[1] The geographer David Featherstone has described the strike as "one of the most dramatic forms of anti-austerity protest to emerge in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007–08.

[1][10] The subsidies were designed to bolster Spain's energy sector as well as to support programs that would transfer miners to jobs in green infrastructure development.

The Interior Ministry said the injuries took place when police tried to remove roadblocks of burning tires and came under attack from missiles fired by miners.

[17] Richard Maxwell and Toby Miller have argued that the miners' tactics were rooted in their knowledge of the area's geography: "The battle lines they drew in this conflict were deeply rooted in knowledge of the roads, valleys, rivers and mountains where the miners took positions to outwit and out-gun, when they could, the better armed paramilitary"[18] The strike overlapped with a transport workers' strike in Asturias and León.

[21] As the miners neared the Puerta del Sol, the arrival of supporters swelled their numbers to thousands for a night protest lit by the lights on their hard hats.

[22] On 11 July, miners and trade unionists were met by thousands of supporters, and marched again through the center of Madrid,[23] towards the Ministry of Industry.

[31] Maxwell and Miller have argued that "The miners’ strike was not merely a local flair up [sic] of militant action", but rather "expressed a trans-territorial, multi-generational struggle against European government policies that threaten workers' rights, autonomy and well being.

"[18] They argue that the strike exemplified a problem identified by the cultural theorist Raymond Williams, characterized by the need to respond to environmental despoliation and the social effects of such a response.

[32] They conclude that "As the Spanish miners understood, the greening of industrial political economies is a strife-ridden, transformational moment that calls on worker participation to move livelihoods and cultural norms toward a society of sustainability.

"[33] Amaranta Herrero and Louis Lemkow have identified the framing of the strike as an anti-austerity struggle, the representation of the cutting of subsidies as an outcome of globalization, and the omission of discussion of technological changes in mining, the history of subsidies and the environmental problems caused by coal mining from the debate as factors in the consolidation of widespread support for the miners.