A massive protest was held on October 17 in Donostia/San Sebastian in the Basque Country to protest against the Spanish government's new wave of arrests against the Basque pro-independence and labour movement.
On October 13, 10 prominent activists were arrested and accused of trying to "reorganise the leadership" of the Basque left-nationalist movement. Those arrested included the leader of the -pro-independence Basque party Batasuna, Arnaldo Otegi, and former general secretary of the left-wing LAB trade union, Rafa Diez.
On October 16, Judge Baltasar Garzon sent Otegi, Diez and three others to jail for "membership of a terrorist organisation". They were accused of trying to reconstitute Batasuna, which was banned in 2003, on the orders of the armed pro-independence group ETA.
The next day, more than 37,000 Basques protested the arrests under the slogan "For liberty, for rights for every person". The march was a significant show of Basque unity, and several big trade unions, left-nationalists and the centre-right Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) marched together.
State repression
Most of the 3 million inhabitants of the Basque Country (Euskal Herria), which straddles Spain and France, live within Spain's borders. The Basque struggle for self-determination is being met with increased repression from the Spanish state.
A Batasuna statement said: "The aim of these arrests is to stop political initiatives that the Basque pro-independence movement was due to activate — political initiatives to resolve the ongoing conflict and to create a democratic scenario for the Basque Country."
The latest arrests are part of the Spanish government's repression against political, social, labour and cultural organisations that support Basque self-determination. Garzon explained the justification as: "Everything that surrounds ETA is ETA."
This means any group or individual that shares ETA's goal of Basque independence, regardless of their methods, is considered by Spanish authorities to be part of ETA.
The repression against all expressions of Basque nationalism has escalated dramatically in recent months. The Madrid government has been working in concert with the Spanish chauvinist coalition government that took power in the south-west of the Basque Country in March.
The Spanish government banned left-nationalists from taking part in the March 1 poll. As a result, the PNV lost control of the regional parliament of the Basque Autonomous Community (comprising three of the seven historic Basque provinces) for the first time since limited autonomy was granted in 1980.
A government was formed by the local representatives of Spain's two main parties, the right-wing Popular Party and the social democratic Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. The new government launched a fierce wave of repression against Basque nationalists.
One policy of the new government has been to label the public display of photographs of Basque political prisoners as "glorifying terrorism". The Ertzaintza (Basque-Spanish police in the autonomous area) have attacked popular traditional festivals to confiscate pictures of prisoners by force.
Demonstrations in solidarity with the prisoners have repeatedly been prohibited and attacked. Pubs and other premises that dare to display prisoners' pictures have been hit with large fines or closed.
The number of Basque citizens indicted in recent months for "glorifying terrorism" by showing prisoners' photos is estimated at about 1000.
On July 31 in the Basque town of Villabona, the Ertzaintza violently attacked the weekly vigil in solidarity with the political prisoners, which takes place every Friday in about 70 towns and cities across the Basque Country.
After police harassed 27-year-old pro-independence deputy mayor Remi Aiestaran at the action, he collapsed and died from a heart attack.
The actions of Spanish authorities have ensured that the prisoners' rights have become a central political issue. There are 741 Basque political prisoners in jail — the highest number since the fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.
The prisoners are held in 82 prisons across France and Spain, on average about 600km from the Basque Country. The authorities employ the deliberate and vindictive policy of jailing Basque nationalists in places far away from relatives and friends, forcing them to travel great distances for a 40-minute visit.
During the 20 years this policy has operated, 16 relatives and friends of Basque political prisoners have been killed in road accidents travelling to or from jails.
Amnesty International has also documented the practice of torture against Basque political prisoners by Spanish police, often carried out while the detainee is held incommunicado. Under Spain's "terror laws", a suspect may be held incommunicado for five days without charge.
The Basque human rights NGO Group Against Torture has published testimonies of serious torture from 62 people in 2008, most of whom were held incommunicado.
The testimonies included accounts of beatings, sexual assault, asphyxiation with plastic bags, food and sleep deprivation, use of stress positions, and threats to rape or kill prisoners, their partners or family members.
In a December report, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Protecting Human Rights While Countering Terrorism, Martin Scheinin, slammed the Spanish government's Law of Political Parties, ad hoc legislation introduced in 2002 with the explicit intention of criminalising Batasuna.
The law insists all parties must denounce anti-state violence or be banned. Scheinin said the law defined "terrorism" so vaguely that it "might be interpreted to include any political party which through peaceful political means seeks similar political objectives" as those pursued by armed organisations.
Dirty war
There is also evidence that Spanish state security forces are renewing the extra-judicial "dirty war" against the Basque self-determination movement.
In the most sinister case, Jon Anza, an ETA militant and former prisoner, disappeared on April 18 after boarding a train travelling to France. Thousands of people demonstrated across the Basque Country carrying banners demanding "Where is Jon?"
On October 2, Basque pro-independence newspaper Gara said trusted sources reported that Anza, who was ill and nearly blind, was kidnapped by Spanish police and killed during interrogation.
Pro-independence activists Juan Mari Mujika, Lander Fernandez, Alain Berastegi and Dani Saralegi have also reported being kidnapped, interrogated, threatened and tortured by Spanish security forces this year.
These cases are part of an escalating pattern of illegal kidnappings, detentions and torture by Spanish police and intelligence agents.
The campaign brings back memories of the dirty war tactics of the 1970s and '80s. State-sponsored death squad attacks against ETA and pro-independence activists from 1975-1982 killed least 47 people.
Between 1983 and '86, the Antiterrorist Liberation Groups (GAL) organised the kidnapping, torture and assassination of Basque political refugees in the Basque regions within the French state. Twenty-seven people were killed.
Some killed were ETA members, others political activists and some had no connection to the Basque struggle.
The Spanish government appears to be pursuing a three-pronged strategy to destroy the Basque self-determination movement: direct repression and intimidation; the criminalisation of any expression of Basque nationalism; and strangling international support for the rights of the Basque people.
A raft of anti-democratic legislation is closing down newspapers, banning political groups and filling jails with political activists not involved in acts of violence. The banning of parties has disenfranchised huge swathes of Basque people, as 15-20% of the Basque population traditionally support Batasuna and other left-nationalist formations in elections.
Despite the bans, in the March 1 poll more than 100,000 people (8%) cast ballots for "illegal" groups in an act of mass defiance.
In May, the Spanish government tried to ban candidates from a newly launched joint ticket of Spanish left-wing parties and pro-independence movements, known as the Internationalist Initiative — the Solidarity of the Peoples, from contesting the June 4-5 European Parliament elections.
The Spanish Supreme Court overturned the ban, but several serious cases of electoral fraud were documented that potentially prevented the ticket from winning a European Parliament seat.
Despite evidence, the ticket's complaints of fraud received almost no attention from the government, media or European Union bodies.
Criminalising Basque nationalism
Since 1998, there has been a qualitative change in the Spanish government's legislative definition of terrorism, which now includes any potential threat to the "constitutional order" through whatever means. This broadens the legal definition of "terrorism" to include the peaceful advocacy of Basque independence.
To establish links with ETA, which continues to carry out an armed campaign, it is now only necessary to prove that a group agrees with the principle of Basque independence.
In July, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) upheld the Spanish government's banning of Batasuna. A delighted Spanish government has sent a copy of the ruling to all its embassies to further its campaign to undermine international support for the Basque self-determination struggle.
Spain is seeking the extradition of Basque self-determination activists in exile in countries around the world. Venezuela and France have recently rejected such extradition requests.
In Ireland, Basque activists Inaki de Juana and Arturo Benat Villnueva are fighting their extradition from Belfast to Spain.
As the repression escalates, international solidarity is important. In particular, protests are needed against the ECHR's politically motivated ruling against Batasuna, which disenfranchises Basque citizens and closes off avenues to peaceful dialogue to resolve the issue of Basque self-determination.
Also, campaigns are needed to reject Spain's attempt to extradite Basque activists from around the world.
Gara said on October 20 that a Batasuna discussion document outlined a new initiative to resolve the conflict in the Basque Country "without any violence and external interference".
Batasuna said it would seek to build the broadest possible united front of nationalists against Spanish aggression; in defence of democratic rights; for the release of political prisoners; and for the relaunching of the process of negotiations with the Spanish state.