ABSTRACT
The experience of economic crisis in Europe from 2008 onwards witnessed a concerted effort to further marginalize organized labour, impose greater market discipline and further a neoliberal agenda. In response, the European crisis prompted a heightened attempt to harness the disciplining role of market competition. In the case of both the UK and Spain this response by political and economic elites has taken the form of a heightened attempt to impose the liberalization of the labour market and conformity to the diktat of market competition, with a further jettisoning of workers' rights and further attempts to undermine the organizational capacity of national trade unions. The work-related conflicts that have witnessed in both the UK and in Spain have therefore included efforts to create new social alliances, develop creative and unconventional tactics, and establish alternative social infrastructures, all in reaction to the exhaustion of 'traditional' trade union strategies.
