The ninth strike in the French State last week has revealed the reality in the Northern Basque Country: something is moving, even in that part of the Basque Country. The north of our country appeared as a “sleeping” area, far from the workers’ and popular struggles, and totally conditioned by both the dismantling of the sources of work, the reduction of work to the time of summer and the consequent emigration of the natives to the other parts of France. In this period of strikes and mobilizations against pension reform, workers, students and citizens of the Northern Basque Country are participating with enthusiasm. It highlights the participation of young students in strikes and demonstrations, their solidarity with adults and their support for their future jobs.

It is true that there have been movements in the agricultural sectors of the Northern Basque Country in recent years to defend theirs. But the recent strikes and demonstrations against the pension reform have generated more mobilization, since it has not been a sectoral movement, but a general one. The public sector, as well as the private sector; both industrial workers (from the Bayonne-Angular-Biarritz area) and the rest of the population, including students. There is no doubt that pensions affect all citizens and that when they are put at risk or at a discount, it is a very sensitive issue and makes them move. The work of the LAB union, together with other unions, popular movements and nationalist political parties in the Northern Basque Country in recent years, has surely contributed to this.