Basques Call for Boycott
Socialist Press1979 1979-08-29Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 2 →
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The guerrillas of the Polisario Front have claimed a major victory over the Moroccan army of occupation in the Western Sahara.
They report that 400 Moroccan troops were killed in a battle at the oasis of Bir Enzaran two weeks ago.
This clash was only one in the escalation of fighting that has developed since the Mauritanian military regime signed a peace treaty with the Polisario and the Moroccan forces moved in to take over their positions in the war.
In further blows to Morocco's 'revolutionary' King Hassan, the Mauritanian leaders reopened diplomatic relations with the Algerian government which backs the Polisario and condemned the latest Moroccan advances before tearing up their defence pact with Hassan.
The agreement on regional autonomy reached last month between the Suarez regime in Madrid and the bourgeois nationalists in Euskadi is crucial to the political stability of the whole of Spain.
Suarez was forced into concessions in order to try to help the Basque nationalist party maintain its dominant position in the face of the rapid growth of more radical nationalist forces associated with ETA (militar).
Not enough Last week there were new signs that the autonomy statute will not be enough to encourage the stabilisation which both Basque and Spanish capitalist politicians are so desperately seeking.
The political coalition which is close to ETA (militar)-Herri Batasuna (Popular Unity)-self confidently launched a campaign to boycott the forthcoming referendum in the Basque provinces on the proposed autonomy statute.
Herri Batasuna won 25% of the votes in the parliamentary and municipal elections earlier this year and has almost certainly gained support as well as political confidence since then.
It will have gained recruits from the groups supporting ETA (politicomilitar) after the catastrophe of its recent "holiday war" bombings which it was forced apologetically to abandon to a chorus of abuse from all sides.
ETA (militar)'s widely supported campaign of selective terrorism against the state apparatus, however, has continued unabated.
Last week it was spread to include bombings of French-owned enterprises in Bilbao, Barcelona, Saragossa and elsewhere.
Deportation
This is in protest against the stepping up by the Giscard-Barre regime in Paris of repression of Basques living in France, including the deportation to Spain of several Basques, some with only loose or historic connections with Basque nationalism.