Desarrollismo, inmigración y poder político local: el problema escolar en Barakaldo

Abstract

This article analyses the actions of local authorities in Barakaldo during the fifties and sixties when immigration produced a fast increase in population. The educational situation of this municipality shows that local authorities were incapable of responding to challenges posed by such an increase. Heavy lacks in collective services remained during all the period. In the mid sixties, the regime's tolerance to criticism, especially from the press, allowed the public exposure of this local educational situation. The repressive authoritarianism of local and provincial authorities was frustrated by the reluctance of central power to punish the critics. For the first time, local authorities were forced to account publicly for the condition of these collective services. Mayor Inguza's failure to face this new reality led to his removal in 1967, after successive incidents with the press, and opened the way to the existence of relative debate over municipal questions which the regime tried to answer to in an authoritarian way since 1970.