Abstract
This article explores the appropriation of anticolonial language by the Basque radical newsletter and organization Jagi-Jagi (Arise-Arise). Although Jagi-Jagi initially emerged under the doctrine of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) in 1932, the newsletter and organization offered a more radical form of nationalism than the official party, which during the Second Spanish Republic sought the approval of a Basque Statue of Autonomy. One of the most visible features of Jagi-Jagi's radicalism was its anticolonialism, a facet that scholars have previously failed to explore. Jagi-Jagi constantly equated the situation of the Basque Country to that of other colonies and condemned both internal and international colonialism. This article explores both the national and international dimensions of Jagi-Jagi's anticolonialism and considers the motives behind such anticolonial claims. It also analyses the set of complex and often-contradictory ideas that existed within Jagi-Jagi's discourses on race and claims that they responded to the different uses of Basque anticolonialism. The case study of Jagi-Jagi and its racial discourse serve to elucidate the complexities of western anticolonialism.
The Second Spanish Republic (1931–6) opened a new world of possibilities for Spain's peripheral nationalist movements. A few hours after the Spanish Republic had been proclaimed, Catalan nationalist leader Francesc Macià announced the creation of a Catalan Republic and after months of negotiations, Catalonia was granted its first Statute of Autonomy in 1932. The same day the Spanish Republic was declared, the council of the Biscayan town of Getxo, presided over by the young Basque nationalist leader José Antonio Aguirre, imitated Macià and proclaimed the ‘Basque Republic linked in federation with the Spanish Republic’. 1 Achieving autonomy, however, was not as smooth for the Basques as the Catalan example and took until October 1936. Although the Basque city of Eibar was the first to proclaim the Republic in Spain, the strong Catholic and conservative ideas of the Partido Nacionalista Vasco (Basque Nationalist Party: henceforth PNV) initially clashed with the new secular and progressive Republican regime. Furthermore, not all sectors of Basque nationalism agreed with the pro-autonomy programme of the PNV. Instead, the Basque radical newsletter and organization Jagi-Jagi (Arise-Arise) believed that collaboration with the ‘enemy’ was not feasible and that independence was the only way to go forward. Jagi-Jagi reinforced this belief by drawing parallels between the situation of the Basque Country (or Euskadi) and other colonized nations, positing that Euskadi was in fact a colony within Spain.
Various scholars have studied Jagi-Jagi's ideology and its long-term influence within the Basque liberation movement. 2 Nevertheless, scholars have failed to acknowledge and analyse Jagi-Jagi's explicit anticolonial ideas, which were an essential part of its ideological core. For instance, Eduardo Renobales – whose monograph Jagi-Jagi: Historia del independenistmo radical is one of the few academic studies that analyse Jagi-Jagi in depth – has argued that Jagi-Jagi's doctrine can be summarized as follows: strong independentism, opposition to any kind of agreement with the Spanish state, and anti-fascist and anti-capitalist traits. 3 Although Renobales’ summary is a good representation of Jagi-Jagi's radicalism, the blatant and aggressive anticolonial language of the newsletter should be added to this list. Anticolonialism is one of the most important aspects of Jagi-Jagi's radical thought. Jagi-Jagi proclaimed itself an anti-imperial newsletter that advocated the freedom of the oppressed nations and positioned the Basque Country as part of a global anticolonial struggle. 4
This article examines in detail Jagi-Jagi's appropriation of anticolonial language. By exploring both the national and international dimensions of Jagi-Jagi's anticolonialism, the article considers the motives behind such anticolonial claims and argues that they responded to two main objectives. On the one hand, Jagi-Jagi painted Euskadi as a colony within Spain suffering multi-faceted economic, cultural and political domination. This was used to reject the PNV's pro-autonomy strategy and to present Basque independence as the next logical and necessary step. The belief that Euskadi was a colony and that collaboration with Spain was unfeasible, also prompted Jagi-Jagi to consider different extra-parliamentary strategies used in colonial settings to achieve independence. On the other hand, Jagi-Jagi also used its anticolonial discourse to internationalize and to make visible the Basque cause. In a period in which Jagi-Jagi was unable to establish significant international connections and direct links with other nations, the newsletter proclaimed its solidarity with colonized nations and decried global colonialism. In sum, Jagi-Jagi's anticolonialism had two clear aims in the service of the movement: to stress the need for independence and to internationalize the Basque cause. This suggests that despite Jagi-Jagi's constant anticolonial claims, the newsletter and organization were not necessarily driven by a genuine hatred for colonialism. Rather, we need to observe Jagi-Jagi's anticolonialism as a rhetorical strategy that was adapted to the needs of the movement.
As the article demonstrates, Jagi-Jagi's anticolonialism entailed two contradictory visions of race in the newsletter. When condemning Spain's rule and advocating independence, Jagi-Jagi used the classic racial arguments against the Spanish that had characterized Basque nationalism since its emergence. Contrarily, when decrying global colonialism, Jagi-Jagi directly attacked the structures of colonial rule, including racism. In other words, discourses of race responded to the two main objectives of Basque anticolonialism. By unpacking the set of complex and often-contradictory ideas that existed in the Basque anticolonial corpus through the case study of Jagi-Jagi, this article elucidates the complexities of western anticolonialism.
In November of 1930, after nine years of internal divisions, the PNV reunified in the Basque town of Bergara. The party had been divided into two different political organizations since 1921, when growing tensions between two opposing sectors of Basque nationalism (known as moderates and radicals) reached its peak. These two sectors had been accusing each other of misinterpreting the words of the founder of Basque nationalism, Sabino Arana, since he died in 1903 without having clarified what was the real goal of the movement: independence or autonomy. 5 As a result, two opposing groups were formed within the Basque nationalist movement: the radicals, who rejected any form of collaboration with the Spanish state to achieve Basque nationalist goals and defended the complete separation of Spain and Euskadi, and the moderates, who advocated for a more gradual path to self-determination and welcomed autonomy.
Although these sectors finally put their differences aside and merged together in the same party in 1930, the union was not to last as as the Republican period exacerbated the differences between Basque radicals and moderates. Indeed, with the arrival of the Republic, the PNV's main goal became the achievement of autonomy. 6 This time the opposition to the PNV's pro-autonomy programme came from a new radical group formed around the newsletter Jagi-Jagi, which during the first years of the Second Spanish Republic was part of the PNV. Although for the PNV achieving autonomy did not imply abandoning independence as a main objective but a first step towards national liberation, Jagi-Jagi believed that collaboration with Spain was unfeasible. Thus, between December 1933 and January 1934, a second division in the party took place when a group of radical dissidents left the PNV and Jagi-Jagi separated from the main party.
Jagi-Jagi published its first issue in September 1932, a year and a half after the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic. Although Jagi-Jagi had a strong and well-established competitor, the PNV's official newspaper Euzkadi, the radical newsletter had significant success during the Second Republic, becoming the most widely read Basque periodical by young nationalists during the pre-war period. 7 In fact, in its strongest periods, Jagi-Jagi was able to print more than 22,000 copies per issue. Whilst between September 1932 and January 1934 Jagi-Jagi published an issue every Saturday, from 1934 to 1936 it published fewer and fewer issues, mostly due to problems relating to printing access once the newsletter was separated from the PNV. On 18 July 1936, a day after the coup d’état that marked the start of the Spanish Civil War, Jagi-Jagi published its 110th issue, which would be its last.
Jagi-Jagi did not have an easy life and was the object of constant repression and censorship. On occasions, the Republic suspended the publication of nationalist periodicals and accused them of rebellion against the regime. In addition, many of Jagi-Jagi members were harshly fined or imprisoned due to direct violent confrontations between nationalists and republicans. 8 Indeed, the pronounced differences between the Basque nationalist movement (strongly Catholic, conservative and fearful of possible social revolution) and the Republic (which had imposed restrictions on religious practice such as the suspension of confessional education) caused considerable friction, tension and direct confrontation between the two in the early years. However, whilst the aim of achieving autonomy implied a process of moderation in the PNV's discourse and doctrine, Jagi-Jagi continued experiencing a process of radicalization during the Republican years. As result, the differences between the Republic and Jagi-Jagi became increasingly prominent.
Jagi-Jagi promoted a more extreme version of Basque nationalism than the official party. Unlike the PNV, Jagi-Jagi advocated the use of extra-parliamentary methods (from civil disobedience to political violence) to achieve independence. In fact, as Gaizka Fernández Soldevilla suggests, the mendigoxales, who were heavily involved in Jagi-Jagi, were armed, practised shooting and received military training. 9 As Jagi-Jagi claimed on many occasions, the mendigoxales, were ‘soldiers of the motherland’. 10 In its second issue, Jagi-Jagi stated:
Let me tell you this in secret, mendigoxale, you are not a sportsman. Listen properly: you are a soldier of the motherland…. Yes, you are a soldier … a soldier of a state that does not exist, but whose future existence depends largely on you. 11
Furthermore, whilst the PNV fought vigorously to achieve autonomy and participated in Spain's political life, Jagi-Jagi advocated complete independence of Euskadi, criticized the Republican government daily and rejected any collaboration with Spanish forces. 12 Jagi-Jagi defended its fervent separatism by constantly quoting the radical thought of Sabino Arana, who they considered as an unquestionable and almost messianic authority. The newsletter considered itself the real defender of Arana's ideology: as Jagi-Jagi claimed, ‘Sabino Arana y Goiri is a dead man who is still alive’. 13
One of the most important elements that Jagi-Jagi inherited from Arana was his anticolonialism, which he had already used to justify Basque self-determination. In the 1890s, whilst Spain was fighting for the control of its colonies overseas, Arana equated the situation of Euskadi to that of Cuba and the Philippines and gave a colonial reading to the Basque situation. He also presented the Spanish as a racially mixed and tainted race, inferior to the Basques, who were racially pure. In order to present independence from Spain as something necessary, Arana reversed the common distinction usually established by imperial powers to stress the differences between the colonizer (the West) and the colonized (the ‘other’): it was the colonizer (Spain) and not the colonized (the Basque) who was racially inferior, uncivilized and barbaric. As the following sections of the article demonstrate, during the Second Republic Jagi-Jagi inherited and adapted Arana's anticolonialism to the needs of Basque radicalism.
Jagi-Jagi interpreted the Basque problem in the same way as Sabino Arana; Euskadi had been a free and independent nation until the nineteenth century, when it was forcefully colonized. According to Jagi-Jagi, ‘Spanish monarchical imperialism’ – inherited by the Republic – had established a formal dominion in the Basque Country in the previous century and since then, Basques had been forcibly subjugated and enslaved. 14 As this section demonstrates, anticolonialism became a recurrent strategy to legitimize Jagi-Jagi's separatist and anti-collaborationist claims.
Jagi-Jagi devoted many articles to analysing and critiquing Euskadi's alleged colonial situation from every angle. The economic consequences of colonial rule were analysed from a profoundly anti-capitalist perspective. For Jagi-Jagi, capitalism was the most substantial consequence of colonialism. 15 In 1934, Basque radical nationalist Trifón Etxebarria (also known as Etarte), who was in charge of writing about Euskadi's social problem in Jagi-Jagi, summarized the anti-capitalist doctrine of Basque radicalism: ‘we hate capitalism, because similarly to imperialism, it enslaves nations – the latter enslaved men and the former enslaves workers’. 16 Another article claimed: ‘imperialism aims to have in its claws small nationalities, and its ally, capitalism, aspires to do the same with humble [in the sense of ‘lowly’] men’. 17 Basques were doubly exploited and oppressed by imperialism and capitalism. Therefore, it was necessary to eradicate these ‘ills’ from Euskadi. 18
Although Jagi-Jagi's claims sometimes resembled those made by Lenin in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917), its anti-capitalist conceptions did not emanate from socialism. In fact, although it is true that some radicals were deeply influenced by the ideas of Irish socialist James Connolly, Jagi-Jagi's anti-capitalism came from the social doctrine of the Church. 19 Therefore, such anti-capitalist claims did not translate into a rapprochement between the left and Basque radical nationalists. In fact, Basque radical nationalists believed that socialism had deep contradictions: Etarte, for instance, could not comprehend how socialism – which was allegedly an internationalist and anti-imperialist movement – denied rights to the oldest nation of Europe, Euskadi. 20
Colonial rule also had many cultural and social dimensions. According to Jagi-Jagi, a foreign power had invaded Euskadi and had imposed its ‘exotic’ laws and its imperialist traditions, with the intention of suppressing Basque identity, language and race. Jagi-Jagi believed that the Spanish tried to ‘kill the traditional soul of our race’ by imposing their educational system, which it considered ‘the most powerful weapon that Hispanic imperialism has had in Euskadi’. 21 Through their invasion, Spaniards had imposed their violent practices and their ‘militarist imperialism’, corrupting the peaceful nature of the Basques. 22 This imperialism had ‘taught [Basques] how to use weapons in order to usurp free nations’ and ‘had covered American and Moorish lands with young Basque blood, which Euskadi needed to cultivate a new life’. 23 As seen in these texts, Jagi-Jagi justified the Basque involvement in past colonial activities by blaming Spanish influence on Euskadi.
Jagi-Jagi also criticized the political consequences of imperial rule which, in its view, had led to the loss of Basque political sovereignty. ‘WE BASQUES ARE NOT SPANISH – Jagi-Jagi stated in capital letters – TO FORCE A FOREIGN NATION ON US IS TO EXERCISE AN IMPERIALIST ACT’. 24 Basque radicals gave this direct form of control an explicit name: colonialism. Jagi-Jagi criticized ‘the methods of colonization of Spaniards in Euskadi’ and wrote about the racial conflict between ‘an imperialist race which has not resigned itself to cease ruling … over a traditionally unconquerable race that does not wish to be ruled by anyone with colonial pretensions’. 25 Jagi-Jagi argued that the ‘violent domination’ that Basques experienced was justified by the excuse of ‘civilizing’ the Basques. 26 According to the newsletter, however, it was the colonizer and not the colonized who needed to be civilized. The newsletter justified this idea by stressing the barbaric customs of Spaniards, including bullfighting, alcoholism and their innate impulse to invade free nations, impose their culture and language and persecute indigenous peoples. 27
Basque nationalists were, however, optimistic about the end of colonial rule. Since Latin America was an important point of analogy to reinforce the idea of Euskadi as a colony, Jagi-Jagi thought that the independence of the Basque Country would also arrive soon. 28 For example, Jagi-Jagi noted referring to the past independence of Cuba and the future of the Basques: ‘history repeats itself’. 29 Another article published in the same issue stated: ‘Spain lost its American colonies because it cruelly persecuted [Latin] American nationalism. But Spanish governors have not learnt their lesson. Do they intend that within fifty years Spain is confined to the Castilian plain?’ 30 The solution to this situation was simple: to fight for ‘the recognition of our nation free of colonisers’. 31 ‘Nationalism’ – Jagi-Jagi stated – ‘fights against those who impose their colonising desires in this Basque land’. 32 The struggle for national liberation and for the end of colonial rule were two compatible and complementary struggles.
This anticolonial rhetoric which constantly condemned the colonial situation of Euskadi and stressed its consequences turned independence from the ‘metropole’ into something logical. Thus, the collaboration between colonizer and colonized (autonomy) seemed unbearable and the only plausible solution was independence. As Jagi-Jagi stated in capital letters: [WE] BASQUES ARE NOT SPANISH AND WE AIM TO RECOVER THE INDEPENDENCE THAT THE SPANISH MONARCHY TOOK AWAY FROM US AND THAT THE REPUBLIC DENIES US … THEREFORE, [WE] BASQUE NATIONALISTS ARE INDEPENDENTISTS AND SEPARATISTS.
33
Indeed, whilst the PNV saw great possibilities to achieve self-determination within the new political framework, Jagi-Jagi believed that the Republic would never grant independence to Euskadi since Spain was ‘the imperialist country par excellence’. 35 According to Basque radicals, the Republic had inherited the imperialist nature of monarchical and Catholic Spain, morphing into a type of ‘imperialist modernism’. 36 The fact that the situation of the Basques had not changed since the arrival of the Republic served as proof of this. Furthermore, the colonial operation that the Republican government conducted in Morocco in 1934 strengthened Jagi-Jagi's conviction regarding the imperialist nature of the new regime. During that year, the Republican government completed the occupation of the Moroccan territory of Ifni, attempting to finish a long colonial endeavour that began under the monarchical system of the Restoration in the nineteenth century and was continued by dictator Primo de Rivera. Jagi-Jagi did not take long to comment on the operation and use it for political gain. 37 As Jagi-Jagi claimed, ‘those who rule Spain are as imperialist and as much enemies of the freedom of nations as the ones who ruled before, as the recent occupation of Ifni demonstrates’. 38
For Jagi-Jagi Spain's imperialist essence was grounded in its blood and race, and was therefore unchangeable. As an article published in 1933 maintained, the racial characteristics of Spain had not changed despite its changing form of government: ‘the Spanish people are used to ruling with the sword throughout history and they will keep ruling that way, whether their government is a republic, a monarchy or a socialist regime’. 39 As another article stated, it was a characteristic of the Spanish race to ‘persecute other people and races’. 40 Therefore, it is hardly surprising that Jagi-Jagi refused to establish dialogue with the Republic. As one issue stated, ‘we don’t want to hear anything else about the Statute. We refuse to talk with the oppressor’. 41
Since collaboration with the Republic was not a possibility, sacrifice and martyrdom were unanimously praised as the way forward. Jagi-Jagi's belief that the oppression of Euskadi was akin to that of other colonies around the world, made Basque radicals consider anticolonial forms of resistance in the Basque Country. These included extra-parliamentary methods, both violent and non-violent, which were directly copied and adapted from the struggle of other nations.
On the one hand, civil disobedience methods such as those put in practice in former British territories such as Ireland and colonies such as India were regarded by Basque radicals with enthusiasm. As an article in Jagi-Jagi stated, an agreement with Madrid was not going to grant Basques their freedom.
42
Instead, Basques should walk ‘steadily towards the path that the Irish marked for us, where the mayor of Cork [Terence MacSwiney] with his sixty days of agony was admired globally; admiration which will hopefully become imitation’; Basques had to go ‘to where Gandhi is today … challenging powerful England’; Basques had to ‘walk, to imitate our Master Sabino, an example who must endure in our minds’.
43
The fact that Basque nationalists believed themselves to be involved in a struggle against colonialism, like India was and Ireland had been, facilitated these comparisons. As another article claimed, quoting Jagi-Jagi's ideologue Manuel De la Sota (who usually wrote under the pseudonym Txanka), there are two kinds of freedom: ‘one which can be achieved through a few votes and one which costs blood’. Those who are settled, who don’t want to suffer, should follow the first option; we [Basques] should be like Gandhi.
44
Furthermore, influenced directly by Gandhi, Jagi-Jagi activists developed a new civil disobedience method which was based on reversing the effects of repression by benefiting from them. For Basque nationalists prison was not something to fear but instead a positive experience. As Gandhi himself stressed and Jagi-Jagi restated: the imprisonment of innocent people under an unfair government must be considered a consequence as natural as getting ill when living in an unhealthy atmosphere. Government will stop imprisoning us when we stop fearing imprisonments.
47
Jagi-Jagi stated confidently that the biggest achievement of the PNV after the proclamation of the Republic was to defeat prison. 48
On the other hand, some of the nationalists writing in Jagi-Jagi went further and believed that sacrifice implied violence. When Ireland achieved independence following the Irish War of Independence, many Basque radical nationalists considered this an example to follow. As Jagi-Jagi stated in 1933, ‘all nationalism is revolutionary. Rare is the nation that has obtained its freedom without fighting, without the spilling of blood. We cannot be an exception’. 49 After Jagi-Jagi became an organization independent from the PNV, references to violence became even more substantial than before. An article published in 1934 by one of the most important ideologists of Jagi-Jagi, Trifón Etxebarria, seemed convinced of the advantages of the use of violence: ‘before dying, kill! We can help more the Homeland by killing our enemies than by letting us be killed by them … let's not be – we can’t be, anyway – the first to kill but the last to die’. 50
With their embrace of anticolonial forms of resistance (either civil resistance or violence), Jagi-Jagi had found a practical way to defend its non-collaborationist strategy. An article argued that right now political solutions did not solve any national question.
51
In 1934, De la Sota had stated that ‘real freedom cannot be achieved by talking with the oppressor, but by confronting him’.
52
In 1936, another article in Jagi-Jagi reiterated De la Sota's point: ‘Basque patriots: the oppressed nations that have freedom have never achieved this by negotiating with the enemy, but by fighting incessantly against him’.
53
Following this line, an extremely aggressive article published in one of the last issues of Jagi-Jagi, declared the end of peace with Spain: it is time! … our patience has been abused and once more events of history need to be repeated … our patience is exhausted, our spirit has awakened, disenchanted by fake promises, revived in our souls, the souls of our grandparents. WE DO NOT ACCEPT PEACE! [capitals in the original]
54
Jagi-Jagi was not immune to the period of internationalization and anticolonial upheaval which characterized the decade in which it operated. In the 1930s, anticolonial organizations such as the League Against Imperialism (henceforth LAI) continued operating and holding congresses in major European cities. 56 In the meantime, anticolonial forms of resistance such as those that emerged in India or Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia), became leading examples in fighting colonial rule. In India, nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi developed new forms of anticolonial resistance and defied British rule with the so-called Salt March in 1930.
This period of general anticolonial upheaval and international solidarity convinced Jagi-Jagi not only that collaboration with the ‘enemy’ would not go anywhere but that the only way to defeat colonialism was through the union of oppressed nations. Jagi-Jagi altered the internationalist motto of ‘workers of the world, unite!’ to ‘enslaved countries of the world, unite!’.
57
According to Jagi-Jagi, both non-western and western movements had to unite in a transcontinental struggle against imperialism: ‘this ray of justice … will cast a threatening glow across the sinister skies of the globe … uniting every man from East to West, a rainbow of harmony between redeemed countries’.
58
Similarly to the LAI, the union of the oppressed countries transcended any difference of race, religion or culture. As Gallastegi wrote in 1933 when talking about the previous contacts and alliances forged between Basques, Catalans and Galicians in the last decade, it is enough if they [Catalans and Galicians] call themselves nationalists, if they recognise themselves as sons of a slave nation, if they manifest their desire for freedom. And we feel the same or more sympathy and attachment when we talk about the Irish or Macedonian movement; Syrian or Nicaraguan, Egyptian or Philippine, African or Hindu, regardless of the differences in lifestyle, religion or other pillars of our movements.
59
The most remarkable example of Basque radical transnational solidarity is that of Abyssinia. Between 1935 and 1936, Jagi-Jagi united its voice with those who condemned the unprecedented occupation of Abyssinia. This had begun in October 1935 when Benito Mussolini invaded the free nation of Abyssinia without any previous declaration of war. Mussolini justified this occupation by claiming that this would guarantee the security of eastern Africa and would provide land for the growing Italian population. The occupation of Abyssinia confirmed both the LAI and Basque radicals’ suspicions about the lack of interest that the LN had in protecting extra-European nations from colonial rule. Indeed, although Abyssinia was a member of the LN, this had not been enough to stop Mussolini's invasion. As José María Tápiz suggests, this dispute tested the LN's capacity for action and diminished its authority. 63 Consequently, Jagi-Jagi seized this opportunity to strengthen its anticolonial and anti-LN claims.
Jagi-Jagi was neither the only nor the first organization to protest against the occupation of Abyssinia. The invasion of one of the only territories in Africa that had remained free from colonial rule saw a moment of convergence in which many anticolonial nationalist voices around the world emerged and united against the occupation. Black people across the Americas including the United States, parts of the Caribbean and Uruguay protested forcefully against the war. 64 Europe also saw the formation of different alliances and anticolonial organizations. For instance, prior to the invasion, the threat of the occupation prompted an alliance between Black radicals, left-wing French intellectuals and Italian anti-fascists in Paris. This led to the formation of the International Committee for the Defence of the Ethiopian People in 1935, which sent petitions against the invasion to the LN and united about 250 political groups from around the globe. 65
The Black community in London also raised its voice against the occupation by establishing ties with their Parisian counterparts through Pan-African leader George Padmore and forming organizations such as the International African Friends of Ethiopia (IAFE), founded in 1935. As Minkah Makalani points out, ‘London-based black radicals agreed on the importance of Ethiopia to their liberation and the future of the British empire’. 66 Other British subjects felt similarly, as proved by Jawaharlal Nehru's ties to London-based Pan-African leaders such as Padmore and by his energetic anticolonial claims against both Italy and the LN. For Nehru Abyssinia became the main focus of his anti-imperial campaign. He united both the Indian and the Abyssinian struggle by claiming that both of them shared a ‘common bond’ as ‘victims of imperialist greed and exploitation’. 67 Jagi-Jagi developed a very similar rhetoric.
This considerable confluence of anticolonial thinkers and groups against the occupation of Abyssinia should not go unremarked. As Michael Goebel has pointed out, ‘the convergence around singular moments [in this case, the invasion of Abyssinia] entrenched the perception that anticolonialism in any one place was part of a more global struggle against imperialism, which also affected other regions and countries’. 68 This was the perfect opportunity for Euskadi to be integrated in this anticolonial global struggle.
Jagi-Jagi did not take long to join the transcontinental anticolonial campaign that followed the occupation of Abyssinia. The PNV and its newsletter Euzkadi also added themselves to the voices that condemned the war and defended the Abyssinian's right to independence. Both Euzkadi and Jagi-Jagi used the Abyssinian example strategically to defend their own principles and goals. Through the colonial analogy of Euskadi and Abyssinia, the PNV and Euzkadi used the occupation to promote Basque autonomy claims: if the Abyssinians could regain control of their own destiny, so too could the Basques who were fighting for the approval of their Statue of Autonomy. 69 In contrast, Jagi-Jagi used the war to endorse the independence of Euskadi. Ultimately, both branches of Basque nationalism had shared a similar goal through multiple generations: to internationalize the Basque cause. However, for Jagi-Jagi this was another opportunity to stress the evil and selfish character of both imperial powers and imperial organizations such as the LN and to underscore the rationale behind its anti-collaborationist posture.
Jagi-Jagi began to publish about Abyssinia as soon as it was able to publish again, having been unable to print any issues between September 1934 and November 1935. On the first page of the first issue published after this hiatus, Jagi-Jagi informed readers of the re-emergence of the newsletter. This was followed by a brief but clear line on the Abyssinian struggle: ‘Abyssinia fights bravely for its independence. Let's admire this nation and let's follow the example of its great heroism’. 70 From that moment until the last issue of Jagi-Jagi on 18 July 1936, the newsletter wrote about Abyssinia in most of its issues and supported the Abyssinians in their struggle ‘against this new barbaric act’. 71
Jagi-Jagi also used this opportunity to denounce the colonial nature of western powers such as France and Britain that had remained ‘passive’ in this situation. They were labelled as opportunist, selfish and imperialist nations that did not stop the invasion because they were more concerned with their own interests. 72 An article in Jagi-Jagi argued that the situation of all the oppressed nations of the world would improve considerably if Britain was defenceless [lit. naked]. 73 The passive and imperialistic attitude of the LN, which had already been the object of critique by Basque radicals during the 1920s, was also criticized. 74
Jagi-Jagi also used the occupation of Abyssinia as a point of comparison for the oppression to which the Basques were subjected. The war in Abyssinia was seen as ‘a war of conquest … in which thousands and thousands of men are paying the price for their love for freedom, against the imperialism of one man’.
75
The situation of Abyssinia was described in the same way as that of Euskadi: like the Basques, Abyssinia nourished a heroic love for independence; Abyssinia had seen, like the Basques, how its land and home was invaded and robbed; Abyssinia was, like Euskadi, a victim of imperialism and therefore, both nations had legitimate right to defend themselves against usurpation. In addition, both nations suffered the economic and political consequences imperialism. As an announcement about a Jagi-Jagi rally read, ‘Abyssinia dies under Italian imperialism, whereas global capitalism applauds and waits to share the treasure of the poor Abyssinian’.
76
The fight against oppression united both nations: as if the sacred echoes of our ancestors, noble and generous warriors who spilt blood to defend the rights of our Euskadi, had been awakened in our very being, we have felt united in a close and fraternal embrace with these humble, beings of colour who, with a noble simplicity, defied cannons and bombs with [no more than] their naked chests.
77
As this article has demonstrated, anticolonialism was one of the main facets of Jagi-Jagi's ideological core. Jagi-Jagi used a strong anticolonial rhetoric to renounce to the possibility of any collaboration (autonomy) with the ‘enemy’ (Spain) and to establish transnational links of solidarity with other colonized nations. This led to two contradictory approaches to race within Jagi-Jagi: when talking about Spain, Jagi-Jagi stressed the racial inferiority and the inherently evil nature of their alleged colonizers. Conversely, when condemning global colonialism, Jagi-Jagi wrote explicitly anti-racist claims and denounced racial hierarchies. I argue that these two contradictory approaches to race within Jagi-Jagi respond to the different uses of Basque anticolonialism: racist claims against the Spanish were used to justify the needs of independence whilst anti-racist statements aimed to bring Basques and other colonized nations together and ultimately internationalize the Basque cause.
The extent to which Jagi-Jagi was racist or anti-racist has generated disagreement amongst scholars. Whilst some scholars such as Lorenzo Espinosa have argued that Jagi-Jagi's members did not use racial arguments against Spaniards and that racist accusations against Basque nationalism are clichés used by anti-nationalists, others like Fernández Soldevilla have argued that ‘race’ and hatred towards Spanish immigrants or maketos (a term to refer pejoratively to non-Basque immigrants) was still a crucial concept for Jagi-Jagi. 79 I argue that there is some truth in both interpretations.
The reason why Lorenzo Espinosa has argued that Jagi-Jagi did not use racist arguments against the Spanish is because some Basque radical ideologues started challenging several well-established dogmas within Basque nationalism, such as the racial hatred for maketos. For example, according to the previously mentioned Manuel De la Sota, Basque nationalism should defend itself from Spain, not Spaniards. 80 Jagi-Jagi gave space to De la Sota's arguments in its newsletter. From there, he advocated a form of nationalism which rejected a biological conception of race: ‘our nationalism has to be, above all, humanism’. 81 In another article he wrote: ‘one man can be superior to another – the same way that generally an Englishman is superior to the Spaniard – but this is due to the stage of culture which its race has reached, and not because of the qualities of the race’. 82 He concluded the article: ‘I would like to repeat endlessly those marvellous words by Mahatma Gandhi so they stay in the hearts of all Basque nationalists: “For me, patriotism and humanity are the same thing. I am a patriot, because I am a man and a human.”’ 83
De la Sota also argued that contrary to what happened a hundred years ago, when racial purity existed (because a Spanish invasion had not happened yet), the maketos should not be evicted from Euskadi but should rather be welcomed. 84 In fact, he believed that it was necessary to choose Spaniards who had embraced Basque culture ahead of Basques who had embraced ‘Spanishness’. For this reason, he even condemned the word maketo and argued that this was an ‘insulting and anti-Christian’ adjective that should no longer be used. 85
De la Sota was not alone and other articles supported the rejection of anti-maketismo (hatred of maketos). For instance, an article written by the son of a German man and a Basque woman which commented on the acceptance of non-Basque members of the PNV, downplayed the importance of ‘race’ in the movement and rejected anti-maketismo and Arana's belief that Basqueness and purity were determined by one's last name. 86 As the article posited, Irish nationalist leader Éamon De Valera had a Spanish last name but was undoubtably Irish. 87 The article continued: ‘to attempt to categorise the Basque nation according to its blood purity … is, in modern times, a truly ridiculous idea which would be the ruin and discrediting of our ideals’. 88 These articles evidence the beginning of a process that would eventually place culture and nationality over race and blood as categories for identifying a Basque person.
Fernández Soldevilla has acknowledged De la Sota's challenges to Arana's dogmas. 89 However, Fernández Soldevilla has downplayed De la Sota's arguments by stating that his arguments were minoritarian and that his view was harshly criticized by Jagi-Jagi. There is, as I say above, also logic to his argument. My close analysis of Jagi-Jagi reveals that race was still an essential element in the newsletter and that the word ‘race’ was used in every issue analysed. As a profoundly anti-Spanish article stated, ‘race is Euskadi: it is its principle and its basis’. 90
Following Arana's line of thought, Jagi-Jagi also consistently stressed the purity of the Basque race – which contrasted with the mixed or mestizo nature of the Spaniard – through both original articles (interestingly, some of them written by De la Sota himself) and fragments of Arana's most radical texts which were reproduced in the newsletter. 91 As a Jagi-Jagi article written in 1934 stated, ‘preserving racial purity is the preferred principle in those places in Euskadi where the foreign invasion has not managed to corrupt the vital essence’. 92 Another article reinforced this view when stating that Basque nationalism should make an effort to ‘resurrect the original soul of the race and clean it of the exoticism that deforms it’. 93
Therefore, I argue for a middle ground between Lorenzo Espinosa and Fernández Soldevilla's positions. Firstly, I agree with the latter that De la Sota's arguments were minoritarian. As in Arana's period, the struggle between Spaniards and Basques was read and interpreted by many nationalists as a struggle between two antagonistic races: one dominant (violent, savage and imperialist by nature) and one dominated (naturally peaceful, humane and tolerant). The intrinsic and innately imperialist nature of the Spanish race was used to stress the need for independence.
Secondly, more nuance is necessary when talking about race. None of the scholars mentioned recognize that Jagi-Jagi used different discourses of race depending on the context and intentions behind each article. When talking about Spain, the majoritarian posture in the article was still to underscore the intrinsically evil and imperialist characteristics of the Spanish race. This heavily racialized and aggressive language was used to stress the need for independence. In contrast, when talking about other extra-European nations, Jagi-Jagi directly condemned racial hierarchies and wrote explicitly anti-racist texts. As such, the newsletter was able to highlight the common cause of non-European anticolonial movements and Basque nationalism. Indeed, anticolonial nationalists were mainly people of colour who challenged the racist and paternalistic principles of imperialism. The LAI itself challenged the ‘civilizing’ rhetoric traditionally used by western countries to justify the colonization of non-western nations and questioned racial hierarchies. 94 Their fervent desire to be part of this global anticolonial insurrection and movement, prompted Jagi-Jagi to write anti-racist texts.
Different Basque radical writings exemplify this anti-racist posture when advocating the union of ‘oppressed’ peoples against imperialism. For instance, an article titled ‘Humanismo’ (Humanism) – which was originally published in a Basque radical newsletter edited by Gallastegi titled Patria Vasca (published in 1932) and was reproduced in Jagi-Jagi in 1934 – advocated the solidarity and brotherhood of different nations and regions across the world. ‘This way we become brothers’, the article claimed, ‘through this great and deep sense of humanism, with people of opposing beliefs, of dissimilar thought, of distant latitudes, skin of different colour…’. 95 Referencing a text written by Cuban martyr José Martí, My Race (1893) the text continued: ‘because for Basque nationalists, like Martí, man is more than white, more than mulatto, more than black…’. 96 After this, the article condemned racist attacks against people of colour in Bilbao, and claimed that the Basque Youth of Bilbao (Juventud Vasca de Bilbao) opened their doors to them as if they were their ‘brothers’. 97
Another Jagi-Jagi article directly condemned racial hierarchies when talking about imperial oppression and compared Arana to influential anticolonial leaders: like Bolivar and Rizal [perhaps they mistook Rizal for Martí] in America, like Pearse in Ireland, like Gandhi in India, Sabino [Arana] is one of those great fighters who will be able to free Humanity from the evil imperialism of the states, helping an era of Peace and Fraternity to emerge from the rotten ruins, making the men from free and equal nations equal and free themselves.
98
This article has explored Jagi-Jagi's anticolonial discourse and has demonstrated how it used an explicit anticolonial rhetoric both on a national and an international scale. In other words, Jagi-Jagi denounced not only the effects that Spanish colonialism had on its nation, but also decried the impact of global imperialism in different colonies across the world. Jagi-Jagi's anticolonialism had two important and well-defined aims. Firstly, Basque radicals insisted on the conception of Euskadi as a colony to defend the necessity of independence and reject any collaboration with the Spanish state. As an anti-imperial organization, collaboration with what was presented as an innately evil colonizing country seemed implausible. As result, Jagi-Jagi considered extra-parliamentary methods that were being applied in contemporary anticolonial struggles, namely civil disobedience and violence. Secondly, by condemning colonialism on a global level and establishing solidarity claims with other nations, Basque radicals attempted to internationalize their cause and to become part of the global anticolonial context. This strategy was necessary in a period in which direct contacts with other nationalist groups were scarce and Basque radicals were unable to create their own foreign policy.
As this article has demonstrated, these two well-defined aims or uses of anticolonialism entailed two contradictory views on race in the newsletter. Whilst when denouncing Euskadi's internal situation Jagi-Jagi adopted an explicitly racist position, when condemning global imperialism, the newsletter adopted a completely different stance. By exploring and unpacking the often-contradictory ideas that existed in the Basque anticolonial corpus, this article aims to provide a novel examination of the complexities of European anticolonialism. It also aims to inspire subsequent studies on the anticolonial ideas that similar western nationalist movements developed, including the Irish nationalist movement and the Catalan and the Galician movements.
