[IMC-bristol] The censor strikes back against Basque radical music

[Euskalinfo (Basque info)]

The censor strikes back against 
Basque radical music

Two Basque bands SuTaGar and Sociedad Alcoholica and 
artist Fermin Muguruza have been victims of media 
campaigns as a result of charges against them by the 
Association of Victims of Terrorism in October 2003. For 
artists Fermin Muguruza, this is not the first time as he 
has had gigs cancelled due to the action of this 
organisation and had previous experiences with the censor 
for a song implying the chief of the Guadia Civil in 
Donostia (San Sebastian) with drug smuggling. For the 
other band, Sociedad Alcoholica, this is another 
experience to add to years of media campaigns and 
boycotts against them. For SuTaGar, this is the price any 
Basque band with and anti-Spanish message will pay at 
some point. Like in any other cases of repression, the 
authorities aim at damaging these artists but also to lay a 
precedent for those youngsters who would like to express 
themselves in the same way.

Basque radical music enjoyed the same freedoms offered by any 
other so-called ‘democracies’. Basque radical music especially 
developed in the eighties as a way of expression of the young 
generations against the dilatation of the conflict and the fake 
promises of the new system. Before this form of expression, 
Basque music was limited to traditional expressions and to 
singer-song-writers. These later ones experienced a harsh 
repression: their gigs were banned, clandestine and the 
possibilities of recording etc no until the end of the dictatorship.

The freedom provided to the new generations didn’t mean that 
the authorities didn’t try to impose their rule. However this never 
 reached the level of the current repression happening in the 
Basque Country. Artists such Fermin Muguruza, Sutagar and 
Sociedad Alcoholica to name but a few are suffering the 
consequences. The list will increase rapidly like a snowball, as 
once this censorship is applied, the freedoms of the so-called 
democracy will disappear, allowing the authorities to repress 
without limitations.

Fermin Muguruza is the current most prestigious rock artist in 
the Basque Country. He’s been playing since the mid eighties 
when he started with the band Kortatu and later with Negu 
Gorriak, both together with his brother In~igo. His courier has 
been very close to politics and has been candidate for the 
different names for the Basque separatist party. He was a 
candidate again for a platform with same ideology in the latest 
local elections. The fact that these groups were banned by the 
Spanish government  as a continuation of Batasuna worsened 
the criminalization against him. 

Last year 2002, taking advantage of the war against terrorism, 
the Spanish government managed to ban any organisation and 
company which they believed sides with ETA. Any of the 
party’s members qualified as ‘terrorists’ and though there are 
not charges against them, are treated as such by the International 
law: the proof is the ban to Fermin from entering the USA for 
any gigs (he has toured this country several times with Negu 
Gorriak and in his solo project). The materialization of this 
criminalization happened  this summer when he saw two of his 
gigs (Malaga and Murcia) banned after being labelled ‘terrorist’ 
because of his political activity. He was playing these two gigs as 
part of his joint project with Manu Chao, Jai Alai Katumbi 
Express and all of them were sold out. 

The banning of this gig was promoted by the Association of 
Victims of Terrorism, the same association who has pushed for 
the banning of these bands songs. In theory this organisation, as 
any other organisation in the country doesn’t have the power to 
order the banning – they only can take the artists or the songs to 
court. 

However, this is a very frequent phenomenon in the Spanish 
‘democracy’ where an organisation or journalists or the 
government makes a legal initiative which is followed by a press 
conference, media echo and the consequent criminalization of 
artists, writers, other associations, etc. In fact, this is what 
happens all over the world in any so-called democracies, with 
the gulf-war, the Afghanistan war, war against terrorism, etc or 
here in Britain where we have many cases. Perhaps the most 
obvious one could be the media and police campaign to ban the 
film Injustice, exposing cases of death in custody and the lack of 
justice in trials. To this campaigns, we have to add the 
government’s intervention, a national campaign against Basque 
nationalism and Basque culture and the reach by the media of 
the entire country where Basque views are not contrasted. 

We also have to add to this, as many personalities had brought it 
up in the last time, the use by the Spanish government of the 
media but specially of victims of terrorism and so-called ‘peace’ 
organisations to attack Basque nationalism, for their own benefit 
and to impose Spanish nationalism mainly in the Basque 
Country. This censorship has also to be understood in its current 
context where PP (Spanish conservative party, in the 
government  since 1996), has developed a tough repression 
system violating laws and freedom of expression. 

This policy has included the closure of three publications, a 
radio, the intervention of a Basque distribution company as well 
as the closure and banning of many social organizations. And as 
an illustrative example we can mention the latest attempt to ban 
another film, The Basque Ball – The Leather Against The Wall 
by Julio Medem from being showed at the Donostia (San 
Sebastian) Festival. The Spanish Government through the 
Spanish embassy tried to do the same for the projection of the 
film in the London Film Festival, withdrawing the funding that 
they provided on yearly basis for promotion of Spanish cinema. 
The problem with this film is that it promotes the dialogue for a 
conflict that the Spanish government continues to deny.

As Fermin told me, this new attack has meant the cancellation of 
many of his gigs in Spain. Fermin was the artist who managed to 
break the siege. He decided to sign entirely in Basque despite 
the profit that he could gather from signing in Spanish and as 
proved in his first phase as a musician/singer. This was decided 
as a commitment with his language and culture and to encourage 
people to use it and to get used to it. In this way he managed to 
sign in Basque everywhere in Spain but also all over the world 
where he has toured from Japan to the USA, Latin America and 
everywhere in Europe. As we said, the fact of being taken to 
court and being victim of a media campaign has meant that many 
of the venues where he has been playing for the last five years 
have told him that they can’t run that risk (same thing that 
cinemas said to the Injustice directors when the film was 
programmed in their venues or that Spanish cinemas may be 
saying to Medem). And this is without the trial being over and 
without any decision been made!

Even more: the song that the Association of Victims of Terrorism 
have taken Fermin to court is a song from 1985: ‘Sarri, Sarri’. 
This song, as Fermin himself and the solicitor Miguel Castell (2) 
expressed in a TV debate (in the regional Basque TV, of 
course) is one of the most popular songs by him, plaid by all the 
village music bands in any fiesta and discotheque. The song itself 
is a happy ska that Fermin wrote for one of the best Basque 
poets Joseba Sarrionandia. Sarrionandia was in Donostia’s 
prison as member of ETA when he managed to escape hiding 
inside the speaker of a band who had performed inside the 
prison. He has been out ever since, living in France where he 
continues his literature activities. The AVT however finds that 
the song is a pledge for a ETA prisoner and therefore for ETA 
and by being victims of ETA they find the song very offensive 
and hurting and therefore it needs to be banned and the victims 
compensated. Think what could happen in this situation to 
Christy Moore for signing to Bobby Sand, or to Joan Baez for 
signing to Sacco&Vanzetti or to Specials for signing to Mandela  
(who is also sung by Fermin Muguruza in the same record). As 
the solicitor Miguel Castell had pointed out, the track was done 
18 years ago, therefore if in all this time no police, no judge, no 
politician has found a crime in the song, why now? His opinion 
was that this isn’t the aim, but to cause damage from a media 
campaign as it has happened.

We have also to point out that this association of victims of 
terrorism only includes those ones related to ETA and not the 
government ones (included those killed by government organised 
para-military groups, torture), victims who are also ignored by 
the Spanish government and who haven’t been granted 
compensation. What are the songs that that people don’t like?

The day after the debate I spoke to Fermin. He was upset – he 
had had an opportunity to speak but he was cut all the time by 
the AVT guy and this other guy from a civic organisation (not 
civic at all). All this happened before the passivity of the 
presenter, which makes you think. He was also upset because 
he has had many gigs cancelled. And that was something that 
both him and Jimy (SA) argue against their accusers: ‘you have 
taken us to court but before being charged you have already 
developed a campaign against us were we are criminalized’. The 
effect is brutal, but that’s what the system wants.

As Fermin reminded his accusers in that debate, Fermin is an 
artist from the Basque left who has made the difficult decision of 
speaking out and refuse the armed struggle as the way to 
achieve independence  and to choose dialogue and social work 
as the option. Even in the debate, his accusers ignored his 
pledge! After nearly 20 years playing, Fermin has been a voice 
of injustice in the Basque Country and worldide.  This new 
attack comes when he had gone more intimate and personal 
without  forgetting politics. His latest album is a collection of his 
tracks remixed by artists in Bristol and UK.

But censorship hasn’t been alien to Fermin Muguruza. Perhaps 
the worse case happened in 1993 when he was prosecuted 
together with all the other members of Negu Gorriak for a song 
he wrote, ‘Ustelkeria’ (‘Corruption’). The song was very 
original, investigating hip-hop forms through a dialogue between 
him and guitarist Kaki. But what caused a fuss was that 
dialogue’s content: the accusation of the Donostia (San 
Sebastian) Guardia Civil colonel Rodriguez Galindo of colluding 
with drug smugglers. The song was published in a time when 
evidence and publication of information exposed the colonel and 
his headquarters as one of the centre where the para-military 
activity against Basques was organised from. In the middle of all 
this controversy, the Spanish government decorated the colonel 
to acknowledge his service but this was not enough to avoid the 
justice. Negu Gorriak was punished to pay 15 million pesetas 
(£60,000). The solidarity was incredible with massive gigs 
(12,000 in Oiartzun), bands in Italy, etc getting together and 
organising fund raisings, etc. Months later the colonel was found 
guilty of corruption and terrorism and imprisoned, though he has 
enjoyed a very condescending treatment. The case was closed 
in January 2001, 8 years after: Negu Gorriak was found 
innocent because of mistakes within the previous prosecution 
(!!). 


Sociedad Alcoholica

S.A. (as they are also known in the scene) are from Vitoria-
Gasteiz (Basque Country). They play hardcore punk with very 
un-compromised lyrics. They don’t position themselves with the 
Basque separatist movement but more with the anarchist one, 
though, as they have stated in their communicates challenging to 
be labelled as ‘terrorists’, they declare that ‘to be Basque and to 
defend the right to self-determination for all the countries who 
demand it is not a crime’. Sociedad Alcoholica signs in Spanish 
and they are very popular all over Spain – as a t-shirt of a punk 
demonstrated me in Cadiz, right in the other side of the 
peninsula. 

S.A. have been suffering similar attacks for long time, specially 
last year and now again. This latest attack was started from the 
charges presented against them by the Association of Victims of 
Terrorism (AVT). In the same debate of ETB (Basque regional 
TV) ‘Politicamente Incorrecto’, AVT accused SA of 
encouraging terrorism by their song ‘Exploit Military’. Jimmy, 
guitarist for the group, argued simply that they were free to say 
what they wanted, that this was a symbolic way of expressing a 
dislike and that they refuse terrorism. But he added that they 
refused all kinds of violence specially that one coming from the 
state and those defending it and applying it. 

The AVT representative however had many other reasons to 
target them like their participation in a gig for Catalonian prisoner 
in Belgium Juanra. SA clarified quickly that he is an ‘alleged’ 
ETA member as after nearly 2 years in prison (January 2002), 
his trial hasn’t happened yet. Juanra can be considered as a 
miscarriage of justice and also another victim of censorship in 
music. Juanra was the singer of the band KOP- Ofensiva, 
another hardcore punk band with big support, and surely the 
repression against him was due to the active commitment that he 
took on stage and with his lyrics. He was arrested in Belgium as 
requested by the Spanish Government for alleged membership 
of ETA (apparently the Spanish government alleged that he had 
helped someone belonging to ETA in someway). For all his 
supporters, this was just a set-up and Juanra was just 
imprisoned for his music activities. The fact that he hasn’t had a 
trial yet and that no evidence has been presented against him yet 
say it all. The fact that to organise a gig in his support or to 
highlight his situation should be punished because theoretically it 
hurts the victims of terrorism says even more. 

As we said, the campaigns against S.A. worsened last year 
when the band found many of their gigs cancelled. Everything 
started by anti-Basque instigator radio presenter Luis del Olmo 
in his infamous debates (Onda 0, ‘Protagonistas’, 31st May 
2002) suggesting the banning of the band from playing gigs. 
Even councillors and mayors from the localities where they were 
playing were threatened  and even asked to resigned as a 
consequence! This was taken by other programs and papers 
and developed into a big campaign against the band. As Jimmy 
also said in that program, they found that the bands called to 
replace them had even worse lyrics but they weren’t questioned 
because someone else was the scapegoat and because they 
weren’t Basques. The attack escalated to the point of being 
accused of being racist, anti-Semitic as well as terrorist, when 
S.A. declare themselves ‘antimilitarist, antifascist, antiracist, 
antisexist, etc’ 

Su Ta Gar

Su Ta Gar is another Basque band. Their originality is to produce 
Basque heavy metal with high doses of instrument skills. Basque 
heavy metal sung in Basque and Basque heavy metal supporting 
the separatist armed struggle. Their lyrics include from prisoners to 
demos to the struggle itself. They are very successful and have 
loads of followers. Perhaps that’s why the government aims at 
stopping them. Sutagar publish half a dozen records with the label 
that Fermin Muguruza started Esan Ozenki (currently Metak). As 
well as these two, the label works with more than 30 bands who 
sign entirely in Basque and have an antiestablishment attitude. All 
them and more bands from other labels could be the next ones to 
try the new censorship cooked in Madrid.

For Fermin Muguruza: { HYPERLINK http://www.muguruzafm.com }www.muguruzafm.com
For Metak: { HYPERLINK http://www.musikametak.com }www.musikametak.com  (for Esan 
Ozenki: { HYPERLINK http://www.esanozenki.com }www.esanozenki.com)
For Sociedad Alcoholica:
For Sutagar: { HYPERLINK "http://www.sutagar.com" }www.sutagar.com
For Free Juanra: { HYPERLINK "http://www.freejuanra.org" }www.freejuanra.org / 
www.kop-ofensiva.org


(0)victims of terrorism
(2) Miguel Castell is a historic Basque solicitor who defended 
ETA militants in the historic trial of Burgos, where they were due 
to be executed and one of the first civil trials of the end of the 
dictatorship (as opposite to military ones, without solicitors). He 
was also a solicitor for Negu Gorriak on their court case related 
to Colonel F. Rodriguez Galindo