Beñaran grew up in two very different environments: the Francoist schools he was educated in and his Basque nationalist home. Workers strikes and police repression in the mid-1960s contributed to his concerns about the class system. He began studying Marxist theories at a young age. As Basque nationalism and cultural awareness grew stronger in the 1960s Beñaran enthusiastically participated in Basque language schools, festivals, and other cultural activities. In 1968, he joined the separatist group ETA with some friends. He began studying engineering, but he quit before finishing his studies and began working in a bank. He then began studying human sciences.