1. Those of us who make up AuB (*) are people who have participated in different political experiences and fields of action in nationalist politics with left-wing values, and have organised ourselves into a new political movement in the light of the key times that we our living in the Basque Country. We want to turn our willingness into real and collective commitments to achieve a scenario of democracy, freedom and peace for our nation.

2. It is for this reason that, in the light of the violent reality in Euskal Herria, far from falling into word games that try to distort the meaning of words to the extent of changing them, we would like to offer positive ideas and messages.

3. The present existence of mulitlateral expressions of political violence, like armed attacks, arrests, torture, deaths, military occupation, elimination of fundamental rights, the closure of newspapers, the banning of political projects...creates a situation of suffering that is unbearable for Basque society.

4. In Euskal Herria we want and need peace. AuB firmly commits itself to searching for real and lasting solutions to this violent conflict. We are firmly in favour of the disappearance of all expressions of violence from the Basque political scene. Dialogue without exclusions is the path in that direction.

5. We confirm the existence of a conflict between the desire of the Basque social majority to set themselves up in a sovereign community from an economic, political and social point of view, and the persistence of the French and Spanish States in impeding this will. Overcoming this dispute ought to give rise to a new situation where all the rights gathered in the Universal Declaration of the U.N (Agreement on Civil and Political Rights) are fully respected in the whole of Euskal Herria. The route to the resolution of this conflict ought to be political dialogue and the grassroots, and it has to have a strictly democratic basis which involves the Right to Self-determination.

6. We are not going to lie to the people. We are not here to satisfy the particular interests of anybody who tries to use the dramatic consequences of the conflict for their own interests or to attack the ideas or political projects of others. Exhausted concepts will not bring us closer to a peaceful scenario. The persistence of the conflict is evidence of that.

7. With regard to the reality of political violence, we are convinced that the repression used by both States, and their different institutions, makes the situation worse and that, neither the inquisitorial use of certain concepts nor the contextualisation of ETA’s armed actions around the existence of the Basque political conflict, have demonstrated themselves to be sufficient for the effective resolution of the conflict.

8. The future of Euskal Herria belongs to the Basque people. This is the fundamental premise for the construction of a future of peace and democracy that is so desired. For that, we are all necessary. We do not accept the exclusion of anybody.

9. We propose the articulation of a peaceful, democratic, dynamic and plural political project that will lead us to an Euskal Herria where all rights are respected. We invite all bodies and agents present in Basque society to participate in this process (political parties, social and economic agents, trade unions, ETA…)

10. There is a solution. We will not feed the sense of desperation. The Basque conflict has a solution. Therefore, in AuB we commit ourselves to offering the precise initiatives that will lead towards the peaceful and democratic resolution of the conflict.

AuB (*)
Autodeterminaziorako Bilgunea
Euskal Herria, April 2003