You know what the events were that took place in this prison, which in turn provoked a repressive response and, at the same time, motivated the decision to start this fight, which is now over.

It is now I, little by little, who is becoming aware of the scale of the struggle that begins here in prison in Euskal Herria, and I have to acknowledge that I am astonished and, to some extent, overwhelmed.

What happened inside this prison, on 9 and 10 May, I remember clearly, as I remember the decisions I made as a political militant (the ones I had to take! ).

What is more, I can inform you of my assessment of these facts and of the decisions taken a few days after the end of the battle.

More than losing or winning that battle was necessary. The cry that was heard from inside the prison was death or life, with which we wanted to express the denunciation of the living conditions of all prisoners, even more so with the arrival of COVID-19, and with the added effect it has in the case of political prisoners, that we are suffering a policy of exception and real massacre.

This cry was much more painful throughout the day and, on many occasions, because of the ill-treatment and death threats I had to bear from the authors of this punitive prison system.

In my opinion, and from my political conscience, what has gone unnoticed is that a group of people decided to concentrate every day on the arrival of COVID-19, on the violations of political and social rights deriving from repressive management, and precisely that these concentrations took place inside a prison, and not, as would be more logical, from the street, but I also realize that COVID-19 happened by chance.

Everything that has happened since then, both inside and outside, has been what has made it feel that the choice to develop this extreme protest has been worthwhile, and I have to value positively the change that I have made, because it has allowed me to feel that my life is not at the same risk as before. All of this, I repeat, thanks to the struggle that took place on both sides of the wall.

There is no doubt that the day will come when I will be paid for all this, because on this occasion, we have given the lesson, but it is true that in this new situation, as a result of protest and mobilization, it will be more difficult for them to carry out their cowardly death threats, at least in the short term.

I was convinced to continue the fight as long as it was necessary, because, as I explained in the previous public communication, I see that it is in the situation that I claimed the most guarantees of survival: through the repatriation of all political prisoners and prisoners. In addition, we had to respond to the prison, because of its repressive attitude towards the prisoners, to the concentrations that a significant majority of us held.

My day to day has felt and made me think of the personal pulse he has had during the fight with the prison, not as a fight against an organization separate from others, but as a fight against all that injustice and repression that is the basis of the prison system.

It is true that almost every day I have had contact by phone, with lawyers, with my family and with the closest circle of my friends. The feeling was that I was focused on my struggle with that punitive penitentiary system, and it's true that at first I didn't realize the impact that I was starting to have out there.

"What a lack of foresight! ", I thought, as I reflected on the need to launch this harsh protest, especially for the consequences it was going to have on the level of health and the hand of our class enemies.

We suffer, we suffer all of us who are imprisoned, but we also suffer this situation in a different way between us, because not one day I forget that there are dozens of colleagues in a worse situation than I am.

I feel great sensitivity and empathy with colleagues with serious and/or incurable diseases, with colleagues who have years of sensitivity and empathy, sensitivity and empathy with older colleagues, with many years of imprisonment on the back, that sensitivity and empathy never runs out in the galleries with colleagues who have had too many years of isolation. Sensitivity and empathy towards all family members and the suffering they suffer, which, week after week, I see reflected in the face of my fellow men.

I can say that I am a privileged relative to the situations and conditions of life of all the members that I have just described, that they are not only made suffer by pure and harsh revenge, but by the political strategy of our enemies, who have always sought personal and militant destruction as an objective that responds to their political interests to maintain the current system of oppression and domination.

I had been fighting for about 20 days, and then I started to form a clearer idea of what was happening on the streets of Euskal Herria. I would later learn of the impact it had had on other peoples. First of all, I pay attention to the mobilisation and militant activation being achieved in the streets (and at another level in other prisons). Next, I realize the consequences that began to emerge in the political life of Euskal Herria.

I appreciate all this, in part, from the point of view of solidarity and concern, in relation to the difficult situation that had been suffered following the ill-treatment and death threats, but also with the rebellion and the gesture of struggle that it was making.

On the other hand, I appreciate much more what has happened, because, on the basis of the militant commitment that already existed, it has once again served to bring the issue of the situation suffered by political prisoners, at all levels, out of the box that was locked up, to put it back on the table, giving it the visibility and urgency it deserves.

That couldn't be done just by the struggle I was waging, even though there are people and militants who think that.

The truth is that I believe that in recent years a kind of ‘seed’ has been created among all of us, on the one hand, because the management of the official sector on this issue has not been effective or fruitful, and on the other, thanks to the work of institutions that have never abandoned historical demands on this subject. Organizations working to regain the level of political mobilization and activation that the streets of this people that we have known for their rebellion have had. I refer not only to the Pro-Amnesty and Anti-Repression Movement (AEM), but also to those groups that are organised autonomously without neglecting the demand for amnesty and others against repression. All this is exacerbated, as could not be otherwise, by the stalemate shown in taking steps to resolve this issue by the states that continue to oppress us for decades.

On the basis of this sadness, the so-called "seedbed" has been maturing, and more and more people have come together, but above all I would mention the new generations that are part of the Basque rebellious youth.

The cries that were heard from inside the prison would have been like a spleen that illuminated the streets again. But that light would not have been possible without the militant work he has been doing for years and, of course, without the participation of the young people in going out in the street and fasting, not only for the situation of Patxi Ruiz, but also for the prisoners, refugees and deportees and retaliated policies that we form.

All this has happened while you challenged the state, giving double credit to the effort the confinement imposed had.

As for the reasons that you have had young people, and not so young people, to go out into the street in different ways, I can imagine that not all of them are on the same path.

Whatever the reasons, I can only applaud them. I sincerely applaud you, and I neglect the convictions I have on this subject (those you know, because I made them public). And I do so because, in the current situation, I attach more importance to continually going out into the street, as you have done, than a small elite has decided: once a year, in January, and with campaign announcements that are almost never made.

The street has always been a meeting point. It has been another political tool for denouncing and achieving political and social objectives, and on the street the rights "we have enjoyed" of my generations have been achieved, thanks to the sweat and blood spilled by our parents and grandparents. The new generations know nothing about these rights, because they have taken them away from us as a result of the onslaught of those who oppress us in the name of capitalism.

You have to go back to the street, meet again and meet again. That is not just to seek a solution for all the people who are part of one of the consequences of the political conflict that has been experienced in recent decades in Basque lands, but to design a political movement between all and all that will help us to get rid of the yoke that oppresses us. A yoke that can wipe out this territory of a thousand years, until it becomes a slave to the interests of capitalism, as we continue to suffer the occupation and oppression suffered by our ancestors and the new generations have begun to suffer it in a more serious way.

Those who write on behalf of the EPPK say that I have been another victim of the emergency policy that applies to all political prisoners and that the arrival of COVID-19 has made it even more serious. Since I have already been mentioned, I must make the following point: no to the victim, gentlemen. I, like many other imprisoned political militants, am THE ANSWER of that same exceptional policy.

On the other hand, it would be unfair not to express my thanks to the people in this prison for the respect and good treatment they have given me during this time of struggle. I should like to make it clear that I myself asked them to fight alone. I also asked them not to fight with me in solidarity. I know they were worried about your situation.

It would be unfair not to value the action of the Pro Amnesty Movement (AEM) with me in this dramatic situation, nor the groups mentioned above and the associations fighting for the rights of prisoners, such as Salhaketa, Pronoia and others who have conveyed so much solidarity and support to me in this region of Murcia.

I would like to make a special mention of the immense legal work that my lawyers have done. Also to the circle of my family and friends, for the enormous work done by you (very hard because of the close emotional ties that unite us).

I would also like to thank the solidarity and the mobilisations from the Galician and Catalan territories, as well as those from other geographically distant peoples, but united by the same struggle; the solidarity received in a personal capacity, which I have received with the same tenderness that has been sent, and to which it has been sent to this Basque country which continues to fight for its freedom.

To end this story, I will explain the reasons that led me to make the decision to stop the hunger strike: When I understood everything that was going on outside, I realized that, if I kept fighting, as far as my state of health is concerned, an aggravation or misfortune could produce a situation that I would never have wanted or wanted. With a bitter taste, because we have not achieved the objectives set out in the previous communication, and although I do not yet know if it has been the most appropriate decision, I now give more value to the reunion on the street, organised, than to the consequences of an unfortunate end. I think it's time for the movement generated to grow, not to implant.

You have made me think, and you have made me believe, that it is now you who take the witness of the struggle begun a few weeks ago with your individual and militant commitment. You will continue to go out into the street until you can free all political prisoners, without distinction in our models of political militancy. Peace in cemeteries, or the Pax-Roman offered by oppressors and accepted by reformers, is not acceptable.

To achieve these goals, organization and struggle!

Struggle is the only way forward

*Patxi Ruiz, political prisoner