Legacy and Rupture: the Political Learning of Young Left-wing Basque Nationalists in the Post-ETA Period

Abstract

The article examines ways in which the left-wing nationalist movement in the Basque Country has offered a framework of opportunity for the construction of activist youth agency. It also identifies transformations in youth activist practices over the last decade, following the cessation of ETA´s armed activity. Based on in-depth interviews, we set out to reconstruct the evolution of the political learning and trajectories of youth from the Basque Nationalist left during this period. The analysis of these young peoples’ narratives allows us to understand some of the meanings that they attach to their current political practices. With respect to inherited political traditions, continuity was manifest in the existence of enduring dispositions favourable to counter-hegemonic activism. Changes were manifest in the adaptation of these dispositions to new political conditions through progressively more individualized forms of political action, connected to emerging contemporary agendas.