Spain: the indignados rebellion of 2011 in perspective

Abstract

The outbreak of the 15M or indignado movement in Spain in 2011 was the biggest episode of social unrest since the end of the Transition in the 1970s. Its emergence caught the political parties, media, trade unions and the most important community-based organisations and pre-existing social movements off guard. It targeted those who were identified as responsible for the recession and how it was handled – politicians and bankers –, and represented a global criticism of the existing political system and institutional framework. The 15M was not a youth movement, but a general movement criticising the current economic model, though it did have a large youth component in its initial stages. It was plural and diverse, and a wide broad spectrum of criticism and degrees of radicality and political awareness coexisted in the squares and camps. In general terms, the links between the indignados and the labour movement were weak and marked by mutual mistrust. The 15M movement was a milestone in the political trajectory of Spain and opened up a regime crisis that would deepen thereafter.

Keywords::

• 15M crisis labour
• transition indignation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1.Rancière, Momentos Politicos, 10–11.

^2. In particular, the prominent role played by radical anthropologists in their dual role of researcher/activists has been noted. See: Juris and Razsa, Occupy, Anthropology, and the 2011 Global Uprisings.

^3.Badiou, El Despertar.

^4. Zizek, Year of Dreaming, 173. (page number corresponds to the Spanish edition).

^5.Antentas and Vivas, Planeta Indignado.

^6.Castañeda, “Indignados of Spain.”

^7.McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly, Dynamics of Contention.

^8.Tilly, From Mobilization to Revolution.

^9.Antebi and Sánchez, “Plazas Fuertes.”

^10.Tilly, “Spaces of Contention.”

^11.Harvey, Rebel Cities.

^12.Lefebvre, Le Droit à la Ville.

^13.Dobry, Sociologie des Crises Politiques.

^14.Péguy, Victor-Marie comte Hugo.

^15.Zizek, Year of Dreaming Dangerously.

^16.Bensaïd, La Discordance des Temps, 238–9.

^17.Romanos, “Collective Learning Processes.”

^18.Campos and Marques, “Portugal: Precarios nos Quieres, Rebeldes Seremos”; Baumgarten, “Geração à Rasca and Beyond.”

^19.Bensaïd, Résistances, 245.

^20.Hessel, Indignez-vous!.

^21.Negrón, “La dignidad.”

^22.Rodríguez Suárez, “Dignidad/Indignación.”

^23.Bensaïd, Les Irréductibles, 106.

^24.Price Tangney, Stuewig, and Mashek, “Moral Emotions and Moral Behaviour.”

^25.Brown, “Indignación y Dignidad.”

^26.Spinoza, “Ética demostrada,” 141.

^27.Bloch, El principio de esperanza.

^28.Vivero, “Humor y Subversión de la Doxa”; Romanos. “There's No Crisis.”

^29.Han, En el Enjambre.

^30.Gramsci, Odio a los indiferentes.

^31.Romero, “Construyendo brechas.”

^32.Balfour and Quiroga, España reinventada.

^33.Gallego, El mito de la transición, 698.

^34.Löwy, Walter Benjamin, 183.

^35.Traverso, Le passé, modes d'emploi, 51.

^36.Bond, Elite Transition.

^37.Ibañez, Contracorriente, 174–5.

^38.Vidal-Beneyto. Memoria Democrática.

^39. Ibid., 158.

^40.Ortí, Transición postfranquista, 14.

^41.Aguila y Montoro, El discurso político, 132–3.

^42.Gallego, El mito de la transición.

^43.Pastor, Los nacionalismos.

^44. See note 38 above.

^45.Ortí, Transición postfranquista.

^46.Vidal-Beneyto, Memoria Democrática, 161.

^47. See note 42 above.

^48.Garcés, Soberanos e intervenidos.

^49.Gramsci, Selections, 451.

^50.Köhler, El movimiento sindical.

^51.Pastor, “La evolución.”

^52.Rodriguez, Del desencanto programado a la indignación colectiva.

^53.Romero, “Transición,” 167.

^54.Fontana, El futuro.

^55. See note 15 above.

^56.Della Porta and Diani, Social Movements;Della Porta and Rucht, Meeting Democracy.

^57.Eurostat, Youth Unemployment.

^58.Antón, Jóvenes y acción colectiva.

^59.Prensk, “Death of Command and Control.”

^60.Freixa, “Generación indignada.”

^61.Frappier, Poulin, and Rioux, Le printemps; Rojas, Sociedad bloqueada.

^62.Fernández, Sevilla, and Urban, “El topo que quería tomar (el) Sol.”

^63.Juventud Sin Futuro, Juventud Sin Futuro.

^64.Errejón, “La juventud sin futuro.”

^65.Barker, “Class Struggle and Social Movements.”

^66.Martínez Lucio, “¿Todavía Organizadores del Descontento?”

^67.Köhler and Calleja, “Transformations”.

^68.Köhler and Martýn Artiles, Manual de Sociología, 487; Martínez Lucio, “Spain: Regulating Employment,” 436.

^69.Köhler and Calleja, “Organizing Heterogeneity.”

^70. See note 66 above.

^71.Antentas and Vivas, Resistencias Globales.

^72.Martin Artiles and Molina, “Crisis, Economic Uncertainty and Union Member's Attitudes.”

^73. See note 67 above.

^74. Ibid.

^75.Munck, “Globalization.”

^76.Bensaïd, Le sourire.

^77.Moody, Workers in a Lean World; , Globalization and “Adventures of Emancipatory Labour”; Webster, “The Rise of Social-Movement Unionism.”

^78.Antentas, Spain: From the Rebellion.

^79.Taibo, Nada será Como Antes.

^80.Pastor, “El Movimiento del 15M.”

^81.Gramsci, Selections.

^82.Ezquerra, “Feminist Practice”;

^83.Bauman, “Entrevista.”

^84.Bauman, Liquid Modernity.

^85.Han, En el Enjambre; For positives views on swarms and 15M: Álvarez, Galledo and Gándara, Nosotros los indignados; Moruno “De la Bandada de Llops a l'eixam.”

^86.Klein, “Como una nube.”

^87.Corcuff, La Question individualiste.

^88.Rendueles, Sociofobia.

^89.Balfour, La dictadura.

^90.Bensaïd, Un monde.

^91.McNally, “Working-Class Formations,” 411.

^92. See note 90 above.

^93. See note 81 above.

^94.Gunvald Nilsen and Cox, “What Would a Marxist Theory,” 78.

^95.Pastor.”'El 15M, las Mareas y su Relación,” 228.

^96.El País, 19 May 2013.

^97.Giugni, “Outcomes of Social Movements.”

^98. I develop the current Spanish regime crisis in: Antentas, Spain: From the Rebellion.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Josep Maria Antentas

Josep Maria Antentas teaches Sociology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). He is the member of Centre d'Estudis Sociològics sobre la Vida Quotidiana i el Treball (QUIT), Institut d'Estudis del Treball (IET) at the UAB. His research focuses on social movements, labour and political sociology. He is the author of several articles on these topics and he has co-authored, with Esther Vivas, Planeta Indignado (2012) and Resistencias Globales (2009).