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Basque Nationalism:
The Traditional and the Progressive

A young journalist, Sabino Arana Goiri, founded the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) in Spain's Basque city of Bilbo, Bizkaia, in 1895. He constructed the ideology of Basque nationalism which in turn, was transformed into a powerful political strategy. Regrettably, Basque nationalism separated itself from the political reality of Nabarra as the state of the Basques - conquered and dismembered by Spain and France - and reduced the so-called Basque conflict to an ethnic dispute between two groups rather than to acknowledge that the Basque conflict is a conflict between nations: Nabarra, on the one side; Spain and France on the other.

The "founding fathers" of Basque nationalism did nothing to correct the distortions of our historic-political past and. They accepted the division of the Basque territories as original and constructed the myth of the "Basque states" negotiating with Spain their voluntary integration. That is, "Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, as sovereign states, had pacted with Spain, on equal terms, and as equal powers, their voluntary integration." The consequences of this myth, according to Nabarrase historian Tomas Urzainki, "has had an intra-national segregationist and secessionist effect" and facilitated the establishment of regional administrative autonomy in Spain's Basque territories.

After the dictator Franco died and monarchy was re-established in Spain, the Basque Nationalist Party (PVN) sold out to Spain because they did not want to lose their political hegemony in Araba, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa (aka Baskongadak; Basque Country), had these three Basque territories re-joined Nabarra. Thus, they accepted to align with Spain and play by Madrid's rules for them to get at least an inch of hegemony in their little fiefdom. In order to stay in the center the PVN have allied themselves with anybody in Spain --including the Socialists, who sponsored the dirty war against ETA militants, and the ruling neo-Francoist Popular Party.

The struggle for Basque autonomy in Nabarra's truncated territories in France has been for the most part a cultural movement. However, in 1962, the Enbata group, created by Basque students, became the starting point of Basque nationalism and the quest for sovereignty. In 1963 Enbata presented the Itsasu Letter, a national project for these three Basque territories to be implemented in two stages: first, the creation of a Basque department to be followed by the unification of the seven Basque provinces in a European federation.

The political and military struggle for independence is led by Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA, Basque Homeland and Freedom), the Basque national liberation army which transformed the conservative ideology of Basque nationalism into a progressive movement.

For a summary of the birth and development of Basque nationalism in France and Spain, consult the following documents.