argia.eus
INPRIMATU
The annual central event for political prisoners and exiles will be held in 216 localities
  • On the occasion of COVID-19, the Sare movement has called for 216 peoples from all over Euskal Herria to participate in the mobilization that is taking place in early January and in which it calls for the return home of Basque political prisoners and exiles.
ARGIA @argia 2020ko abenduaren 31
Sareko arduradunak urtarrilaren 9ko ekitaldirako deialdia egiten hedabideen aurrean. (Argazkia: Sare)

This year the Sare movement has organized a massive demonstration in favour of Basque political prisoners and exiles, without being able to carry out the mass demonstrations that took place in Bilbao and Baiona at the beginning of January. Instead, the initiative has been extended to 216 villages across the Basque Country.

For Saturday, January 9, Sare has proposed two events. At 11:30 a.m., the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao will host a political event involving representatives from the trade union, social and political fields. The leaders of the organization have pointed out to the media that "just as for Sare this desire to activate and change the street by the plural citizens, in the trade union sphere, by the agents, the consensus reached in the political and institutional sphere is of vital importance. We are all key to the solution’.

In the afternoon, mobilizations will be held in more than 216 locations: human chains, mosaics, demonstrations, musicated acts, etc. And participants from all peoples will at a particular time draw a ‘illuminated road’, a photograph with mobile lights.

The network leaders have highlighted two major demands for the mobilisations of 2021. On the one hand, the final elimination of the policy of separation: «[On the part of the authorities of Spain and France] Although some changes have already begun, no real choice has yet been made to end the policy of remoteness. Basque prisoners and prisoners have the right to be in the prisons of Euskal Herria, as required by law. Consequently, in January of this year, we are putting this cry back on the front lines, not forgetting the punitive effect it has on family members in general and on children and adults in particular’.

On the other hand, the mobilizations will also claim the degree of progression due to Basque prisoners under the laws and systematically denied by the prison authorities. Of the 107 inmates, 107 are still in the first grade, with all the cutbacks that this entails in their rights. After all, those responsible for the Network would like the new year 2021 to be the year of the change of the emergency penitentiary policy, and that is what will be called for in the mobilizations of each people: "It is an indispensable condition for further progress on the road to solution and on the road to coexistence. And to do so, we need to activate all of us and spread this clamour on the street."