RESTRICTED RESTRICTED On Barbarism: For an Uncivilised Critique of Modernity. St Gluvias Community Hall, Penryn. 19/07/2025 IRENE IBAI LOVEDAY AUDIENCE Welcome, Thank you so much for coming today, great crowd! Eskerrik asko, meur ras for being here, Loveday and Ibai. I’m just gonna quickly talk about the format, what’s gonna happen... You’ve all seen some of these booklets. Do you all have one? If you don’t, there’s a QR code here that you can, if you pass it around to anyone that needs it... Erm, this is a booklet of readings, so you can, erm... see the translation when we read in Galego, in Kernewek and in Euskara. Erm... I will be starting by reading a short story in my native language, Galego, and then Ibai will read in Euskara and talk about his book, that’s been published a couple of years ago but recently there’s been a translation into Spanish, so the first book was in Euskara. And Ibai will talk about the book and whatever he wants to talk about, and after that Loveday will read in Kernewek, and we will have a sort of conversation about maybe, crossovers or, in which ways different independent movements can influence each other, learn from each other, and applies also to different groups, different ways of doing things: grassroots politics, electoral politics... the whole lot. And after that we’ll have a break, we can have some tea, go outside, whatever and, by the way, while this is happening, if you need to get up for any reason, feel free to do so, if you need the loo or whatever. After the break, we will have a Q & A, there are some question slips over there RESTRICTED RESTRICTED on the table if you are not comfortable raising your hand, we will try to answer as many as possible and maybe alternate a live question with a written question. We will see... And yeah, welcome, thank you! (Wind bashes the main door) Oooooh! Come in! Ha, ha, ha. It’s God telling us that they’re not happy that we’re here. Exactly. I thought I’d start reading a short story in Galego, I think it’s quite relevant. It’s about migration and about different realities that can happen. And it’s the first one in the booklet, it’s called O pai de Migueliño and it’s by Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao. It was written in the 20’s, for context. And it says: O pai de Migueliño O pai de Migueliño chegaba das Américas e o rapaz non cabía de gozo no seu traxe festeiro. Migueliño sabía cos ollos pechados cómo era o seu pai; pero denantes de saír da casa botoulle unha ollada ó retrato. Os “americanos” xa estaban desembarcando. Migueliño e a súa nai agardaban no peirán do porto. O corazón do rapaz batíalle na táboa do peito e os seus ollos esculcaban nas greas, en procura do pai ensoñado. De súpeto avistouno de lonxe. Era o mesmo do retrato ou aínda mellor portado, e Migueliño sinteu por el un grande amor e canto máis se achegaba o “americano”, máis cobiza sentía o rapaz por enchelo de bicos. ¡Ai!, o “americano” pasou de largo sen mirar para ninguén, e Migueliño deixou de querelo. Agora si, agora si que o era. Migueliño avistou outro home moi ben traxeado e o corazón dáballe que aquel era o seu pai. O rapaz devecíase por bicalo a fartar. ¡Tiña un porte de tanto señorío! ¡Ai!, o “americano” pasou de largo e nin tan siquera reparou que o seguían os ollos angurentos dun neno. Migueliño escolleu así moitos pais que non o eran e a todos quixo tolamente. E cando esculcaba con máis anguria, fíxose cargo de que un home estaba abrazando á súa nai. Era un home que non se parecía ó retrato; un home moi flaco, metido nun traxe RESTRICTED RESTRICTED moi floxo; un home de cera, coas orellas fóra do cacho, cos ollos encoveirados, tusindo... Aquel si que era o pai de Migueliño. Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao Migueliño’s Father Migueliño’s father was coming back over from the Americas, and the young lad was as pleased as punch dressed up in his best clothes. Migueliño could picture his father with his eyes closed, but just to make sure he took another quick look at the picture before leaving the house. The Americans were disembarking. Migueliño and his mother waited on the quay in the harbor. The young lad’s heart was beating like a drum and his eyes scanned the crowds looking for the father he had so often dreamed about. All of a sudden he could see him in the distance. He was just the same as in the picture, or even better, and the nearer the American got to him the more the lad wanted to cover him in kisses. But the American just walked straight past without looking at anyone, and Migueliño stopped loving him. Here he is, here he is now! Migueliño saw another man, well-dressed, and his heart told him that this was his father. He was dying to kiss him. He looked so noble! But no, the American passed by without even noticing the anguish in the boy’s eyes following his steps. Migueliño chose a lot of fathers that way, none of whom were his, but all of them he loved madly. And when his suffering was at its greatest he realized that a man was hugging his mother. This man looked nothing like the picture: a skinny man dressed in a loose-fitting suit; a man made of wax with sticking-out ears, hooded eyes, coughing away. Yes, that was Migueliño’s father. I think maybe, this sort of subject will come up later, perhaps. And, erm... maybe Ibai wants to introduce himself and do a reading in Euskara. I’ll just leave you with Ibai. Welcome! Clap, clap, clap. RESTRICTED RESTRICTED Hi, Irene told me that we have to present ourselves, so... an exercise to do. Erm... Well, I’m here because of many things, I’m here because I wrote that book a couple of years ago and last year I came to Falmouth. I came to Falmouth because in 2006 I lived in Falmouth for a year, I was a waiter in the Best Western Hotel, the one that burnt down. It wasn’t me. Ha, ha, ha. Erm... So, I came back last year, and I did see a change transformed Falmouth, I have to say... It was... erm... a different place. And when I got to know you guys, and Rubicund, the library, the bookstore that you guys run, I did think that it was an important space, that you are running. Because that function, the little I’ve seen, as a place of gathering, of discussing, agreeing, of disagreeing, of drinking good coffee and reading good books... And I think these things are fundamental for any movement, social movement for emancipation, these kind of real places with real books and real conversations. About me... I teach in the university, and I research in the university. I am part of this department, and I think this is important too, that came out of a struggle within the university. Back in 1978 the first interim president of Spain right after the dictatorship said that Basque was a second-class language because it was impossible to do nuclear physics in Basque. And some professors at the university basically accepted the dare, and said “oh yeah, get ready”. So basically, they started producing all this knowledge, all this higher education knowledge in Basque. I work in the fine art department, which is yet another space of struggle, of language struggle, because in the 90s even though the legislation said there had to be at least 5 professors that could teach in Basque that was not the case and the fine art students occupied the building, occupied the fine arts museum and after 3 months they actually erm... the university actually hired 80 professors that spoke Basque for the whole university. So, I’m part of this tradition in the university, and in the street I’m part of the squatter’s movement in Bilbao, I am part of this social centre that gives home to 30 collectives in Bilbao, in the city of Bilbao. So, that’s me. That was my hat for today. I like it. RESTRICTED RESTRICTED I’m gonna read now the poems that I picked and translated for you today. I’m not gonna explain a lot about the poems. I decided to pick a poem from a different decade. The first one, the name of the author is Gabriel Aresti and the name of the poem is Poesia RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED A decade later, Xavier Montoia, in the book Anfetamiña wrote Batzuentzat : A decade later Itxaro Borda wrote Ni naiz, hi haiz, hura da... in the book Orain. The translation is in the other page. RESTRICTED RESTRICTED And the last one, Jule Goikoetxea wrote in Tractatus : Poesia . Again, it’s something like... poesía is something that falls here. RESTRICTED RESTRICTED Okay. Erm... thank you again for coming, thank you for organising, Lee and Irene. Thank you, I am really happy for our conversation in a minute. Before then though, erm... I have some notes I got ready. Erm... the book was written a couple of years ago (...) sorry about this. So, the book, erm... it’s becoming a creature of its own. It’s been two years that it has been a reason for debates, arguments and so in the Basque country for me and, it’s a bit humbling, I have to say, it’s been picked up and thought through in the Basque country how it is. This is the first time that I’m gonna talk about it outside the Basque country but after this I’m gonna go to Galicia, Catalonia and maybe to Friuli. To talk about it, I’m very excited about it, to talk about this here. One of the debates that I tried to think of in the book, it’s a very short book, but with a lot of things in it, this is good because the only one I can debate with here is Irene... I’ve read this book. (Shows Ibai’s book, Spanish version). Ha, ha, ha. One of the debates that the book, or one of the questions that the book is trying to ask is... how can we think about the language struggle as a struggle for the emancipation of all? How can we think our minoritised languages as resistance? How can we think of language as resistance and how can we think resistance through language? And, also, why does the notion of national liberation and national liberation front work, or makes sense as an umbrella, to think of a way to think different struggles and language struggles together? Because think about it, or at least, of course, I am talking from the Basque country, and I think that here might be the same or similar, when we think about other kinds of relations of domination, other kinds of violence, the colonial, racial, relation of domination, the cis hetero patriarchal relation of domination, the capitalist relation of domination, the ecocidal relation of domination, this is how we name them in the Basque country, I don’t know if you name them like that here. When we think of all these different kinds of relations of domination and of violence, we think of them as structural RESTRICTED RESTRICTED violences. What does that mean? That means that these violences will not disappear with more progress, they will not disappear with more capitalism, will not disappear with more patriarchy. They are not collateral damages of an otherwise well-functioning society. These violences are structural because the societies that we live in are built upon these violences. These violences are necessary. And for years, the minoritisation of languages hasn’t been thought within this way of thinking. And in the book, what I wanted to do precisely, was to see if the minoritisation of languages... Can the minoritisation of a language be understood in the same terms that we understand these other structural relations of domination? These other structural violences? No spoilers, the answer is: yes! Ha, ha, ha. The way that this becomes easy to understand is when we bring the word in the title of the book into the equation. Since the 16 th century, and we’ll talk about it later, why the 16 th century. But since the 16 th century, Basque language has been described as a barbaric language. Different moments, 16 th century, 18 th century, 20 th century. And this stigmatisation has been used to stigmatise not only the language but all the popular classes that spoke and speak the language. And it becomes structural when we understand that against this idea of barbaric language, a whole set of civilised languages are being thought of and produced. Languages of progress, of democracy, of tolerance... French, Spanish, English. Of course, the civilised would tell us that we need civilisation, we need to be civilised, it will be good for us. But that’s a trick. What they don’t tell us is that they need to barbarise us so they can claim themselves to be the civilised. And that happens through the minoritisation of language, because it is through the language that a whole set of popular classes get stigmatised and violence against them is justified and naturalised. How are we doing so far? Good Thank you for answering, Lee. It was a real question. Ha, ha, ha. Okay. So that also means and this is important, is that in the Basque country... RESTRICTED RESTRICTED (A new member of the audience enters the room) Sorry, That’s okay, that’s okay. Thank you for coming. So that means that since the 16h century, the Basque elites have constructed themselves as civilised against the Basque popular classes thanks to stigmatising them as barbaric, as barbarians. How has that notion of barbarism been mobilised and used since the 16 th century? In the 16 th century the barbarian was the heretic, and that’s how for example the witch hunts and the burning of the witches was justified in the Basque country, through language. You can see in the 16 th century how many women that were burnt did not speak Spanish, which was the language of the empire, the new language of the empire, and they needed interpreters to then be judged and burnt. And the proof of their heresy was found in the language. There were words like sorguiña which means witch , and it’s a Basque word, so the very use of the language justified the identification of the 16 th century barbarism which translated as heresy. Both words were used, they used the word barbaric and heretic interchangeably... I’m not trying to make anything up here, that’s the important thing. In the 19 th century we had a new set of relations of domination, and then the barbaric language becomes the primitive and the exotic language. The language we were talking about before, the language that will disappear out of loss of social Darwinism and evolution. So, it is then that we are not talking about now, so much that catholic violence of the 16 th century, but we are talking about the French and British Empire and their civilising mission. Part of the civilising mission meant that these barbaric languages needed to disappear, which justified a whole set of violences against the rural labouring classes in the Basque country. Move forward to the 20 th century, and in the Basque country, where it clearly, we had after the 80s, we have the notion of the terrorist as the new barbarian. As the new barbaric subject, this irrational, antidemocratic, intolerant, violent idea. Of course, in the 80s what happened was that the word, both, barbaric and terrorist were used not only to talk about ETA, for example, which was the collective that decided to use armed struggle against the French and Spanish states. It was used to stigmatise a whole set of social movements for emancipation. So, when they say that you are, in the book also, terrorist is not a word that describes very much like barbarian, is not a word that RESTRICTED RESTRICTED describes something, it’s a word with a function, and that function is to stigmatise and demonise the popular classes and the social movements for emancipation. In the 80s, you can see the activism against climate change, the LGBTQ activism, they were all different struggles in the Basque country and all of them were articulated in Basque, and this was the most important thing, because that gave territory to all of the struggles. And this is when the notion of national liberation front also makes sense in the Basque country and still makes sense today, which is... if you see right from the 16ht century, because some people... I always say in the university: there are people that are too clever for their own good, they start saying that the idea of nation was invented int eh 19 th century. And of course, if you go to one for the first sentences in Basque, that sentence: “ We are not as barbaric of a nation as they say we are” . With the word nation Of course, the understanding of nation in the 16 th century, the understanding of nation in the 19 th century, and the understanding of nation now, differs completely, it’s very different. But precisely, that is why, and that’s what I argue in the book, is that the idea of a struggle for national liberation together with this idea for the struggle against the barbarisation of the popular classes in the Basque country works through language struggle, also as a struggle that gathers every other struggle. And it actually doesn’t put in the centre one struggle and not the other, it just understands that language struggle has two different functions: I’m kind of finishing already, I think I haven’t forgotten anything... So, in that sense, language struggle acquires two dimensions: One of the dimensions is to understand that the minoritisation of Basque is, as I said at the beginning, a structural violence. So, when we fight against the stigmatisation of Basque as a barbaric language, we are not just saying you are barbaric , these relationships between civilised and barbarians don’t work for us. Because we don’t want to be a barbaric nation, but civilisation doesn’t work for us either. Because civilisation comes, and has come historically, with a whole lot of violence. So, we need to put that relationship of these two concepts in question from the beginning. So that is what we are doing when we say Basque language is not barbaric, primitive, exotic, heretic language. And the other language struggle is that this is what happened in the 70s in the Basque country, we have forgotten, and we are trying to get this back. Is that every single struggle for emancipation, in the Basque language in this case, needs to be able to articulate within this language every other struggle for emancipation. Every structural relation of domination needs to be able to be countered by using Basque language. Because it’s through language, not only through language, I am not saying that we can RESTRICTED RESTRICTED manifest our emancipation here, but it is through language that we can disentangle, dismantle all these relations of domination that also happen through language itself. So, what I argue in the book, after doing more of this kind of century-by-century history of the use of the idea of barbarism is to understand how language struggle can operate as a fight for the emancipation of all. And that is my bit. Thank you. Clap, clap, clap. Great! Yes, erm... Yes, now we can follow with Loveday. Do you wanna talk to us about yourself a little bit? Yeah ... and read some poems in Cornish? Yeah, how do I follow that? Heh, heh... I’m Loveday Jenkin, erm... My parents were part of the start of the political movement Mebyon Kernow and also part of the language promotion from the 1950s onwards, so, as a child I knew the Cornish language existed. A lot of my contemporaries... they didn’t even know there was such a thing as a Cornish language. And erm... I think that since then, everything I’ve done has had some element of either, environmental activism, language activism or political activism, so that’s sort of brought it all together, really. Erm... What else shall I say? I’m a councillor for Mebyon Kernow on Cornwall Council, I’ve stood in various parliamentary elections as well, so, I’m trying to make the voice of Cornwall being heard, and then I am also involved in the Cornish Language Academy looking at things like how do you teach nuclear physics in Cornish? for instance. And other language developments, I suppose. So that we can then use language, the Cornish language, in every space. RESTRICTED RESTRICTED I think also one of the things you talked about earlier, is what I’ve been very much involved with, is Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek, the Cornish Language Fellowship, it’s about normalising the use of language in the community, that everybody should have a few words of language, nobody shouldn’t know that the language exists, and shouldn’t be able to say some words. And yeah, maybe if you could even just say “Dydh da”, “Metten da”, or whatever, erm... then it’s part of the struggle, and I think that resonates very much... that speaking Cornish language is a political activity, and we’ve said that since the 1970s, it tights together a lot of political activists come to politics through the language or come to the langue through politics. So it’s very much intertwined. Erm... so I don’t have an academic background in linguistics or anything like that, I’m a biochemist scientist, erm... but I’ve grown up speaking the language and teaching the language and using the language with my children when they were small, so their first language, their mother tongue, was Cornish. So, I’ve lived the language and lived a bit of minoritised language struggle with other Celtic languages. My sister, seating there, lives in Brittany and has been very much involved in Bretton language over there. My parents used to take us to all the different Celtic countries when we were small, so we knew a lot of what was going on in relation to a language, yeah. Also, did some work with Gallego one time. Oooh, very good! Ha, ha, ha. Also, did some work with Galego one time. With somebody when I was living in Cambridge. It was doing some Galego work, so... So, I think there’s a lot to discuss and we’ll come on to that. But I’ve picked out a few poems, I’m not necessarily gonna read them in the same order that they’re in the booklet... Great RESTRICTED RESTRICTED Because I thought I’d pick one from the past, one from now and one that is sort of moving to the future. So, erm... so the first poem I’m gonna read is by Garfield Richardson. And actually, Garfield Richardson is a nom-de-plume , Garfield Richardson doesn’t exist. It was written by my father Richard Jenkin when he was grand bard of the Cornish Gorsedh. Entering poetry competitions wasn’t appropriate for him with his name so he found a pseudonym. That’s great So, this is about getting to the end of a fight, if you like. Erm... so To the Mountain , Bys Y’n Meneth. RESTRICTED RESTRICTED With the angels, to the top of the hill.. So, and the next poems are written by a poet called Tim Saunders, who has been very much involved in language movements for very many years, erm... although having lived outside of Cornwall he brought up his children speaking Cornish, you might be aware of at least one of them, Heh, heh, heh. Gwenno, who is a very famous singer in Welsh and Cornish. And he, obviously has had a big effect on raising the profile of the Cornish language outside of Cornwall, and Gwenno certainly even a bigger effect on raising the profile! So, To Cornwall, in the Coming Times : RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED RESTRICTED In this we shall live, the hope that will not fade. Basically. Erm... the other one I’m just gonna read a bit of, of his... is called Emily, and it’s about Emily Hobhouse, who was a Cornish woman who erm... went to South Africa and basically campaigned against the concentration camps that were set up by the British during the Boer War, I don’t know if everyone knows their history, but she was very important in trying to combat what the British were doing, and of course you all know that the British set up the first concentration camps, it wasn’t Germany, it was Britain. And this is erm... taken from an ancient Cornish text, the first bit. Promises made to a Conqueror, of them there is no law , it’s not legal... RESTRICTED RESTRICTED