Irish solidarity with the Basque Country

by peoplepowergranny Thu Feb 28, 2008 03:41 rachael_bliss at yahoo dot com

We need to be in solidarity with those strangers who suffer among us. What do you do and what would you like to do, or do you just don't even want to think of it? Participate in my poll at peoplepowergranny.blogspot.com, and see how I would like to react myself.

by Diarmuid Breatnach - Dublin-Irish Basque Committee Mon Feb 25, 2008 16:00 basquedublin at hotmail dot com

People gathered outside the General Post Office in Dublin’s O’Connell Street at midday Saturday 23rd February in solidarity with the Basque people. The GPO is the most prominent building in the main street of Ireland’s capital city and had been used as the headquarters of the nationalist forces when they rose up in arms against the British occupying forces in 1916. The building remains a powerful symbol and has been the site of many demonstrations and pickets over the years.

Recently wave after wave of Spanish repression has washed over the Basque country: hundreds of legal political activists have been arrested and jailed, including the national executive of the Left-Nationalist movement; hundreds more have been forced to appear in court to give reason why they should not be arrested; over 500 checkpoint barriers have been put on the roads; demonstrations have been banned and people fined for participating; a number of legal parties have been banned and their offices raided; newspapers have been closed; suspects have been tortured by the police.

The banner of the Irish/ Basque Committee, reading “Freedom for the Basque Country!” was displayed for passers-by to see; the Ikuriña (Basque national flag) was also held by many of the demonstrators. A leaflet detailing the repression of the Basques by the Spanish was given out to passers-by, who included many tourists and foreign nationals working in Ireland. At one point a group of Catalans on holiday joined the picket and sang their national songs.

Nearby on O’Connell Street, Palestinians and their supporters protested about the Israeli blockade of the Gaza strip and the two groups exchanged friendly messages of solidarity.

Generally the reaction of passers-by to the Basque solidarity picket was friendly, including that of some Spanish people, but there were some Spanish who became quite hostile. One of the Irish supporters of the picket called out on one such occasion: “Libertad para todos!” (“Freedom for all!”) which left the objector without an answer.

The picket was organised by the Dublin branch of the Irish Basque Committees as part of Solidarity with the Basque Country Week and similar pickets were held on the same day in many other parts of Europe and the World. In Ireland, pickets were held on Saturday also in Belfast, Derry and Cork.

On Tuesday 26th the DVD Nomak Tx will be screened by the Dublin Basque Committee in the Teachers’ Centre in Parnell Square at 7.00pm. The film, hailed as an excellent documentary, documents the travels through the world of two players of the traditional Basque percussion instrument the Txalaparta (pronounced ‘chala-parta’) and their cross-cultural contacts.