Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Environmental Movement in Spain: A Growing Force of Contention

2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 12; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13608740701495244

1743-9612

Manuel Jiménez-Sánchez,

Political Conflict and Governance

Abstract This paper analyses the evolution of the environmental movement in Spain, its organizational origins during the transition to democracy, its consolidation during the 1990s and its configuration as a central actor in the country's current contestation panorama. The movement's specific pattern of evolution is interpreted as the result of the interplay between political context (political opportunities) and movement identity features. The main conclusion is that the movement has undergone a particular process of organizational consolidation which, contrary to the dominant view in social movement literature, has led to (increasing) political leverage, while maintaining essential features of participatory organizational models. The movement's influence on specific policy processes and its relevant organizational role in recent anti-globalization mobilizations are considered examples of this process of organizational consolidation and increasing political leverage. Keywords: Social MovementsPolitical ParticipationEnvironmental ProtestsEnvironmental PolicyEnvironmental GroupsSpain Acknowledgements Most of the empirical information analysed was obtained from group surveys conducted in 1999 (hereafter the ‘TEA99 survey’), the analysis of a protest event dataset drawn from El País newspaper for the 1988–97 period, personal interviews with movement representatives, internal documents of the organizations themselves, and general population surveys. Both the protest event analysis and the surveys of organizations were conducted as part of the international research project funded by the EU known as the TEA: the Transformation of Environmental Activism in Europe (Rootes Citation2003; for methodological details see Fillieule & Jiménez Citation2003). Eighty different groups were surveyed in Spain using a self-administered questionnaire. The final sample of 31 groups can be considered representative of environmental groups active in Spain in the 1990s. I am grateful to John Karamichas for his support and valuable remarks, as well as to the journal editor and two anonymous referees for their comments. Notes [1] This moderate protest repertoire can also be explained by the minor and tardy incorporation of extreme left activists at a time when violence was eschewed by these forces (with the obvious exception of Euzkadi ta Askatasuna [ETA]). On the evolution of the extreme left during the transition and the use of violence see Castro (Citation1994) and Laíz (Citation1995). [2] These are defined as public statements of status and affiliation which involve relations of mutual identification and solidarity and enhance potential common action (see Friedman & McAdam 1992). [3] At the national level, favourable political opportunity windows have been more frequent in periods of greater electoral competition (i.e. critical elections), especially when the Socialists have been in opposition (early 1980s and early 2000s). [4] AEDENAT was originally based in Madrid but has always had a national orientation, addressing environmental issues from a state-level perspective. In the late 1980s, the organization began to spread. By 1998 it had 50 local branches in nine of the 17 Autonomous Communities. [5] With 300 local groups in all but one Autonomous Community (the Balearic Islands), this confederation has become the main reference for the movement in Spain and has maintained the participatory organizational model of both CODA and AEDENAT. In 2005, it had over 30,000 members and 1,000 activists ( < www.ecologistasenaccion.org>). [6] WWF-Adena ( < www.wwf.es>) has 25,000 members and 600 volunteers. SEO-Birdlife (1954) has increasingly gone beyond its scientific scope to include political pressure activities. In 2005 the organization had 8,000 members and 27 local groups. Other organizations active at the state level are the CIDN (Consejo Ibérico de Defensa de la Naturaleza/Iberian Council for the Defence of Nature) and Amigos de la Tierra (Friends of Earth—Spain). The CIDN ( < www.bme.es/cidn>) functions as a lobbying group working out of Madrid and comprises nine large regional organizations from Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar, with diverse organizational and ideological profiles. In total they have 35,000 members. Amigos de la Tierra ( < www.terra.org>) functioned until the late 1990s as a federation of groups, but did not play the prominent role seen in other countries such as in Britain. [7] Although the available data are not very reliable, a moderately conservative estimate points to the existence of 1,000 groups active in the late 1990s; twice the number estimated only one decade earlier, albeit with differing degrees of activity (Jiménez Citation2005). [8] For instance, while the Women's Institute distributed around €7.8 million in grants to women's rights NGOs in 1998, the Ministry for the Environment subsidized groups working in this field to the tune of just €0.6 million (Jiménez Citation2005). [9] Obviously there are exceptions. Among both state-wide and large regional organizations we find groups that employ paid staff to carry out their technical work. In 2000 Greenpeace had 37 employees, while WWF-Adena had 26 in 1997. In the case of Ecologistas en Acción, most of the local groups do not have any paid staff. In 2005, the confederation (national office) had 11 paid staff members and many of the regional federations also had at least one employee. [10] In the case of industrial waste incinerators alone, at least 25 projects were rejected between 1990 and 1995 due to local social opposition (Jiménez Citation2001). [11] Immediately after the government made the first draft of the National Hydrological Plan public in 2000, a mobilization process got underway in October. 300,000 people marched in Saragossa, followed by other large demonstrations in 2001 in Barcelona (250,000) and Madrid (300,000). For the environmental opposition to water policy see Jiménez (Citation2005) or the Ecologistas en Acción webpage: < www.ecologistasenaccion.org>. The Nunca Máis movement also produced large demonstrations, not only in Galicia (where for instance more than 100,000 people demonstrated in Santiago and in A Coruña in December and February, respectively) but also in other Spanish localities. In February 2003, 240,000 people demonstrated in Madrid, almost one million according to the organizers (see El País, 24 February 2003). Environmental organizations also played a key role in mobilizing volunteers that travelled to Galicia to clean up the Prestige oil spill as well as in the high political profile of these groups. For the Prestige case and the Nunca Máis movement see Aguilar and Ballesteros (Citation2004) or the movement's webpage: < http://www.plataformanuncamais.org/>. [12] The campaign included an international counter-summit held during the official World Bank events in Madrid. Protests included the typical action repertoires that would become so popular in the anti-globalization events a few years later: demonstrations in the centre of Madrid, the symbolic blockade of the meeting sites, boycotts and so on. A great many organizations took part, ranging from ecologists (Ecologistas en Acción, Greenpeace, Amigos de la Tierra) and pacifists to leftist parties (IU, Batasuna) and international solidarity networks. [13] This is an informal network composed of diverse anti-capitalist activists linked to the ecologists, the squatters' movement, leftist parties (such as Izquierda Unida), minority trade unions (such as the libertarian CGT [Confederación General del Trabajo/General Confederation of Work]), etc. Although MAM progressively lost momentum after 2000, it did serve to foster an anti-EU discourse and to coordinate new campaigns after the Seattle protests. It was particularly relevant in the organization of the Euromarches (1997–2000); a European campaign that helped to introduce the global justice movement discourse into labour organizations and vice versa, bringing labour issues into the new global movements (Jiménez & Calle Citation2007). [14] Nodo50 was originally promoted by the peace organization Sodepaz and Ecologistas en Acción; see < http://www.nodo50.org/faq.htm#como>. [15] Like the state encounter of ‘alter-globalization’ networks in Girona in 2001 and an annual social movement summer school.