The Indignados as Autonomous Movement: Tracing Movement Continuity from the GJM

Much has been made of the ability of Spanish Indignados activists to manage deliberative consensus based assemblies of up to 5000 participants. Research on movement learning processes demonstrates that these abilities cannot be convincingly explained by commitment to principles or by transnational diffusion processes leading to the wholesale ‘adoption’ of practices. In fact, the effective management of large deliberative assemblies has been a key challenge of social movements in Spain over the past two decades, and the adoption of deliberative techniques has been slow and arduous (Flesher Fominaya 2005, 2007, 2010). The development of movement cultural practices over time within autonomous social movement spaces, and the deliberate definition of the Indignados as autonomous spaces in which institutional left groups/organizations were not welcome, therefore, are key factors behind the “spontaneous” ability of the Indignados assemblies to work effectively. I will build on my earlier work on autonomous social movements in Madrid active during the global justice movement to argue that claims for the innovative nature of the Indignados radical insistence of autonomy from political parties and trade unions is not a new feature of Spanish political culture as has been argued, but in fact represents an evolution and development of features of autonomous movements in Spain since the 1980s. A historical approach raises the question of the degree to which “novel” forms of movement practice inspired by external inspirational events such as Arab Spring or the Icelandic Revolution need to be compatible with already established forms of practice to take root and develop into a vibrant protest movement. This might also shed light on the cases where anti-austerity protests failed to develop as sustained contention, despite exposure to similar sources of inspiration.