The argument of a syllogism has three propositions, the last of which is necessarily deduced from the other two. It is with this deductive logic that I can analyze, for me, the long and traumatic socioecological conflict in Carpinteria that is taking place in Navarre.
The thesis is: In the small town of Lekaroz in Baztan (289 inhabitants in 2022) the company Palacio de Arosteguia SL (section of the multinational Hilton) wants to carry out an urban macroproject. 228 chalets, a hotel with 129 rooms and a golf course. For this, he obtained the reclassification of 45 hectares of agriculture and planned to start the works in 2021, during the pandemic. This project has been supported by UPN, PSN and Geroa Bai.
Antithesis: a large number of Baztandans have opposed the project. In the courts, in the City Council, in the Commonwealth and in the street. A couple of referendums (in Lekaroz in 2009 and in Baztan in 2016) have made clear the will and opinion of the local population. But when the works were about to begin in April 2021, the Aroztak group had to organize civil disobedience to stop the tree cutting and excavator works, along with hundreds of young people. And the works were suspended.
The joint response of Basque environmentalism and other popular movements is more necessary than ever. We have the carpentry as an example
Summary: when market freedom and state authority are disobeyed and rejected... repression and sanctions are the common medicine. And it is also common to separate some heads to pay for damages in an exemplary manner. The company demands compensation of 43 million euros and the Supreme Court of Navarre demands twenty years of imprisonment and a fine of 56,000 euros for the seven defendants.
Those of us who were in Pamplona this past February 1st received a strong message: “There are seven of us, we are one people.” And this human corpse of thousands of people on the street did not give a shadow of a doubt: a strong and direct response from a people, for the company and the administration. For a long time, anti-repressive collective responses have been common in the Basques to attacks against our activists. That makes us a living country.
We live in the harsh era of eco-social risi and the blows of the capitalist state and the market will not be calmed, while the list of anti-life projects is growing on its necropolitical agenda, the latest projects in the arms industry and nuclear energy (Cedarios report).
The joint response of Basque environmentalism and other popular movements is more necessary than ever. We have the carpentry as an example.