Massive demo takes over Bilbao: solidarity with prisoners in spite of imposed silence

Even if the whole scheme of the protest and even its slogan had to be changed, some 130,000 Basque citizens (110,000 according to police) marched through Bilbao in solidarity with Basque prisoners. 

It is true that the slogan had been changed in a last minute political maneuver to dribble the Inquisition and content the bourgeois regionalist forces but it is also true that, even if the demo was meant to be silent, people continuously chanted slogans of solidarity with the Basque prisoners. 

While the mouthpiece of the Basque Nationalist Left, Naiz Info, censors the actual disruption of the alleged "silent" character of the march, Berria is more straightforward and actually reports how the citizenry continuously cried in solidarity with the prisoners, with phrases like the persistent "Euskal presoak etxera!" (Basque prisoners back home!) 

Also there were many of the censored "drop" icons present, as well as banners reading a sarcastic "Eskerrik asko Velasco" (Thank you Velasco, in reference to the inquisitor who banned the drop on drop demo).

As the politicians left the scene, the masses sang a popular song in demand of repatriation and amnesty for prisoners. Chorus follows:

Zai dago ama, zai aita
zai andre ta lagunak
hator, hator Euskadira,
hator, hator etxera.

Mother awaits, father awaits,

wife and friends await too.

Come, come to the Basque Country,

come, come back home.

Sources: personal reports, Naiz Info[es], Berria[eu].


Update: Castilian counter-information site La Haine has some details that apparently Basque media decided to ignore, as well as a good photo and video report.

"Basque prisoners and refugees back home"

They underline the important internationalist presence in the demo, particularly from other areas oppressed by the Spanish monarchy and the French republic.

Internationalist group with Castilian and Corsican banners

They also mention that, after the end of the legal demo, a spontaneous one marched through the Old Quarter behind a large banner demanding amnesty:

Also pamphlets were thrown around with the text:

Argala 1979-2014. 35 years later, against bourgeoisie's fascism and mendacity of socialdemocracy. Formation and organization of Basque workers in support of revolutionary struggle.

Argala was an ETA activist of the 1970s, master tactician of the attack against Franco's right hand Carrero-Blanco, and one of the most important Communist ideologues of the late 20th century. You can read some of his thoughts here.