Arantza Urkaregi

Urkaregi has also been deeply involved in a Basque teachers union (Steilas), which recently (in 2020) went on strike in protest of insufficient support for teaching in the midst of COVID-19. She has also been on the Bilbao City Council as a member of the Abertzale Sozialistak group. Particularly, Urkaregi has been active in Basque separatist groups, such being the spokesperson for Basque Nationalist Action, which was outlawed by the Spanish government in 2008 for supposed ties to ETA. In 2009, she was arrested along with other members of the group.

In her 20s, she became involved in EMK (the Basque communist party) and Basque feminist organizations. For example, she was largely involved in the first meetings of the Basque feminist movement in December 1977. While these meetings fit into the broader theme of feminist movements in the 60s and 70s, they are especially important because of the particular anti-feminist pushback in Basque. These meetings in December 1977 were actually inspired by similar Spanish feminist meetings. Overall, these meetings, which had attendance far exceeding expectations, were key in demonstrating the existence of, and support for, a Basque feminist movement.

Urkaregi was born on April 23, 1954, in San Sebastian, in the Basque Autonomous community in Spain. She studied at the University of Basque Country.