The youth organization Aitzina, created to be the meeting point of left and Basque youth of Ipar Euskal Herria, has announced that it has decided to complete its trajectory. ‘It is clear to us that, in recent times, Aitzina no longer responded adequately to the challenges we have as a Basque people and youth,’ they said. They mentioned the ‘impossibility’ of having a space for all the left and Abertzales, and they had ‘gaps’ in the response to the ‘various realities, problems and challenges’ that exist from Hendaia (Lapurdi) to Eskiula (Zuberoa), and from Bardoze (Lapurdi) to Urepel (Nafarroa Behera). ‘We have analysed the opportunity, we have internalised the situation, we have valued these years of ups and downs and, with maturity, we have taken a collective decision; put an end to the trajectory of the youth organisation Aitzina’.

As young people “emerge new forms and themes of engagement”, the “difficult task of guessing the militancy” of the decade of 2010 has marked the trajectory of Aitzina, as they have written in their final note. Because we have to learn lessons on the one hand, and on the other, because we owe it to the Basque youth.’ Thus, they have said that from the youth perspective they assume "the historical responsibility" to contribute to the process of liberation of Euskal Herria: ‘the line is not interrupted’. Without specifying, they have announced that within a few months they will give rise to ‘the necessary reflections, relations and discussions’ to ‘gather forces and create new instruments for Basque youth’. In Aitzina’s opinion, “at a time when leftist, Basque, feminist and ecologist ideas are spreading to more and more sectors of society, in Ipar Euskal Herria we have the best conditions to advance this process of liberation.”

Through the last note, they wanted to express their ‘special thanks’ to all those who have been Aitzina’s ‘party, colleague and comrade’ in recent years and have praised ‘the mistake’, ‘the courage’ of Aitzina’s militants. “The courage to rise up against injustices, to defend our ideas with our body in actions, to try to create spaces of confluence or to act to eradicate the patriarchal oppression that our organization also goes through from feminism…”

Seven years of career

On 2 November 2013, the youth organization Aitzina was created, in a massive event held in Baiona, after a few months of the Orain dun/k process. It previously occupied the place occupied by Gazteria, Haika and Segi. At the level of Euskal Herria, Ernai has been closely linked to the youth organization in recent years, and have organized several events together.

Aitzina’s first campaign focused on Euskera, the decoupling of youth and national identity before the end of 2013. The first action was carried out in front of the subprefecture of Baiona. They launched coal to denounce 'the crusade that the French State brings against the ikastolas'. In 2014, it began to withdraw a series of road signs written in full in French to denounce the ‘oppressive attitude of the French State towards Basque society’. These traffic signals were interpreted as ‘a symbol of the assimilation process carried out for years’ and introduced them into a train heading to Paris to return them to France. As a result of this action, the French police arrested a former member of eta and registered the seat of the youth organisation in Baiona on 7 October 2014. But the young people expressed their willingness to follow ‘in the same vein’. “We will continue to use civil disobedience by removing symbols that deny the identity of our people.” Subsequently, more young people were arrested for these events, which were seriously injured. In December 2014, Aitzina placed signs in 15 places in Ipar Euskal Herria to reclaim the institutional recognition of Ipar Euskal Herria and the Basque Government.

Throughout its seven years of experience, the youth organization has carried out numerous activities and has revealed many demands. Among others, it is worth mentioning the feminist group promoted by Aitzina, the Guk EH campaign and the youth dynamic Oldartu, driven against the G7 summit. But he's also found problems along the way. In the summer of 2016, Aitzina members started a discussion session to identify the "causes of political inefficiency" of the organization, which ended with the proposal of a new organizational model in October 2017. But it seems that in recent years they do not give the dynamics they wanted to achieve, since today they have announced the end of the trajectory of the youth organization. The last word has been given with the cry of continuing: “There is a way: On the path of independence, socialism and feminism, always Aitzina!”.