Republican News · Thursday 11 September 2003

Basque musician forced to cancel tour

MANU CHAO and Basque musician Fermin Muguruza played a great gig in Dublin on 20 August last. However, both musicians decided to cancel their gigs in the Spanish State after some politicians from the governing party in Spain, the conservative and post-Francoist Popular Party, together with an association in support of the victims of ETA attacks, claimed Fermin Muguruza was a Basque separatism supporter and militant in the now illegal party Batasuna.

Muguruza has become a target of the Spanish right-wing forces for his activism in support of Basque self determination and his stand on Basque culture. He was boed when at the ``amigo'' awards - the Spanish version of the ``Grammy's'', when he decided to collect his award as best Basque language artist of the year wearing a t-shirt supporting the Basque language newspaper Egunkaria, which was recently closed by Spanish authorities.

This latest campaign is part of an ongoing history of attacks on Basque music and culture. Basque rock bands like Su ta Gar and SA, Madrilian writer Alfonso Sastre and the clown group Takolo, Pirritx eta Porrotx have been target by Spanish forces.

In this case, Manu Chao and Fermin Muguruza have suspended the Spanish leg of their tour ``Jai Alai Katumbi Express''. Manu Chao's recent concerts given in Baiona, Iruñea and Madrid were attended by thousands.

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Can do needed at Cancun

BY ROBBIE SMYTH

AGRICULTURE MINISTER Joe Walsh leads the Dublin Government delegation at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks, which began in Cancun, Mexico yesterday. With him are, no doubt, the lobby documents from Irish employers and farming groups. Employers want more deregulation and access to markets, while farming groups want no more cuts in the amount of agricultural subsidies they receive.

These are interests that Walsh must represent, but not at any cost. These are the first international trade talks, since the inaugural GATT agreement was reached in 1948, which have put the interests of developing states on the international trade agenda.

We assume that the minister is well versed in statistics, such as the fact that more than 2.7 billion people live on less than $2 a day. Does he know, though, that the very same people live in states that face double the trade barriers we in the more wealthy states have to contend with?

One wonders does Walsh also know that the total farm subsidies of the wealthier states like the US and EU are greater than the wealth created annually in the whole of Africa?

There are, no doubt, many other similar statistics, but they are all meaningless without government commitment to fair trade. Last week, speaking at Sinn Fein's Munster EU selection convention, party president Gerry Adams called on the Dublin Government to put issues such as debt cancellation and fair trade at the centre of the coming EU presidency and in the negotiations on a new EU constitution.

This week is the first test of whether the coalition government is committed to these principles.