With the arrival in power and the subsequent break with the UGT, the civil society theme only interested the Socialists insofar as it meant strengthening the position of the state in society, and strengthening their position within the state.
The new social movements in the Spanish State emerged at a different time and in a different manner than in the rest of the Western countries — as a result of the Franco dictatorship, the late introduction of the welfare state and the centrality of the social conflict between classes.
The speed of economic growth and social change is the main reason why movements and individuals hold values marked by a cross-section of both economic and social concerns. This reflects, as Murillo has noted, that Spanish society "is passing from a pre- to a post-industrial phase without having even gone halfway through the industrial phase itself."
But above all, the new and traditional social movements in the Spanish State of the 1970s are distinguishable from the rest of the Western countries in that they had not yet gone through the experience of the representative democracy in which they had such great illusions.
In 1982, the distinguishing feature changed: the ensemble of social movements had not yet gone through the experience of the social democrats in power.
After the initial discouragement with the first moves of the PSOE government, the
SPANISH STATE Racist murder in Madrid LUCRECIA Perez, a thirty-three year old Dominican left her country, her daughter and husband three months ago to come to Spain and work as a domestic in a rich Madrid neighborhood. Like other Dominican immigrants in the Spanish state, her goal was to work, save some money and return to her country.
On Friday, November 13 of this year, she was murdered by a terrorist attack in the Four Roses, an abandoned discotheque that served as home to her and other Dominican immigrants in a neighborhood where many old right-wing aristocratic families live.
There are about 15,000 Dominican immigrants in the Spanish state. Eighty percent are women like Perez who work mostly as domestic servants, are between 25-45 years old, have small children and come from the Barahona region in the south of the Dominican Republic.
The Association of Dominican Women in Spain (AMDE) and other Dominican immigrant associations have laid responsibility for the attack on the municipal authorities and the Interior ministry as well as the right wing forces who have led an antiimmigrant campaign around the slogan "Stop immigration. Spanish first!".
In fact, the bullets used to kill Perez were manufactured in the Santa Barbara factory - the same place from which the Spanish state security forces and army get their weapons. Furthermore, the killers assumed regulation military stances as they fired on the immigrants.
A series of mass protests against the murder have been taking place. * new social movements began in an uneven fashion to re-orient their intervention in society. Simultaneous to the "modernization" proposed by the PSOE there appeared an "updating" of the ideas and the aims of the organizations of the new movements.
More clearly than in the pre-October 1982 period, the social movements appeared as defenders of new values and rights, and as critics of a model of growth and society. The popularity of the demand for what became known as "the third generation of rights and liberties" presented great responsibilities to certain of the social movements that had not only lost their innocence but also had to swim against the tide right in the middle of the ReaganPope John Paul II era.
Unconventional activities
This could explain why these movements became "reactive" movements in the 1980s, as opposed to their "pro-active" status of the 1970s. Almost from the beginning of the Socialist mandate, the movements created new forms of unconventional political activity that involved a sizeable minority of the politicized part of the population.
The new social movements, particularly the peace movement, became in the 198386 period what Claus Offe has called "channels for demands not taken up by the system". . Thus they became new political actors who, without basing their legitimacy on the ballot box, struggle for political objectives that affect not only their own group, but also society in its entirety. This is the central challenge the social movements posed to the PSOE.
In its strategy towards the government, the movements have scored few successes; however, they have created social networks steeped in a new culture and involving wide layers of society.
A very positive feature of this decade has been the experience of alliance and convergence between the "old" and "new" movements - during such times as the Gulf War, the general strikes and the Rio Forum. The movements have shed light on the contradictions of modern society and the limits of the welfare state; and they have achieved social legitimacy thanks to its politics which go beyond the 1 1 limits set by the State. *
PHILIPPINES
IN the following pages, we print a long report by Walden Bello on perceptions