Eoin Ó Broin wrote Matxinada – Basque Nationalist & Radical Basque Youth Movements nearly twenty years ago. Twenty years ago Sinn Féin were very much not the ascendant party they are now. Sinn Féin sat where they had for the prior 30 years, a marginal party who under Gerry Adams had just begun to drop their historic opposal to taking seats in the Dail. In 2003, Sinn Féin were still very much in the throes of building a new way of politics that has led them to the forefront of not just a nationalist left, but an Irish left. Situated in this context, it’s hard to read Matxinada and not see it, and Ó Broin’s relationship with the Basque movement more generally, as the early stages of this new aspect of Sinn Féin.
In the context of a new strategy, it is most helpful to focus on the period following the death of Franco and the beginning of the “transition”, when Franco’s successors began to shore up support with a move towards democracy. In the 30 years that followed, material conditions throughout Spain improved drastically, what had been a provincial backwater, became a tourist-trap provincial backwater, but violence still wracked the Basque country. Following along with the timeline of the ETA’s armed campaign, and then the slow phase out as the political wings of the groups took centre stage in the face of a major media demonisation of the conflict, it’s hard not to be reminded of Ireland at a ten year delay to the Basque country.
“Its [Herri Batasuna’s] early years were defined primarily by the KAS Alternative, which laid down the minimum conditions upon which a negotiated process between ETA and Madrid could take place. Although negotiations were at the heart of this strategy, in real terms Herri Batasuna was a party whose main function was to articulate the demand for independence, offer a radical, albeit vague, alternative to the conservatism of the PNV, and organise anti-repression campaigns against state violence and for the release of political prisoners. It’s abstentionism policy in terms of elections to Madrid, Gasteiz and Nafarroa meant that it didn’t have to develop any detailed policies, restricting itself to criticism of others, and existed more as a campaigning body which worked around issues such as opposition to the Spanish Constitution, Autonomy Statue, Lemoiz and NATO”
pg. 93
Herri Batasuna spent much of the period from 1976 to 1986 engaging in a campaign calling for negotiations between Madrid, and the closely affiliated ETA, to bring about a ceasefire in the armed struggle. Madrid on the other hand, stuck to a strategy of steering clear of real negotiations, again and again there would be the promise of talks, which would commence and fail shortly after, causing an uptick in the violence. Every time the ETA made an attack, immediately the full force of the Spanish media would fall upon them. The Basque nationalists were attacked again and again, set as the villains bringing violence into people’s homes. Conversely, the many killings of Basque nationalists by state actors, or state backed militias did not see such an uproar. Against this backdrop, the PNV - the Basque Nationalist Party, the largest party in the region who had a Christian democratic bent and favoured a high level of regional autonomy in place of independence – and the PSOE -- the Spanish Socialist Workers Party – signed agreements that pointed away from negotiations with the separatists, and instead focused on anti-terrorism measures, changing the debate from one between Basque and Spanish nationalists, towards one between the defenders of democracy and the terrorists attacking them.
Against the backdrop of the next couple of years and with their electoral support collapsing, Herri Batasuna and the ETA began to see the futility of fighting yesterday’s war in an age where the narrative no longer had to be set so obviously as it was under the fascist regime. Instead, the media could pick and choose what was covered, nudging public sentiment this way and that depending on the editorial line passed down from above. How to continue the struggle in a country where the conflict has already stretched on too long, and the appetite for a safe life trumps all else? Not very effectively unfortunately. The government strategy continued to pay dividends – the police and right wing paramilitaries continued to attack at the radical edges of the naationalist left, who were in a situation where it is hard to defend against these attacks on the party when the targets are those already tarred and feathered as the violent elements conducting terrorist attacks against the people of Spain.
From this decline came about a resurgence in a youth nationalist movement. A group called Jarrai held a series of congresses and furthered a natinalism that no longer would stand in the wings and complain about the path things were taking as the state refused to negotiate on their terms. Instead, the nationalist left would begin to work for solutions to the issues facing the population of the Basque country, from education to development. This was National Construction.
The Basque movement ran into major issues as they clung to their military campaigns in the “struggle”. The average citizen does not relate to a bloody war on the streets, when the material conditions are continuing to improve udner the existing government. Aagain and again, the Spanish government baited the ETA into more and more conflict, to which the media would immediately react with a narrative that demonises the left for their association with the atrocities. The more the left fell into this, and the more they left the narrative to be shaped by forces not under their control, the weaker they became. To a certain point, a serious organisation has to play the existing game.
The existing game itself is something that changes as the world system develops. In both Ireland and Spain, the mid to late 20th century was a time of immense social change. Both nations had occupied positions on the peripheries of the european project, Spain primarily due to the ostracisation of the fascist state under Franco, and Ireland due to it’s poor development and lack of an industry or market that would tie it more closely to the mainland. The accession of both countries to the European Union coincides with, if not directly triggers, their repositioning from the far-periphery or outside of that, to something more like dependent states positioned in the periphery, states positioned such that they are far from the levers of power of the wider system, but integrated in sucha way as to open them to the more tightly regulated markets of the developing European project as a consumer. Both countries began to receive influxes of capital from the EU, which was used as a stimulus to pump up the core nation’s industries and give them access to ever more demand, while largely negating any sense of indigenous development of such industries. As Spain and Ireland were drawn tighter to the wider system, so did the people begin to see themsevles as part of a larger whole, and with that came a distaste for the barbaric violence that had marred the countries for the preceding decades. When a nationalism becomes twisted and turned towards that of a European identity, but a European identity in the framework of an industrial and trade union, not that of a sovereign people, what becomes of the violence mongers who stick to that whil the state turns the other cheek? When people’s material lives are improving, and they see parties rupturing this with violence, is it any wonder their support drops?
Ó Broin talks about HB in the early 90’s positioning themselves to be attacked from the right and the media. What are the stances Sinn Féin took when McDonald was suspended from the Dail for voicing questions regarding the government’s actions in case of non payment of water charges if not analogues of this? Here was an easy win, Sinn Féin could stand on the side of the people, state that they are with them, and contrast this with the cowardice of Labour and their partners in the coalition. Even an attack in this instance is only ever an attack on being improper. Does an out of work man from Coolock, or a grandmother living off her pension in Moyross care that someone is not following the proper rules of decorum when questioning the legitimacy of their state payments being garnished to pay an undemocratic poll tax? Or take the recent reframing of Gerry Adams from that of a career politician and a major architect of the peace process, to that of a kindly uncle on TikTok making jokes. This reframing has positioned the party again into a space where the historic ties with the armed struggle are downplayed, Adams has moved into acting as a sort of transitional figure and this new generation of republican leadership are given legitimacy as they move the project forward.
Sinn Féin of today are loathe to be forced into a position where they would have to defend their traditional ties to the IRA. There is a very fine balancing act being performed at all levels of the party. It’s something that can be seen progressively taking hold over the past 10 years. When Martin McGuinness stepped down as deputy First Minister in the North, Michelle O’Neill was tapped as the replacement. O’Neill comes from a strong republican background, and is a strong transitional candidate when we consider the change from a party directly involved in the armed struggle, to a modern political party that stake their legitimacy on their conduct in issues that affect the wider working classes. When Adams stepped down as president and Mary Lou McDonald was voted as new leader, it was another sign that Sinn Féin will no longer make it easy for their opponents to slander them and write them off as terrorists and illegitimate. This new leadership are about as far from the traditional Sinn Féin leadership as we can get. McDonald and O’Neill are two strong politicians who have spent the past 20 years establishing themselves as on the people’s side. McDonald more so than O’Neill, surprising given the personal ties O’Neill has more than McDonald, has made a few minor errors over the years and been forced into defending, and then later walking back those defences, of former IRA members. This groundwork from the leadership, and the rest of the pary has allowed Sinn Féin to redefine itself in the eyes of the younger members of the electorate, those not as deeply tied to the years of violence, who don’t find it as easy to discard them to the dustbin of history. In this way, time and again, the party have positioned themselves as a force for good, inserting themselves into various struggles that had caught the interest of the people – O’Neill with her scrapping of the ban on gay men donating blood in the north, and McDonald with her involvement in the anti-water charges campaign.
Today, Sinn Féin in the republic is mostly reflected in the public eye by three people – McDonald, Ó Broin, and Pearse Doherty. Two of those 3 are not traditional Sinn Féin representatives. McDonald and Ó Broin both come from educated middle class backgrounds. Sure enough there are fringe members of the party who still have ties with the historical party, but there is a focus on putting the best foot forward. This is not the Sinn Féin that middle-Ireland can reflexively dismiss as terrorist sympathisers, today the dismissals revolve around more nebulous personal attacks – “champagne socialists”, or on McDonalds former Fianna Fail membership. This is a huge step forward. Knocking on the head any substantial criticisms, and instead being hit with the same criticisms lobeed around at all politicians. But within this trio, the messaging is on point. McDonald has spent the past ten years establishing herself as a strong opposition voice in the Dail. She has the cachet that comes with her strong record in the house, and has proven herself capable time and again in tackling the government on their mismanagement of the state. Ó Broin meanwhile has positioned himself as the authority on housing policy, and promoting this expertise to the public through both his 2019 book Housing, and his latest effort, Defects. There has been a long term effort to promote him as a figure with the knowledge and authority to actually implement an alternative to the current system. Doherty also has been focusing on populist issues in his role as opposition finance spokesperson. The ongoing debacle of the national children’s hospital and the very visible vulture funds have given him plenty to talk about and keep anything uncomfortable off the radar.
Again and again over the course of the book, Ó Broin returns to the question of how we build a truly popular left nationalist movement. For a movement to gain popular support, it needs to actually appeal to people. Sinn Féin, and arguably the Worker’s party post split, were not doing this. It’s easy to focus on purity, and Sinn Féin’s focus on the reunification of Ireland as the only goal worth fighting for sort of hamstringed them with the great majority of people for whom that takes a back seat to material conditions go to the ballot box. The left Basque nationalists, particularly Herri Batasuna and their various successor organisations, had and have a focus on improving material conditions in a way that isn’t just confined to a strictly political sphere. The struggles against the Spanish government and the depiction of the left in the media necessitated a drastic change in how the struggle was articulated. No longer is it sufficient to say these are the baddies, we’re the goodies, it is right and just to oust them in armed struggle. A hegemonic media, and the people at large even apart from this, have no appetite for a violent struggle. Instead there is a need to build culturally. Sinn Féin’s recent success, has shown the validity of this tactic. For a nationalist left party to move from just 5 seats in the 2002 General Election in the republic, to being positioned as the main Opposition party with 37 seats in 2020 is a testament to the power of a left that is pragmatic in its work towards promoting a socialist future for Ireland, this is the populism that Ó Broin talks about. This is the populism that moves the left nationalist project forward. This is the populism we can see Ó Broin arrive at as he studies these Basque movements.