It’s not spontaneous. Riots are occurring with increasing frequency in northern Spain They have a strategy behind them. For the Socialist Movement, which already dominates places like the Public University of the Basque Country, the past month has been a … success. The media impact of the incidents in Vitoria and Pamplona by the Gazte Koordinadora Sozialista (GKS), the youth branch that rivals the Ernai (EH Bildu Youth), has “emboldened” them. According to their latest strategy document, published after clashes with the National Police on the University of Navarra campus, they plan to increase “agitation” and continue the “vanguard struggle,” both at the ideological level and in the streets.
Some “anti-fascist tactics”, in their own language, which they have already begun to apply through the new “kali buroka”. Groups of young people (even minors among them) have the same aesthetic (dressing in black and muted clothing) and have fixed guidelines when it comes to sowing chaos, Even attacking ordinary citizens and journalists. However, the increasing street violence, though you can recall it, is a far cry from that which ETA and its network of affiliated organizations have carried out in the region for decades. “I saw Bilbao burning,” comments a source with extensive counter-terrorism experience, highlighting, for example, that while the extinct gang had specific targets for attack, these new groups mainly carry out reactionary actions, such as those called against the Veto Quilles law in the capital Navarre.
Moreover, the hierarchical structure was clear at the time: ETA’s leadership decided and implemented its network. Now, Aberzal’s left is brokenWith various factions competing for leadership. Especially in the youth sector and against the “official” represented by E.H. Beldo, which these new movements describe as “democratic socialism.”
Ideological differences are also important. Although Jardon, a group of several hundred members who participated in the recent riots, The Basque National Liberation Movement (MLNV) demands Since ETA laid down its arms in 2011, the GKS and the Socialist Movement have had the biggest role. With the ability to mobilize thousands of people, and although they also defend prisoners and fight alongside convenient figures like Ceché and Otaegui, ETA members who have become “martyrs” in the imagination of the Aberzal left, their main line of rhetoric is not Basque nationalism, but pure communism. Ideally, they want to expand into the rest of Europe.
In its texts, it is well structured because those who run the device have extensive academic training, They leave writing a wish for “the major Marxist parties.” And the recovery of the “historical revolutionary bloc.” Their analysis is based on the decline of Western society and their statements are directed at the middle classes, which, due to their lack of references, will approach “neo-fascism,” which they define in the “Atlantic oligarchy” in reference to American hegemony, their main enemy: “No one is immune to this virus, and the only cure is the radicalism of a new revolutionary rationalism that confronts the decline of the entire bourgeois system.”
A new “revolutionary symbol”.
Given this, they advocate, the only way to avoid building a totalitarian state is to anticipate and plan a socialist-type state. That’s why they intend Creating a mass party with an “above the state” character, Although their organization, which takes shape at the grassroots level in committees, is currently limited to the regional level (in Navarra and the Basque Country), the idea of presenting lists in municipal elections, which they were considering, seems unlikely. They call for the establishment of alliances with what they call “independent labor organizations.” This is something they have already tried to implement with other anti-regime groups in Catalonia. Massive events are also being organized in other Spanish provinces as a demand. This is the case of Topagune, the most important GKS event that brought together 3,000 people, and which this year they tried to export to Guadalajara.
For this “strategic task of revitalizing the party” they are planning an “effective agitation tactic” at the grassroots level, capable of transforming social discontent “into a revolutionary code.” On the one hand, it is directed towards “the state and capital.” On the other hand, “against the complicity of parliamentary parties, especially the reformist left.” For this business, basically advertising, Joins the “Restore Defensive Positions” campaign And maintain the confrontation in the streets, where the recent riots were framed. “Fascism cannot be allowed to normalize and create space to develop with impunity,” they say.
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