Askekintza has become the motto of the anti-specialist movement in Euskal Herria the main message of its campaign, launched in 2014: Parties, release of animals. This is the objective of the anti-specialist group in Donostialdea, which has placed the debate at the heart of the debate to take steps towards the truth: The documentary, titled Gurean, has been made and disseminated with the objective of reflecting on the use of animals in the world of festivities. Askekintza has called for no animal to be trampled underfoot at the Basque Country festivities through this campaign launched in 2014, and Gurean has given continuity and rounded to this initiative. After its presentation in 2018, at the beginning of the year, it received the Argia Award for the Best Audiovisual Short Film in Basque. “It’s an honor for us, a sign that our work is being taken seriously.”

Askekintza, for its part, thanked the award and turned the impetus it received into a commitment to continue fighting specialism. The group was created in 2010 and its subsequent development has led to the skin and spirit that the collective has today. Askekintza has become, step by step, a group dedicated to spreading anti-specism and, with this objective, has chosen to influence the nearest environment, speak in Basque, highlight the political character of the movement and promote transversality.

The idea of making a documentary in Gurea is aligned with these goals and wagers: Askekintza has wanted to make visible, every year and in the framework of the festivities, the repressive activities that occur in any corner of the Basque Country. “They happen in the town square,” they denounced. The group has published the documentary with the objective of generating a reflection around them, “to wager for a more just society”. This objective has been largely achieved by Askekintza: “We have not reached all the houses of Euskal Herria, but we are clear that in the long term the documentary will have a great influence. We have done a lot of work and the reception has been good.” In addition, the documentary has brought to the table the debate on the use of animals in many villages, and wants to take advantage of these processes for anti-specialist groups to work for non-human animals.

One of the clearest examples is what is happening in Hernani. Askekintza has been part of the party committee, and work has been done in this area in recent years. This work has borne fruit and two years ago, for example, they succeeded in getting the sokamuturra to withdraw from the Donostia holiday programme for one day. However, there are groups in the people who have faced this change: From the collective Sokamuturra Bai several neighbors and neighbors have wanted to maintain the tradition to continue using the animals.

In May, the Hernani Party Commission organized a round table between this group and the members of Askekintza. Aitor Jaurrieta participated in the name of Askekintza, while Chapu Apaolaza did so on behalf of the Sokamuturra Bai group. “Sokamuturra represents our relationship with nature,” Apaolaza said: “The rope of sokamuturra represents who we are, our identity. This rope binds us to our customs and our predecessors.” According to Apaolaza, “the bull does not suffer.” The sokamuturra thanked the consistency of Askekintza, in addition, at the round table, and said that the use of animals of the human species on other occasions is “a fun activity”, which is also “eating chuletón”. The members of Askekintza are clear that the use of any animal that is capable of feeling is a specialist, and that such use oppresses individuals. A bull or an animal made flesh.

Errenteria, coinciding with the campaign

The situation in Errenteria is very different. In that locality, Askekintza began the Festak campaign, releasing animals. Since the party commission, the members of the anti-specista group have worked with the city council since 2014, so currently they do not use replacement animals at the local festivities. The work of the party commission has been combined in all these years with protests and other ways of celebrating, thanks to which the anti-specionists have been reducing the days of the sokamuturra, initially until they disappeared from the program, in 2017. Not only that: The pigeon hunting and fishing competitions held at Errenteria, which were held at Gipuzkoa, were also suspended.

The documentary Gurean takes up the work done at Errenteria. It has put on the table everything that happens in the festivities of many parts of Euskal Herria, and it has shown that there are many festivals that use animals of the human species: bullfights, encierros, hunting and fishing competitions, animal exhibitions, horse races, horse demos and horses... the list is still long.

The groups opposed to these activities have also increased, and in Pamplona, for example, a group has been set up which has clearly opposed bullfighting in recent years: Pamplona Antitaurino. It should be noted that this group has not taken a step towards positioning itself around the rings. “Neither for nor against”, with this phrase the group expressed its opinion in the manifesto that has been opened for public presentation. “We want to fight bullfighting because we believe this activity can be suspended.” The City Council of Pamplona/Iruña has not, however, made an express request for it to stand against bullfights. “We want to address this issue in society, we want to reflect so that the public opposes bullfights.”

The City Council has acted along the same lines in recent years: “It’s a change that needs to be boosted among the citizenry,” Joseba Asiron of EH Bildu stressed time and again. In 2015 he was appointed mayor of the capital of Navarra and in the Sanfermines of that year, as well as in those of the following, he has adopted a clear position in favor of bullfights: he has sat on the palco of the bullring, clothed with frac and chistera.

In other localities of Navarre, the municipalities have opted for consultations to establish their position on the use of animals of the human species. The members of Askekintza are clear that consultations are not the way to decide on the rights of trampled individuals. “It’s a matter of justice, how are we going to ask anyone who wants to have fun with the use and suffering of another individual if they want to go ahead with this activity?” the anti-specionists ask. In addition, they stressed that, as the documentary Gurean has shown, the animals they used on other occasions have an “agency”: “They resist, they try to escape what hurts them.”

Askekintza activists have added that other animals used by humans also have the ability to feel. Animals that have the central nervous system or similar organs have the ability to feel, and that's what anti-specionists show to defend their basic interests. On the other hand, those who defend the use of non-human animals do so, mainly in the name of tradition. In Euskal Herria there are many traditions that oppress individuals and society has been able to develop them in the name of equality and justice. The struggle for the mixed scares of Irun and Hondarribia is the clearest example of this. It's not the only one. In many parts of Euskal Herria, women have gone dancing to the squares that until now only men occupied. Within the framework of activities involving animals of the human species, the process of reflection and change is slower. But it's already underway and it's going to be hard to stop.

 

 

 

 

"My goal is to give tools to anti-specionist activists."

Linas Korta, along with Askekintza, led the documentary Gurean at the Arriaga Theatre. This is the first work of the anti-specialist activist she has recorded to make it a tool for the fight for the release of animals. He wanted to make it clear that spécism is the basis of all the festivities of Euskal Herria in which animals of the species are used.

What is this Argia Prize for you?

It has been very gratifying to receive this prize. Any network implies a recognition of your work and the delivery of a medium such as Argia also has more guarantees. It is a medium that I follow; it is critical and with a broad view; I like it. It is therefore very important and very gratifying that Argia gives us the prize. Moreover, it has served to further open the documentary and, above all, to retable what the documentary denounces.

For what purpose did you perform the documentary?

I believed it was necessary to document the use of non-human animals at the festivities of Euskal Herria; I thought all this had to be collected and taught; in addition, to show it in its entirety and on the same scale: these are the festivities that take place here, and these are the animals that walk here.

Do you think you have met the targets?

Yes, absolutely. Askekintza, as an anti-specist group, also had its goals, and I think they have also been met.

When we talk about festivities and the use of animals, many are dedicated to bulls, while many others are dedicated to the festivities of many parts of the Basque Country. Did I want to prove it?

Yes. It has been important, above all, to show sokamuturra, bulls and the game of geese from the same starting point. At the basis of all of them is specism, which is at the basis of the preponderance of the human being towards animals of other species. When you put all these uses together, it becomes clear that they have the same basis. For me it was important to denounce through the documentary the activities that are not denounced, that remain hidden. If you take part in the holiday program of Euskal Herria, here and there are stung animals, and it's important to pick it up and spread it. For example, fishing and hunting competitions are held in different places; they are activities organized for a minority of the population, they receive a lot of money and lead to the death of many individuals.

Parties from here, reality from here, pictures from here, to denounce the specism from here. Was it important to you?

Yes. It has been important, for example, to show that bullfights are from here. They're also done here. It's important that when you work at a site, you get pictures of that place. I think people take them differently, and the reactions are also different when those images reflect something close. I think that is absolutely necessary. That is why my project has two areas of work: local work, but with a global approach. I mean, parties happen here, but they're activities that happen all over the world. They're done all over the world to have a good time. But in Euskal Herria they have their peculiarity, and that's what we've shown, what's done here.

Do you think that in Gurea, images like the documentary are being obtained, which awaken the citizen's reflection on the use of animals?

Reflection is a fat word, and people need a lot of things that influence them to start thinking; the documentary is an element that influences people. They have started to reflect in different sectors and, of course, it is a joy. But I think it is too much to say that in the Basque Country society in general has begun to reflect on the use of animals. He knows, however, that the issue is there, and he knows that politicised people are moving in favour of animals, that there is a sector of society that has realised the need to change all this. The subject is on the table, and I think the documentary has helped to bring the issue to light. At least the news of the documentary was heard in every part of Euskal Herria.

And are public institutions reflecting or taking steps?

Institutions respond to what they see on the street. The institutions have moved in the street due to the protests of the local neighbors. When people have moved, city councils have responded. Askekintza, for example, made numerous protests in Donostia-San Sebastián before removing bullfights; other groups also participated in them. Major steps have also been taken in Orereta to abandon animal use as a result of protests and the activists’ movement. Now the same thing happens in Hernani. It has also occurred in several localities in Navarre. I believe that the documentary has become a tool to generate institutional responses. It's clear that not everything gets fixed with a documentary, but it's a useful tool for entrepreneurs to get the protests up, to keep the issue serious. Let them use it.

Why have you decided to work for animals of the human species?

If you look at the number of individuals employed, the busiest group is non-human animals. In Euskal Herria alone, 65 million people die each year in slaughterhouses. There are billions in the world. Unfortunately, they have no way of organising themselves. They are able to protest and resist, but they do not have the same ability as us to defend ourselves. Someone has to do it for them. Unfortunately, few people do. That is why I believe that it is essential to work in this area. When I realized the situation, I had no choice but to do it.

Why have you decided to do this work through images?

Images are a tool. My goal is to give tools to anti-specialist entrepreneurs. Images can be a very effective tool. Today, we are surrounded by images, and a strong movement needs quality, solid, professional images. I try to do it. In addition, it is necessary to perform a counter-information work. The industries that exploit animals do not stop making propaganda; they sell us cows in the fields, happy pigs; they sell us holidays like a nice show. The reality is very different and, therefore, we must oppose the message that the industry disseminates. If the industry tells us that ten thousand times the cows live in the pastures and give us milk because they want, and if we present the image that that's a lie, ours has a lot more strength. That's why it's a useful tool and it can have a huge impact. I have studied my studies in this field, and I wanted to use my knowledge for animals.

Are you doing some of the work that journalists do?

Yes. This is not the case with the documentary Gurean, but in many other cases it is. I believe that the journalist must be committed to the oppressed and, consequently, also to the animals. Journalism should be positioned in favour of animals, but that is not the case. Industry hides reality and there is a need to spread it. In this area, yes, we entrepreneurs do the work that journalists do.