Movements and memory in post-violence Basque country: a generational perspective

This paper investigates collective memory within social movements in post-violence Basque Country. The project analyses how leftist nationalist movements (namely, movements born under the Patriotic Left’s umbrella) remember the ethno-nationalist armed group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) and how the mnemonic process differs between the new post-violence generation of activists and the older ones. The former remembers indirectly the armed group, whereas the latter had directly experienced ETA during the former decades. Moreover, by growing up in different times, movement generations experienced diverse political socialisations and practices and different perspectives on the relationship between violence and stateless nationalism. In this sense, ETA’s cessation of armed struggle in 2011 represents a transformative event which radically changed the Basque socio-political context, by legalising independentist political parties and movements, which have become increasingly relevant throughout the last decade. Hence, militants have to coexist with the movement-party’s ‘double institutionalisation’ (leaving the armed struggle and competing for government), and its recently abandoned discourse on justification on the use of political violence. This research lies at the intersection of social movements, political violence and memory studies. Rather than focusing on the construction of explicit memory, the aim is to research the implicit ‘memory in movements’ and the construction of different mnemonic communities by applying an inter-generational and intra-generational analysis. Furthermore, the final goal is to assess how this memory process influences the creation of a specific collective identity within the movement’s generations. Collective identity is an important indicator of change and continuity in movements, and it lies at the base of their existence. By taking a narrative approach, I intend to analyse collective memory by looking at the movement generations’ shared cognitions (how problems and solutions are collectively framed), social boundaries (how the movement distinguishes itself from other actors) and emotional proximities (collectively shared emotions towards specific events and actors).