Entre la política, la economía y el discurso. La protesta contra la dictadura franquista en la provincia de Albacete, 1970-1976

Abstract

During the 1970s the Franco regime had to face the extension of thriving social and political unrest that, although it did not overthrow it, eroded its dictatorial structures and set the political scenario in which the Spanish transition to democracy took place. This growing cycle of protests was fostered by the rapid economic development, the social changes and the political reforms that increased the chances and prospects for mobilization. But the mounting social conflict on this period, when agitation also spread to traditionally passive provinces like Albacete, was not only the automatic result of the new opportunities opened by the social, economic and political changes alone. Our contention is that, focusing in the case of Albacete, the structural and organisational conditions that fuelled the blooming protest interacted with the collective definitions and interpretations of the social reality collectively constructed in the everyday life of the civil society, and that justified the action against the authoritarian rule. From this point of view, although the students of the late Franco regime have especially concentrated on the workers communities of the main industrial areas and in their repertoires of action, the case study of Albacete proves important in order to understand the latent processes of microbilization through which the contentious action undertaken by other social agents acquired new meanings and legitimacy.