Between Autonomy and Hybridity: Urban Struggles Within the 15M Movement in Spain

  • Miguel A. Martínez López
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology book series (PSEPS)

Abstract

The 15M or Indignados movement appeared on the public stage on 15 May 2011 with a massive demonstration that took place simultaneously in more than 57 Spanish cities after a call launched by a coalition of groups then named DRY (Democracia Real Ya, ‘True Democracy Now’). Their first manifesto opposed the austerity and neoliberal policies implemented by the social-democratic government of the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) in the last period of its term in power, after the global financial crisis of 2008. The conservative party, PP (Partido Popular), was implementing similar measures in the municipalities and regional governments under their control, so they were criticised as well. When the PP won the general election in November 2011 and intensified the austerity measures, the outrage increased. Since its inception, the 15M movement gained wide social recognition and was able to mobilise thousands of activists and sympathisers, especially when dozens of squares in major city centres were occupied with tents, sit-ins, public assemblies and various improvised infrastructures.

Keywords

Community Garden Civil Disobedience Green Tide Autonomous Movement Spanish City 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

Acknowledgements

A significant improvement on the original version of this paper has been possible thanks to the valuable comments made by the participants in the workshop ‘Understanding Urban Uprisings, Protests and Movements: European Cities and the Crisis of Neoliberalism’ (8–9 October 2014, University of Gothenburg) and, in particular, by Margit Mayer, Håkan Thörn, Ove Sernhede and Gulcin Lelandais. This research is supported by a grant of the City University of Hong Kong: ‘Multi-Dimensional Outcomes of Occupy Movements: A Comparison between Hong Kong and Madrid’ (project number 7200435-POL).

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Copyright information

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Miguel A. Martínez López
    • 1
  1. 1.City University of Hong Kong■Hong Kong

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