ETA was more anti-capitalist than anti-Spanish, just as Francoism turned capitalist
ETA was founded in 1959, the same year as the Stabilization Plan that opened Spain's economy to international capitalism. Its Marxism came later.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
ETA was born in 1959 as a Basque nationalist and independence organization, not as a response to the Stabilization Plan. Its Marxist and anti-capitalist orientation was adopted gradually over time.
The timing coincidence is real and striking: in **1959** the Franco regime approved the Stabilization Plan, which abandoned autarky and peine the Spanish economy to foreign trade and investment. That same year ETA was born, a Basque independence organization that emerged from a new generation of nationalists who rejected the regime's cultural and political repression and considered the strategy of traditional Basque nationalism insufficient.
## What the Spanish economy was like before 1959
Spain was not an anti-capitalist country under Franco. It was a nationalist dictatorship with an autarkic, interventionist and protectionist economic policy. The regime was excluded from the Marshall Plan, which between **1948 and 1952** financed the reconstruction of much of Western Europe under American leadership. That exclusion, due to the regime's international isolation, left Spain out of the aid circuit that its neighbors did receive.
The **1959** Stabilization Plan marked a turning point: the regime left autarky behind and integrated into international capitalism. The reforms laid the foundations for the growth of the sixties, although they had social costs in the short term.
## Marxism came later, not at the origin
ETA was not created as an anti-capitalist organization nor as a reaction to the Stabilization Plan. Its origin was nationalist and pro-independence. Over time it incorporated Marxism and socialism into its ideology: part of the organization understood that Basque national liberation had to be accompanied by a revolutionary transformation of society and the struggle against capitalism. At certain stages, its discourse combined independence, anti-colonialism and anti-capitalism.
The paradox of **1959** is this: while Francoism was opening up economically to international capitalism, an organization was emerging that would eventually defend a socialist revolutionary project together with the independence of the Basque Country.
The timing coincidence is real and striking: in **1959** the Franco regime approved the Stabilization Plan, which abandoned autarky and peine the Spanish economy to foreign trade and investment. That same year ETA was born, a Basque independence organization that emerged from a new generation of nationalists who rejected the regime's cultural and political repression and considered the strategy of traditional Basque nationalism insufficient.
## What the Spanish economy was like before 1959
Spain was not an anti-capitalist country under Franco. It was a nationalist dictatorship with an autarkic, interventionist and protectionist economic policy. The regime was excluded from the Marshall Plan, which between **1948 and 1952** financed the reconstruction of much of Western Europe under American leadership. That exclusion, due to the regime's international isolation, left Spain out of the aid circuit that its neighbors did receive.
The **1959** Stabilization Plan marked a turning point: the regime left autarky behind and integrated into international capitalism. The reforms laid the foundations for the growth of the sixties, although they had social costs in the short term.
## Marxism came later, not at the origin
ETA was not created as an anti-capitalist organization nor as a reaction to the Stabilization Plan. Its origin was nationalist and pro-independence. Over time it incorporated Marxism and socialism into its ideology: part of the organization understood that Basque national liberation had to be accompanied by a revolutionary transformation of society and the struggle against capitalism. At certain stages, its discourse combined independence, anti-colonialism and anti-capitalism.
The paradox of **1959** is this: while Francoism was opening up economically to international capitalism, an organization was emerging that would eventually defend a socialist revolutionary project together with the independence of the Basque Country.
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (3 replies).
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