Left advances as Basques protest
On January 9th over 100,000 Basques marched to protested the dispersal of Basque prisoners across the Spanish state. It was one of the largest demonstrations in Basque history. The radical independence party Herri Batasuna and its partners in the left-wing Euskal Herritarrok movement continue to benefit from the more open mood following the ETA ceasefire in 1998. After 20 years of boycott, the radical nationalist left has taken seats in the Basque autonomous parliament, giving external support to the moderate nationalist government, on the basis of a programme for peace (definitive ETA ceasefire, prisoner regroupment and release Again" creating a "Left Bloc" which
The founders of the Left Bloc regret that the (larger) PCP "is still unable to understand the complexity of Portuguese society today. This prevents the Party from presenting itself as a party which wants to break with the current society."
The three organisations confirmed their conviction that "we must bring into politics all those who are excluded or marginalised. It is high time for all those who identify with the essence of what we are saying to come together in a new project which will be capable of carrying forward strong and credible proposals for democracy and socialism."
This is not a marginal event. The organisations involved have a real implantation in the social tissue of Portuguese life. PSR leader Manuel Graça is General Secretary of the Shoemakers' Trade Union, and the PSR and UDP are active across the leather-working and shoemaking unions
The UDP has one Member of Parliament, and all three groups are represented in municipal assemblies (Lisbon, Almada, Amarante).
For the PSR "Such a project is a long-standing idea. Many indepenand measures to reinforce Basque sovereignty. EH says that increased autonomy from Madrid, and a nationalist project that accepts all those who live and work in the Basque country, is the only way to win over the 40% of voters who currently vote for the "all-Spanish" socialist and conservative parties. According to "Troglo" Castaños of the radical left magazine Hika, "much now depends on the struggle between the [centre-right ] Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and the pro-independence left to take the head of this national-building project." [JP/JRC] * *The entire former leadership of Herri Batasuna are among the prisoners held hundreds of miles from their families, in contradiction of the Spanish constitution. dent militants have long been convinced of the need for an electorally viable alternative. People have wanted the intervention of organised militants to be directed towards concretising a politically and culturally force representative of an alternative current in the Portuguese left. But what is new is the decision to assume the responsibility and the risk of doing so. It is time now to do it."
The Left Bloc initiative has already attracted considerable interest. Among the "independents" who have signed up are the historian Fernando Rosus, composer José Mario Branco, and the writer and active feminist Mélice Ribeiro Santos.
Despite the encouraging number of individual members, militants of the three founding groups are still the base of the Left Bloc. Only Politica XXI intends to dissolve itself into the new organisation. The PSR and UDP believe they can contribute more to the struggle for socialism by maintaining their own structures as well as fully participating in the Left Bloc.
This exciting move was approved by the congresses of the three organisations in January. The next step is registering the Left Bloc as a legal political party. That means collecting five thousand signatures, each officially notarised. The time-consuming and expensive challenge will be good practice for the European elections in June, and parliamentary election in October. * ource: Rouge 11 February 1999, with contributions from International Viewpoint staff writers.
International Viewpoint #309 March 1999 5 will stand candidates in the European and national elections will stand candidates in the European and national elections