El agrarismo guipuzcoano y el nacionalismo vasco (1920-1933)

The relationship between Basque nationalism and the peasantry has yet to be thoroughly studied by historians. The two most prominent analyses of this are based on the study of ideology (Elorza, 1978) and of nationalist unionism (Ansel, 2011). These authors consider the peasantry as a subordinate class: an intermittent object of attention of political organizations or Basque nationalist newspapers. Contrary to the aforementioned perspectives, this article seeks to inquire into the genesis of Euzko Nekazarien Bazkuna (Basque Peasants’ Association), the pro-nationalist farmers’ union that broke the hegemony exerted by Catholic unionism during the first third of the twentieth century in Gipuzkoa. After outlining the situation of Gipuzkoan agriculture at that time, we will analyse a small agrarian movement that arose in Azpeitia in 1920. In this locality’s municipal elections there were candidates from the ‘baserritarras’ (farmers) that were opposed to or outside the main political forces in the area. In 1931 this group ran again in the elections, but this time coordinated its presence with the PNV (Basque Nationalist Party). Azpeitia was one of the centres of the process that led to the emergence of Euzko Nekazarien Bazkuna. The studies by Elorza and Ansel have analysed the reasons that led to its creation with the support of the PNV, the STV (Basque Workers’ Solidarity) union and the propagandist priests close to Basque nationalism, but they have not taken the peasants into account, nor considered the process that led to the formation of the union over a period of one and a half years.