Repression and Criminalization of the Ecologist Movement in the Basque Country: The Case of the High Speed Train Project

Abstract

English Abstract: This article is based on a report prepared by the authors for the workshop “Whose natural resources? Criminalisation of social protest in a globalizing world”. (IISJL, Onati, 26-27 April 2012). It offers an analysis of the process of criminalization, which, in the authors’ opinion, the Basque Ecologist Movement (BEM) has suffered in its fight against the High Speed Train (HST). The text is structured in five sections. The initial section highlights the main characteristics of the BEM from its origins to the present, indicating the importance in its development of the Basque national question and political violence on one side, and a combined discourse that is at once local and global on the other. The second section provides data referring to the HST project, indicating its political and socio-economic impacts, while the third section is dedicated to clarifying the main identity features and lines of action of the anti-HST movement. The fourth section shows both the repertory of collective action of the opponents of the HST and the policies of repression and criminalization exercised against them. The fifth and final section is situated in today’s new political cycle, which follows the end of ETA’s armed activity and sets out possible future scenarios. Rather than an academic article consisting of intellectual reflection, this article is intended as a political testimony of the long struggle of this social movement, involving 20 years of ecologist activism, a struggle that continues today, since the infrastructure project is still in force, although the conflict is little known at the international level. Spanish Abstract: Este articulo se basa en un informe elaborado por los autores para el taller “Whose natural resources? Criminalisation of social protest in a globalizing world” celebrado en el IISJL de Onati el 26 y 27 de abril de 2012. Se ofrece un analisis del proceso de criminalizacion, que, en opinion de los autores, el Movimiento Ecologista Vasco ha sufrido en su lucha contra el Tren de Alta Velocidad (TAV). El texto se estructura en cinco partes. En la primera se destacan las principales caracteristicas del Movimiento Ecologista Vasco, desde sus origenes hasta la actualidad, subrayando la importancia en su desarrollo de la cuestion nacional vasca y la violencia politica por un lado, y por otro, un discurso combinado local y global a la vez. En el segundo punto se ofrecen datos referentes al proyecto del TAV, indicando sus impactos politicos y socio-economicos, mientras que la tercera parte esta dedicada a esclarecer los rasgos de identidad y lineas de accion principales del movimiento anti-TAV. En el cuarto punto se muestran tanto el repertorio de la accion colectiva de los opositores del TAV como las politicas de represion y criminalizacion ejercida contra ellos. La quinta y ultima parte se situa en el actual nuevo ciclo politico, que sigue al final de la actividad armada de ETA y establece posibles escenarios futuros. En lugar de un articulo academico que consiste en la reflexion intelectual, este articulo pretende ser un testimonio politico de la larga lucha de este movimiento social, incluyendo 20 anos de activismo ecologista, una lucha que continua en la actualidad, ya que el proyecto de infraestructura se encuentra aun en vigor, aunque el conflicto sea poco conocido a nivel internacional.

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