Year after year these collectives are an active element of the
fiestas organising their own space with bar/stalls and music and
other activities (kids activities, puppets, etc).
This includes a total of about 30 political groups and campaigns
from Anarchists to Basque separatists, feminists environmentalists
through the whole spectrum of the Basque left.
One of those campaigns is the Nafarroako Ikastola Federakuntza,
the network of Basque speaking schools. This independent organisation
has seen how its main source of income (bar and stall) have been
both banned. For all these groups this is a great occasion for
making some money for their campaigns (all of them are independent,
small and don’t receive any gov funding) and at the same
time is a great opportunity to distribute their information, publication,
etc.
The Stalls Area, always located in the same place in the centre
of the city are always polemical, because obviously they represent
the alternative to power and institutions. Every year the council
ties in different way to prevent them from happening.
This year, the mayor of Iruña (Pamplona) has been determined
to ban the stalls. She sent the police in the midday to the stall
site to stop those ones setting them up and she sent them again
to charge against those ones demanding the right to have stalls
in the fiestas. The result was many injured people including two
elders (60 and 65). A photographer for two Basque papers (Gara
and Egunkaria) was severely beaten up too. The demonstration happened
outside the council house while the decision was taken place.
Masked men collude with the police on repression
On the day after (5-7-02), a ‘saucepan’ protest was
also organised this was also brutally attacked by the police and
by plain-cloth elements wearing balaclaber and handling chains
and pistols, like in the old times of Francoism.
As witnesses stated these masked men were ‘perfectly organised’.
They called a few people by the name and wore T-shirts of the
Basque left. These lot forced pubs to close threatened bar owners
too. According to the explanations given by the Civil Government,
this was a ‘military operation’ (!!!).
Iruña’s old town was under siege by the police who
had 21 vans in the area. Neighbours and activists fear that this
is a new level in the escalation of repression and state terrorism
in Iruña and Basque Country.
Prisoners support
However, this intimidation doesn’t achieve the goals, and
people still demonstrated in the Old town streets remembering
the Basque prisoners who won’t be at home for the fiestas.
The demonstration stopped where ETA’s member Mikel Castillo
was shot dead by Spanish policemen.
From there they went to the local prison to start the fiestas
in the alternative way and asking for the prisoners of that prison
and the others around the whole Spainish state to be released.
Animal
rights campaigners run naked to raise awareness about brutality
on bulls activities.
On the day before the Iruña (Pamplona) fiestas started
5th July, members of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
(PETA) run through the streets of Pamplona to raise awareness
about the annual running of the bulls. They followed the same
course as the bulls take during the nine-day San Fermin festival.
This race is one of the main elements of Iruña’s (Pamplona)
fiestas. However, the most cruel of all the activities is the
the ‘bull-fight’ that takes place afterwards with the
same bulls and that it should be considered a non-tradition of
these fiestas but an import from the Spain’s traditions.
Peta say the event is tourist-driven but most visitors don't
know about the cruelty inflicted on the bulls.
According to PETA bulls run in the race because they are “frightened
by the stampede” and they sustain bruises, cuts, and broken
bones. They also made allusion to the cruel killing of the bull
after the “encierro” where they sate that the bulls’
“eyes are smeared with petroleum jelly and their bodies are
weakened by laxatives”.
The running of the bulls tradition dates back to 1591 when the
purpose was to move the bulls to the slaughterhouse. In the 17th
century, a few spectators jumped in front of the bulls and ran
for the first time.
http://www.peta.org/feat/pamplona/racephotos.html
You can also check the "Peñas" page. "Las
Peñas" are one of the independent and more active
and representative elements of Sanfermin fiestas. As you can see
in their banners they also have a very critical view of the politics
in this city and its context (Basque Country, Spain, World) and
of the Basque conflict too.
We won’t be surprised if next year we have to inform that
they have been banned too.
http://www.websanfermin.com/web/pancartas.htm
See also the new Basque indymedia:
http://euskalherria.indymedia.org
And an interesting Sanfermin page too
http://www.sanfermin.com/
GORA SANFERMIN!!
