ON ONE OCCASION last year, an American friend travelling with me inadvertently wandered into a side street in a Basque village just south of San Sebastian in Northern Spain. He found himself thrown against the side of a building with a machine-gun pointed at his throat by a member of the civil guard. Prior to this visit, Fascism was, for me, a storybook concept, a photograph of Hitler.

What will be the fate of the Basque people now that Franco is no longer head of the Spanish government? The importance of the Basque country to the Spanish economy is undeniable. Bilbao is the "Pittsburgh of Spain"--and the government's long struggle to repress the separatist movement can be expected to continue. However, the tension created by the presence of thirty-thousand paramilitary police in the north has not succeeded in discouraging separatist sentiment but rather has served to fan the flames of disenchantment with the present regime even among the most conservative factions of the Basque leadership. Imposition of arbitrary search and seizure measures, detainment without charges, and isolated incidents of violence are contributing to a growing desire to resist the national government, particularly among the young. All young men in their twenties are either serving mandatory military service, in the university or in prison. It is estimated that in the jails of San Sebastian alone there are some 800 Basques imprisoned on suspicion of being sympathetic with separatist organizations, and many have never had charges brought against them. In the single month of May, 1975, 3300 people were arrested in the provinces of Gipuzkoa and Bizkaya alone.

On the night of May 10,1975, 360 people were arrested in Bilbao and since the jails were full, the prisoners were locked in the city's bullring. Censorship has been increased and freedom of speech and press have been severely curtailed even in educational institutions. It has become a great deal more difficult to purchase reading materials in the Basque language and to speak Basque in public without fear of arrest. The Basque language has not been taught in the schools for the past five years; thus some young children have not learned to speak the language of their parents and grand-parents, and most parents are reluctant to teach their children for fear of the consequences outside the home.

If official Spanish policy continues on its present course, it will ensure the extinction of one of the oldest cultures in Western Europe. The Basque people were the first to thrive on the peninsula. For centuries they inhabited the Pyrenees as farmers and shepherds and there is evidence that their expertise as shipbuilders--a ship in Columbus' expedition to the New World was built by Basques--preceded that of the Norwegians. But their unique language and customs were never assimilated into the mainstream of Spanish life and the subjugation of this strong and independent people has become a tragedy of Spanish history.

THE NATIONAL CHARACTER of the Basques is defined by territory, by language and by blood, and they are clearly distinguishable from the Spanish and the French. Geographically, the nucleus of the Basque nation, stretches across both sides of the Pyrenees mountains. The Roman historian Strabo referred to the Basques as "fierce mountain warriors" who "wear no helmets in battle." One-fifth of the territory was integrated into the French domain at the end of the French Revolution in 1789. The remaining four-fifths, the states of Alaba, Bizcaya, Gipuzcoa and Nabarra were annexed by Spain in 1839 after the first Carlist war. It was at this time, after centuries of freedom, that the Basques first lost their independence. Euskadi-- the Basque word for Basqueland--became an occupied nation.

To combat the Carlists and other anti-Basque elements in Spain, a 28-year-old Basque attorney, Sabino Arrana, founded the Basque Nationalist Party (BNP) in 1893. During his ten-year fight for the restoration of independence he was jailed innumerable times and after repeated hunger strikes to protest maltreatment, he was weakened to the point of death. He died at the age of 38.

Arranna's dream of a free Basqueland was temporarily realized when the Spanish government approved Basque autonomy following a 1933 plebiscite in the Basque country. Autonomy had carried 459,255 votes out of a possible 490,157 in the balloting. The Spanish government formally declared Basque independence in Guernica and the ceremonies were held under a tree which was to become the symbol of Basque freedom. For the first time in history the Basque lands became a republic and Jose Antonio Aguirre became the new president. Independence, however, lasted only two short years and perished with the advent of the Spanish Civil War.

TWO YEARS AFTER the founding of the BNP, there were only 93 members. But it became and remains today the most powerful Basque political organization in Spain. Even though it has been outlawed and is forced underground, there is no doubt the BNP will play a prominent role in the uncertain future of the Basques in Spain. Should the post-France government liberalize its policy towards Basques, legalization of the BNP would be one way to channel political steam that might otherwise pour into the radical activities of the Nationalist Party's illegitimate offspring, ETA, "Basque Country and Freedom."

Exasperated by the BNP's pacifist methods of resistence, a younger set of Basques formed this new resistance organization. They profess to share the objectives and ultimate goals of the BNP, but differ tactically from the parent party. ETA has claimed credit for several assassinations including that of Spanish Premier Luis Carrero Blanco in Madrid in December of 1973. There are several small revolutionary groups in Spain at this time and it is difficult to tell exactly how many acts of violence ETA has been responsible for over the past five years. It is unlikely that they have perpetrated all they have claimed. ETA has been called the "Spanish equivalent of the IRA" but this comparison is valid in spirit only. ETA has over fifteen separate, independent factions, no viable central organization and receives outside help randomly, if at all.

Invariably, violence by ETA has bred violence in reprisals by the Government and "terrorist" activities may more accurately be labeled acts of desperation than serious attempts at coercion. Government reation to assassination has established a precedent of carte blanche policy,; when a soldier, policeman or official is killed, law is suspended and all citizens must open their homes to investigative patrols. If a search turns up someone who is a likely suspect in the eyes of the arresting officer, there is no opportunity to dispute guilt. Charges need not be made and trials are not required before sentence is handed down. Imprisonment is always imminent following arrest and execution is a very real possibility. Executions, like those of two Basque separatists two months ago, are merely the most visible and extreme aspect of the persecution of the Basques.

DURING THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR, from July 1936 through March of 1939, the Basques suffered 336, 830 casualties--including dead, wounded, missing, and forcibly exiled. Of these casualties, 21,780 men, women and children had been executed. When the rebel forces (including Italian and German Fascist mercenary troops) occupied Bilbao, General Franco's first decree was to abolish the independence of the Basque country. Over thirty-thousand Basques-men and women-were imprisoned without due process, and more than two-hundred thousand Basques were forced into exile. Arbitrarily, by decree, the use of the Basque language was prohibited. On March 17, 1937, Franco, again by decree, prohibited the use of the Basque language in the churches. The fact that thousands of Basques knew no other language was not an issue. On April 26, 1937, the city of Guernica was completely destroyed as more than 2000 people were killed during three hours of constant air attack by German bombers. Franco entered the city triumphant the following day.

Since the Civil War, the severity of the persecution levied on the Basques has vacillated from time to time. The vicious cycle of assassination, execution, and reprisal killings is not likely to be interrupted by American intervention. Despite the constant efforts of Idaho's Secretary of State Pete Cenasurra, and U.S. Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada the only two American legislators of Basque origin, little headway can be expected in the battle to convince Congress that the autonomy of the Basque lands is more important than the maintenance of American military bases on Spanish soil. Those who would seem the most likely advocates of intervention, Basque-Americans with relatives still in the homeland, are prevented because the involvement of their names in the effort would jeopardize the security of the very people they want to help.

Neither can world protest be expected to effect any change in official Spanish policy toward the Basques. As in the case of the infamous Burgos trials of 1970, when sixteen Basques were sentenced--six received death sentences--after suspension of the right to counsel and the cancellation of court proceedings, the press covered the story, but then very quickly it became yesterday's news. There have been 71 executions of Basque patriots since 1970. A death the press did not make much of because it was not associated with any widely publicized political trial was that of 17-year-old Luis Arrola, who was shot in Ondarroa by Guardia Civile on May 21, 1975, for singing in Basque.

There is an understandable post-Viet Nam American disinterest in foreign conflicts that could potentially involve the American military. But juxtaposing America's use of Spain as a military base with the struggle for Basque freedom calls into question the moral legitimacy of the United States "hands off" policy.

This article is the third of a four part series on Spain.