Trade unions as retaining walls against political change: A Gramscian approach to remunicipalisation policies in a Spanish City. (March 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Roca, Beltran; Las Heras, Jon
• Is Part Of: Capital & class. Volume 44:Number 1(2020)
• Page Start: 3
• Page End: 25
• Publication Date: 2020-03
• Subjects: Antonio Gramsci -- methodology of the subaltern -- remunicipalisation -- Spain -- trade unions -- working-class fractions; Economics -- Periodicals; Socialism -- Periodicals; 330.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0309816818815242
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0309-8168

Abstract

The 2008 economic and political crisis produced a favourable opportunity structure for the emergence of new and innovative left-wing political projects and trade union strategies in Spain, especially in relation to remunicipalisation processes that sought to revert the neoliberal policy making at the local scale. The article deploys a Gramscian analysis on trade union discourse production in order to discern complex process of working-class formation and intra-class conflict in the beach cleaning units of the Andalusian city of Cádiz. Crucially, the oppositional stand defended by one of the largest trade unions in Spain towards remunicipalisation shows that trade unions can act as 'retaining walls' against political change in periods of social upheaval.