In this blog Martí Serra Riera introduces one of the case studies in his new article in Environment and History (online first January 20024), The Making of the Antinuclear Movement in the Bay of Biscay: Similar Movements in Different Contexts
The struggle against the construction of the Lemoiz nuclear power plant (1976–1982) in the Basque Country is not only one of the biggest antinuclear mobilisations in history – with a demonstration of at least 150,000 people in the streets of Bilbao in 1977 – but also a paradigmatic case to understand how the antinuclear movement was formed, since the neighbourhood movement, the new-left and nationalism were involved.
In 1972, Iberduero – the electric utility company based in Bilbao – started the construction of four nuclear reactors in Lemoiz. It was not until the May 1976 that the first organisation against Lemoiz appeared, the Defence Commission for a Non-Nuclear Basque Coast.[1] The Defence Commission – organised on the basis of the neighbourhood movement – did not emerge as a antinuclear entity, but as one opposed to its installation on the Basque coast due to the small dimensions of the region and its high population density.[2] The Defence Commission organised a demonstration in Plentzia in August 1976, supported by between 30,000 and 60,000 people[3] and with the participation of the centrist Basque Nationalist Party, the leftist independence parties that later formed Popular Unity,[4] and the state-level left parties. In 1977, the Defence Commission called another demonstration in Bilbao in July, which was attended by 150,000–200,000 people.[5]
Following this demonstration, Antinuclear Committees (ACs) started to emerge from the Neighbourhood Associations and left-wing parties, such as the Communist Movement of Euskadi and Popular Unity.[6] Thanks to these networks, the ideology of the ACs was not only antinuclear, denouncing the illegality of the works and the danger posed to health and the environment, but also anti-capitalist. In this way, there was a critique of the Basque oligarchy represented by Iberduero; the Spanish institutions that were still Francoist; the technological dependency entailed by the nuclear model; and the militarisation it might bring about. Facing this model, the ACs argued in favour of new energy and political models that would make self-management and self-government possible.[7] Furthermore, from the end of 1977, ETA started its terrorist campaign against Lemoiz and Iberduero, including the assassination of workers at the power station.[8]This made the situation much rougher, but did not stop the citizens’ mobilisations. For example, on 12 March 1978, the Defence Commission called for a demonstration that was supported by 100,000 people.[9]
In March 1979, a moment when it seemed that the Lemoiz power station was about to be made operational, there was a serious radioactive leak at Harrisburg (USA). This caused a significant rise in public awareness due to the fear provoked and, consequently, in late April a demonstration was called in Bilbao with the slogan ‘Euskadi ala Lemoiz’ (The Basque Country or Lemoiz), which was attended by 60,000 people.[10] The slogan expressed the fear that an accident, whether fortuitous or deliberate, would mean ‘the disappearance of a People, in capital letters, in short, the disappearance of the Basque Country as a political project’.[11] Facing this crescendo, the Defence Commission defined Iberduero as the number one enemy of the Basque Country[12] and, on 3 June, the ACs called a demonstration that was harshly repressed by the public order forces, and at which one demonstrator, Gladys del Estal, was murdered by a Civil Guardsman.[13]
In 1981, ETA’s involvement in this conflict reached its apogee with the assassination of the chief engineer at Lemoiz, José María Ryan on 6 February, which provoked the first big social reaction against ETA.[14] His murder also caused a great convulsion inside the antinuclear movement. As a result, it was not until late August that the ACs organised the International Conference against Lemoiz. Once again, the aim was to denounce the risks posed by the power station to the ‘Basque People’ and express international solidarity against other nuclear projects.[15] Additionally, a demonstration was organised in Bilbao, supported by 20,000 people.[16] In 1982, the situation continued to be very tense. On 5 May, ETA murdered Ángel Pascual, the project director who had replaced José María Ryan.[17] Finally, the general election of October 1982 was won with an absolute majority by the PSOE, which almost immediately established a nuclear moratorium.[18] Therefore, the Lemoiz nuclear power plant never came into service. This resulted, on the one hand, in a significant portion of the militants abandoning the antinuclear struggle and, on the other, in a sharpening of the debate on environmentalism that had begun to take place within the ACs.[19]
Consequently, I believe that the militant networks that join the anti-nuclear conflict are a decisive element in understanding how it develops. The case of Lemoiz had great popular support – which then declined due to the participation of ETA in the conflict – thanks to the involvement of different political militant networks, especially the new left and nationalism, that not only supposed an important input in terms of people, but also in terms of discourse. Lemoiz started as an environmental, security and health problem and became a symbol of different oppressions, national and class. The appeal to these oppressions made much easier the participation of people who, at that moment, were not interested in environmental topics and, therefore, made mass participation possible. In addition, a section of the people who participated in the movement against Lemoiz, thanks to being together with other discourses, discovered environmental problematics and participated in the making of the environmental movement in the Basque Country.
[1] La Gaceta del Norte, 30 May 1976.
[2] Punto y hora de Euskal Herria, no. 43, 7–13 July 1977.
[3] Deia, 1 July 1977; El País, 31 Aug. 1976 and La Gaceta del Norte, 31 Aug. 1976.
[4] R. López and D. Lanero, ‘Antinucleares y nacionalistas. Conflictividad socioambiental en el País Vasco y la Galicia rurales de la Transición’, Historia Contemporánea 43 (2011): 761.
[5] Deia, 15 July 19/77 and Diario 16, 15 July 1977.
[6] López and Lanero, ‘Antinucleares y nacionalistas’, 762.
[7] J. Estebarantz, Los pulsos de la intransigencia. Lemoiz. Leitzaran. Itoiz (Bilbao: Muturreko Burutazioak, 2009), pp. 30–34.
[8] R. López, Informe Foronda. Los contextos históricos del terrorismo en el País Vasco y la consideración social de sus víctimas (Vitoria-Gasteiz: Instituto de Historia Social Valentín de Foronda, 2014), pp. 52 and 65.
[9] Egin, 14 March 1978.
[10] Egin, 28 April 1979.
[11] ERE, 14 May 1980.
[12] Egin, 5 May 1979.
[13] Egin, 14 Aug. 1979.
[14] El País, 10 Feb. 1981.
[15] Egin, 18 July 1981.
[16] Egin, 1 Sept. 1981.
[17] Egin, 6 May 1982.
[18] J. De la Torre and M.d.M. Rubio, ‘El estado y el desarrollo de la energía nuclear en España. c. 1950-1985’, Documentos de Trabajo de la Asociación Española de Historia Económica (1403) (2014): 22–27.
[19] I. Bárcena, P. Ibarra and M. Zubiaga, Nacionalismo y ecología. Conflicto e institucionalización en el movimiento ecologista vasco (Madrid: Los libros de la catarata, 1995), pp. 32–35.
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