From the inside
The reflection we want to share today comes from the concern for the direction we have recently taken as a people. The legalization of the Abertzale Left and the decision of ETA to abandon the armed struggle required a process of relocation, both for us and for the enemy. As in many changes, many concerns and doubts emerged with the direction that that “new era” was going to take. However, as usual, go on!
Some of us had to make this journey in an era of illegalization, others had to play the role of representing voices that have remained silent in the institutions for years, and others we are doing today. We take on this challenge with all the illusion and strength. It was clear to us that being in the institutions could serve for national liberation, without ever considering ourselves as an objective. Because we know that these institutions are the most effective instruments available to oppressive States to crush and eradicate this people.
"The debate is not whether the institutions are yes or no, but for what, from where, how and with whom"
In this context, the key is to make the institutions available to the citizens, while denouncing their patriarchal and hierarchical character. Using transparency and participation to support social transformation and distribute power. This type of project has multiplied in every corner of the Basque Country. On the contrary, when we have shared and woven that institutional power with popular movements that are the basis of national construction, we have had effective results, to quote Udalbiltza, UEU, or some UEMA.
At the same time, the institutions have their own risks and traps. As in all the classic power fields, time and inertia lead us to comfort and function on system parameters, if we're not careful. This is a reality of particular concern to us. As an example, at this time when we have more Basque elects, we are less strongly advocating the instruments created for national construction before they were created, in the case of Gaindegia, until their dissolution.
We believe that the popular process can be equated to the metaphor of a bicycle, in which two wheels are essential, the institutional and popular dynamic. The tractor axis of the bicycle would be around the popular dynamic, causing the other to move and give it strength.
The debate is not whether or not the institutions are, but for what, from where, how and with whom. Instead of working on the frameworks that mark Madrid and Paris, we have to agree, build and work on our own Basque Agenda. That is, in the assemblies of the towns and neighborhoods studying and building alliances with the people. Listening. Power generation from the ground up.
"The militants that we are in the institutions, we need the driving force and the north of popular dynamics"
The gender and age imbalance in this area is no coincidence. It seems that if it is not by law, in the institutions, in the structures of the parties and in the assemblies, men of over one age predominate, reproducing a patriarchal model characterized by immediacy, results, rationality, order, hierarchies and lack of vigilance. This inability to undo this being makes it impossible for us to compete in power to identities and subjects (both national and trampled by heteropatriarchal capitalism) that the system places us apart. In order to achieve a feminist, socialist and Euskaldun Basque Country, we cannot regard these institutions as the only axis of our struggle. The success of the construction of Euskal Herria will only come from the collaboration and empowerment of these diverse areas and subjects.
On the other hand, in the grass-roots movements that must be the basis of our struggle, what we have seen in recent decades has been exemplary. From the feminist movement to the movements of housing, language or defense of the land, it is making a determined commitment to guarantee diversity and the care of the militancy. On the basis of democratic debate, critical opinion, disobedience, community work and direct action, we are working hard on the power and relations it generates. Therefore, the militants that we are in the institutions, we have the driving force and the northern force of popular dynamics. Beyond rationality, reflecting, feeling and acting from the bowels and collective bodies. Attaching to the earth.
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