¡Basta Ya! The Basque civic movement and nonviolent resistance to ETA’s terrorism

Research on nonviolent resistance is one of the more dynamics research areas in International Relations. The vigour and energy of this field notwithstanding, a glaring gap remains: Little attention has been paid to those contexts where non-violent activism arises in response to terrorism committed by non-state actors. This paper will help to address this gap by examining the impact that mobilisation by the local civic movement from the Spanish region of Basque Country had in the violent campaign by armed separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna. The study examines the historical context that gave birth to in the late 1990s to an opposition movement that did not stop at simply protesting against violence: it also promoted new political narratives. This so-called ‘Constitutionalist’ civic movement, whose best known representative was the social movement organization ¡Basta Ya!, emerged to demand the respect of Basque citizens’ human and political rights, which were routinely being abused by ETA and their sympathisers. Built on the existing mobilising structures inherited from the Basque peace movement, their activism was controversial for its partisanship: It was a new form of contentious politics in the region that not only mobilised against ETA but also the excesses of Basque nationalism, which they described as the root cause of the conflict. In addition to their innovative organisational structure, which allowed rank-and-file activists to remain anonymous to avoid ETA’s retaliation, one interesting aspect is the civic membership’s use of counter narratives. These are constructed not only to challenge ETA but also to bring coherence, unity and an identity to the movement. This counter-narrative work made an important contribution to the consolidation in society of collective action frames such as the defence of democratic values, the protection of political freedoms, human rights, pluralism and peace. Finally, an important theme in this paper is the serious personal costs that had for many their public opposition to ETA, as reflected in the semi-structured interviews with former members of the movement carried out by the author. Political activism could result in being ostracised by the individual’s former social network and, in more serious cases, suffering persistent harassment and becoming a victim of violence. Indeed high-profile members of the civic movement were murdered, many others received death threats, found their name in ETA lists of targets and were forced to leave the region. The analysis will show how collective action can be ‘high risk’ indeed when opposing other actors than the state.