Sources and further reading

Here are the books and websites I consulted in researching this topic, and if you are interested in knowing more about ETA they have interesting information:

• Kenneth McRoberts, ‘Catalonia’ (Oxford University Press) 2001
• Emilio Attard, ‘La Constitución por dentro. Evocaciones del proceso constituyente: Valores derechos y libertades’ (Barcelona: Argos Vergara) 1983
• Richard Gunther, ‘Polictics, Society and Democracy. The Case of Spain’ (Colorado: Westview Press) 1993
• María Elena Olabarri Fernández, ‘La Ertzantza: Un Estadio Sociológico de la policía autónoma Vasca 1982-1986’ (Bilbao: Servicio Editorial/Universidad del País Vasco) 1993
• Matthew Campbell ‘ETA murders stains Spanish elections’ (Sunday Times) 9th March 2008
• http://city-journal.org/2008/18_2_basque_terrorists.html
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3500728.stm

The future of ETA

ETA in the modern era is very different both in organisation and support since its heyday in the early 1970s. In 1978 almost half of Basque adults thought ETA members to be patriots or ideologists, just 7% thought them to be criminals. By 2004 however 69% saw them as terrorists and 17% as criminals or murderers leading us to the conclusion that ETA are very much out of touch with public opinion.

Al Qaeda's 2004 Madrid train bombings was also a blow to ETA as it shifted public and political attention away from them and ETA saw the revulsion of Spaniards to al-Qaeda’s violence, and they for the first time qustioned whether violence was the best means to gain their demands.

An increasingly aggressive judicial and law enforcement crackdown is also severly hurting ETA's operations, with counterterrorism campaigns that include stepped up surveillance and intelligence sharing and police cooperation agreements with France severly disabled ETA's ability to commit attacks. The banning of the political party Batasuna which was seen as an ETA front also weakened the organisation. ETA is according to terrorist expert Reinares at its weakest in its 50 year history, helped in part with the arrest of its head Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina in November 2008 and their political commander Javier Lopez Pena six months earlier.

The most recent ceasefire was announced in March 2006, yet this as with other ceasefires lasted shortly and ended with the Madrid airport attack just nine months later. As recently as 26th March 2009 a bomb exploded in Amorebieta, Vizcaya and has been attributed to ETA, so they are still very much active.

So what does the future hold so ETA? Can they be totally eradicated? These are hard questions to answer given their history, and it seems unlikely given the persistent reservoir of Basque public sympathy they enjoy. A perhaps more likely scenario is that ETA will endure, but diminished, inflicting a low but perhaps politically tolerable level of violence.

Declining public support for ETA

From its creation in 1959 up until about the late 1980s ETA had a degree of public support over their cause, not only within the Basque Country but throughout Spain. This was in part that people understood the repressed nature of the area under Franco and agreed that they did deserve a degree of autonomy. Although assassinations were carried out by ETA, they did concentrate on targeting law enforcement and politicians rather than civilians. For a video of the surpression of the Basque Country please view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3avs8DQYww&feature=related.

ETA enjoyed both public and international support, especially in 1970 during the ‘Burgos Trials’, where the repressive nature of Franco’s regime was highlighted. Members of ETA who had been sentenced to death by Franco were eventually sentenced to life inprisonment instead after international pressure. Even after ETA’s most high profile attack, the 1973 assassination of Luis Carrero Blanco, the would be President after Franco, many opponents of Franco both home and abroad applauded the move. Other events that helped ETA gain public support was during the period 1983-87 where the government set up GAL (Antiterrorist Liberation Group) in order to quash ETA. During this period the group committed assassinations and the kidnapping and torture of ETA members and their families, some who had no association with ETA at all. Although later disbanded, GAL’s ‘dirty war’ against ETA was seen as a negative effect on the issue of the Basque due to their controversial tactics. Indeed in 1997 several GAL officials including high ranking members of the government were convicted of crimes such as torture.

After the Spanish Consitution of 1978 however the Basque Country slowly but surely started to gain a degree of autonomy, yet ETA were still caryying out its violent activities which began to alienate the public from ETA's cause. Such events included the 19th July 1987 bombing in Barcelona which killed 21 and injured 45 and resulted in entire families being killed. Such was the public outrage that ETA were compelled to issue a statement saying they had given the police prior warning to the attack, although this was rebuffed by the police. Perhaps the most pivotal event that finally turned public support away from ETA was the 1997 murder of Miguel Angel Blanco, a local politician in Biscay. After kidnapping Miguel they demanded that all ETA prisoners to be relocated to nearer the Basque Country (as ETA prisoners were dispersed throughout Spain) within 48 hours or he would be executed. Such was the public outrage that 6 million people from around the country including the Basque demonstrated for his release. However when the deadline expired he was killed, and what little public support ETA had slowly disappeared.

Can ETA hope to achieve its aims without lack of public support? Have they done too much damage to their reputation to achieve their goals? Perhaps if the public supports the government over the Basque issue ETA has little hope of accomplishing their objectives.

Increasing Autonomy of the Basque Country

When ETA was formed during the period of Franco's dictatorship in 1959 the Basque Country had no autonomous powers and was very much under the rule of Spanish rulers. Not only did it have no powers, but they were also heavily surpressed by Franco. They were forbidden from speaking and teaching their own language, the national flag, the Ikurriña, was banned in public as were nationalist holidays. The Basque Country was surpressed due to the fact that Biscay and Guipuscoa fought for the Republican government against Franco during the Civil War of 1936 - 1939, and after they lost the ‘rebels’ were punished. Other areas within the Basque that sided with Franco such as Alava and Navarre however were given a small degree of autonomy for their perceived loyalty.

During the transition period to democracy after Franco’s death in 1975, the Basque country slowly regained some of its cultural identity that had been suppressed for over 30 years. The first signs of change for the Basque came just three days after Juan Carlos de Borbón took the throne. 15,000 political prisoners and those in exile were granted freedom, including members of ETA. A reform of the Spanish Constitution in 1978 further changed the way in which certain areas of Spain were seen, with areas such as Cantabria gaining autonomous statues. These signs of change however didn’t hinder the activities of ETA, and the years 1978-80 were their most deadly in terms of killings. Partly due the actions by ETA and in an attempt to diffuse the political tension, in the 1980s ETA accepted the government’s offer of pardons to all ETA prisoners, and in 1980 the Basque was granted autonomous status. For a summarised view of the 1978 Spanish Constitution which laid the foundations for Basque autonomy please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Constitution_of_1978.

The Basque Country currently enjoys more autonomy than any other region in Spain. It has its own parliament, Ertzaintza (police force), education policy, taxes and its cultural traditions are promoted. Whereas during the Franco years the Basque language was suppressed which was a major issue for ETA, nowadays the language is very much promoted. In education, the majority of students are taught the Basque language, although in the north just 20% learn the language, though this is out of choice. During the Transition period many demands regarding the Basque Country have been met, although the primary issue of self determination of ETA hasn’t been met, which explains the continued existence of the organisation.

Given the extent that the Basque Country now has in self governance, can ETA justify their violent actions? Many moderate Basque nationalists are happy with the autonomy the Basque now receives, are ETA unrealistic in their demands or do they have another agenda? These could be further avenues to go down to try to get into the mindset of ETA.

ETA in comparison to other terrorist organisations

• 
  
  When discussing terrorism within Spain, it is also useful to compare it with terrorism in other countries and the different tactics used. From using this comparison, we can see just how dangerous and active ETA are and if other terrorist organisations are more deadly in their attacks and casualties they are responsible for. The following list include some other well known terrorist organisations and the deaths they have caused from their activities:
  
  
• Aceh Sumatra Liberation Front (ASLF) (Indonesia) - active from 1976 till 2005: responsible for approximately 15,000 deaths
• IRA (Northern Ireland) - active from 1969 till 1997: responsible for approximately 1,800 deaths
• Red Brigade (Italy) - active from 1969 till 1980: responsible for approximately 250 deaths
• Red Army Faction (Germany) - active from late 1960s till 1998: responsible for approximately 34 deaths
• Al Qaeda (Global) - active from 1990 till present day: responsible for approximately 3,847 deaths
• Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Sri Lanka) - active from 1976 till present day: responsible for over 35,000 deaths
• Various Extremists (Argentina) - active from 1974 till 1976: responsible for approximately 2,300 deaths
• Various Dissident Groups (Turkey) - active from 1975 till 1980: responsible for over 5,000 deaths
• ETA (Spain) - active from 1959 till present day: responsible for over 800 deaths
  

As we can see, there are other terrorist organisations that have been much more successful in causing death in the name of their cause, whether it be religious (Al Qaeda), independence (IRA, Tamil Tigers, ASLF) or ideological (Red Brigade, Red Army Faction). However these organisations cannot be simply compared by number of deaths caused, as it ould be argued that it is not ETA's aim to cause maximised fatalities, whereas this could be Al Qaeda objective.

Some of these organisations differ from ETA in in the methods they use to carry out their activities, for example in the use of suicide attacks. Such attacks with bombs can be more deadly since the detonation can occur at the last minute or when casualties will be maximised. For example the Tamil Tigers have carried out more suicide bombings than Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Al Qaeda combined. Other differences include the use of women and children in their activities and the threat of using weapons of mass destruction including biological, chemical, nuclear or radiological.

Terrorism by no means is a phenomenon unique to Spain and compaired to other countries is less of a problem. However with its existence still evident a solution has to be achieved, and by looking at other countries that have contained their own problem possible lessons could be learnt. Please click on the following link to see a map of where terrorist incidents have occured in 2008: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terrorist_Incidents_2008.svg.

Is terrorism a useful tool in achieveing one's goals? It could be argued that because after the 2004 Madrid train bombings and Spain withdrew their troops from Iraq, Al Qaeda were successful in using terrorism as a tool to gain their objectives. If ETA persist with their campagin could they too be successful?

Violent Activities Commited by ETA

To date, ETA has since it carried out first killing in 1968 murdered over 800 people, the majority being the members of law enforcement including the Guardia Civil and Police. They however have killed many civilians and the vast majority of people wounded in attacks by ETA are also overwhelmingly civilians. For a more detailed breakdown of people killed by ETA please view the following link: http://www.mir.es/DGRIS/Terrorismo_de_ETA/ultimas_victimas/p12b-esp.htm. They have also targeted important politicians in order to destabilise and intimidate Spanish politics, with important figures such as Luis Carrero Blanco (Franco's successor), military governors, army generals and colonels and navy captains having all been killed by ETA.

The methods used by ETA in carrying out these assasinations are varied and include the use of hand held weapons such as pistols and automatic machine guns but also bombs and mortars. Although ETA claims to not target civilians, approximately 343 have been killed to date. When the bombs are car-bombs seeking to produce large damage and terror rather than deaths, they are generally announced by telephone calls made to newspapers speaking in the name of ETA to give an advanced warning. Kidnapping has also been used by ETA to exort money or as a tool to gain their demands. Those kidnapped are usually businessmen who have not paid the 'revolutionary tax'. Most are returned unharmed, but some have been either wounded or killed.

History of ETA

Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), a terrorist organisation in Spain has since its formation in 1959 been responsible for over 800 deaths, including the lives of the Guardia Civil, the local police, politicians and civilians. The main objective of the organisation is obtaining total self determination of the Basque Country in the north of Spain; indeed the name ETA translates to ‘Basque Homeland and Freedom’. They believe the Basque Country should be separated from Spain due to their cultural differences, most importantly the difference in language. They view the Spanish as an ‘occupying force’ suppressing Basque culture and identity. For a video telling the history of the Basque Country please view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCmVuIccESM.

Indeed this was true, as during Franco’s dictatorship the culture of the Basque people was extremely suppressed. They were forbidden from speaking and teaching their own language, the national flag, the Ikurriña, was banned in public as were nationalist holidays. This was due to the fact that parts of the Basque, notably Biscay and Guipuscoa, fought for the Republican government against Franco during the Civil War, and after they lost the ‘rebels’ were punished.

The first decade of ETA's existence was relatively peaceful as in its early years ETA's activity seems to have consisted mostly of theorizing and of protesting by destroying infrastructure and Spanish symbols and by hanging forbidden Basque flags, this however all ended in 1968 when a Guardia Civil was killed by ETA, which sparked a long campaign of violence and assasinations. For a brief factsheet of ETA please refer to the following link: http://www.iwar.org.uk/news-archive/2004/03-11-3.htm