Euskal Iraultzarako Alderdia (Party for the Basque Revolution) or EIA was a Basque Country

Basque Country (autonomous community)

The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....

/Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 between 1977 and 1982.

The party was founded in April 1977 in Gallarta (Biscay

Biscay

Biscay is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lord of Biscay. Its capital city is Bilbao...

) after the 7th general assembly of ETA

ETA

ETA , an acronym for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna is an armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization. The group was founded in 1959 and has since evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group with the goal of gaining independence for the Greater Basque Country...

, during the Spanish transition to democracy

Spanish transition to democracy

The Spanish transition to democracy was the era when Spain moved from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to a liberal democratic state. The transition is usually said to have begun with Franco’s death on 20 November 1975, while its completion has been variously said to be marked by the Spanish...

. Its ideology was based on a blend of independentism and socialism

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

 - originally, they tended to be rather Marxism-Leninism

Marxism-Leninism

Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology, officially based upon the theories of Marxism and Vladimir Lenin, that promotes the development and creation of a international communist society through the leadership of a vanguard party over a revolutionary socialist state that represents a dictatorship...

, but subsequently moved towards Eurocommunism

Eurocommunism

Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...

.

EIA made a coalition with the Basque section

Communist Movement of Euskadi

Communist Movement of Euskadi was originally the branch of the Communist Movement in Basque Country, Spain. EMK separated itself from MC in 1983. EMK took part in forming Batzarre in Navarre.In 1991 EMK merged with LKI and formed Zutik....

 of the Communist Movement of Spain (Movimiento Comunista de España), creating a coalition named Euskadiko Ezkerra

Euskadiko Ezkerra

Euskadiko Ezkerra or EE was a Basque socialist political organisation. It was founded as a coalition of Euskal Iraultzarako Alderdia and other Basque Marxist forces in 1977 to present lists for the Spanish general elections in the constituencies of Vizcaya,...

. They won a seat in the Spanish Congress of Deputies

Spanish Congress of Deputies

The Spanish Congress of Deputies is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. It has 350 members, elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional representation in constituencies matching the Spanish provinces using the D'Hondt method. Deputies serve four-year terms...

, occupied by Francisco Letamendía (also known as "Ortzi") and another in the Senate

Spanish Senate

The Senate of Spain is the upper house of Spain's parliament, the . It is made up of 264 members: 208 elected by popular vote, and 56 appointed by the regional legislatures. All senators serve four-year terms, though regional legislatures may recall their appointees at any time.The last election...

, occupied by Juan María Bandrés. It campaigned for the "no" in the 1978 referendum to approve the Spanish constitution, but in favour of the Basque Statute of Autonomy

Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country

The Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country is the legal document organizing the political system of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country' which includes the historical territories of Alava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa. It forms the region into one of the autonomous communities envisioned in...

in the referendum held in 1979. EIA disappeared in 1982, when Euskadiko Ezkerra became a political party.

External links

• Gaizka Fernández Soldevilla, Agur a las armas. EIA, Euskadiko Ezkerra y la disolución de ETA político-militar (1976-1985), in Sancho el sabio. Revista de cultura e investigación vasca, ISSN 1131-5350, Nº 33, 2010, pp. 55-96 http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=3401994
• Javier Merino, El espejismo revolucionario: la izquierda radical ante ETA, in Cuadernos Bakeaz, nº 94, 2009 http://pdf.escueladepaz.efaber.net/publication/full_text/105/CB94.pdf