Women in the National Liberation Struggle: Discovering their Power.

Document submitted to the NGOs Center for an Evening of Dialogue about Violence Against Women/Women in Armed Conflicts, March 6, 1998. (Adapted from a statement for a radio broadcast)

On International Women's Day, March 8th, the Basque Congress for Peace extends solidarity greetings to women fighting all forms of oppression, and remembers the Basque women in struggle, victims of French and Spanish oppression and violence since the imperialist offensive began centuries ago:

... the victims of the French witch hunt, imprisoned, tortured and burned because they spoke a language unknown to the inquisitors.

... those convicted and burned to death in Logrono, victims of the Spanish Inquisition -- the motives behind the social and political functions of the trials had to do more with Basque resistance to foreign invasion, occupation and the process of internal colonization than with heressy.

... the women who led many of the popular revolts against monarchical centralization, in Mugerre, Irube, Ainhoa, Donibane-Lohitzune, Baiona, and in Hasparren where thousands of women challenged hundreds of grenadiers and five units of the Brigades de la Maréchausée.

... the women of Sara, Ascain, Itsasu, Espelette, Kanbo, Biriatu, Ainhoa... victims of the French Convention, and deported to Landes and Gers or held prisoners in churches where the majority died of starvation or lack of hygiene.

... the women who endured humiliations, rape, and exile during the submission of Navarre and Gipuzkoa by local allies of Gen. Franco.

... the victims of the aerial bombardments of Durango and Gernika and the cruelty of the Spanish Civil War; and those sent to concentration camps in Argeles and Gurs -- another agreement between Madrid and Paris.

... and today's prisoners and refugees.

The present struggle in the Basque Country dates back to the 1960s, when Gen. Franco had enforced Spanish unity with a highly centralized state, and compliance with the new regime was ensured through a vast administrative and military apparatus in the service of "Spain, united, free and great". Historically, it marked the beginning of the Basque national liberation movement.

Basque women and men challenged the totalitarian Francoist regime and its thorough campaign of cultural and political repression backed by a formidable armory of government decrees.

That was where the present phase of armed struggle began. It was not organized by diedhard terrorists. These were young people who believed they were acting to protect their community. The present ETA was born out of a fear of extermination. That this fear remains explains why people continue to support ETA.

In our opinion, the struggle of the Basque National Liberation Movement has never been only against Gen. Franco or whoever is in Madrid, but for a free and united Basque Country in which people would be able to choose the system they want in an atmosphere of mutual respect, and build a society where everybody is treated equal.

And in defense of the "indivisible unity" of Spain, in defense of this imposition, the Spanish, with the collaboration of the French, have filled their prisons with Basque women and men. Hundreds of them, the finest women and men that the Basque Country ever produced engage in hunger-strikes and other forms of protest in defense of human dignity. Human dignity is all they are asking for. They want the right to be in jails closest to their homes and the right not to be called common criminals.

They do not ask for better conditions than anyone else in prison. All they want is that the Spanish and the French governments acknowledge that they are in prison because they believe they are fighting for the rights of their nation, that their actions are not motivated by their own self-interest.

The states' prison policy, however, affects women disproportionately. Given the number of Basque women prisoners (69), and the number of jails "available" (29), especially in Spain, Basque women prisoners are dispersed in jails throughout the states and, in many cases, held in isolation.

The struggle of Basque women for national liberation is closely linked to the struggle for women's rights, because the lack of self-government makes even more difficult the daily struggle for the right to work, and against sex-based job discrimination, equal pay for equal work, sexual harrassment in the workplace and violence, in a system that was imposed on them and that perpetuates injustice and inequality.

Government rhetoric on women's rights is far from being fulfilled in practice, and in the Basque Country, like in France and in Spain, in the most basic areas of human rights taken for granted by men, women still struggle for their rights of equality. For example, the claim of "matriarchy" while explaining certain aspects of Basque society, is too often used in order to obscure and justify a fundamental patriarchal heirarchy of power. That is, this claim of matriarchy serves to slow change in the basis of sexual relations.

In our opinion, the Basque National Liberation Movement, in which women are increasingly taking front-line roles, has seen the necessity to revise traditional values and practices that discriminate against women for the concept of human rights to have integrity. Basque women in the National Liberation Movement are discovering their power and fighting all forms of oppresions. And the struggle is emboldening women not just against state violence --- but to insist on greater rights in their own community. In our opinion, this must be a collective action by the women and the men of the National Liberation Movement if it is to become the genuinely progressive movement it claims to be.

The Basque Congress for Peace
New York, March 1998