Periko Solabarria, tireless revolutionary flame, died at 82

There are men who struggle for a day and they are good.
There are men who struggle for a year and they are better.
There are men who struggle many years, and they are better still.
But there are those who struggle all their lives:
These are the indispensable ones.

B. Brecht

Very possibly the most incombustible Basque revolutionary of all, Periko Solabarria's flame turned off yesterday, not without having lighted up many thousands, maybe millions, of other flames.

Periko began his revolutionary "career" as priest in the Miner District of the Left Bank of the Bilbao Estuary, under the brutal boot of the fascist dictatorship. Soon he decided that being a conscious priest was not enough and he became a worker himself, a revolutionary worker who led many struggles. 

Eventually he just quit the Church, got married. Never ever however he stopped fighting, being in prison several times, hosting endless clandestine meetings, organizing parties and unions.  Even just months ago he was active in many struggles, not in distant parliaments or offices but stepping hard on the street pavement, inspiring with his unbreakable spirit all the rest of us. 

Agur eta ohore, Periko. Farewell and praise. 

Some further interesting reads for those who can understand Spanish:

→ BGD!: The last leader of the Basque Working Class

→ Igor Melchor's blog: Periko Solabarria, the priest who became worker (retrospective interview)
→ Gara newspaper: The impossible to erase trail of the founder of the university of the trench

→ Gara newspaper (2012): Periko Solabarria: "We have to push the breaks of Capital and the general strike is just one step more for that"