When the rural protest takes up/ occupies the road/pavement: the milk strike in Galicia (1978)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the origins, in the 70s, of a socio - economic conflict that has periodically had a great impact on Galician society and public opinion: the livestock breeder’s protests against the low prices that milk industrials paid for their milk. We analyze this conflict from different points of view: the structural change suffered for the Galician agriculture in the 60s and the 70s; the evolution of Spanish agricultural policy between the end of the dictatorship and the beginning of democracy; the time – line of integration of Spanish agriculture into the Agricultural Common Policy (ACP), and, specially, the newness in the set of peasant protest put in action during the so - called “Milk strike” (1978). To do that, we will use and combine different sources: daily press and unions press and oral testimonies from some conflict actors.