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THE ITOIZ RESERVOIR
IN THE BASQUE COUNTRY :
A LOCAL CONFLICT
BECOMING (INTER)NACIONAL?
ECPR-2001- Joint Sessions
Grenoble 6-11 April
“Environmental politics at local level”
IÑAKI BARCENA and PEDRO IBARRA
POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARMENT
BASQUE COUNTRY UNIVERSITY
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1) Introduction: The environment and its local and global
dimensions. A Basque case.
Globalisation is more than a merely economic phenomenon. Its tentacles
also spread out to the fields of culture, the environment or communications.
For decades we have known that the environmental imbalances provoked by
human activity or by natural phenomena (climate change and desertisation,
acid rains and deforestation, drinking water scarcity and toxic waste...) have no
respect for political frontiers, nor for interstate divisions. For many years there
have been international agreements and programs, organisations and
campaigns attempting to put a brake on ecological problems whose scope
reaches far beyond the limits of the local.
Every year on World Environment Day the mass media remind us about the
commitment we must make to save the planet from the ecological crisis. At the
start of June last year, for example, over 100 ministers and diplomats, brought
together by the UNO at Malmö in Sweden, reminded us that economic
globalisation is having seriously harmful effects on the environment. They
drew attention to the scarcity of fresh water, atmospheric pollution and
chemical pollution as the three most serious problems faced by the
international community (Euskaldunon Egunkaria, 4/6/2000. Environment
Special, page 5.)
As with economic dynamics, the global acquires meaning and its raison
d'etre when it takes control of, and manages the local, where it must establish
its bases or foundations (glocalisation). With regard to the environment, it must
be affirmed that the grave "global" environmental imbalances rest on local
"legs". Or as Robertson says "the local must be understood as an aspect of the
global"1.
Decades ago the ecologist movement brought into fashion the saying "think
globally, act locally", in their effort to remedy universal ills by combining
actions at the level of the workplace, facility or locality.
In its turn, the anti-developmentalist discourse of the ecologist movement
has been strengthened by a host of "NIMBY" campaigns (Not In My
Backyard), which attempt to put a halt to specific negative expressions of our
model of production and consumption. This has resulted in severe inequalities
in the sharing out of environmenatal damage (ecojustice) and also in public and
1 Robertson coined the term "glocalisation", a neologism formed from the words globalisation and localisation. See
ROBERTSON, R "Globalisation", M. Featherstone et al. (comp), Global Modernities. London, 1995. Quoted in
BECK, U. "Qué es la globalización", Paidos. Barcelona, 1997.
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private policies that seek locations where there is less popular response to their
projects for economic growth .
Normally, ecologist mobilisations have a local basis or origin and confront a
specific environmental aggression. Ecologist movements have arisen from the
stabilisation and, above all, through the spread of protests originally formulated
in the face of local conflicts. These local groups, which, as in the case of Itoiz,
are what Tilly calls "community-based environmental movements" (Tilly 194;
Cable & Cable 1995 and Kousis 1999) are networks of groups (residents,
women, church groups, cultural associations together with local ecologist
organisations) that react against an aggression on what they understand to be
their common living space. These are groups which, given the lack of rigidity
and heterogeneity of their original interests, are able to construct global
discourses and to make use of numerous and varied mobilisation resources.
The defence of the local is a movement of resistance by a community
against the invasion of, or aggression against, its territory by external
institutions or elites (Rootes, 1996; Smyth, 1998; Gould, Schainberg,
Weinberg, 1996).
And the local is what is culturally local (Preston, 1997). That is, the defence
of the local finds expression through the need of individuals to build for
themselves a space to their own measure, to feel themselves linked to a shared
territory, in which they are recognised. That need generates the construction
and corresponding sublimation of the space, and the experience of being
invaded from outside is lived as something directed against their interests,
which are defined as vital, directed against the life world (Lebenswelt) of these
individuals.
Localism represents a certain break with the orthodox environmentalist
discourse, where the collision of two counterpoised philosophies of Nature and
its relation with Society is expressed. In these local conflicts two different
ways of decision making are in confrontation. Confronting external imposition,
there is the "we" that decides on what is nearby, what is felt by the community
as its own. From this perspective, the defence of the local does not imply an
exclusively ecologist option. Really, what is considered to be under attack is
not Nature in the abstract, but a specific Nature, moulded, used and linked to a
concrete human community (Kamieniecki et al, 1995).
And for this reason there is an increase of collective actions that are
restricted to the area of influence of the local movements (local
demonstrations, use of local mass media, innovatory local actions...). It means
that in such mobilisations there is a prevalence of a culture and of an
environmental discourse that are obviously localist.
From the perspective of the political opportunity structure, this means that
what shapes and frames the process is the local political context, the specific
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form (formal process, networks of actors, political culture...) in which political
decisions are taken in a specific territory (McAdam eta alii,1996).
In our case, the Basque Country (Euskal Herria)2 underwent an intense
period of industrialisation in the 1960s and 1970s (steel industry, chemicals,
quarrying/cement, shipbuilding and heavy equipment...) which has left us with
a great ecological deficit, above all in the provinces of Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa.
The 1980s were years of unemployment, the dismantling of industries and
industrial reconversion.
At the end of that traumatic and pessimistic decade, the leading classes in
Basque politics and the Basque economy offered public opinion the choice of
taking the road of Maastricht and the European Union, of becoming first-class
citizens of Europe, or of continuing in a state of underdevelopment. In the
shadow of this rhetorical choice, a host of infrastructural and public works
projects emerged (the Bilbao Metro and the High Speed Trains, museums and
congress centres, new roads and motorways, reservoirs and canals, industrial
superports and recreational harbours, new thermic power stations and
regassification plants...). These projects, in the opinion of their opponents in
general and of the Basque Ecologist Movement in particular, mortgage the
short-term future of our country. What for the ruling elites is an advance in
terms of growth and integration into European and global competitiveness,
represents for many others a danger of local, national, social, environmental
and cultural dislocation. While for some this is a question of progress based on
the laws of the market, new technologies and representative democracy, for an
important sector of Basque society this means following a path towards
"unsustainability" and the negation of the possibility of finding solutions to
communitarian needs based on the criteria of participatory democracy3.
In Basque Society today there is a grave climate of political violence,
resulting from the failure to resolve an ethnic-national conflict, and it is for this
motive that we are generally known about at the international level. This
climate of violence overshadows a conflict-ridden social and environmental
situation (high levels of unemployment, above all amongst the youth,
marginalisation and social exclusion, an increase in racism, linguistic
disglossia, etc.). In its environmental facet, it has given rise to some twenty
"anti-developmentalist" campaigns, producing an image of our small green
country that is hardly a bucolic one.
2 The term Euskal Herria (the Basque Country, or the Basque People) refers to the inhabitants of three politico-
administrative areas. Nearly 2 million people in the three provinces of the Basque Autonomous Community (Bilbao,
Donostia/San Sebastian and Vitoria/Gasteiz), approximately half a million people in the Navarre Autonomous
Community (Iruña/Pamplona) and about 300,000 people in the French Basque Country (Baiona). 3 See BARCENA, Iñaki (co-ordinator) (2000) "Bilbo Nora Zoaz?" Is our model of city sustainable? Reflections for an
Environmental Atlas of Metropolitan Bilbao. Bakeaz, Bilbao.
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From the broad spectrum of environmental campaigns and disputes that
have taken place in Euskadi over recent years4, we have chosen the conflict
that, since 1985, has evolved around the construction of the Itoiz (Navarra)
reservoir, because so far as we understand it exemplarises the new forms of
organising, thinking and taking action adopted by Basque ecologism and
because it could help us to understand and better interpretate the relationship
between the "local" and the "global" in ecological terms.
It is the environmental conflict that has received most coverage in the
communications media, and has constituted an obligatory point of reference as
regards water policy in the Spanish State and relations between the
Administration and the ecologist movement.
As Rootes pointed out "the global, the national, the regional and the local
are increansingly, interpenetrate". Indeed, it is the meaning of globalisationthat
that there are ever fewer arena of contention whose parameters are purely
national, regional or local5. For us, the Itoiz dam's conflict is an interesting
campaign to analize the relationship between the local, the national and global
environmental dynamics.
Its origins and development, its dimensions -local, Basque national,
Spanish State and European- the agents who intervene in the process, plus the
relations of alliance and confrontation, the discourses and strategies that are
evolved, all make it a prime example for study, and in some way we believe
that it demonstrates the "state of the art" of present Basque ecologism and its
connections with the new European ecologism.
4 BARCENA,GUARROTXENA, TORRE& IBARRA. "The ecologist protest in the Basque Country (1988-1997)
From nationalism to localism". ECPR paper. Mannheim, 1999. 5 ROOTES, Ch. (ed) "Environmental Movements: Local, national and global" F.CASS, London, 1999. Pag. 299.
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40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997
Fig. 1. Environmental Protest in the Basque Country (TEA project)
ITOIZ
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As we have observed recently6, the tendency towards localism and NIMBY
type protest is common in the Basque and Spanish environmental movements.
But in the Itoiz reservoir's case, we are confronting the campaign that has
movilized the majority of the people, that have occupied the most of the space
and time in the media and given rise to the most the polemics in the news, and
that have brought together the most ecological organizations in their activities7.
In this sense Itoiz ceased being a problem of local scope and become the most
important, widely knonw and controversial environmental demand not only in
the Basque Country, but also in Spain, reaching the European Commission and
the European Ombudsman.
2) A SHORT STORY ON THE ITOIZ DAM PROJECT.
The roots of the conflict go back to the beginning of the 1980s when the
Central Spanish Administration and the Navarrese Autonomous Government
jointly decided to build a large-scale reservoir ( with 418 Hm3 of volumen and
456 Km2 surface, the biggest project in the EU nowadays) in the lower-south
Pyrenees area of Navarra, at a height of 135 mts. in the River Irati, a tributary
of the River Ebro.
In 1985 when the Ministry of Public Works and Town Planning
appouved the project a group of residents set up the Co-ordinator of Itoiz to
respond to the spanish and navarrese administration's plan Historically, the
Navarrese Autonomous Government have used three arguments to justify the
project. The first was that, through the construction of the controversial 8Navarra Canal , 57.000 new hectares of irrigated land would be created. Those
who were against were accused of being chained to prehistory and against
progress and modernisation. The second was that drinking water would be
supplied to the city of Pamplona (the capital of Navarra) and its surrounding
area. The third pointed out that the scheme would be used to provide 52 GW/h
of hydroelectric energy. These three arguments turned Itoiz into a project for
progress and development "both from and for Navarre". Although the Spanish
Government did not come out and specifically say so, in addition to supporting
the previous arguments, they considered it necessary to regulate the volume of
water in the damp North, via the reservoirs, in order to supply the industry,
population and fruit and vegetable agriculture of the Mediterranean with water.
6 See BARCENA , GUARROTXENA, TORRE &IBARRA (1999 and 2000) 7 Ibidem. 8 We use the word controversial since, despite certain political, economic and farming sectors in Navarra (Platform
for Water) expressing their support for it, this project -according to ecologist organisations and farming unions like
EHNE-COAG goes directly against the GATT agreement, the Common Agricultural Policy (PAC) and the Spanish
National Irrigation Plan itself, which encourage measures that tend to reduce agricultural surplus, the land-surface
under cultivation and farming jobs in Navarre and the Basque Country. Aunque el pantano de Itoiz ha sido financiado
al 100% por el gobierno de Madrid, el Canal de Navarra se propone financiar entre Madrid (60%) y Pamplona -
Iruiñea (40%).
LEIZARAN
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Fig-2- Map of localization-
For the Socialist Government in Madrid (between 1982 and 1994) and its
Ministry of Public Works and Town Planning, Itoiz was to be the first large-
scale reservoir to be brought into use from the National Hydrological Plan. The
draft bill envisaged more than two hundred reservoirs and now the Popular
Party is trying to pass it with the opposition of the mayority of the Ebro's river
bassin9.
In the Autonomous Community of Navarra the socialists in power took
on the project as if it was their own and were supported by all the
parliamentary groups except Herri Batasuna, the politically left-nationalist
coalition pertaining to the so called, Basque National Liberation Movement
(BNLM).
Since its origins in 1985, and with greater virulence since the start of the
works in 1993, this conflict has involved the affected local population and the
whole of the ecologist movement on one side, and, on the other, the Navarrese
and Central Administrations and the construction companies that make up the
UTE-Itoiz (Temporary Union of Companies), formed by Lain, Cubiertas and
MZOV and Sacyr.
9 Recently, last March 11th, near 400. 000 people from the Ebro's river bassin mostly demostrated in Madrid against
this National Hydrological Plan. See EL PAIS 12/03/2001
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For the oppositors to this dam organized in the Itoiz Coordinating group, the
first three lines of argument were false and only the latter point argued by the
Spanish governmet and concerning the Mediterranean angle, holds. It was
misleading to say that Navarrese agriculture needed that reservoir and a canal
to go with it when the European CAP goes in the opposite direction, there still
does not exist a State Irrigation Plan and the number of people devoted to
agriculture dropped from 22,000 in 1987 to 8,000 in 1996.
If the justification were that the water supply of the city of Iruña-
Pamplona, 25 kms. away from Itoiz, would be guaranteed, the project would be
over-sized since the quantity of dammed water could provide a population of 4
million, its industry included, with water. The entire population of Euskadi
does not reach 3 million and Navarra has around half a million inhabitants. The
hydroelectric argument is irrelevant to their case, because the Itoiz reservoir
would flood 4 small chutes that currently produce 34,6 GW/H10.
The ecologist line of argument was based on their own reports (Itoiz 93
and Itoiz 94) and those of other bodies such as the Institute for the
Conservation of Nature (Ministry of Agriculture in Madrid), the Higher
Council for Scientific Research (Ministry of Education and Science) and the
Spanish Ornithology Society. They held that the environmental and social
damage that would be caused -among other reasons because it would inundate
three enclaves designated as Natural Reserves and two Areas of Special
Protection for Wild Birds (ZEPAs)-, would be far greater than any hypothetical
agricultural benefits. And that a project of this kind could not be imposed by
decree and without social debate.
The autonomous Navarrese government and the central government of
Madrid have never recognised the Itoiz Coordinating Group as an interlocutor
and have refused any kind of contact, dialogue or concessions. This has led the
Group to accompany their propaganda work and social mobilisations with a
series of administrative and judicial processes, in Navarra, Madrid and
Brussels, in order to halt the building of the reservoir.
The European Commission detected the absence of dialogue between the
Administrations and the opposition, and forced the Ministry of Public Works,
Tourism and Environment to hold a single-issue seminar at the headquarters
ofthe Advisory Council for the Environment in October 1994.
In 1995 the European Commission decided to file the complaint
registered by the ecologists, which was based on the project's vulneration of the
Directive of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and that on Wild Birds.
However, it also recommended to the Spanish authorities that they carry out a
new more structural Study of Environmental Impact concerning the reservoir,
canal and areas of land under irrigation, and that they produce an up-dated
study of the water requirements of Navarra, with the aim of remodelling the
project.
10 BEAUMONT & BEAUMONT & ARROJO Y BERNAL. Pag. 113 onwards.
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In September 1995 the National High Court in Madrid issued a ruling that
declared the Itoiz reservoir null and void on the following grounds: because it
was in violation of environmental legislation, since there was no legal cover, in
the form of a specific law or hydrological plan to cover the project, and
because there was insufficent economic justification.
In January 1996 the Spanish National High Court issued an edict whereby
the work on the reservoir would be brought to a halt, once the sum of
24,000,000,000 ptas (144.000.000 ecus). be paid by the plaintiffs, the Itoiz
Coordinating Group. In March this amount was reduced to 13,000,000,000
ptas. (78.000.000 ecus) and they prohibited any flooding, deforestation or
movement of land above 506 metres, which would mean that no more than 10
Hm3, i.e. 2,5% of the initial project 418 Hm3, could be stored there.
The legal ruling in favour of the Itoiz Coordinator by the Spanish law courts
led the Navarrese Administration to opt for changing its own Foral Law of
Natural Spaces, which protected the lands that would be flooded by the
reservoir. The change to the Law made in the Navarrese Parliament in June
1996 was queried by the Spanish Audiencia Nacional that remitted the new law
to the Constitutional Tribunal.
On April 6th 1996, the group "Solidari@s con Itoiz" (Those in solidarity
with Itoiz), already well-known for over 15 earlier non-violent direct actions,
managed to cut the cables that supplied building material to the reservoir dam.
As a result of their action, work on the reservoir was held up for almost a year,
and led to an intense social and political debate.
On the initiative of the Navarrese government, and on the proposal of the
Spanish government, the Madrid parliament on May 29th
1997 declared that the
Itoiz reservoir and the Navarre canal were in the "general interest", in this way
providing legal cover for the works. Izquierda Unida and Eusko Alkartasuna
abstained, while the PNV voted in favour.
Next summer, at July 17 1997 to be precise, the Supreme Court of Spain
confirmed the previous judicial decisions whereby, in virtue of the need to
protect the environment, the dimensions of the reservoir is to be reduced
drastically from 418 Hm3 to just 9'7 Hm3. As a result of this decision the
Navarrese Government ought not only to halt the construction work under way,
but also to demolish a great part of what has already been built. It is time to
remember words spoken recently by the president of the Navarrese Governent
"I am not concerned, the sentences dictated by the Courts of Justice have never
worried me... These two great projects (Itoiz-Navarra Canal) are going to be
carried out regardless of what the attitude or sentence passed by the Supreme
Court might be"11 . In fact, in spite of the pressure exerted by the ecologists on
11 Quoted in BEAUMONT & BEAUMONT & ARROJO Y BERNAL. pag. 195. On the other hand, the Itoiz conflict
has not only revealed the inflexibility of the Navarrese political administrators( an inflexibility which leads them to ignore
court decisions when these do not fit in with their interests), but also something more serious. Several leading figures fron
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the Public Prosecution and the Courts, the construction work has still not come
to a halt and it is almost finished. But still without water.
For nine months starting in the autumn of 1999, the group "Solidari@s con
Itoiz" organised a "tournée" with the title "SOS Itoiz" to defend the Irati valley
and to seek solidarity for the 8 solidari@s sentenced for cutting the cables of
the reservoir works. They toured different European capital cities, towns and
institutions (the Millennium Wheel in London, The Hague Tribunal, the
Brandenburg Gate - Berlin, the Strasbourg Parliament...) denouncing the
irregularities of the project and also the support received by the Spanish
authorities from the European institutions.
In March 2000, the Spanish Constitutional Tribunal recognised the legality
of the change to the law of Natural Spaces of Navarre, in this way
strengthening the position of the Spanish and Navarrese governments. This led
the Itoiz Coordinator to appeal to the European Human Rights Court in
Strasbourg.
On the other hand, in recent years the argument employed by the Itoiz
Coordinator, the "Solidari@s con Itoiz" and Greenpeace has moved beyond the
question of the illegality of the works, concentrating on the "lack of safety" of
the reservoir due to geological factors. This argument is based on reports
prepared by university geology teachers, engineering consultancies and
companies, as well as the "hidden" reports made by both the construction
company and the Spanish Ministry of the Environment, which testify to the
problems of stability of the left bank of the reservoir. These problems would
increase if the reservoir were filled and because of this reason the European
Commission has reopened the Itoiz file12. After 16 years of environmental
conflict, the Itoiz issue is very much alive.
3) THE POLITICAL CONTEXT, THE ACTORS AND THE
ALLIANCES.
We will now review the different actors who have taken part in this long and
unresolved environmental dispute, in order to uncover the keys to
understanding their actions
Following the reference diagram of D. Rucht and F. Neidhart13 for the study
of social movements, and in order to review the positions and discourses of the
highly diverse actors that have entered into the dispute that concerns us, we
will situate the actors of the conflict in each part of the diagram and observe
their relationships of alliance and opposition.
the Navarrese Socialist Party have been imprisoned for their involvement in perverting justice, and receiving commissions
(16.000 million pesetas) from the companies building the reservoir. Thus the conflict over the reservoir, by leading to the
dismissal of certain corrupt politicians, has also served to regenerate the political system- even if only to a small extent. 12 See GARA and Euskaldunon Egunkaria 22/03/2001 13 Taken from - RUCHT, Dieter "Research on Social Movements. The state of the Art in West Europe and USA"
Campus verlag. Frankfurt. 1991.
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According to Rucht and Niedhart, the greater the level of differentiation
and autonomy that exists, or is achieved, between the different key groups of
the diagram, the greater the possibilities of success or influence of the social
movements (dependent variable) in the politico-administrative system.
Differentiation and autonomy here refer both to the relation between the
"key groups" and to the internal dynamic itself, that is, to the differentiation
between government and opposition and to the pluralism amongst parties and
amongst the mass media.
Fig-3- RUCHT, Dieter "Research on Social Movements. The state of the Art in West
Europe and USA."
On the contrary, as we have observed previously, what is outstanding in the
case of Itoiz is the bitterness with which positions are defended, the
polarisation between the two opposing and clearly defined sides, which have
scarcely varied their positions over 16 years, almost mimetically repeating the
ideological-political positions held by the different actors with respect to the
Basque national conflict in Navarre.
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1) THE ITOIZ CO-ORDINATOR.
The Itoiz Coordinating Group was founded in 1985 as a local group14 which
brings together residents, councillors and ecologists from the affected area (9
villages would be flooded, inundating the land of six more. They had no faith
in the ability to fight back of the local councils and from the beginnning
received collaboration from people opposed to other hydraulic projects in the
Pyrenees. From the very first moment, the Cordinating Group defined its
identity as being the defence of their land, of their community. Thus, in the
first issue of their information bulletin (May 1992) we can read: "We are
totally against the Itoiz Reservoir, which negates the life of our land".
The Itoiz Coordinating Group received political and economic support from
ecologist groups in Euskadi and the Spanish State (CODA, Aedenat and
Greenpeace...), as well as the solidarity and political defence afforded by
European and international ecologism (UICN, ANPED,...), but it took on the
burden of leadership in the dispute all alone against the Navarrese Government,
both on the streets and in the courts (BEAUMONT & BEAUMONT &
ARROJO & BERNAL 1997, pag 54).
When work on the reservoir started in May 1993 the Itoiz Coordinating
Group was backed up by a range of groups and social movements- the whole of
the BEM and part of the movement in the rest of the Spanish State, and with
the support of Herri Batasuna and extra-parliamentary groups such as Batzarre,
Izquierda Unida (today in the Navarrese Parliament) and the Carlist Party.
Against it stood the rest of the political spectrum in Navarra.
Within the Basque Country, Navarrese society shows some specific
features. Its administrative separation from the Basque Country is not
incidental, and its political contexts, although similar, differ in important
aspects. It has been the usual practice of the Coordinating Group to appeal to
European authorities for help in trying to stop the project, to receive outside
help for scientific studies and economic calculations in order to refute the
official figures, and to maintain relations with other environmental networks
outside the Basque Country, such as Greenpeace, COAGRET, CODA. These
activities which extend beyond the Basque ambit undoubtedly deviate, in part,
from more nationalist practices, centred within Basque territory, that we find in
the majority of the BEM.
There are two aspects which make this conflict different, and which in
particular give the appearance that the Itoiz Coordinating Group is an
established and institutionalised organisation through its practice and
experience. These are their insistence on following legal channels to solve the
conflict, which has so far been clearly to the favour of the ecologists, and the
second is their relationship with the Navarrese media who are much closer to
the official line of the administration than in the rest of Euskadi (Basque
Autonomous Communnity).
14 According to its spokesperson,Patxi Gorraiz, the Itoiz Coordinating Group is not an ecologist group, rather it is a
neighbourhood group exclusively devoted to opposing the reservoir. Its objective is: "To win the question of the
reservoir and nothing else. When we have won, we'll disappear". Quoted in - CASADO da ROCHA,A. & PEREZ,
J.A. ITOIZ. Del deber de la Desobediencia Civil al Ecosabotaje. Pamiela, Pamplona. 1996 Pag.136 idem.
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Nevertheless, the bursting onto the scene of "Solidarios/as con Itoiz" and
the type of actions they have taken constituted a salutary shock which has
generated a new kind of response to environmental problems, which is not
peculiar to Navarre and which tends to spread.
Conven
tional
Demons
trative
Confron
tational
Minor attack
on property
Violence Other N
Eguzki 46 104 9 1 0 34 194
Coordinad. Lurraldea 53 95 8 0 0 8 164
Coord. de Itoiz 19 49 3 0 0 13 84 HB 11 24 4 0 0 1 40
Coordinad. Aranguren 7 19 9 0 0 0 35
EKI 28 30 8 0 0 9 75
Solidari@s 2 7 6 0 1 13 29 UAB 3 8 3 0 0 11 25
Asamblea anti-TAV 2 6 2 0 0 4 14
Greenpeace 9 1 1 0 0 1 12
ERREKA 6 10 1 0 0 3 20
Total N of events 229 403 72 15 52 114 692
Table 1: Basque Environmetal Groups and their forms of protest
(Number of events. TEA Project)
2) SOLIDARI@S CON ITOIZ. This group set up in 1995 and decided "to move on to direct action and to
campaign against the irrationality and illegality of the projects, using pacifist
and public actions" (Txitxarra Kolektiboa, 1996). They justify these actions
pointing to the defenceless position in which they find themselves when faced
with political "fait accomplis", the prostitution of the principle of legality
(changes made to environmental legislation to try to legalise Itoiz after the
event) and the inability of the legal system to halt work on the reservoir.
If the Coordinating Group have concentrated their attention on information,
social mobilisation and legal battles, "Solidari@s con Itoiz" have chosen to
complement these methods of struggle with civil disobedience. The group is
made up of activists from other campaigns and social movements (anti-
militarists, squatters etc...) who criticise the way conservationist and ecological
groups "with offices and faxes" organise and act. They define themselves as
"radical at heart, open and transparent in their ways of operating". They try to
be effective through their frontal opposition to the reservoir.
The radical action, which shut down work for almost a year, has been
questioned and criticised even from within the anti-Itoiz movement.
For some this was because of the effect it had; because condemnations of
this type of actions from those in power and from the media manage to win
over the majority of people. For other, like Greenpeace, it was because of the
form of action. Greenpeace believes that this action constituted a serious
mistake. They were not prepared to be carried along by a dynamic like that
which occurred in the Leizaran motorway, when the intervention of ETA led
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the conflict from the terrain of the ecological to that of political violence. Their
methodological criticism reads as follows: "We do not flirt with any kind of
violence, not only that directed against people, but also against things, such as
machinery"15.
In any case, unlike Greepeace, most of the BEM supported and defended the
actions of "Solidarios/as con Itoiz". In the opinion of the majority of the
important organisations the convulsion generated by the ecosabotage was
positive in that it brought the debate onto the streets and it encouraged people
to carry out similar principled actions. They felt the action was necessary,
effective and clean. As spokespersons from "Solidarios/as con Itoiz) pointed
out: "We chose to shut down the building works with all the means and
methods that we had and knew. We prepared our action thoroughly so that it
would turn out as it did. Fast, effective, without putting the workers at risk,
spectacular and liberating for the valley and the land itself"16.
3) GOVERNMENTS, PARTIES AND PRESSURE GROUPS.
As we have said, of the parliamentary spectrum only the nationalist left in
Navarre (in the 1980s Herri Batasuna, and at the end of the 1990s the new
formation Euskal Herritarrok, which included Herri Batasuna and initially
Batzarre) and extra-parliamentary groups, such as Izquierda Unida (now in the
Navarrese Parliament), Batzarre or the Carlist Party, supported the ecologist
position.
In a political situation that is characterised by a multi-party situation and
government instability, it is curious to observe how parties like Eusko
Alkartasuna (EA, social democratic Basque nationalists) or Izquierda Unida
(IU-communist) vary their positions between support for the movement against
the reservoir, abstention or support for the project. This depends on whether
they are in opposition or form part of the government, if they have
parliamentary representation or are outside parliament, or if they are speaking
about the closure of the works because of "sabotage" by the "Solidari@s con
Itoiz".
In any case, what is characteristic of the Navarrese socio-political situation
with respect to Itoiz is that the different autonomous governments (PSN, CDN-
PSN-EA and UPN) have been equally hostile to negotiation or to reforming
their postulates. The socio-political polarisation is such that the government
itself has made use of its available allies (trade unions and companies) for
public confrontations and has organised public mobilisations against the
ecologist positions.
Thus UGT and UAGN have, together with the Confederation of Navarrese
Businessmen and the Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Navarre, been the 15 PASTOR,X. "La coherencia de Greenpeace" ARGITAGARBI, Number 8, Euskadi, Summer 1996. Pag. 8. Taken from
EGIN April 12th, 1996. 16 CAÑADA, M. "Había que hacer algo" ARGITAGARBI, No.8. EKI, Euskadi, Summer 1996, Pag. 9.
15
15
spokespersons for the "Platform for Water", the counter-movement
orchestrated by the Government of Navarre against ecologist and local pressure
and interests, giving credibility to the localist discourse of the government:
"The reservoir is of and for Navarre".
4) THE AGENTS OF CONTROL.
The rancour and polarisation that has come about in Navarre, giving rise to a
division that is almost exactly the same as the division of sensibilities over the
Basque-Navarrese national question, has meant that the specifically Navarrese
agents of control (law courts, institutes, administration...) have been almost
totally absent. The role they have played is irrelevant and it has been other state
or European instances that have taken part in the affair.
The public hostility between the actors in the conflict has made any
understanding impossible, even on the bases of possible third instance
solutions. The European Commission has played a greater role as a controlling
agent than as a promoter or financier of the work. In 1995 Brussels decided to
shelve the complaint lodged by the Coordinator in 1992, before the works had
commenced, which was based on its violation of the Directive on
Environmental Impact Assessment and the Directive on Birds.
Recently, in March 2001, the European Commission (DGXI) has reopened
the Itoiz file taking into account a new complaint motivated by geological
security reasons.
The Tribunals and Law Courts have been the basic support of the social
movement against the Administration. Nevertheless, we should not
underestimate the role played as agents of control by other bodies such as the
Environmental Prosecutor, different European institutions such as the DGXI or
the ombudsman, the Institute for the Conservation of Nature (ICONA) or the
Higher Centre of Scientific Research (CSIC) that, with their reports and
dictates, have called the Itoiz works into question because of the procedure
employed and the aims of the project.
5) THE MEDIA
The mass media play a central role in the relations between actors, but they
are neither neutral nor "objective". and, as we shall see, their versions answer
to ideological-national positions.
Their role is to provide the public with the information considered
opportune at each point in time, which is adapted to the business and political
interests of each news company. The mass media are public or private
corporations that make their appearance on the political scene with their
interests and power depending on their capacity to attract the public (D.
Edwards, 1998).
16
16
Within the Basque news spectrum, we have directed our study towards the
role played by the press, leaving aside for reasons of time and space the
important role played by the radio and the television.
As paradigmatic cases, we have studied the reflection in the press received
by the sentence of the Audiencia Nacional of 1995 that declared the reservoir
to be illegal, the sabotage action by the "Solidari@s con Itoiz" in 1996, and the
Sentence of the Superior Tribunal of 1997 that reduced the legal volume of
Itoiz from 483 to 9.7 Hm3.
When the sentence of the Audiencia Nacional was made public in October
1995, the press, as could be predicted, adopted very different editorial and
informative positions. At the two extremes we find EGIN ("The Itoiz Project,
Illegal"), whose editorial gave echo to the demands of the Itoiz Coordinator
and demanded that "the works be paralysed", and, on the contrary, the Diario
de Navarra, which emphasised that, in spite of the judicial blow received, the
government of Navarre and the Ministry of Public Works would appeal against
the judicial ruling and that the works would proceed. Also DEIA ("There are
arguments for paralysing Itoiz"), El Mundo and Egunkaria were critical of the
action of the Navarrese coalition government (PSN, CDN, EA). Other papers,
such as the Diario de Noticias, El País, ABC ("The Navarrese government
perplexed") or El Correo orientated their news content towards the position of
the Navarrese and Central Administrations and drew attention to the huge sum
of money invested in the work.
With respect to the action of cutting the cables, the majority of the media
(Diario de Navarra, Diario de Noticias, El Correo, El País, El Mundo, ABC,
with the exception of those media with a Basque nationalist orientation such as
EGIN, Egunkaria, DEIA and ETB) and the Navarrese, Basque and Spanish
political class considered this "violent sabotage" to be framed within the anti-
democratic and violent strategy of the Basque National Liberation Movement
(MLNV). For the minister of Public Works, Itoiz had ceased to be an
ecological problem, and was now a question of public order17.
This criminalisation, the result of what has come to be called the "Basque
syndrome"18, made the itoiz reservoir a "question of state", and turned it into a
confluence of interests and discourses between mass media and political
institutions. The activists were accused of being "disguised as ecologists"19, of
being violent, of having obscure terrorist intentions and of destroying the jobs
of two hundred workers20.
17 CAMINOS; J:M: (1999) “ Prensa y Conflictos Ambientales: El caso de Itoiz” INGURUAK, 24. Bilbao. September. 18 CASAD0 de ROCHA, A & PEREZ, J:A: "ITOIZ. Del deber de la Desobediencia Civil al Ecosabotaje." Pamiela.
Pamplona. 1996. Page 58. 19 Headline of "El País" 14/4/1996. 20 For example, the 200 workers, who lost their jobs during the months when the works were paralysed, accused the 8
imprisoned activists of being "ecoterrorists". They became a second counter-movement, after the "Platform for
Water", for mobilisation and anti-ethical discourse against the ecologist postulates. On the other hand, it is worth
recalling that the sacred character attributed to the jobs, the accusation of being violent and the generation of "ad hoc"
17
17
In spite of the campaign of political discredit and criminalisation of the
members of "Solidari@s con Itoiz", there has been no lack of those who
describe the ecosabotage by the "Solidari@s con Itoiz" as "non-violent civil
disobedience", since they voluntarily surrendered to the Civil Guard in the
presence of several sympathetic mass media. In nearly all the newspapers we
find opinions by persons and groups that justify the use of force as a defensive
measure to neutralise the possible armed response of a guard and against the
material damage of an “illegal” works project. In the opinion of these authors,
this should not be confused with indiscriminate, crude and clandestine violence
(EGIN).
In such a debate, with its unequal balance of means, the representatives of
the MEV, HB, Batzarre, sectors of Izquierda Unida and representatives of the
different Basque social movements came to the defence of the action by the
"Solidari@s con Itoiz" . They denounced the brutal response of the Civil
Guard and the guards from the Prtectsa security firm to the 8 persons who
carried out the action; after they had voluntrily given themselves up, they were
imprisoned. Their aim was to act meticulously at every moment in order to
avoid causing personal harm, in the presence of journalists and the mass media,
and with a video film faithfully recording the clean character of their action21.
The conflict in the mass media again broke out in October 1997 when the
Spanish Supreme Tribunal responded to the appeal lodged by the Spanish
government. The mass media sympathetic to the arguments of the Itoiz
Coordinator interpreted this as "A firm annulment of the project. Itoiz is saved"
(EGIN), while for those on the side of the Public Administration reported in
headlines "satisfaction of the Foral government and the Ministry of the
Environment" because their project had been legalised (Diario de Navarra and
ABC). Others, more distant from the two sides in conflict, spoke equally of the
legalisation of the project and of the impossibility of filling the reservoir above
2% of its capacity.
counter-movements are formulae that the radical ecologist movement has had to face in other parts of the planet.
(TAYLOR, 1996) 21 See - "Solidari@s con Itoiz": "Itoiz: Una lucha clara y limpia". HIKA, Nº67, Bilbao, mayo, 1996, pages 7-9.
18
18
Fig-4- Alliances and cleveages in the Itoiz reservoir conflict.
4) HIPOTHESIS AND INTERPRETATIONS. Normally we have found environmental mobilization proccesses in which
the pre-existent ecologist groups or some other type of organizations respond
to an environmental agression. In this case, by contrary, is the agression which
originates the creation of such environmental groupings or co-ordinators.
The leadership of this campaign is the Co-ordinator of Itoiz, created in
1985. Inside it we could find a set of people tieded to the territory that this
potential reservoir will cover. Obviously there are many other current green
organizations that suppport this mobilization but allways in a subsidiary
manner, till the creation of "Solidari@s con Itoiz".
This environmental conflict is therefore clearly localist, whith a Co-
ordinator or network of groups and personnes from this area, a local political
opportunity structure very determinant and a low-intensity ideological
discourse, connected mostly to the defense or "their" land.
Nevertheless and despite this localism, the Co-ordinator of Itoiz has
implemented a broad repertory of actions (demonstrations, courts appeals,
reclaims to the U.E. Commission, Ombusdman, Strassbourg Court of Human
Rights...) that has been hepfull to achieve solidarity from a diverse cluster of
Basque, Spanish and international organizations.
In the other hand this conflict has had the intervention of a very special
group, the so called "Solidari@s con Itoiz"-"Those in solidarity with Itoiz"-
that have performed several civil disobedience actions trying to get the
attention of the media at national and international level. Our aim is to find out
the reasons because this conflict is going beyond the local limits and how and
in which manner is becoming a national or international affaire, if to some
point we are allowed to say it so.
A) (INTER)NATIONALISATION HAS OCCURRED BECAUSE OF
THE TYPE OF POLITICAL OPPORTUNITY STRUCTURE IN
19
19
NAVARRE AND ITS READING OF THE BASQUE NATIONAL
CONFLICT
Our first hypothesis is related to the special political community of Navarre.
We thought that the main reason to overcome the local limits lies in the fact
that the type of its political culture, the type of actors we could find and the
social structures ( mass media, university community, Church and public
society in general) make conflicts like that of Itoiz manifest themselves in
peculiar ways, in our case going beyond Navarrese frontiers.
In light of the above we must point out that, within the Basque Country as a
whole, Navarrese society has certain specific features. Its administrative
separation from the Autonomous Community of Euskadi is no accident. The
political contexts of the two Autonomous Communities, although there are
similarities, also differ in important respects, in their social and territorial
structure, as well as in the political sphere. What is special about Navarre is
that the type of political culture produced by the mass media, the university
community, the Church and by society means that conflicts like Itoiz adopt a
peculiar form.
The different autonomous governments of Navarre (PSN, CDN, UPN) have
at no time recognised the Itoiz Coordinator as an interlocutor and have refused
any type of contact, dialogue or negotiation. This has led the Coordinator to
accompany its work of informing the public and social mobilisation with a
series of administrative and judicial processes in Navarre, Madrid and
Brussells, in order to prevent construction of the reservoir.
We thus find ourselves facing a political opportunity structure whose central
elements are as follows:
1) A formal institutional structure that is unwilling to open its doors to
social movements and that is expressly opposed to the position and arguments
of this specific social movement, whose promoters it regards as its principal
enemy and hich thus form the axis of its discourse and actions. Thus the
conflict-orientated mode of working of the system is highly conducive to
mutual confrontation.
2) A scarce institutional system of alliances in support of the movement,
which is limited to certain local institutions and to the Basque radical
nationalist left, to the so-called MLNV and its electoral expression Herri
Batasuna, although at the end of the 90's this framework widened somewhat
with the inclusion of Batzarre, first together with EH and now on its own in the
Navarrese parliament. The Basque nationalist left is an important ally, because
of its strength and capacity for social mobilisation, but it can also constitute an
element of distortion, if - as has happened on numerous occasions - the local
framework of the conflict is surpassed and the discussion becomes orientated
towards the Basque national conflict.
20
20
3) A highly closed Navarrese institutional "input" and a policy of pressure
making use of the fait accompli. This, due to the disparity of means and
because of the continuous application of institutional "steamrollering", has
meant that the option taken by the anti-reservoir movement has been to go
beyond the Navarrese framework in search of other parameters where allies
and social, political and institutional support for its demands can be found.
4) The channels of participation and the mechanisms for the inclusion of the
demands of civil society are non-existent, and where they do exist they are in
disuse.In the mid 90's, the Advisory Council on the Environment was created
in Navarre, which was to be severely criticised by the Navarrese
environmentalist organisations for its unbalanced composition, since it left the
ecologist viewpoint in a clear minority, and for its inefficiency and for a lack of
democracy in its workings. Its activity has been scarce and the Itoiz question
has never appeared on its agenda, lending weight to the argument that the
actions of the Administration aimed at environmental participation are more
linked to strategies of institutional self-legitimation than to a new direction that
accepts the necessary involvement of the environmental NGOs in decision
making and in the processes of environmental planning (Jímenez, 2000: 252).
Through its own strategic design and because the Itoiz Coordinator is a
legalised group, the anti-reservoir social movement in Itoiz has made profuse
use of judicial procedures as a form of contesting the Navarrese government's
positions of force. This is a mode of action that has not often been employed
amongst the majority of the groups of the Basque Ecologist Movement so far,
but due to the victories obtained by the Itoiz Coordinator in the law courts, it
represents a new testing ground for Basque ecologism.
The effort made to direct the conflict along the judicial channel, besides
representing a novel ecologist tactic in the Basque Country, has opened a
fissure in the closed context of the Navarrese institutions, taking the dynamic
of the conflict towards higher administrative frameworks.
Although it does not have the capacity to veto the activities of the
administration, by means of its legal actions the Itoiz Coordinator has managed
to remove the conflict from the local sphere and position the judicial apparatus
against the reservoir project.
B) MOVING BEYOND THE LOCAL TO WIN (INTER)NATIONAL
EFFICACY, RESOURCES AND ALLIES
While the use of judicial channels and the special treatment received in the
Navarrese mass media, both critical and pro-Administration, give this conflict a
differential character, these two aspects have given the Itoiz Coordinator an
image of being an ecologist organisation that is both stable and professional
due to its practice and experience.
As we have said above, this organisation has received support from the
MEV and important help from the radical nationalist left (HB-EH) in extending
21
21
and organising its mobilisations and campaigns, not only in Navarre but
throughout Basque national territory, in a first leap from the local to the Basque
national level.
Even so, what is special and novel in the Itoiz case is the ease with which
this conflict has been exported outside Navarre and the Basque Country, an
aspect that is new with regard to previous environmental conflicts. This type of
activity reaching beyond the Basque ambit, the external help received for
carrying out scientific studies, the economic estimations commissioned by the
Itoiz Coordinator to refute official figures, and its relations with other
environmental networks not situated in the Basque Country, such as
COAGRET, CODA or Greenpeace, mark a clear deviation from more
nationalist practice. The previous practice of the majority of the campaigns of
the BEM had been centred on Basque territory. The stratey of the Itoiz
Coordinator permits an interpretation of the conflict in a register different from
that of Lemoiz or the Leizaran motorway (Barcena, Ibarra & Zubiaga 1995:
36).
As a second leap, moving beyond the Basque ambit, the Itoiz Coordinator
has sought and found technical and academic support, the help of professionals
and experts in geology and engineering, economics and the biological or
juridical sciences, in order to refute the arguments of the Administration and to
give its own arguments a scientific-technical foundation.
To this end, the Itoiz Coordinator has made use of the reports and studies of
official institutes and bodies such as the Institute for the Conservation of
Nature (ICONA) or the Doñana Biological Station, as well as the help of
professors and professionals, working in a private capacity, for carrying out
different reports (Itoiz 93, Itoiz 94, Cost-Benefit Study of Itoiz-Navarre Canal,
Hydrological Accounts of Itoiz, Artistic-Historical Patrimony to be lost,
Reports on Safety....) which have backed both its mass media discourse and its
judicial actions. It is curious to observe that in almost no case has there been
collaboration in the preparation of these reports from professionals or
university staff of Basque-Navarrese society, perhaps the Coordinator has been
seeking the political "neutrality" of professionals from outside the Basque-
Navarrese ambit22.
Another novelty in collaboration and joint work has been the involvement of
Greenpeace in the Itoiz conflict. Greenpeace is the ecologist organisation with
most affiliates in the Basque Country (around 6,000) but it has no offices in
Basque territory. The specific campaigns that it has carried out in this territory
(against the import of toxic wastes, in defence of traditional fishing methods,
against the Bilbao incinerator....) have been developed in contact with local
groups. Itoiz, however, has been a special landmark in Greenpeace's
collaboration with a local social movement, providing it with international
coverage and sharing its strategy of action.
22 BARCENA, GUARROTXENA, TORRE &IBARRA (2000)
22
22
Perhaps this is why, when the "Solidari@s con Itoiz" cut the cables of the
reservoir works, Greenpeace did not hesitate to condemn the sabotage because
of the of violence23, which produced a strong argument amongst Basque
ecologist groups and a decline of several hundred in the number of
Greenpeace's affiliates.
Besides Greenpeace, other international ecologist organisations such as the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (UICN-June-1994) the
Alliance of Northern People for Development and the Environment (ANPED-
November- 1994) have taken public positions against the construction of the
reservoir.
Greenpeace also played a relevant role with respect to the Itoiz affair in the
Spanish Advisory Council on the Environment (CAMA) created in 1994. The
Itoiz reservoir has been analysed twice, firstly during a special session and
secondly by an "ad hoc" commission24. Consultative motions calling for its
paralisation were voted on on two occasions, which caused discontent amongst
environmentalist organisations when they were not implemented. Greenpeace
abandoned the CAMA in 1997 and one year later the other environmentalist
organisations (CODA, Aedenat, Consejo Ibérico...) did the same in order to
denounce its inefficiency and the interested use made of it by the Ministry of
the Environment.
In the Itoiz conflict, the Administration, those "challenged" to employ the
terminology of Kousis25, counter-attacked with the creation of a broad and
powerful "ad hoc" social counter-movement in the ambit of Navarre, the
Platform for Water26, which has carried out mobilisations in the streets, in
international forums and put pressure on the mass media in favour of the
construction of the reservoir and the Navarre canal. The Navarre executive, in
view of the series of unfavourable sentences received in the Madrid courts,
then decided to take recourse to an international expert in such disputes to
change public opinion.
Burson-Marsteller, a public relations and image advisory company, with a
broad environmental experience (Harrisburg, Exxon Valdez, Bohpal...) and of
support for dictatorial governments (Nigeria, South Korea, Argentina....) drew
up a report for the Navarre government. This basically recommended carrying
out publicity emphasising the defence of local interests, following the line of
23 See PASTOR, X. "La coherencia de Greenpeace" ARGITAGARBI, number 8, Euskadi, Summer 1996. Page 8.
Taken from EGIN April 12th
, 1996. 24See AGUILAR Susana " Is Spanish Environmental Policy becoming more participatory? in EDER & KOUSIS (Ed)
" Environmental Politics in Southern Europe" Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2000. pags. 269-273. 25 Kousis, Maria: " An exposition on environmental movement reserach worldwide: the cahllengers, the challenged
and "sustainable development". in AGiijswift, F.Buttel, P.Dickens, R.Dunlap, A.Mol and G.Spaagaren, Sociological
Theory and Environment Part II. Procedures of the Second Woundschoten Conference (RC 24-ISA) SISWO,
University of Amsterdam, amsterdam, pags. 85-97. 26 See interview with Juan Antonio Cabrero (UGT) Water's Platform speaker in EGIN. (20th October 1997- pag.14)
23
23
the Platform for Water, and continuing with the argument that the water of
Itoiz was "of for Navarre".
C) (INTER)NATIONALISATION DUE TO THE IDEOLOGICAL
DISCOURSE. AGAINST GLOBALISATION AND
DEVELOPMENTALISM
The final argument we wish to set forth concerns the leap from defence of
the local to an (inter)national dynamic and perspective, brought about for
ideological reasons.
Defence of the local, as in Itoiz, means a movement of resistance of a
community, not too large, to the attempts of invasion or aggression (or to be
precise, those acts perceived to be aggressive) to their territory by external
institutions or elites. The concept "outside" or "external" does not just refer to
authorities and elites which are objectively foreign. Rather it refers in
particular to those institutions and elites which arise within the territory itself,
but which are perceived by the movement as in practice alien to the real
interests of the land, of the communal space, linked to foreign strategies27.
Fig.5. From local to global in the Itoiz conflict.
Note that the important thing is not the type of aggression, or which
particular elements of the territory are affected, but rather the fact that the
27BARCENA& IBARRA (2000)"The Ecologist Movement in the Basque Country" in EDER & KOUSIS (Ed) "
Environmental Politics in Southern Europe" Kluwer, Dordrecht. pags.175-196
24
24
aggression comes from outside and the fact that territory which is experienced
as one's own is affected- in any way- by external agents.
In this respect the leap from the local to the Basque national would be a
communitarian leap, which would be relatively simple in the discourse of the
Coordinator and of "Solidari@s con Itoiz"
We can thus point to some data which lead us to believe that factors such as
Itoiz and direct confrontation with economic development plans which pose
dangers to natural and cultural values are common to Navarra and the rest of
the Basque Country. Since confrontation is a permanent feature of the relations
between political and economical elites and environmental organisations,
conditions for an increase in conflict persist.
Thus the conflict-ridden national context in the Basque Country reinforces,
at least in terms of argument, the option of the defence of one's own territory,
the physical space of the community..
However, we cannot say that Itoiz has become a problem with a national or
Basque-Navarrese scope, because the Coordinator has not employed that
discourse - it does not appeal to Basque society as such to support its
mobilisations - nor have the Solidari@s framed their repertory of actions and
campaigns employing a nationalist sentiment.
Moreover, the specific localisation of the conflict generates another type of
leap. Thus, in our case, the lower pressure exerted by Basque nationalism in
Navarrese space has made it possible for the movement to achieve greater
success when taking the conflict outside the territory and when making
common cause with, and drawing towards itself in terms of solidarity,
discourse and common work, other local anti-reservoir campaigns
(COAGRET), ecologist organisations of the Spanish state (CODA, now called
Ecologists in Action) or Greenpeace.
The basis of its discourse was to be the ilegal character of the works project,
its anti-democratic impossition and, later on, the lack of geological security.
In this way, Itoiz, while continuing to be a local conflict, has become a
rampart and the symbol par excellence of the ecologist struggle against the
National Hydraulic Plan. The paralysation of Itoiz will be considered a key
factor for putting a brake on hydraulic policies that are based on large-scale
infrastructure (reservoirs and canals), water privatisation and speculation, and
the transfer of water between river basins. Itoiz has thus become a spearhead
and an obligatory reference point for the strong movement of opposition to the
use of the water of the Ebro basin for the tourism and intensive agriculture of
the Mediterranean.
For their part, the "Solidari@s con Itoiz" , although they express themselves
as an "ad hoc" group with a single leitmotif of "stop Itoiz" employing the
course of non-violence and direct action, were to generate through their
exemplary actions a movement of publicity and anti-repressive support known
25
25
as "Solidari@s with the "Solidari@s con Itoiz" , which was to amplify and
disseminate information about the conflict. Normally, conflicts of a NIMBY
type do not give rise to an anti-development and anti-capitalist discourse, but in
this case it was to be this message that provided cohesion and resulted in Itoiz
becoming an axis for action and mobilisation in other places.
The echo of the action of cutting the cables and the defence of those arrested
were also to generate an international movement of support for Itoiz, with local
and international repercussions and demonstrations.
Unification of anti-developmentalist struggles and discourses is a common
aim of the new radical European ecologism and the "Solidari@s " were to
ensure that news of this conflict was received not only by ecologist activists,
who were to come to Navarre to protest, but also in the European mass media,
for example when Itoiz and Narmada28 joined their names on the Millennium
Wheel in London (26/10/1999, The Times, The Guardian and The Sun).
Recently29, Itoiz has become a place of denunciation and direct action for a
"Radical" international group (www.dossa.nav.to) that has inserted steel and
glass into thousands of trees to make it impossible to fell them and thus prevent
the flooding of these terrains. Their message is revealing, "This is not an act of
solidarity. We do not live in the Basque Country, but we feel that what is
happening is an aggression against ourselves".
CONCLUSIONS
At Itoiz, the scenario and the discourse are clearly localist. Or to be more
precise, we are facing an ecologist movement based on a local community.
Within the coordinator that leads the movement, a decisive role is played by
representatives of the residents of the valley threatened by the reservoir.
However, like the long shadows cast by the rising sun, the Itoiz conflict has
spread in an exemplary way to the Basque national context, to the Spanish state
and to the European Union.
In what way and for what reasons is a conflict whose format and culture are
originally local carried to higher levels? As a general hypothesis we can
suggest that this leap occurred because of the existence of an especially closed
political opportunity structure that forced a local social movement to subvert an
unfavourable balance of forces at the local level by means of alliance and
collaboration with external networks and resources. And by arming itself with
28 The macro-project for a dam in Narmada (India) has become an international conflict that has forced its promoter,
the World bank, to rectify and question its realisation. 29 See GARA and EGUNKARIA (22 and 23/2/2001, pages 21 and 24).
26
26
a discourse that attracts and makes possible alliances and work in common
with external associations, institutions and agents of control.
At Itoiz, the Navarrese political process has been, and is in a decisive way
the factor orientating the identity and strategy of the movement. Thus, for
example, a certain authoritarian political culture, characteristic of some
Navarrese political institutions, has forced the movement towards radicalism.
Besides, the special and tense relation of some sectors of Navarrese society
(and of its institutions) with respect to the Basque political context has meant
that the Coordinator has planned its mobilisations independently from the
organisations that follow a Basque nationalist discipline.
The way in which the Navarrese political process has tried to reinterpret the
Itoiz conflict as an episode of the Basque national conflict between Basque-
Navarrese and Spanish-Navarrese, has led the local social movement to
contemplate the search for support and resources that make it possible to
negate this logic that is so pernicious for local interests.
And this is how the appearance of factors and subjects external to the local
Navarrese space, called in by the Coordinator and the Solidari@s, have meant
the (inter)nationalisation of this environmental battle.
In these times of economic, environmental and cultural globalisation, certain
state and international authorities such as the European Union or the Spanish
government might attempt to prevent cases like the Itoiz reservoir from
surpassing their local dimension, but its special contextual configuration means
that the demands of this local environmentalist movement have found insistent
expression beyond its valleys. Adapting the discourse, searching for diversified
allies and changing the terrain of play where political decisions must be taken,
could be the keys to success. That was one of the lessons that the Earth Summit
of Rio de Janeiro in 1992: the environmental crisis demands "thinking and
acting locally and globally."
Larrabetzu, March of 2001
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INTERVIEWS
- Patxi Gorraiz, representative of the Itoiz Co-ordinator. May-1999. - Mabel Cañada, member of Solidari@s con Itoiz. December -1999 - Patxi Gorraiz ( II) representative of the Itoiz Co-ordinator. December-
1999. -Juantxu Lopez Uralde, representative Greenpeace, November-1999. - Alfredo Rueda, representative of Ekologistak Martxan.December-1999 - Alberto Frias, representative of Eguzki. (May-1999)
SURVEYS AND QUESTIONARIES
- Itoiz Co-ordinator - Greenpeace - Ekologistak Martxan- Navarre - Eguzki - Solidari@s con Itoiz. TEA proyect.The Transformation of Environmental Activism. To be consulted: www.ukc.ac.uk/sociology/TEA.html
LIST OF ACRONYMS
- BNLM-MNLV : Basque National Liberation Movement
- UTE : Temporary Union of Companies.
- CAP-PAC: Common Agricultural Policy
- EHNE- Basque Farmers Union
- COAG- Spanish Farmers Confederation
- ZEPA : Areas of Special Protection for Wild Birds
- EIA: Environmental Impact Assessment
- PNV: Basque Nationalist Party- Christiandemocratic
- EA- Eusko Alkartasuna- Basque Solidarity- Basque Socialdemocratic
- IU- Izquierda Unida-United Left (Former Comunist)
- CODA- Coordiantor for the Defense of Nature- Now “Ecologists in
Action”
- UICN-IUCN : International Union for the Conservation of Nature
- ANPED: Alliance of Northern People for Environment & Development
- BEM- Basque Environmental Movement.
- Batzarre- Navarrese Leftwing Organisation
- HB: Herri Batasuna-Popular Unity- Basque Nationalist Leftwing Party.
- E.H.: Euskal Herritarrok- New electoral coaliton of the nationalist left
(HB)
- PSN: Socialist Party of Navarre
- CDN: Democratic Center of Navarre. Center -Right
- UPN: Unity of Navarrese People- Right
- UGT: Socialist Union.
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- UAGN: Farmer’s Union of Navarre
- ICONA: Institute for the Conservation of Nature
- CSIC: Higher Centre of Scientific Research
- EGIN-GARA- Basque Left-Nationalist newspaper
- DEIA- Basque Nationalist newspaper
- ETB- Basque Public Television
- ABC: Spanish Rightwing newspaper.
- CAMA : Spanish Advisory Council on the Environment
- COAGRET: Coordinator of Campaigns against Hidrological Projects
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