Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo has become the face of the growing protest movement in Spain. The mayor of a small town in Southern Spain called Marinaleda, he has become well-known for leading combative protests and sit-ins, including a protest in a supermarket in which food was taken and redistributed to the poor. But Sánchez Gordillo has backed up his critiques of capitalism with a viable alternative. In his town of Marinaleda, there is full employment, people rent homes for 15 Euros a month, and everybody who works in the agricultural cooperative that was formed, including the mayor, earns the same salary.
The video:
Very interesting, and I’m glad that the people aren’t just taking this lying down. But I wonder about this: “a protest in a supermarket in which food was taken and redistributed to the poor”
Obviously this isn’t a long term solution as the supermarket would lose money and close down. Perhaps it won’t have a big impact though, as the supermarket can wear a loss this time, as long as it can make money in future. It would be nice if they took the attitude of “we can take a loss in hard times, to support the community” but I suspect they will respond with security measures of some kind, to reduce the risk of it happening again.