🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 29 Oct 1998, Juan Etxenike Almeida wrote:

> IU was getting unhappy votes from HB because of the violence. Once the
> violence has stopped, the votes flew back to EH. These were people who are
> not ment to be extremely nationalist through they want the prisoners back
> to the Basque Country, and self determination. They identify themselves
> more with issues on social justice, internationalism and direct action.
> Some of this people wouldn't agree with violence the way it was practised
> and found in IU a good (or less bad) option. Others went to abstention.
> Anyway, IU hasn't lost that much.
> Of course, it's an opinion. It would be interesting to listen to others.
> bye
> --
> Juan Etxenike Almeida
> University of Warwick

If you are interested my own interpretation about IU I think that we
should be place in a broader context.

Those elections were a bit special. I do not think that the
interpretations of "who won what" are very important.  PSOE and PP made of
these elections a referendum about the Lizarra peace process. There was a
tremendous danger of having a change in the balance of power between
constitutionalists and nationalists. The important thing is that they
failed.  They cannot undermine the legitimacy of this process. That is why
the election was so "hot".

But we are left with a very delicate situation. One of the main arguments
they have used is the Balkanization of Spain due to the Basque question.
They play the Hernan Cortes strategy, burn your ships down so you cannot
go back where you started. In other words they have broaden the gap
between the Spanish and Basque in a manner that some people(PP, PSOE
mainly) are already talking about two irreconcilable communities.

I don't think that the PP or the PSOE can articulate for a while a
discourse that can offer people a coherent project of national
construction where those "two communities" can have a fair chance of
dealing with any possible incompatibility dividing them.

It might be true that IU lost heavily because it was free-riding in HB,
but who cares?. At least at a base militant level, people in IU have many
thinks in common with HB supporters. Just look at the social question and
you will find both groups working together for better work conditions,
against gender discrimination, struggling for the environment,
international solidarity and so on...

OK, in electoral terms, that was a disaster. But I think that there is an
important role for IU, providing that they want to play it. HB said that
the PSOE managed to convert the workers vote into a Spanish vote and the
Spanish vote into a right-wing vote. Is it possible to go back. I think
that the ships of IU are ready for the journey. It might be a long
trip, but all of us want to see the Spanish workers arriving safe and well
back home. The new home of a pluralistic Basque society. To hell with
Hernan Cortes and all the rest of Imperialist!