http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/wo...pagewanted=all


MARINALEDA, Spain — The people of this small Andalusian town have never been shy about their political convictions. Since they occupied the estate of a local aristocrat in the 1980s, they and their fiery mayor, Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, have been synonymous in Spain with a dogged struggle for the rural poor.



Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, the mayor for 30 years, says the economic crisis proves the wisdom of his socialist vision.


The New York Times

Marinaleda residents are assured work in the cooperative.


Now that Spain’s real estate bust is fueling rampant unemployment, this Communist enclave, surrounded by sloping olive groves, is thumbing its nose at its countrymen’s capitalist folly. Attracted by its municipal housing program and bustling farming cooperative, people from neighboring villages and beyond have come here seeking jobs or homes, villagers and officials say.

Mr. Sánchez, a bearded 53-year-old who this month celebrated three decades as mayor of the town of 2,700, says the economic crisis proves the wisdom of his socialist vision.

“They all thought that the market was God, who made everything work with his invisible hand,” Mr. Sánchez said on a recent morning, seated in his office below a portrait of Che Guevara. “Before, it was a mortal sin to talk about the government having a role in the economy. Now, we see we have to put the economy at the service of man.”

While the rest of Spain gorged on cheap credit to buy overpriced houses, the people of Marinaleda were building their own, mortgage-free, under a municipal program, he said. If a resident loses his job, the cooperative hires him, he said, so nobody wants for work — a bold claim in a region with 21 percent unemployment.

Vanessa Romero, who moved here with her family from Barcelona in January after she and her husband lost their jobs, said she was drawn by the prospect of work and facilities like the nursery school, which costs about $17 a month. The couple make about $1,500 a month each working for the cooperative.

“If a town like this, with half the resources of other towns, or less, can provide work for people, why can’t other places do the same?” said Ms. Romero, whose parents were born in the town.

Critics say Mr. Sánchez’s claims are exaggerated and that he has succeeded in dividing up misery rather than creating wealth. By promoting low-productivity farm jobs, he has kept voters dependent on him for work and handouts, they say.

“This village has stagnated,” said Hipólito Aires, a Socialist town council member and gas station attendant. He said the political atmosphere in Marinaleda was stifling and that the mayor ostracized his opponents — a sentiment echoed by several residents who would speak only anonymously.

“Sánchez Gordillo criticized the local lords, but now he acts like them,” Mr. Aires said. “The biggest landowner in Marinaleda today is the mayor.” He was alluding to the mayor’s presumed power over the town and its 3,000-acre farm, though Mr. Sánchez, who does not own a car, says he owns no property other than his home.

Marinaleda became a center of leftist activism after Mr. Sánchez first won the mayoral election in April 1979 as a representative of the United Workers’ Collective, a Communist farm workers’ organization that promotes government through popular assemblies and believes that Andalusia should be independent from Spain. Over the years, the residents have occupied farms, picketed government offices and held hunger strikes to demand work and land.

Their most prominent campaign culminated in 1991 with the regional government expropriating the 3,000-acre estate from the Duke of Infantado and leasing it to the town. The resulting cooperative, about seven miles north of Marinaleda, grows labor-intensive crops like artichokes, hot peppers, broccoli and broad beans, as well as wheat.

These days, Mr. Sánchez’s populism permeates life in this self-anointed “utopia for peace,” which has no municipal police (a savings of $350,000 a year, officials say).

Political murals and revolutionary slogans adorn the town’s whitewashed walls and streets are named after Latin American leftists. Every few weeks, the town hall declares a Red Sunday over a bullhorn and volunteers clean the streets or do odd jobs.

For one hour on television each Saturday, the mayor holds forth on politics or recites his own poetry, his trademark Palestinian scarf draped round his neck. He has rallied the residents around a plethora of causes, from resisting genetically modified crops to supporting the Sahrawi people’s struggle for self-determination in Western Sahara.

Comparing himself with another, though far more famous, bearded Communist, Mr. Sánchez said that he had been jailed seven times and that he had survived two assassination attempts, one from a fascist agitator and the other from an enraged police officer.

“His problem is, he is a permanent revolutionary,” said Mr. Aires, adding that “half the people at his rallies don’t even know where Palestine is.”

Many, though, admire his zeal.

“I wish our mayor would do something like this for us,” said Francisco Pradas from the nearby town of Écija, who was picking beans at the cooperative farm on a recent morning. The farm manager, José Martin, said demand for jobs from other villages had increased since the crisis.

Back in town is the other jewel in Marinaleda’s Communist crown: a colony of neat, three-bedroom houses, built on municipal land with materials from the regional government. Prospective owners donate about 450 days of their work to the construction. The rub: to prevent people from profiting, residents cannot sell their houses.

Even so, demand from residents of nearby towns rose so much over the past few years that the town had to limit the program to long-term residents. About 350 houses have been built so far and the town plans to add 250 in the next two years.

Analysts and political opponents dismiss Mr. Sánchez’ populist bluster, noting that while he portrays Marinaleda as a Communist oasis, it depends heavily on money from the regional and central governments it decries. The materials for each house, for example, cost the regional government about $25,000.

Salvador Becera, an expert in anthropology at the Center for Andalusian Studies in Seville, said Mr. Sánchez had brought social equity to an uneducated, economically oppressed community. But his vision was anachronistic, he said, and the future of Andalusia lay not in the fields, but in industry and services.

“Right now, they can puff out their chests because the economy is in crisis,” Mr. Becera said. “But what if they had the chance to get rich? Then who would stay in this little paradise that Sánchez Gordillo has created?”

Mr. Sánchez, though, is unshaken.

“We have an election every four years,” he said simply. “If people elect me with an absolute majority each time, I must be doing something right.”



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Que Jrande el Gordi...ya hasta los "mericanos" le van a copiar su forma transparente de llevar acertadamente un pueblo, donde no hay paro, ni jambre, y todos tienen un techo donde poder comer, cagar, dormir o follar con toda intimidad.

...pero que van a copiar....
... este esto es parte de lo proyectamos al exterior?
... utópico pero anticuado y anacrónico

El 'bandolero' Sánchez Gordillo, “héroe nacional” en la Prensa extranjera:


A raíz de las declaraciones del popular Alfonso Alonso, la cobertura internacional de la 'hazaña' de Sánchez Gordillo le ha convertido en una celebridad mundial


Al portavoz del PP en el Congreso le ha salido el tiro por la culata. El pasado domingo, 12 de agosto de 2012, Alfonso Alonso mostró su profunda indignación por la repercusión que el diputado de IU y alcalde de Marinaleda, Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, tuvo en la Prensa internacional, calificando al líder de los asaltos a supermercados como un "Robin Hood que busca la fama a costa de la imagen de España".

Y por esas cosas que tiene la prensa y que los políticos no terminan de entener, esas declaraciones del portacoz del PP en el Congreso han estimulado la cobertura mediática internacional de la "hazaña" de Sánchez Gordillo, hasta converti al paisano en una auténtica celebridad mundial.

Numerosos medios extranjeros le caracterizan ya como un "héroe nacional" que roba en supermercados para dar de comer a los pobres.

La propia agencia Reuters, prontuario de los ricos y de todos los financieros del planeta, presentaba hace unos días al edil comunista llegando en tren a la estación de Atocha y siendo recibido por las masas como un coloso.

‹
"Fue abordado por decenas de seguidores que le estrechaban la mano y le agradecían su posición contra el Gobierno conservador". ›

La popularidad de Gordillo es tal, que ha sido invitado el próximo 22 de agosto a Benicàssim (Castellón) para ofrecer una charla en el Foro Social del festival de reggae Rototom Sunsplash bajo el título "Marinaleda: la utopía de un pueblo sin crisis".

Fuentes de la organización aseguran que la presencia del político andaluz estaba programada desde hace tiempo y, por lo tanto, no tiene nada que ver con los acontecimientos registrados en la última semana, pero cuesta creerlo.

Reacciones
El presidente del PP-A, Juan Ignacio Zoido, criticó este 15 de agosto "el entreguismo" del PSOE-A a IU, su socio de gobierno, después de que la formación se haya negado a reprobar en el Parlamento andaluz la petición de los populares a Sánchez Gordillo.

Zoido, consideró que no se pueden "justificar" acciones de este tipo:

"Suponen un mal ejemplo hacia el interés de la sociedad española, habiéndose ofrecido una imagen patética hacia el exterior, con una conducta reprochable desde el punto de vista penal y político". ›

El portavoz del Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores (SAT), Diego Cañamero, ya anunció que llegó a un acuerdo con los responsables de la cadena Carrefour, que se comprometieron a donar doce carros llenos de comida para los servicios sociales, y que fueron recogidos este 15 de agosto por representantes de los ayuntamientos de Bornos, Puerto Serrano y Espera, en la provincia de Cádiz.


El 'bandolero' Sánchez Gordillo,

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El dia que se le acaben las subvenciones ya veremos donde acaba Marinaleda y el barbas palestino...

El día que se acaben las subvenciones, veremos donde acaban... La iglésia, las renovables, los partidos políticos y sus fundaciones, los sindicatos, los terratenientes y demás parásitos de la teta pública...

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Ya están los sionistas de Wall Street sembrando cizaña.

Como les mola que nos hundamos en el fango aplaudiendo a vividores y nostágicos.

Aquí comprobamos lo verdaderamente "antisistema" que son estos "revolucionarios".

Ni mas ni menos que la meca del capitalismo a sus pies.

Y no es la primera vez que estos periodicos de la casta universal elogian a nuestros salvadores patrios (Garzón).

Ya hemos visto lo que pasa en otros municipios cuando se acaban, la gente a la calle y a emigrar. Aquí parece que se quedan más o menos igual, el comunismo es eso, ni grandes alegrías ni grandes sobresaltos.

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