Basque Country: strange fiestas under fascist Spanish imposition

Bilboko Aste Nagusia, the Great Week of Bilbao, began yesterday in a very strange mood, after the fascist Spanish proconsul ("delegate of the government") in the Western Basque Country, J.M. Urquijo, managed to use some of their fascist laws and fascist tribunals to impede that this year's Txupinera, Jone Artola, could exert as such. 

The txupin or ritual shot of a noisy firework is how fiestas begin, not just the first day but every day. Since the popular organization Coordination of Konpartsak (festive groups) took over the Bilbao Fiestas in 1978, after decades of fascist boredom, giving them new life, the role of the Txupinera (always a woman, as the Pregonero used to be a man back in those days) has rotated among each of the konpartsak, which in turn elect a woman among their ranks. 

This year 2013, it was the turn of Txori Barrote (= "bar bird"), whose logo represents a woodpecker breaking prison bars. Like many (but not all) other konpartsak, there is a socio-political organization behind it, in this case the veteran and highly popular Committees pro-Amnesty, which is now illegal but has brought year after year, week after week, for many decades, the plight of Basque prisoners, dispersed to remote prisons and often tortured and abused at all levels, to the streets of this country that fights and dances between the mountains and the sea. 

For the Spanish Nationalists, including Mr. Urquijo, there is no new period, no peace process or anything, just yet another phase in their endless conquest of our little country. In this sense he has been persecuting any expression of solidarity with Basque prisoners with unprecedented zeal. Even after tribunals acknowledged that display of prisoners' photos was no crime, they have been repressing such expressions of solidarity and love, up to the point that one year Txori Barrote and Kaskagorri konpartsak were declared illegal themselves, although for short time, with the result that the whole city was full of prisoners' photos. More than ever before, as an act of solidarity by all other konpartsak. 

This year the crusader zeal of the Spanish Imperialists had of course to leave a bitter taste in our fiestas (they are ours, not yours!) and the txupinera Jone Artola, who has the bad luck of being the sister of a long time political prisoner and, therefore, has acted often as speaker of the solidarity movement, was declared illegal herself, not her life but her right to be Txupinera.

If we would have a half-decent municipal government, they would have declared disobedience. But it's a pathetic bourgeois one and they only wanted to obey the law, no matter it is foreign imposed law. 

So, after long negotiations a coral txupin was agreed. The rocket was fired by the President of the Fiestas Comission, a local councilor, and, as the Txupinera could not legally wear the uniform, the Pregonera Iraia Iturregi (captain of the local women football team) took her own off as soon as her speech was over, embracing Jone, who wore proudly her 27 years' old Txori Barrote shirt. 

Iturregi and Artola embraced

Iturriaga's speech was full of references to the inquisitorial abuse:

I am really tired of those who do not seem to understand which is the essence of Aste Nagusia. Stop! We want to enjoy each second of the fiesta independent of gender, race and political ideologies! We want to enjoy the fiestas all together as the persons we are.

She ended with a cry of Gora gu ta gutarrak! (Up with us and our people!)

Which was cheered by the crowd with cries of Go Txupinera! and Mr. Governor: you are dumb!

The two women dressed in their uniforms again to enjoy of the fiestas in the streets, where they were homaged by the konpartsak, which are the soul of it.

Bilbao: empty building occupied for homes

The number 13th of Ribera Street (pictured), abandoned for years, was occupied yesterday by people in need of a home.

The building is located in the Old Quarter (Alde Zarra) of Bilbao, Basque Country. 

In their communication, the squatters denounced the city model, oriented to tourism and big companies, what pushes most people to precariousness (temporary jobs, no collective agreements, low salaries) and the near-impossibility to have a decent home (or a living in general). 

They denounce the speculators and the corrupt politicians, who push the people to joblessness, homelessness and even lack of a decent education.

We are tired of getting just the crumbs, they say. And, after recalling the long European squatter tradition, they declare:

We cannot waste any more time, we have to take the future in our hands. We have occupied this building with a clear intention: to create a space for all the people and with open doors to learn how to take the reins of our own lives. 

Sources[es/eu]: Borroka Garaia Da!, Elkartzen.

Basque Country: Nazi alert in Bilbao

This armed (and truly dangerous) man who looks so much like Sylvester Stallone is a well known Nazi from Valladolid (Castile), plays the guitar in the Nazi music band "Más que palabras" ("More than just words") and is suspect of several violent aggressions in his hometown and in Santander. He's known as "Albertito" and I could not find his full name online (although it's probably known).

On May 23, he attacked a Cantabrian independentist in the city of Santander, to whom they followed from Bilbao in the bus. When the victim reported to police, these sarcastically asked him: "why do you think he attacked you and not me?"

Stupid question proper of a stupid man who should (but will not) be suspended on his functions as police agent. 

It is believed that the Nazi cell that Albertito is organizing in Bilbao already attacked an immigrant worker in the subway in 2010 (Bilbao subway has extreme security measures, yet they got away).

The Nazi thug and potential assassin has apparently organized a small cell of Nazis in Bilbao who organized a "protest" in "solidarity" with the murderer of Clément Méric in Paris two months ago. These are their faces:

Albertito leading his horde (click to expand)

What can be said and what can be done?

Zero tolerance against Fascism and get that scum out of our streets quickly. Cancers are much easier to deal with when they are small, else we may well end up with a serious problem.

Sources[es]: Sare Antifaxista, La Haine.

Basque Country: new social center closed by police soon after occupation

The Youth Assembly of Santutxu, the most populous neighborhood of Bilbao, occupied on Saturday a new space for a gaztetxe (= youth house, equivalent to social center in other countries) in a space that had been abandoned for 30 years. However today at dawn, the Municipal Police broke in and changed the lock irregularly.

This is part of the model for our city defended by the bourgeoisie, which excludes any sort of popular organization, be it for festivals, social centers or anything. 

Source: Bilboko Branka[eu].

Basque Country: thousands march against the impunity of Fascist crimes

Thousands marched through Bilbao yesterday in demand "truth, justice and reparation" for the many crimes against Humankind committed by the Fascist regime in Spain, which remain unpunished and almost totally not investigated. 

Source: Naiz Info[eu]

 

A million people were killed in the Spanish civil alone, most of them behind the fascist lines, in a murderous campaign of ideological cleansing which has never been sufficiently investigated. Many others were killed in prisoner camps for those opposed to the regime. After the war, the Fascist regime ruled with iron fist, arbitrarily arresting, torturing, imprisoning and murdering whoever stood in their way, inflicting panic to whole generations. 

Basque Country: political-judiciary persecution against four picket members

Four youths of Bilbao are being asked 14 years of prison each for merely taking part in an informative picket in one of the general strikes of last year. The evidence: police says... police lies... and nothing else. 

However under the Spanish Penal Code the word of a policeman is "evidence", while civilian witnesses are not or at the very least weight a lot less. I know on my own flesh: I was years ago sentenced to a fine (which I rejected to pay, choosing to go to prison instead) with dozens of witnesses supporting my version (most of which were simply dismissed by the judge) and just a policeman supporting, quite incoherently, the accusation. 

Mine is not any isolated case: it is the daily bread over here and has been so for the last decades. 

These four young activists, Irantzu Yaldebere, Jon Telletxea, Urtzi Martínez and Aitor Fernández, are being persecuted for their overall socio-political activism in their neighborhoods. 

As the solidarity manifesto says:

It is obvious that what is being punished are not disorders or aggressions but the struggle for and compromise with a different socio-political model. As the struggle of ample popular sectors grows, so does repression. 

In similar circumstances are also activists from Iruñea-Pamplona and Gernika. 

Source: Borroka Garaia Da![es/eu]

See also: solidarity platform at Facebook and Twitter.