Basque National Liberation Movement

The Basque National Liberation Movement (Spanish: Movimiento de Liberación Nacional Vasco, MLNV; Basque: Euskal Nazio Askapenerako Mugimendua, "ENAM") was an umbrella term that comprised all social, political and armed organizations orbiting around the ideas of the illegal armed organisation Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), proscribed internationally as a terrorist organisation.[1]

There are multiple definitions of the term. In the '80s, '90s and particularly in the early 2000s it was understood in a wider sense, as a synonym for the Basque Patriotic (Abertzale) Left, which pursues the same political goals to ETA, namely Basque independence and a socialist state. A narrower definition comprises ETA and those social and political organizations which are subservient or under the political influence of this organization. The narrower definition would exclude recently founded legal parties such as Amaiur, Bildu and Sortu which have renounced ETA's methods and publicly distanced themselves from this organization. These parties have filled the void left by political parties Herri Batasuna and Euskal Herritarrok among others, when they were included in the United States' list of terrorist organizations and formally dissolved by the Spanish Supreme Court in 2003. As a result, for much of the 2000s, the Abertzale left was left without political representation and it was during this period when the wider definition of MNLV was most applicable. The bulk of MLNV's constituency, political and social leaders have transitioned to the aforementioned legal parties, only those remaining organizations and individuals supporting, collaborating or subservient to ETA would be presently considered to belong to the MNLV. This is the case even though one of the Abertzale left's major causes is the rights of ETA prisoners, particularly their re-location to prisons to the Basque country. However, its political direction has been criticized by more hard-line members of this political space who demand a return to a more combative approach with the Spanish state.

Some of the most relevant organizations that can be considered to have formed part of this political current are listed below.