ABSTRACT
The change of regime and political system that took place in April 1931 was charged with hope and expectation. It seemed to herald the ‘regeneration’ of a corrupt and decadent system, and, as a result, many expected transcendental change. They hoped for a state that would be a benefactor, willing to assist the most needy. They expected a government which would understand the problems of the working class and the struggle of agricultural workers for land, and take heed of those who, for so long, had complained of economic stagnation. These aspirations were expressed in petitions to the authorities, in public meetings and demonstrations, in electoral campaigns and in strikes and other acts of civil disobedience. Collective protests and mobilisations swept aside the barriers that had previously contained them. Some of these protests bore the unmistakable stamp of class struggle, in which groups confront each other on the basis of their relationship to the means of production. Others, a considerable number of them, were related to more traditional problems, such as the unresolved question of land use and exploitation. This was a recurring problem in rural Spain, which could lead to anything from robbery to the occupation of estates. Finally, there were the less visible and scarcely articulated manifestations of dissent, with protagonists and means which Rudé identified some time ago as pre-industrial forms of protest.
