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5 June, 2000The ELA national trade union reacts to the assassination of one of their own.
SPAIN: The Euskal Langileen Alkartasuna (ELA) trade union organisation from the Basque region has issued a press statement following the assassination on June 4 of Jesus Maria Pedrosa Urkiza, 57 years old, a leading trade unionist and member of the ELA and an elected town councillor for the Popular Party in Durango (Vizcaya). Having joined the ELA in 1986 and been a company delegate in the trade union, he often received death threats but had always refused protection. He was killed by the explosion of a bomb planted nearby.
Jesus Maria was an example, says the union, of the Basque culture in which he lived: a plural society, but not a divided one, where people coexist and participate in the community's projects and goals. "Consequently, his assassination is an attack against this resolve to coexist, to integrate and to share life's goals. With this crime, the strategy to divide, threaten and polarise Basque society has received a new impulse," continued the union. "In spite of all this, and above and beyond our grief and total rejection of these acts, the ELA will continue to fight for integration, dialogue and coexistence. Because, this is unconditionally what the people here want and what working men and women want."
Jesus Maria was an example, says the union, of the Basque culture in which he lived: a plural society, but not a divided one, where people coexist and participate in the community's projects and goals. "Consequently, his assassination is an attack against this resolve to coexist, to integrate and to share life's goals. With this crime, the strategy to divide, threaten and polarise Basque society has received a new impulse," continued the union. "In spite of all this, and above and beyond our grief and total rejection of these acts, the ELA will continue to fight for integration, dialogue and coexistence. Because, this is unconditionally what the people here want and what working men and women want."