A Mesa

"A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística" (Board for the liguistic normalisation), is a plural and non-aligned independent board, which has as its sole objective the promotion of the use of Galician in all spheres of social life inherent to any language. Its role is to start off iniciatives to make people aware of the problem, opening new fields for the use of our language, as well as to denounce any sort of agression and discrimination Galician may suffer. Another objective of "A Mesa" is to ensure that the individual and collective use of Galician is respected.

Beginning

Back in april 1986, several associations summoned the "Encontro sobre o estado actual da normalización lingüística" (Gathering on the present stage of linguistic normalisation), which more than 500 people attended. Among the final resolutions, we had the stablishing of a Permanent Board for the Linguistic Normalisation in charge of the implementation of all conclusions of the gathering.

"A Mesa" reached one of its highlights in December 1987, when the Central Government ordered the Galician Government to withdraw the essence of a law dating August 31, 1987, through which Galician was declared an official vehicle of education. "A Mesa" summoned institutions, civic associations, APA's (students' parents associations), unions and all the people in general to a major demonstration on December 13, 1987. The aim of this demonstration was to fight for the process of linguistic normalisation in the education, under the motto: "Aprender en galego non é un delito" (Learning in Galician is no crime). According to official data, more than 25,000 people attended this demonstration.

Organisation and structure

The organisation of "A Mesa" includes a permanent commission, and made up of 6 people (chairman, vice-chairman, administration and finances secretary, campaign secretary, organisation secretary, and delegate for the youth) and being this the leading body . The permanent commission is elected by the members general assembly held regularly to inform over and dicuss the general guidelines of action of the organisation.

There are also 3 sections that focus on specific fields:

• Youth for Linguistic Normalisation: this is the youth section of "A Mesa". Here work young people who design campaigns and iniciatives specially aiming at this sector of the population. They also try to attract other youth or students organisations.
• Parents for Education in Galician: composed of people with children in school age. They lead activities to guarantee the right to education in Galician.
• Toponymy Section: according to the law, the only right form for our toponymy is the Galician one. Letters are sent to firms and institutions when wrong forms are used, asking them to use the Galician forms.

Beside these sections that work all over Galicia, we also have task forces in certain areas. Each of them, according to their human and economic resources, has autonomy to develop local activities they may consider appropriate for the further development of Galician in their specific areas. They also check the evolution in their fields of all the campaigns carried out all over the country by "A Mesa".

Most important activities of "A MESA"

Since its very beginning, "A Mesa" carried out numerous campaigns and public condemns, becoming thus an essential social referent when talking about linguistic normalisation. Today we are a consolidated organisation, working all throughout Galicia, with nearly 3,000 members and a very important social impact.

One of the most important aspects of our working spirit is the struggle to be the point of unity for the linguistic normalisation. That is the reason why we always try to attract to our actions any kind of arganisations, institutions or companies. This collaboration can be just for a specific campaign, or it can be continuous. For example, "A Mesa" achieved the creation of an stable board in the education area that has been working for several years now. It also works with trade unions and pedagogic renewal movements which are concerned with the establishing of our language in the schools.

The activities of "A Mesa" are designed with a view to sensitivity and vindication. The social awareness campaigns include a very important percentage of information and are aimed at the general public, traders and business people, etc. The vindicative actions are mainly concerned with institutions or major bussinesses. They usually consist of reports on linguistic discrimination against Galician or non-compliance to the "Lei de Normalización Lingüística" or Linguistic Normalisation Bill, which was passed in 1983 but still infringed in many of its sections. We also carry out congratulation campaigns when a certain company stands out in the field of the use and promotion of our language. Both the condemn campaigns and the congratulation campaigns reach their objectives through direct letters, press releases which are published in the mass media, or through the issue of thousands of postcards with a common text which are distributed among the population so that they can sign and send them personally.

1. Education.

this is a field we are working hard on due to the importance that education will have on the future Galician society. "A Mesa" is working together with syndical associations of students and teaching staff and also with pedagogic renewal movements, with a view to make youth and teaching staff aware of the issue. We also demand from the Xunta de Galicia, the Autonomical Government, the complete normalisation of Galician in education.

The first iniciative was a demonstration in 1987 to ask for a wider use of Galician as a vehicle of education ("learning in Galician is no crime"). Since then we requested the elaboration of a project to promote the use of Galician at school and we also took part in the writing of a model for the linguistic normalisation of education which was submitted to the Government and sent to schools for examination. We also carried out information and awareness campaigns through posters and brochures encouraging people to use Galician in schools or giving information over the existing law: "Decálogo do galego-falante" (Decalogue of the Galician-speaker), "Que nesta aula se fale/escriba en galego depende de ti" (It is up to you whether Galician is spoken and writen in this classroom), "O ensino, en galego", "O ensino en galego. Está no seu dereito" (Education in Galician. You have the right), "O ensino en galego. De ti depende" (Education in Galician. It depends on you). We also check the compliance to the law regulating the use of Galician at school and, when needed, we make an official complaint. Many of these actions are carried out by the "Plataforma polo ensino en galego" (Board for Education in Galician). This is a stable board made up of 6 organisations linked with the world of teaching.

The very latest campaign of the "Plataforma polo ensino en galego" was launched in early 1998: "En galego. Todos os días, a todas horas" (In Galician, round the clock).

2. Toponymy.

We have developed many iniciatives to promote the use of Galician toponymy in motorways, administrative documents, advertising and brochures produced by companies, trade, etc. The most important campaign carried out in this field took place in A Coruña, a Galician city where the mayor officialy refuses to use the Galician name. "A Mesa" organised there a campaign to promote the use of the Galician form in which many well-known people took part ("A Coruña, así a queremos"/ "A Coruña, so we want you"). We also denounced the mayor, eventually getting the TSXG (High Court of Galicia) to force him to use the Galician form. We also undertook a very successful campaing to promote the use of the place-name Ourense (Ourense, por dignidade, "Ourense, a question of dignity"), followed by an exposition and auction of works of art created by very important Galician artists.

As we have already explained, there is whithin "A Mesa" a section devoted to toponymy that followes up the use of our place-names and sends letters to companies, organisations, etc. informing them about the existing law and encouraging them to substitute the Spanish forms in their documents and advertising campaigns.

3. Trade and Private Business.

This is a very important field because the contact with the public is very close. We try to work with traders associations or chain stores due to the diversity, quantity and sectors involved. The most iportant activities in this sector are:

• We have been designing for some years now posters for the sales which are distributed free among traders so that they can use them in their shop-windows. This helps to create a more intensive presence of our language in the streets, thus making people getting familiar to its use. As a result, the sellers also design their own posters in Galician.
• Campaign to promote the use of Galician while shopping, through posters wuth the motto "Que aquí se fale en galego, depende de vosté" ("It is up to you whether Galician is spoken here").
• Information and advising campigns on the subsidies given by A Xunta, to promote the use of Galician in trade and business ("En beneficio de todos"/ "For the benefit of everyone"). We have at your disposal the application forms, models of different projects according to sectors (textile, shoes, driving schools, state agencies, restaurants, etc.). We have also collaborated in the designning of projects when required.
• Promotion campaign for the labelling of products in Galician ("Etiqueta en galego. Marca de distinción"/ "Label in Galician. A sign of quality"). We reached an agreement with the companies that already labelled their products in Galician. We criss-crossed Galicia with an special lorry carrying an exhibition and selling office of the products labelled in Galician, to show them and give an example for other companies.
• Campaign for the use of Galician in the menus at restaurants ("En galego: a pedir de boca"/ "In Galician, it is tasteful"). We translated the menus into Galician and other languages.
• Campaign to promote the use of Galician when writing the shopping list ("Que non lle esqueza"/Don't forget). We distributed them in supermarkets and grocer's, so that customers could take them home and tick in the boxes of the products they needed. The objective was to make people get used to Galician food vocabulary.
• Many congratulation and condemn campaigns for several companies. Congratulation campaigns for AREA CENTRAL, for example, a hypermarket that used Galician in its signs, advertising, etc. Among the condemn campaigns we can highlight the one adressed to ALCAMPO, due to the substituting of Galician in the signs when they took over AREA CENTRAL. We also have another condemn campaign, adressed to SEAT, the Spanish car-maker, due to the selling of a car named after a wrong Galician place-name, the SEAT AROSA, which should be AROUSA. We have another campaign for TELEFÓNICA, the Spanish national telephone company, due to their misuse of the Galician place-names in bills, letters, advertising, etc.

4. Administration.

We carry out iniciatives directed to the Autonomous Government, City Councils and Provincial Governments with the following objectives:

• To demand the complete use of Galician in the official forms and administrative services and when advising the public.
• To demand the design of linguistic policy general projects with very well defined objectives.
• To demand a greater percenteage of the budget for the linguistic normalisation and also check up the implementation of the measures.

We collaborate with City Councils to carry out specific local campaigns. It is also within our scope to make proposals to the different political parties to be passed in plenary sessions (regulation of the use of Galician, support to our campaigns, adhesion to the Universal Declaration on the Linguistic Rights, etc.).

5. Banking.

We stablished links with different trade unions in the banking sector to sign an agreement guaranteeing the approval of Galician as an official language in its activitites and documents. We reached such an agreement with 11 banks.

We also had an specific campaign for savings banks ("En galego, é fácil"/In Galician, it's very easy) to demand the use of Galician in their documents, advertising, cash dispensers, counseling, etc.

6. Outer Galician.

The linguistic territory of Galician is greater than its administrative boundaries. It is also spoken in the border areas of Asturias, Leon and Zamora, the neighbour provinces. A Mesa carried out different activities in collaboration with local groups to protect and promote the use of Galician. We also helped to establish the "Mesa pra Defensa del Galego de Asturies" (Board for the protection of Galician in Asturias) with the normalisation of Galician in this area as an objective. There are also similar groups in Zamora.

7. General Public.

We advise and give information on the issue of language use and linguistic rights, as well as legal assistance during legal procedures. We sell different objects with mottos related to the normalisation of our language: t-shirts, pins, books and magazines, etc.

We also developed several successful campaigns for the revival of Galician names directed to:

• Parents, so that they name their children with Galician names ("Xa lle tedes nome?"/ "Have you already chosen the name?"). This campaign took place twice, with the help of a baby food company, and consisted of brochures with a list of Galician names for boys and girls, their meanings an a brief comment.
• General public, to explain them the legal procedures to translate their names into Galician ("Temos nomes própios. Usa-os/We have our own names. Use them).

We also organised a campaign to promote the translation of family names, but this involves a far more complicated legal procedure.

Thinking about children, we publish each year, in collaboration with Xerais, one of the most important publishing houses in Galicia, different models of letters for the Three Wise Men (a Catholic Christmas tradition. It is said that if children write a letter to them with a list of the gifts they want to get, they will bring them on the eve of January 6). Moreover, this year we are lobbying for the dubbing into Galician of Disney films.

8. Other Campaigns.

We have been also working in other fields: sports, mass media, church, law, universities, computing, etc. We also organise gatherings, discussions, parties, concerts, theater representations, races, etc.

We publish a three-monthly journal with information about our activities which is sent to our members and other organisations or to people that may need it.

All throughout the year, we collect all pieces of news that have to do with our language and publish them annually. These compilations are sold and are a very important record of the evolution of our language.

To carry out our work we need the collaboration and finacial backing of our members. That is the reason why we have been organising exhibitions of our activities and recruiting campaings ("Ti, unha primavera. Imos garantir mil máis"/ "Your represent the spring. We guarantee a thousand more", or "A MESA: o futuro de galego"/ "A MESA: the future of Galician"). Thanks to them, we can recruit more members, more people commited to their language.