IBSC call for immediate relase of Batasuna detainees

by LAB trade union Fri Oct 16, 2009 12:50 nazioartea at labsindikatua dot org

14TH October 2009

Yesterday afternoon, 13th October, the Police invaded the national headquarters of the LAB trade union and arrested five activists of the Basque pro-Independence Left, among them the ex-General Secretary of LAB, Rafael Diez Usabiaga. This was all within a police operation in which a total of ten people have been detained.
This attack seeks to criminalise political and trade union work within the Basque Country.

From the Headquarters of LAB we rededicate ourselves to the trade union struggle in defence of the Basque working class and in the Right which our nation has to decide its own future. Our best response is to continue working and in struggle.
Alongside this message we send a communication directed at all trade union centres and fraternal organisations.

• We seek the setting free with immediate effect of our brother, Rafael Diez Usabiaga, ex-Secretary General of LAB, as well as of all the other arrested people.
• We also denounce at the same time the attack on our headquarters in Donostia/ San Sebastian and demand that there be no future attack on our headquarters.
• We call for support for the mobilisations that will take place in the coming days in the Basque Country to protest these actions.
• We seek solidarity from all trade unions of the class across the world and we ask them to send us their messages of solidarity to the following electronic address: [email protected]

by updating Fri Oct 16, 2009 14:55

Most readers of indymedia ireland with or without a strong interest in Basque affairs ought now know that something quite unprecedented is occuring the Basque region in response to something else which is quite usual.

The former unprecedented occurence is the solidarity being shown across the spectrum of Basque society in response to the arrest of 10 individuals. Some of whom but not all were members of Batasuna. Just thought to correct that wee mistake in the above article.

This afternoon less than one hour after Garzon was reported to begin interviewing Otegi, the Spanish state prosecutor, Vicente González Mota was understood to have got involved and contacted Garzon (The arresting prosecutor) to request prison terms for :-


* Arnaldo Otegi (who needs no introduction)
* Rafael Díez Usabiaga (the former Sec. Gen. of the pro-independence LAB trade union which is the sole principle part of the Basque self-determination movement to continue to operate legally)
* Sonia Jacinto the former treasurer of EHAK a proxy party of Batasuna after its illegalisation
* Miren Zabaleta (daughter to a leader of Aralar, Patxi Zabaleta a small independence abertzale party which split from Batasuna and rejected armed struggle many years ago)
* Arkaitz Rodríguez Torres
*José Luis Moreno Sagües former member of the national council of Batasuna and councillor for Burlada in Navarra
* Amaia Esnal.

* In addition the prosecutor Mota has asked that Rufi Etxeberria and Ainara Oiz who were reported to have been arrested as they moved documentation relating to the meeting from the house of Miren Zabaleta, be released on bail.

That leaves us with 1 person.

* Mota has requested that all charges against José Manuel Serra be struck out.

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In what illustrates the utter farcical irony of Basque affairs, whilst the PNV whose leadership have made the strongest statements ever (" the government needs ETA to continue ") and announced their presence in pro-Batasuna and pro-LAB marches tomorrow, they have also been closing a round of negotations with the Zapatero PSOE central government to pact the regional budget, a budget which will be spent by the basque branch of the PSOE who hold power thanks to their grand coalition government program with the right wing PP.

If we ignore (as if we could) the current abertzale issue : the possiblilty that these 10 people were about to propose a solution to armed struggle and the political posturing solidarity offered them & leave aside all questions of taking the gun out of Basque society - it really does seem ironic that Basque fishing trawlers may now be armed with heavy machine guns to fight off Somali pirates.

we could cut through an awful lot of crap on all sides & wonder hard, long & publically -
how much truth there is in that line about the Spanish state needing ETA.

by updating - ( o as if ) Fri Oct 16, 2009 21:48

The former Secretary General of LAB, Rafa Diez Usabiaga has been been sent to prison on an "unconditional order" for his part in alledgedly conspiring to reconstitute the illegalised party Batasuna.

The article above by IBSC implies that he and the others were members of Batasuna. To my knowledge he was not. Correct me if i'm wrong oh do : basque wiki http://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Diez_Usabiaga spanish wiki http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_D%C3%ADez_Usabiaga

I'm also not sure he's ever been sent to prison for his role in the Basque Independence movement.

Also jailed tonight are :-
Sonia Jacinto, Miren Zabaleta & Arkaitz Rodríguez.
I've given background on both Jacinto and Zabaleta in the last comment. The fifth imprisoned, Arkaitz Rodriguez was tied in 2006 for suspected membership of the recruitment and intelligence sector of ETA and acquited.

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I have left the illustration of Rafa Diez Usabiaga which accompanies the wikpiedia entries in Basque, Spanish & Catalan languages on him. It was taken during a rally to promote the "Iniativa Internalionista" party for the European parliamentary elections. That party had been illegalised as a Batasuna proxy, a decision which is upturned later on once II had succesfully lauched a challenge and made a statement which eschewed armed struggle
I.I. did so.
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/92326

There is no reason to presume the group meeting the LAB trade union offices were intent on doing differently.

so when and how are going to discuss openly the really difficult unmentionable phrase at the end of the last comment? How much does the spanish state need its "problem"?

Rafa Diez Uzabiega secretary general of LAB 1986 - 2008 speaking at II rally in Barcelona June 2009