignty. We must seek self-management of our needs when shopping, caring for family members or organizing leisure time. Free from the market forces that want to encourage us to sell and buy everything and away from the Spanish and French structures that limit us so much. The interconnection of specific sovereign practices, small at the beginning, local, but adapted to the needs of the different groups, will be the basis of a more just State. By being able to self-satisfy as much as possible the needs of our lives outside the networks of states and capitalism, we will liberate our minds, liberate the citizens and the people.

The independence process must be a constitutive process of the Basque Republic; and, as we have said, it must be based on the vital needs of the people. Everything that affects our lives is decided by us. The possibility of carrying out all these decisions is the construction of a new State. We must make the road to the Basque Republic a more just and unified society: towards the distribution of wealth, towards feminism, towards the normalization of the Basque language, towards sustainability, towards solidarity, towards democracy and, ultimately, towards freedom.

In Basque society there is a critical vision and a broad culture of activism; there are thousands of citizens working from the grassroots and political action. This is demonstrated by the initiatives of the feminist movement, the dynamics in favor of its own pension system, the mobilizations against the unjust judicial system or the hundreds of initiatives and projects that are developed locally. This culture of social participation is a solid foundation for the path we want to follow.

These are big goals and the obstacles on the road will not be small either. We will have in front of us, as we have done so far, all those who make business with the Spanish and French States with all their equipment and with the subordination of the Basque Country. For this reason, it is essential to form a broad citizen independence movement: only a group of citizens and committed groups that nourishes the choice of independence from everyday decisions can resist those who want us united and silent. In response to this in order to achieve the maximum number of citizen sectors, the processes of debate and decision will be superimposed and dynamically shaped on independence and the Basque Republic.

And this is the axis of the political project of left-wing independentism. We want to live better, in the simplest sense of the good life, so we want to decide everything. In a constant exercise of sovereignty from our immediate environment, sharing with those around us, revealing the need for independence, organizing, discussing among the different, gathering forces and taking these forces to the street if there are opportunities for one’s own contribution. At the beginning of the Great Week of San Sebastian we will also go out to the streets to proclaim this need and this desire aloud.

Urtzi Etxeberria, Lur Gallastegi, Haizea Isasa and Aitor Alberdi, members of the San Sebastian Foundation