Beltrán Roca

Political exchange, crisis of representation and trade union strategies in a time of austerity: trade unions and 15M in Spain

This article analyses the strategy of major Spanish trade unions in the context of economic crisis through the theoretical framework of political exchange. It focuses on a frequently ignored dimension of political exchange, namely the relationship between union leaders and the rank-and-file, which, under certain circumstances, can lead to a crisis of representation. Based on document analysis and semi-structured interviews, this article explores the strategic behaviour of Spanish trade unions and their relationship with the so-called 15M movement. It concludes that the ambiguous strategy of the major unions can be explained, not only as a result of their effort to preserve their institutional power and their political influence in the public sphere, but also as a response to the emergence of the 15M movement, which has made these organizations confront the threat of a crisis of representation.

Day labourers, radical unionism and collective action in Andalusia

This article analyses the strategies and the collective action of radical agrarian trade unions in Andalusia (the southern region of Spain) from the Political Transition until today. It traces the origins, evolution and recent transformations of the radical day labourer organisation, the Land Workers Union (Sindicato de Obreros del Campo) and the Andalusian Union of Workers (Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores). The article outlines the main factors for the survival of these organisations by using a synthetic and eclectic theoretical approach to collective action.

Blurring the borders between old and new social movements: the M15 movement and the radical unions in Spain

Abstract This article analyses the relationships between the M15 movement and radical labour organizations in Spain. Based on semi-structured interviews and document analysis, it concludes that to the extent that the economic crisis has evolved, the relations between the M15 and the trade unions have moved from mistrust to convergence. This is especially evident in the case of radical trade unionism with which the M15 shares several features. Although the M15 has been studied as an example of a ‘new social movement’, recent changes suggest certain shifts in relation to the type of activated subject and to the motivating factors for collective action. One of the consequences of this is the closeness to the institutions of the workers’ movement, which blurs the borders between old and new social movements.

Political activists' frames in times of post-politics: evidence from Kirchnerism in Argentina and Podemos in Spain

This article studies the transformation of the frames of political activists who come from autonomous social movements in Argentina and Spain. The cases of Kirchnerism in Argentina and Podemos and the local electoral coalitions in Spain, despite all their contextual and historical differences, follow the same pattern of politicisation. They took place within a general social tendency towards post-politics, understood as the reduction of politics to technical management, without questioning the existing capitalist order. In both cases, the model of politicisation starts within an exceptional political event: the social protests of 2001 in Argentina and the mobilisations of the 15M or indignados in Spain in 2011. Drawing on participant observation and semi-structured interviews, the article examines how social actors re-adjust their frames by managing the contradictions between their previous autonomous logic of action and their new institutional roles, according to the changing economic and political context. It concludes that there has been a clear process of politicisation, materialised in the rise of new generations of political activists, but to some extent the post-political situation remains both in the exceptional political moment and in the electoral coalitions, as the core of the economic system remains unquestioned.

Development Discourse under the Economic Crisis: An Analysis of the Communication Strategy of Spanish NGO

Abstract The economic crisis has radically and rapidly transformed the Spanish non-governmental sector. The present research analyses the discursive evolution of the ‘Development’ Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) in Spain between 2003 and 2013. It focused on the case of Oxfam Intermon, the Spanish affiliate of Oxfam International, which is a representative and paradigmatic example of an NGO that has incorporated a discourse which represented ‘development’ as a matter of capabilities and rights. This paper consisted of a critical discourse analysis of two documents of the annual reports of 2003/2004 and 2012/2013, paying attention to the context, semantic propositions, and discursive strategies. It concluded that the NGO’s ‘development’ discourse has been partially ‘re-politicised’ as a result of adaptations to economic crisis, changes in priorities of the Spanish population and the emergence of new social movements, such as the M15.

Individual and Family Strategies of Beneficiaries of Minimum Income Schemes. A Qualitative Inquiry

ABSTRACT This article studies the strategies of the users of the Minimum Income Scheme in Spain from a review of the theoretical perspective of the accumulation of assets, developed for the study of the dynamics of poverty and exclusion in other contexts. For this purpose, the analysis of the oral testimonies of the subjects interviewed is used. From the analysis of the biographical narratives of the subjects, a typology of strategies of accumulation of assets is constructed. This analysis serves as a basis for an assessment of the adequacy between the design of this social policy and the practices, perceptions and expectations of individuals who perceive it.

Social Policy in Dispute: Perceptions of Social Workers on the Minimum Income Schemes

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the Minimum Income (MI) scheme in Spain by analyzing the content of semi-structured interviews conducted with key informants (social workers of regional and local administrations). Drawing on the concepts of welfare regime and the approach that views social policy in terms of cultural practices, this study has focused on the perceptions on the policy process of public servants. The study confirms the initial hypothesis that the Minimum Income scheme was designed for a context of moderate unemployment and social exclusion, and in order to give response to the current context of massive poverty and social exclusion, the Decree that regulates it must be updated. It identifies five shortcomings in the MI policy, which include the delay in the concession, the lack of coordination among public administrations, the non-binding character of the “social report” of the social workers, the lack of integration efficiency, and the absence of control and monitoring procedures.

From state fetish to community fetish: a spatial analysis of 15M and Podemos in Spain

Purpose Over the last four years in Spain, a strong autonomist movement (15M), based on radical democracy and mistrust of any kind of instituted politics, seems to be turning toward statist and institutionalized politics. The purpose of this paper is to answer the following questions: Can we speak of a community fetishism, as opposed to State fetishism? Do autonomist social movements have a spatial project as opposed to a State spatial project? Why do horizontal and self-management-oriented social movements turn to the conquest of the State in the current framework? Design/methodology/approach The empirical evidence for this study stems from a qualitative methodological approach. The authors used two different types of sources. First, direct observations from the authors’ own engagement in social movements in Spain from 2011 to the present are used. Second, this work is part of a systematic research on spatial dynamics and the evolution of collective action in Spain. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with activists involved in social movements from 2012 to 2015, in which time informal interviews were conducted, and documents and observational notes were also collected. Findings Social movements have tended to develop alternatives to state spatial projects, partially as a result of an institutional setting that has been progressively closed to political alternatives to the neoliberal state. This last point leads to the posing of politics as completely independent of the political arena of the State (community fetish). From the first square occupations to the subsequent organization in local meetings, the 15M movement was the last expression of this tendency in Spain, while the turn on State political institutions responds to the obvious limitations of community fetishism in the context of the social and political tensions of the Spanish crisis. Originality/value This analysis contributes to the current debates on social movements in two ways. First, the authors investigate a usually neglected agent in the production of spatial political projects and strategies such as social movements. Second, the specific case of the 15M movement in Spain strongly shows the contradictions and limitations of the movements, which supposedly do not aspire to replace the State’s sovereign power through the idea of community fetishism.

Solidarity Networks of Spanish Migrants in the UK and Germany: The Emergence of Interstitial Trade Unionism

This article aims to study the collective strategies and social networks of young Spanish emigrants in the European Union, paying special attention to their perceptions of and practices regarding working conditions, as well as their relationships with the trade unions and social movements. The article focuses on two case studies of migrant self-organisation networks: the Union Action Group of Berlin, Germany and the Solidarity Federation in Brighton, UK. On the basis of semi-structured interviews and document analysis, the article concludes that the existing gap between trade unions and migrant labour can, under certain circumstances, favour the emergence of solidarity networks which in part play the role of trade unions. We call this type of organisation interstitial trade unionism.