At the end of 1986, in an article published in the Egin newspaper, Marc Legass recovers his old motto “KAS ala hil” (smuggling, anarchism, separatism). Collecting his thesis, Jakue Pascual, in another article entitled Beltza, berdea eta zuria, tried to combine these anarchisms and separatisms with the emerging young autonomy (gaztetxes, free radios, etc.) And punk motion. A new reflection was born on the Basque machista identity, which would later receive the book Anarkherria. “The referent that linked anarchism and separatism was for us, those who were immersed in the new movements of those times. On the other hand, punk was another important referent for us to understand the crisis: without the labor market, our generations were on the street; we met in the bars and started creating projects. In this context, I maintained Legasse’s ideas regarding the sensitivity of the young autonomous movement,” explains Jakue Pascual after 25 years.

Legass congratulated Pascual and put their hands on the work; this was how the people of Anarke emerged. The text is composed of several theses on resistance. The existence of Basque anti-authoritarian nature is the main one. “When we made the book we came from Tejero’s coup d’état, the ZEN Plan (Northern Special Zone) was underway and there were no days when the police did not put us against the wall. As we believed ourselves to be repressed subjects, we began to assimilate the national problem. We didn't have a clear independence idea, but we saw that we were reprimed because we were young and Basque. Hence Anarchy's main thesis: ours has always been an anti-authoritarian people. And why is it anti-authoritarian? Because it is a people oppressed by two states, and the craving for freedom arising from this repression goes beyond patriotism: that passion agreed with the struggles against nuclear, antimilitarists, occupation… From there we got the thesis: In addition to being a people with its own language and space, Euskal Herria has an anti-authoritarian sensitivity”, says Pascual.

Separatism and sabotage are other of the most important theses that Anarchism brings, and that Pascual believes are still in force: “Today, the answers given in Euskal Herria are also rooted in this anti-authoritarian submatter. Separatism, for example, is still alive. Why are we separatists? The states that oppress us do not reject them with the intention of building another state; we want to establish that they do not have us. Our problem is not to build another state, but to be oppressed by two states. Faced with this, there are two tactics: claiming a state of their own or working to reduce the presence of the state in our daily lives”. For Pascual, sabotage is more than an instrument that can be used in some cases: “Sabotage is not a fire, but a resistance, an attitude opposed to imposition. It is an ethical issue, a way of understanding life.” Based on the
theses cited and taking into account that the text is not a manual, the author tells us about the virtues that the anarchist people have: “It’s a very plastic text. It has general ideas and concepts adapted to the 1980s. As we have already said, there are basic concepts such as resistance or anti-authoritarianism that can be of interest to today’s young people. It is important that everyone does their own reading. Ideas come together with everyone who has a general libertarian thinking and an adherence to a place. On the other hand, seeing how the alternative movements have been (the input, for example), we can say that in all of them a certain libertarian ethic can be found. I believe that, although this ethics has not been established organically, it is very present in the Basque Country. Young generations have grown more in these criteria than in Orthodox socialism.”

Proposal for cooperation

In addition to the general concepts, the book by Legasse and Pascual offers a proposal for collaboration between the Basque left: “25 years ago, the efforts of the Basque National Liberation Movement were aimed at encouraging negotiations with the State, which would later be carried out in Algeria, as well as the support of Basque society. They had the need for a youth movement, and Jarrai, who was present in all the territories of Hego Euskal Herria, could not bring together all the young; for many it was more attractive what was proposed from other political positions. In the book we wanted to stress that solidarity was possible and necessary. With the repression in our hands, at a very difficult time, our political proposal was simple and very clear: we will all be saved or no one will be saved. While respecting personal autonomy, relations between the parties could be developed. There was no point in everyone seeking their own solution. I believe that the book served to take into account the movement that had just been created by the Abertzale left and so that all sectors could see that there was a possibility of exchange”.

Jakue Pascual is optimistic with the current situation: “Forecasts for the future are much better than 25 years ago; although today there is no old self-organisation, whenever it has been necessary we have seen its brilliance, here and there, even above parties. This is important because it goes in line with what the anarchist people propose: we do not say that disobedience is done in a specific place, but that we must be disobedient above all types of powers and impositions. Although we have lost the street, we have recovered other areas to be disobedient, we have created spaces to say that we do not want this present neoliberalism at all. This coincides with movements that have begun to appear in recent times, with movements of autonomous logic. That is true, unlike us, these today are more open. Although new generations have new ways of fighting for power, claiming their place, they continue to say no. Although I think we’re OK, power will put us all the obstacles.”

With regard to current policy, Pascual stressed the importance of the Basque institutions of the past (auzolana, assembly): “Anarkherri wants to merge these forms of organization always with the way anarchism understands institutional relations. What, in short, is the way to understand the Basque institution? The Assembly. It is not true that these were cacique assemblies, nor that women could not participate. Today, attention has been reactivated on them; programmatically, the recent left-wing agreement recognises that they are part of our institutional representation, so it says that we have to push them forward. Auzolan serves to solve both the problems we share and the concrete realities. It is important that the process is born from the bottom when making decisions. That is, we talk about turning the logic that the organization manages, building the institutions from the bottom, building the institutions from the people's day to day. That is what we lack and what calls into question the legitimacy of politics.”