In 2014, the Joxemi Zumalabe Foundation published the book Ziriari harriari goroldiorik ez (DHGE), an intense reflection on militancy models. The work is based on a series of collective reflection sessions with different movements from all over Euskal Herria during the years 2012 and 2013. Of these sessions, the DHGE highlights one main conclusion: “Political militancy is at the time of change.” After four years, in September 2018, the Camp of the Small Revolutions (ITA) was held in the Gipuzkoan town of Zubieta. “Liquid societies, liquid militancies?” asked one of the reflection programs. The large number of militants who have approached the demonstration made it clear that concern is still alive. The representative of Bilgune Feminista stated that the change of center of the locality was immersed in a deep era, so a specific reflection on militancy models was being made.

The premise of this report is that this mudation is long, still in force and has new challenges. But we wanted to question ourselves with our partners: “Is it time for change?” we asked them. The yes has been imposed in the answers, but with important nuances: we have to talk about militancy models, in plural, since, as before, the practices are many; besides ruptures, there are continuities; some models that were previously minority or minority are now more hegemonic, and vice versa; change is natural and constant, although in recent years it is stronger.

In the affirmative, the first question to the diners: “What are the reasons for the changes?” The atmosphere is still cold, it will warm up, but among the silences the words are coming. Bergunian has emphasized that the change of strategy of the Abertzale left has had a great influence on popular movements and the whole of Euskal Herria, in recognition of 50 years of struggle and very critical of current attitudes. According to Kaltzakorta, this cycle change has replaced the whole paradigm: “There was a paradigm of influential modernity – clear enemy, imaginary of the day of victory, we strong and strong...–, and at the end of the cycle postmodernity has been introduced – liquidity, fragility of strong truths, prominence of the self...–. With the closure of the political cycle there is also the lack of imagination of the DGs and compatible projects, as well as the distancing from the different movements”. Mintegi has valued the change of strategy of the left abertzale from its benefits: “The new period of struggle that emerged around the Franco regime opened up many spaces, from a moment these were closing, and when it was finished, some have been reopened. Then there has been a flourishing of popular movements, very different movements.” In his view, the lifting of suffocating repression has also made it possible to flourish.

Pensioners' movement, feminist movement, in favour of refugees, against evictions, transformative social economy, agroecological and consumer groups, which drive the socialist line, against betting houses, community, in favour of the right to decide or independence, okupas... A large number of new movements have emerged in recent years, some of which have been working for some time now have been strengthened. They have influenced the ways of understanding and practicing militancy, which are both the consequence and cause of the mudations.

We must not only look for the causes of the changes between us. We have recalled that the end of the armed conflict in Euskal Herria coincided with the global economic crisis, which generated new conditions: the welfare state paradigm has been completed in the West. The energy and climate collapse as a real option and the feeling a little distant have awakened new (old) ecologist movements. It has approached the social and political struggles of the Catalan countries with a great desire to learn Basque. The defeats of the Left on a global level, the achievements and the new forms of struggle have also influenced the construction of the Basque country: movements of places, experiences of citizen movements and leftist governments of Abya Yala (Latin America), lessons from Greece, revolts of recent years on all continents...

Commitment: how to understand it, how to promote it

We have set out to define what changes are taking place in the militancy. Bilgune highlighted at least three points in his ITT discourse: the paradigm of revolution has been changed and there is no unique and heroic common strategy; life models have changed a lot and that influences the understanding and practice of militancy; modes of communication and speed have changed radicalmente.Las first words of the Altsasu contertulios lead us to sacrifice vs pleasure to a supposed dichotomy. Interestingly, the DHGE also put the main change there: “We think we are drawing our militancy between the two poles. A model that had a lot to do with sacrifice is losing strength. It highlights the tendency to refuse to match commitment, joy, joy, satisfaction, personal identity.”

Hidalgo states that the compromises have been blurred, which at one level would be a consequence of the “relaxation of the situation”. The armed struggle and its imagery – the existence of militants that literally risk life, the prisoners, the repression… – has fueled for years great levels of commitment and generous sacrifices in popular construction, even outside the Abertzale left. But need has often become a virtue, and the model of sacrificial militant has been very masculinized. “To this stereotype of militant, a strong man, who shows no weakness, feminism has contributed a lot to itself,” says Hidalgo. Anna follows the thread: “Five or six years ago, the explicit questioning of this classic model of militancy was poorly seen. In recent years, it has been possible to politicize aspects such as the balance between rigidity and flexibility, the project triangle, care...”. However, it is doubtful that it has been possible to transform this model: “In the discourse, yes, but in the ways of relating and practicing power some dynamics have not changed much”.

The thread has been cut by the opposite end of the table. Bergunian has also criticized the excessive increase of pleasure among the militants: “Take care of yourself, the weekend you have to go to the mountain... what looked great now is poorly seen: ‘But why do you have to militate so much, what personal problems are you hiding?’ they tell you. She receives sympathetic smiles from her interlocutors. Hidalgo has claimed the most satisfactory militancy possible, but also the sacrifice: “I link the militant to the sacrifice. Without escalating commitments and without demanding anything from others. But those of us who feel militant must keep in mind that we are doing this for others. They are militants who give more to reach the conditions of justice”.

Has the compromise been blurred? Or transform it? Some of the interlocutors question the slowdown, others have a sense of decline. Bilgune’s representative spoke in the ITA of “transformation” rather than reduction. Along the same path Ernai's spokesmen followed in an interview with Naiz on 5 January: “It is often said that there is a lack of commitment in the new generations, but I think there is another form of militancy. The first commitment was to hold 24-hour meetings, and now the new generations are militant in all areas; in the sports team, they are naturally militant in social networks… With that I don’t want to take the militancy into account in the group.” In the texts and forms of the youth movements that emerged around the working class and socialism there is a tendency to exalt commitment and discipline.

Where does the compromise come from? We come from a political culture that gives centrality to rational reflection. Without relinquishing this, it is clear that other elements are gaining greater weight. In the conversation, Ernai’s members commented “intuition” and “the experience of oppression”; “The things that pass through the body are transferred to militancy differently,” says Bergunian; “My western head asks me for rational certainties, but it is much more emotional that will lead you to give”, Hidalgo. Now there is more acceptance of it and that can release more strength, but surely fuel has always been more emotional in practice – taking Galeano’s word on loan, to recognize that we are ‘sensitive’: what we think influences the body, what we live in thought.

A care that incites militancy

Monitoring has been manifested on several occasions indirectly during the talks. We brought up what we heard at a conference from an anti-racist and feminist militant who was around the age of 60. After some complaints, he concluded: “To see, care... yes, we have to take care of ourselves, we have to take care of people... But we must also take care of our organizations! ‘I’m not going to date to put up posters because I don’t feel like, and I have to take care of them’ I’m sick of hearing someone like that!” You heard laughter.

“Custody is often a pretext,” says Ansa in relation to the story. Lack of compromise disguised as freedom. “From feminism is a collective reading of care, that is individualistic,” says Kaltzakorta, “Caring for oneself to make a community,” completes Bergunian. “I also have a predisposition to make the alpha, I am capable, I am capable...”, continued in provocative self-criticism, receiving gestures of complicity from the diners. “Self-care is important,” continues Hidalgo: “Everyone has to be aware of how far they want to give in the militancy. To leave it for a while or... always guaranteeing collective custody”. The yes is general. Individualistic care of the individual is not the same.

Surveillance is essential for building long-term militancies. “If we are talking about a fight against injustices, it is a lifelong struggle, which has different phases. And if the commitments are real, there will be times when it comes to suffering, both for internal and external factors,” Mintegi reflected. Consensus has taken up the ideas. He considers that “one of the most beautiful contributions of recent years” has been made in this gap, citing two very different initiatives: Joxemi Zumalabe and Host Club. Although the care is to accommodate the needs and conditioning factors that arise in the different phases of life, if one does not want the militancy to be limited to youth: schedules, concerns, wage work conditions, care for children, the elderly or the disabled... Transforming the very conception of militancy and commitment would help us question the artificial division between life and militancy, while enriching the struggle. As proposed by Joxemi Zumalabe in the DHGE: “In this fragmentation of spaces and times, we could rethink militancy as a space that sews up all the space: turning the work environment into a space of militancy, making the militancy space a space to satisfy the relational, making the space of militancy a space from inside the house a field of militancy. The 24-hour militancy that has been mentioned so much, we should understand it as a model of life, and not as a disposition. He lives in struggle, filling the motto with content.”

The silent epic of everyday life

The struggle that focused on the epic in front of an imaginary, has gained more weight today than any other that places it in everyday life? On the one hand, the epic of the revolution linked to the day of victory and concrete facts, achieved through mass struggle, confrontation, conquest and acquisition of power that is out and above; on the other hand, the daily reality of the revolution linked to slow cumulative transformations and processes, which is being built from small alternatives and politicizing the whole realm of life, which questions power.

The similes are generic on the table and the question will generate new reflections. In Kaltzakorta we also see the transition from modernity to postmodernity: “Now the idea of the great victory is not, the sacrifice and the ways of understanding the epic have changed.” Mintegiaga reflects: “We had some idea: sometime, somewhere, someone was going to fix some things or, at least, put right conditions. But it’s come a time when each of us will have to pull the beans out of maturity.”

The visibility of some of these second types of struggle and militancy is lower, and that doesn't have to be a shortage. “Propaganda does not prevail. Or if you've created a family of four parents instead of two, you don't want to make it visible, you want to live," says Bergunian. Hidalgo adds a long look, with mentalities in the center: “We include the shadows of heteropatriarchal capitalist society. The way out is not the conquest of power to send people how to live. We have to want to live differently. This transformation is very slow, requires revolutionary or indigenous patience.”

Light and shadows are two paradigms that, in the absence of more appropriate terms, we have called the epic and the day-to-day. How to turn off the lights of each of the best springs? : uniting confrontation and the construction of alternatives; feeding an epic based on everyday work that satisfies us; fighting against the Great Power and questioning the powers between us; not giving up smallness but enlargement ... Use the new paradigms to enrich the previous ones, not to replace them en bloc. Combine fractures and continuities to prevent pendulum movements from one end to the other.

By unknown areas

“Is the construction of a Basque population, made up of people who do not have serious socio-economic problems, too limited to certain forms of politicisation, not too blunt?” we have raised concerns on the table. “We create some comfort zones and it’s hard for us to open or leave room,” says Ansa. It says complacency, that most of the time we don't want it, and that we have a lot of ignorance when we want it. The conversation has gained a new intensity, it is perceived that the theme is not only theoretical concerns, but also experiences and the body. A few years ago these debates were more theoretical, and today they seem to be more entrenched in concrete practices and trials. One of them tried to deal with people without papers; the other shares a space of coexistence and militancy with people who have come from extreme need and not from political attachment; that is what his partner is trying to promote. The next one says that the issue is in many “à la carte” areas, recalling the debates that have been generated in education or in the feminist days Salda Dago.

Conviction has been conveyed by the interlocutors, but also impotence; shocks, disorientation and incordias have appeared, but also attempts to turn them over. They are open struggles, there are open wounds, so they prefer not to mention concrete projects: “The politicized people are confused with the people who come from pure necessity, it is very difficult and there are clashes. They're very interesting, because it questions who the beat is. We are all expropriated, but we are not the most oppressed class”, reflects one of the interlocutors. “A few minimums were set up to be able to live there. One of them was to come to the assemblies. The problems, as you see that our rhythms and forms are not of all, we are now thinking about doing it through dinners or meals,” he explains with impatience. “There have been attempts to introduce people from very different political traditions or not. They have been bad experiences and have had some clear and racist consequences, we are returning to the subject and trying to turn it around”, third.

“We have to support ourselves for the project to be transformative, but we have to expand it because otherwise, we will stop being transformative.” It can be a good synthesis of feelings. How do you do it? Each one has released its provisional answers to the table. From their experiences and contributions of feminism, the most repeated is “shocks accepted”. Avoiding paternalisms. Taking advantage of the opportunity afforded by the struggle with ‘non-politicised’ assumptions to repoliticize us (for example, from the community habits that they have not lost). Gaining public and institutional power spaces. Our agenda, priorities, methodology, schedules... questioning the “whites and clowns”. Patiently, and without waiting for short-term results – it is usual to mention the patience that is needed with others and how difficult it is to do. Perhaps it would help to take into account how little it costs us the supposedly politicized to have patience with ourselves. As in our spaces and organizations there are black-and-white aggressions, racism, impositions, dictatorships and dictators, consumerist or conservative attitudes, we do not question that we are sides of the revolution (if not of the vanguard of the revolution).

“As in feminism, the privileged behind,” says Ansa and Kaltzakorta. Women organized in feminism do not let men take the front line in the anti-patriarchal struggle. But citizens' movements in favour of the marginalised or against capitalism are not made up of the most marginalised. Bergunian has proposed a dismantling plan: “I lost my father, I had a heritage and I have not received it. If you have 500 euros, you suddenly live from body to body what it is to be precarious. And yet, I have a network, I'm stronger. We have to learn how to walk to do it from experience.”

The ‘others’ are not just migrants or white-skinned. What attitude has the ‘politicized’ Basque herrigintza shown towards citizenship and ‘white’ movements that begin to politicize and organize themselves far from their ideological or emotional parameters? 15Ma, Yellow Jackets, Fridays for future are some examples of movements of very different nature and evolution but that have said element in common. Despite the exceptions, the diners have spoken on the issue of superiority, contempt, contempt or dismissal. However, if you want to make change with the whole of society, maybe we should live it as an opportunity and a challenge – without falling into idealisations.

New Response Letters to Raw Scenarios

It's late, it's going to take three hours and some faces notice of tiredness, we have to go to finish. Meanwhile, we have talked about the importance and quality of training, the consequences of the growth or liberations of popular construction professionals, the challenges and risks of digital militancy, but there is not enough space to discover what has been said. We have also run out of time to address many keys, such as the type of leadership or the size of the organization. We want to end by reflecting on the challenges of the future, but since these challenges are aimed at increasing the capacities of society, we have asked the partners: What evolution of society do you imagine?

The situation will continue to worsen, according to the partners. In social, economic and national terms, injustices, impositions and aggressions will be deepened in the coming years. What are the challenges urban planning faces in these scenarios? At ITA we have put on the table those pointed out by Bilgune Feminista to reflect: responding to the versatility of the context, inventing a permanent explanation of the models of militancy and organization; developing “a new we” to articulate ourselves; not losing radicality.

In this regard, Kaltzakorta has stressed the importance of maintaining radicality and not losing the battle of the story or the connection with the struggles of the past. Mintegi has referred to the willingness to work with the different, as well as the broader social movements. Ansa has advocated questioning, rejecting or relegating to the background the priorities that govern the construction of a country, in order to accommodate the needs and desires of others. Bergunian considered that solidarity and collectivity must be reactivated, linking the construction of ours and the obstruction of the enemy. Hidalgo proposes humility, ethics and love for society and its peers: “We have no alternative and we are immersed in our debates, but nobody cares.”

The need for this initiative proposed by Bilgune has spread in recent years in the Basque Country and in the world. From Sarrionandia to Angela Davis and Rakel Gutierrez. Many demand a new manifesto that will play the role played by the Communist Manifesto; the manifesto feminism for 99 per cent of Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya and Nancy Fraser want to respond to that goal. There are several political families in the Basque Country who are in favour of this situation, arguing each from their point of view. The majority and the most radical at the same time; that it responds to current and basic needs without giving up the revolutions; that it defends the few rights that we still have, the benefits of the struggle, and that it continues to dream beyond; that it integrates plurality and unity.

“Creating a new we is the key to resolving all those responsibilities. I think those of us here can agree,” says Kaltzakorta. “The question is how, each of us poses different strategies and means,” Ansa responded to the concern. Bergunian says that the axis should be the community, which sees the evicted in the center and the "Basque capitalists" abroad. Mintegi has mentioned the model of feminism or pensioners, but he has considered that a "political movement" is necessary to offer him a "txapela". “We came from a failure. We do not have a shared revolutionary horizon, in that sense we are lost. We have to go to the bottom and simplify the message to connect with large masses of workers,” Hidalgo reflected.

This shared revolutionary horizon or this new shortage can be greatly stimulated from the body, emotions, faith. But you also need real handles, credible alternatives for faith not to become superstition. At the same time, as Kurdistan says, “it is possible to think that it is possible”. To achieve this in one way or another, a strong and exciting lack would bring more satisfying and committed militancies.

It is becoming more and more difficult to foresee what is coming. We live in times of uncertainty. The 2008 crisis and the neoliberal attack were predicted in very few cases. It is also difficult to imagine the health, economic, social or political consequences of the coronavirus crisis. What unknown scenarios will coronavirus create, new economic crises, energy or climate collapse? But the Commune of Paris, Chiapas, the male revitalization of the Basque Country in the 1960s and 1970s, the Soviet revolution or that of women were not foreseen by anyone. Diners believe that many people who are not willing to fight today can unite when the crisis is more crude.

The group has dismissed, Hidalgo and I will reflect on the road to Vitoria-Gasteiz. Perhaps by the time these extreme scenarios arrive, one of the tasks of making countries and militants is to be as prepared as possible: to be a greasy construction, to set in motion models of credible alternatives for all and all, to build bridges with the hardest hit, most transformed. Otherwise, in the face of fear and uncertainty, we will continue to look to the right looking for answers and security.

** This report is part of the monographic Larrun, Utopics but imperfect of the Artea Network and organizes solidarity with the Misery of the Housing Union of Vitoria-Gasteiz with written contributions and the poem Militancy of Mario Benedetti in the full poem link.