Spain

This article, drawing on material from the online socialist publication Notes from Below, focuses on the increasing reliance of capitalism today, with the growth of internet retail and the 'gig' economy, on transnational supply chains, and migrant workers. It starts by noting the disruptive effects of the French 'Yellow Vests' demonstrations blocking roundabouts on such chains. It also comments on how Italian grass roots unions Si Cobas and ADL have since 2008 used strikes and blockades to target the chain of distribution centres., leading  to the arrest of the national coordinator of Si Cobas in 2017, and how workers in Amazon distribution centres in Italy, Spain and Germany have coordinated strike action. Concludes by noting how Uber drivers, mostly migrants, communicating via mobile phones have coordinated resistance. (See 'The wave of worker resistance in European food platforms 2016-7', Notes from Below, Jan 2018, nin.tl/FoodPlatforms) 

Primarily an account of the movement of conscientious objection and ‘insumision’ in Spain, but including analysis and proposals. It was written by university teachers who joined the movement and assisted from inside. Published in the final stage of the movement, when the end of conscription was announced. but there were still objectors jailed in military prisons.

In Spain and France, a lot of attention was initially given to Alyssa Milano’s #Me Too initiative in October 2017 and Oprah Winfrey’s #Time’s Up claim in January 2018. The authors argue that in Spain and France #MeToo was focused as a way for ordinary women to denounce the sexual abuse and harassment they had been suffering, sometimes for decades, in the past, and the role of well-known actors or powerful personalities was almost non-existent. But the #MeToo movement did play a significant role in supporting women, individually or collectively, to oppose sexual abuse and harassment.

This 'long read' article provides a detailed account of the notorious rape of an 18-year-old woman at the Pamplona bull run festival in 2016 and the five man 'wolf pack' responsible.  It assesses the impact of the trial, which in April 2018 found the men guilty of 'sexual abuse', instead of rape, because the woman had not been violently coerced. The rape and the verdict sparked widespread anger among women, who demonstrated across the country, and journalist Cristina Fallaras tweeted about her own experiences of sexual violence and launched the hashtag #Cuentalo (tell your story). The five men were released from jail in June 2018 on bail whilst appealing their prison sentences. Beatley describes the impact on the feminist movement - police estimated 350,000 demonstrated in Madrid and 200,000 in Barcelona and many thousands in other cities and towns on International Women's Day 2019.  But the case has also mobilised the far right party Vox to attack feminists and to claim that the danger of violence against women comes from non-European immigrants.

Especially chapter 7, ‘From “conformism” to confrontation’, pp. 134-67, which covers not only regional, worker and student resistance, but also changes within the Catholic Church; and chapter 9 ‘The regime in crisis: Carrero Blanco and Arras Navarro 1969-1975’, pp. 189-206.

Well known theorist of global networks examines the mass uprisings across the world in 2011, giving account of events in ‘Arab Spring’ and the reaction to the bank collapse and austerity policies in the west in Iceland, Spain, Greece and the USA, and stressing the causal role of the internet.

Feminist peace activist provides her theoretical perspective on cross-national case studies including UK peace movement, War Resisters’ International, anti-militarist campaigns in Spain, Korea and Japan, and the anti-NATO demonstrations in Strasbourg 2009.

Analyzes movements since 2008 (Iceland) challenging corruption and inequality and situating them within the crisis of neoliberalism. Covers Spain, Greece and Portugal anti-austerity movements, but also Peru, Brazil, Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Ukraine.

Tells the story of the insumisos from the point of view of one of the mothers. It begins with a summary of the historical process and then introduces a personal narrative of the experience of trials and jail, and the struggle of the conscientious objectors’ mothers association. Includes press articles and pictures which illustrate each element of the story.

Argues emergence of movement not ‘new’ and ‘spontaneous’ but product of evolution of a collective identity and culture stressing deliberative democracy since the 1980s.
See also her blog on the OpenDemocracy website: ‘Spain is Different: Podemos and 15-M’ on the rise of the leftist but non-ideological Podemos party in the European Parliamentary elections of June 2014, and influence of 15-M movement on the nature of the new party.

On launch of movement by Real Democracy Now! on 15 May 2011 with marches and protest camp in Madrid, its spread across Spain and to Greece.

(Successor to ebook Hancox, Dan , Utopia and the Valley of Tears , 2012, pp. 76 , on same topic.)
Discusses the small village, Marinaleda, in southern Spain that has battled for decades with the state and capitalist policies, but gained international attention in 2012 when its mayor (and farmers union leader) organized the filling of ten shopping trolleys, refused to pay, and distributed them to the poor from a military base and mansion of a local large landowner.

Includes chapters on the often difficult relationship between socialist, anarchist or social democratic movements and homosexuality in countries such as pre-First World War Netherlands, Civil-War Spain, the German Weimar Republic and post-1945 East Germany.

This collective work analyzes the origins and early stages of conscientious objection and insumision in Spain, its ideological debates and evolution. It includes an analysis of the national and international political context, a chapter on alternative civilian service in the Federal Republic of Germany, and a guide to becoming an objector.

Much-cited essay discussing categories of opposition.

This is the major compilation of declarations, press statements and articles by the protagonists of the insumisión campaign at the time of their disobedience. Therefore it includes accounts of various stages of movement, such as the formation of the first objectors’ groups, and defiance of the Conscientious Objection Act, and the struggle inside the prison in Pamplona. There are also manifestoes, letters of support and internal documents which record these struggles and others that arose out of them: for example the gender issue raised by antimilitarist-feminist women, and the campaign against military expenditure involving tax refusal.

A book about the beginning of the conscientious objection movement in Spain, which tells the story of Pepe Beunza, the first C.O. in Spain who embarked on disobedience under the Franco dictatorship. It is not only about Pepe’s personal experience, but also an account of the supporting campaigns and of the next conscientious objectors and the creation of MOC, the C.O. movement that still exists.

Explores abortion access in Catalonia for immigrant women in particular, within a context of austerity and the movement for separation from Spain.

The article recounts the emergence of the campaign #Cuéntalo in Latin America, which followed the wave of protests that occurred in Pamplona, Spain, after 5 men on rape charges were only convicted on a lesser charge. It reports that the rate of prosecution for femicide is very low in Latin America, and the region is considered one of the most dangerous in the world for young women and women’s safety.

In the early 1960s, the dictatorship approved the formation of various types of family and neighbours associations, which in fact opened spaces for oppositional networking.

This book, edited by the international coordinator of Ecologistas en Accion, covers 15 varied struggles against fracking around the world, and is intended to be a source of inspiration for continued resistance. Many are first person accounts, by those involved. Chapters cover personal opposition fracking in the courts or at the municipal level, resistance by local farmers to corporations backed by the government, as in Poland and Romania and the campaign for 'frack free' municipalities in the Basque territory of Spain. There are also accounts of resistance from Argentina, Algeria, South Africa, Australia, the UK (against drilling in Sussex) and Northern Ireland, and on the role of ATTA C in France. Includes a timeline and 'some snapshots' of the resistance, as well as some conclusions drawn by the editor.  

This article, which draws on fieldwork in Andalusia in 2015 and 2016, examines the general position on abortion there. It traces earlier history: before 1983, when abortion was illegal; and developments up to the 2010 law (passed by the Socialist government) which allowed termination of pregnancy in the early stages at a woman’s request. When the Conservative government under Mariano Rajoy introduced the very restrictive ‘Gallardon’ bill in December 2013, it prompted widespread and ultimately largely successful opposition, in which feminists were prominent. The author, who interviewed gynaecologists in public hospitals and certified private clinics, health service staff, and pro-abortion and feminist activists, examines the ‘discourses’ used in the debate over the Gallardon bill. She also assesses the impact of that debate on provision of abortion in Andalusia, with particular reference to the role of conscientious objection by medical staff and the stigma of abortion. 

Combines history of direct democracy from classical Greece to the Indignados, drawing on interviews with activists in contemporary movements, including Occupy, that are based on forms of participatory democracy and reject liberal parliamentary democracy.

Discusses post-Franco development of feminist movement and legislative results.

By US journalist in Spain. See chapter 7, ‘The Opposition’, pp. 185-228.