At the beginning of the month he did III. Congress in Pamplona. It is said to be the “ordinary congress” that serves to draw “non-ordinary conclusions”, or at least that is how they have received Zutunik in the paper, proposed by the leadership and unanimously approved by the militancy. I would say that its objective is to go further in a direction that has been going on for a long time, and that the congress is one more step to normalize and perpetuate the action of the EH Encuentro in the institutions of the Spanish State, to totally reject the possibility of ever breaking with them and to approve the capitalist social model, even if in an implicit way. Let's go a little bit.

The Patriotic Left has gone from not legitimizing the Spanish Transition, the reform of Franco’s regime, and the institutions derived from it, to understanding the political and legal framework established by the regime of 78 as the legitimate and dominant playing field for the elaboration of politics; from defending the rupture with Franco’s regime to not demolishing the monument to the fallen. The EH Basque Country understands state and regional institutions as legitimate and preferential instruments for achieving political objectives.

This radical transformation of the political line, moreover, has not been accompanied by an exercise of self-criticism on the part of the Patriotic Left, even more so because in recent decades the grassroots militancy has moved little by little to the point of accepting the playing field established by the state, and I am not referring to the forms of struggle, but to the content of the strategy, because the debate on the strategic content has often been overshadowed by the forms or forms of struggle. Now the leaders of EH Reunidos, along with others, have been gradually hegemonizing the political line that is currently materializing the party, first in the Patriotic Left and later in the other sectors that make up EH Reunidos. It was first mentioned in 2009, but has been around since before. Congresses have been used to progressively formalize political theses previously disseminated in militancy, increasingly integrated in the regime of 78 and often with obstacles and prohibitions to honest debate. In the same direction, the need to “compact the body around strategic issues” that generate contradictions at the domestic level has been identified.

In a sense, a milestone is the III of the EH Encuentro. Congress, because it symbolically closes a phase. Born as a coalition between different parties and characterized by a change of strategy and cycle, it has now been formed as a classic party that is normalized in state and capitalist institutions, ready to enter into a circuit of rotation with the PNV in the management of institutions. The political program, the militancy model, the social base and the structure have been adapted to the reality of a classic electoral party, and the congress has fulfilled its function of formalizing it. Although the leadership is trying to give the party the appearance of a counter-power, the reality is the opposite; EH Bila represents a middle class that is standardized in the power structures of society in general, that says that it does not share the forms of value and management of the PNV, but that basically does not have any other proposal of social model than to claim its place in the higher instances of power and management.

It has been structured in a classic electoral aspect, based on the social-democratic and nationalist program, which is also evident in the model of relations that they represent with the agents and collectives of society. The paper advocates militancy and grassroots mobilization, but these are understood in a utilitarian and integrative way, with the ultimate aim of benefiting the party and not to strengthen the organization, the condition of subject and the power of the working class beyond the state. In this way, the main task of the street movement is to cultivate the common sense and the social base of the EH Encuentro, then turn this work into a vote in its favor, and finally, thanks to the legal and political instruments of the institutions, the party to achieve its objectives. EH The representative of the demands and mobilizations of the working class would then meet, and the framework for their realization, the legal and political limits imposed by the state.

As for the parties that formed the coalition in 2011, the electoral machinery of the EH Bil has been consumed, at present there are no fundamental ideological and programmatic differences between these parties, they have almost no political praxis of their own and the most important political cadres are channeled to the EH Bil. The main reason for the existence of the Creations is to connect the history of the Patriotic Left with the EH Bil and to act as a containment to the criticisms and political proposals that may arise to the left of the EH Bil.

As for the political line, what EH Bila Zutuni has confirmed in his paper is the commitment to gradually increase self-government within the legal and political boundaries of the state, which basically means abandoning once and for all the possibilities of independence, because it constantly delays it to a future that will never come. The text contains a will to overcome these limitations imposed by the constitution and the statute of autonomy, “to bring the Basque Country to another state”, but it is an abstract cry, no proposal for this appears anywhere, and in reality it only fulfills the function of masquerading the autonomist path as an independent folklore. The mission of EH Reunidos seems to be to promote the “gradual process of emancipation” within the rules of the game in the direction of achieving independence, but in practice, how is it proposed to give rise to the jump from self-government to independence?

They have gone from saying in 2016 in the Velodrome by Otegi “to the new Spanish left” that there is no possibility of democratizing the Spanish state and the pro-independence processes to support it, to writing in Zutuni that “EH Bila will support possible democratization sessions anywhere”, and to saying in El Diario Vasco that it is time to step into a Confederal State within the Constitution.

It is a fundamental strategic question to leave the relationship between self-government and independence unanswered. We are even more aware that the choice of unilateralism, disobedience and democratic confrontation that was adopted in the ongoing debate has been left aside. So what, then? Even if 100 per cent compliance with the Statute of Guernica is achieved at some point, how can the step towards independence be taken while respecting legal and political boundaries? What about the limits established by the Spanish Constitution? What about “the common and inseparable homeland of all Spaniards”?

The only similar response to all this is that the EH Convocation’s paper states that the process of independence must be carried out “in accordance with the minimum standards in force at the international level”, within the legislation, and with the aim of obtaining the approval and recognition of international agents. But what international agents are they talking about? It is said that the international legislation used by the US and NATO to their interests and desires must be respected, perhaps in order not to make these agents feel uncomfortable and, thanks to this, hope of obtaining the approval of both those who know and those countries. Respecting the laws of the geopolitical bloc that plunder and massacre the peoples of the world and obtaining their approval seems to be the independence and socialism of the 21st century. But even if we imagine this possible utopian situation, why and why would any Western country support a nascent Basque State?

The political proposal of interest to the working class does not fit into state structures and international legislation, something that the Patriotic Left once knew well. The state apparatuses exist to reproduce the capitalist order and also to crush the national will of the working class, in the case of the Basques. On top of that, the context also does not require an electoralist bet, nor does it require that the strength of the working class be turned into a vote and institutionalized. The global rise of fascism, the former Fords have become the Teslas, an even greater tension between geopolitical blocs and the impoverishment of workers are the current reality.

It is necessary to promote the organization of the working class, outside the clutches of the state structure and capital; to wage a cultural war at the social level to build a common sense among the workers that will resist the rise of fascism, to mobilize against the capitalist war and the dismissals that the industrial crisis entails, to combat the decline of the welfare state, to make the right of the working class to self-determination a reality, etc.

This is not done from the institutions of the state. This context cannot be dealt with by the PSOE government or by Ajuria Enea. This requires large and strong organizations of the working class, with mass movements rooted in the territory, in the workplace and in all spheres of life, and with the capacity to act in a unified and effective manner. Capable of influencing the direction of the Basque Country and the world. Rather than legitimizing and strengthening state structures, it is time to weaken them, it is time to rebuild the Communist Party at the international level, because the prolific history of the workers’ movement has shown that this is the main tool to achieve improvements in the living and working conditions of the working class, to open the way to the socialist revolution and to build socialist states that realize the self-determination of the workers.

Manex Gurrutxaga, EHKS militant