The showdown of 1976. Tarragona mobilizations on the Spanish context

Abstract

After Franco’s death on November 1975 la most mobilized part of the opposition struggled to break with his political regime, which seek for its survive beyond the dictator’s life. Social and political conflicts, which became the preferred model to defy the regime, achieved a huge intensity in the main industrial and urban regions of Spain. Along the dictatorship, the province of Tarragona was secondary in terms of social mobilization. Although, political opportunities generated by the conflictive context stablished the conditions for a general strike in the local level. The attempt was a failure on its terms but it supposed the highest peak of mobilization in the city during the dictatorship. Its political consequences became obvious when three city councilors resigned and the Civil Governor was dismissed. The conflict hardness was only exceeded by and unprecedented police violence, which clearly conditioned the far-reaching political showdown against the Francoism on 1976.