La SEAT: motor de llibertat

New release

Una lluita obrera a la Barcelona antifranquista

Author/s: Jordi de Miguel (script) and Cristina Bueno (Illustrator)
Collection: Barcelona Memory in Comic Strips

The graphic novel that commemorates 18 October 1971: the day of the occupation of the SEAT factory in Barcelona and a turning point for the workers’ movement and the anti-Francoist struggle.

As they walk the streets of La Marina, the neighbourhood where the factory stood, a group of ex–SEAT workers look back on the workers’ movement that developed there, especially the strike of 18 October 1971, right in the middle of Barcelona’s anti-Francoist struggle.

The comic reviews SEAT’s relationship with the city from when the company was created in 1950 and describes the control mechanisms used to snuff out any internal rebellion. It also highlights the role of the Comissions Obreres and their clandestine activity, especially in the events of 18 October 1971, when thousands of workers occupied the SEAT premises in Zona Franca in protest against the dismissal of trade union representatives.

The police’s suppression of the strike resulted in Antonio Ruiz Villalba being shot and killed, which marked a turning point in the anti-Francoist movement and the trade union struggle.

Neighborhoods

History

Politics

Society

Novel·la gràfica

Moviment obrer

Franco's regime

What are them saying

"El resultat és un treball periodístic i documental rigorós sobre un dels símbols de la memòria obrera de Catalunya."

CRÍTIC | Laia Soldevila 14/11/2025

""El còmic et permet jugar amb molts llenguatges i et permet fer accessible una història amb el mateix rigor i els mateixos continguts que un assaig duríssim de 400 pàgines que costa d'empassar. Amb un còmic tens una porta d'entrada a una història sense fer-la necessàriament pueril.""

Públic | Marc Font 30/11/2025

"El periodista explica que comenzó un trabajo de reconocimiento tanto de los protagonistas de aquella huelga como del barrio donde, además de la factoría, se ubicó la colonia laboral llamada Ciudad Seat, una colonia laboral con construcciones verticales y diferentes servicios que se ofrecía a los obreros y sus familias para facilitar tanto la vida de estos como para su control, ya que era la mayor concentración de trabajadores de España en aquel momento."

El Diario.es | Jordi Sabaté 25/11/2025

Jordi de Miguel

Journalist. A contributor to Crític, he has also written for media outlets such as Públic, Ara and Directa, among others. He is a member of the journalists’ collective Contrast, with which he produced the documentaries Centreamèrica: Terra en litigi and Les llavors de Berta Cáceres. Alongside the illustrators Susanna Martín and Andrea Lucio, he has published the comic Històries de la Model (Barcelona City Council, 2023) and the graphic novel adaptation of Homenatge a Catalunya by George Orwell (Debate/Rosa dels Vents, 2019), respectively.

Cristina Bueno

Illustrator. She has published Aquí vivió: Historia de un desahucio (Nube de Tinta, 2016), with text by the writer and journalist Isaac Rosa. She is the co-author of the book Pintas mucho (Stendhalbooks, 2018) and wrote and illustrated the comics Quan tanco els ulls, recordo (Norma, 2018) and El club del clima: Parlem d’emergència climàtica i gènere (Norma, 2024), both for the Red Cross. In collaboration with the musicians Yacine Belahcene and Santi Eizaguirre, she published the comic Divendres cuscús (Pol·len Edicions, 2024).