Criminalizing Protest and Picketing during the Crisis: Historical Origins of a Recent Change

The economic crisis has increased activism in Spain as part of the reaction against cuts in public budgets in education and health care and the growth of collective dismissals. The role of regulation by the legal system is important to understand the historical trajectory and origins of the legal repression of activists.  Indeed this is one of the major characteristics of the Spanish model of regulation of collective rights.  The paper argues that the origins of the most recent elaboration of this model lie in the criminal code that applied during the Transition and in other political dynamics also rooted in that period of time.  Despite the positive role of the Spanish Constitution which declares freedom of association and strike as fundamental rights the regulation of these activities has become increasingly restrictive.  The paper analyzes the interaction of the legal system and political dynamics in the evolution of legal restrictions on labor activism, emphasizing throughout the historical origins of Spain’s distinctive pattern of development on this matter.