Scotland and the Basque Country: the struggle for independence

The road to Scotland’s independence referendum in the autumn of 2014 will be closely watched across the world, with the geo-political ramifications of a ‘Yes’ vote remaining a subject of huge contention. But in few places will the referendum have such great resonance as the Basque Country – the three million strong, stateless nation that [...]

ETA declare permanent ceasefire – time for Spain to free the Basque country.

Amidst the worldwide media coverage of Gaddafi’s death, a historic development in another conflict went largely unnoticed – after over 40 years of a military campaign against the Spanish state, the Basque armed group ETA announced a permanent end to it’s use of violence in the struggle for an independent and socialist Basque state. This [...]

Basque movement confirms peaceful stance

? Representatives of ETA, the armed wing of the Basque independence movement, yesterday issued a permanent ceasefire annoucement. This represents a clear message, calling an end to the movement’s decades-long armed struggle. Today’s pledge follows on from September’s commitment to pursuing independence through non-violent means, as blogged about by Jack. Incredibly, the response of the [...]

Scotland and Basque Country: Two nations, one struggle!

This a long awaited report from one of the Basque comrades who visited SSY and back in August. A comrade from Askapena (the Basque internationalist and solidarity group), tells us a bit about how they found Scotland: “Last august, 4 of Askapena’s brigadists were in Scotland. After many years of organising similar trips to Ireland, [...]

Raising awareness of Spain's brutality

3-2. Another game, another glorious failure for Scotland’s national football team. Losing bravely seems to be what we do best. Well, some of the time at least. The less said about the recent dismal defeat in Prague, the better. Of course there is no shame in losing by such a narrow margin to the reigning [...]

Demonstrating for Basque human rights

Last Saturday the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country played host to a major demonstration in favour of civil and political rights for the Basque people. Thousands of trade unionists, activists and Basque nationalist politicians took part in the march, which was called after Spanish courts banned pro-independence marches last month, claiming they would [...]

NEWSFLASH: Spanish state repression against Askapena

Those of you who were at Camp Secret Squirrel this year, or were around in the week or so afterwards, will remember the comrades we had visiting from Askapena, the internationalist organisation of the Basque pro-independence left. Yesterday the repressive police apparatus of the Spanish state was brought to bear on Askapena, with seven members [...]

Basque Country: Armed struggle ends, mass struggle continues

Last weekend, the Basque armed group Euskadi Ta Azkatasuna, which has fought an armed struggle for Basque freedom for decades, released a video declaring that several months ago they decided to stop armed actions, and announced a ceasefire. In their statement, ETA said: “In recent times, the Basque country has been at an important crossroads. [...]

Camp it up!

It’s taken a few days for those of us who were lucky enough to be at Camp Secret Squirrel 2010 to get ourselves together enough to write about it. SSY’s annual summer camp this year was a huge success, and hopefully those of you who couldn’t make it this year will see from our photos [...]

General strikes all across Europe: Why not here?

Yesterday there were general strikes in Greece and the Basque Country. Last week workers in France and Italy walked out as well. Across Europe the working class is waking up to the threat posed by the attacks of European governments, but in the UK the response has still been quite muted. SSY has been involved [...]

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