http://elpais.com/elpais/2012/08/17/inenglish/1345206490_505506.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/15/spanish-robin-hood-mayor-march
"Robin Hood" mayor Gordillo leads laborers on "anti-unemployment" march
Coalition of leftist Andalusian forces wants government to turn over unused land and a guaranteed income for destitute
Laborers set off on their first of a series of marches in Andalusia to call attention to high unemployment in the region. / JULIO PÉREZ (EFE)
Shouting "workers united to fight unemployment," more than 400 farm laborers began on Thursday the first of a series of long marches across the Andalusia region, which will take them to a number of different provinces over the coming days.
The first stage of the march, some 20 kilometers between the towns of Jódar and Jimena, was led by United Left (IU) coalition mayor and regional deputy Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, and the leader of the Andalusian Union of Workers (SAT), Diego Cañamero. Several SAT members were arrested last week for their Robin Hood-style looting of supermarkets in Écija and Arcos de la Frontera.
"We want a special plan for employment in the fields, the turning over of public farms that are not being used, and a basic income for the 350,000 families in Andalusia who don't have any type of financial protection," said Sánchez Gordillo, who was one of the instigators of the supermarket raids. The IU politician hasn't been charged given his immunity as an elected official.
"Squatters"
The laborers are also demanding that the government stop throwing off families who have been squatting on empty plots owned by the state. Some of the "squatter" families, including children, are taking part in the marches.
The protestors selected Jódar as their point of departure because the town of 12,000 residents in Sierra Mágina has more than 40-percent unemployment. Each year, some 2,000 people leave Jódar to go to work in the asparagus fields in Navarre and the vineyards in Castilla La Mancha and France. However, because of the drought this season only about half of the field workers were called back to France compared to last year.
The marchers waved the flags of Cuba and the Communist Party as well as a banner with the image of Argentinean revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/15/spanish-robin-hood-mayor-march
Spanish 'Robin Hood' mayor sets off on three-week march
Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo plans to march across Andalusia and persuade local leaders to skip debt payments
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Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, mayor of Marinaleda and member of the regional Andalusian parliament representing the United Left party, speaks to activists. Photograph: Cristina Quicler/AFP/Getty Images
A Spanish mayor who became a cult hero for staging robberies at supermarkets and giving stolen groceries to the poor sets off this week on a three-week march that could embarrass the government and energise anti-austerity campaigners.
Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, mayor of the town of Marinaleda – population 2,645 – in the southern region of Andalusia, said food stolen last week in the robberies went to families hit hardest by Spain's economic crisis.
Seven people have been arrested for participating in the two raids, in which union activists, cheered on by supporters, piled food into supermarket carts and walked out without paying while Sanchez Gordillo, 59, stood outside.
He has political immunity as an elected member of Andalusia's regional parliament, but says he would be happy to renounce it and be arrested himself.
"There are people who don't have enough to eat. In the 21st century, this is an absolute disgrace," he told Reuters this week in an interview at the Atocha train station in Madrid, tugging on his greying beard.
Sanchez Gordillo says he wants to draw attention to the human face of Spain's economic mess – poverty levels have risen by over 15% since 2007, a quarter of workers are jobless and tens of thousands have been evicted from their homes.
The conservative government says an official has no business flouting the law.
"You can't be Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham," said Alfonso Alonso, spokesman for the ruling People's Party (PP) in the national Parliament. "This man is just searching for publicity at the cost of everyone else."
Media coverage of the supermarket stunt has made Sánchez Gordillo a national celebrity. While talking to Reuters he was approached by supporters who shook his hand and thanked him for his stand against the conservative government.
His home province of Andalusia is one of the parts of Spain worst hit by its crisis: one worker in three is jobless.
On Thursday he begins his trek from Jódar, the town with Andalusia's highest unemployment rate, planning to march across the region in blistering summer heat to persuade other local leaders to refuse to comply with government reforms.
He plans to tell mayors to skip debt payments, stop layoffs, cease home evictions and ignore central government demands for budget cuts, a message that infuriates Mariano Rajoy's government as it tries to convince investors in Spanish bonds that he can fix the battered economy.
The EU has demanded Spain shrink one of Europe's highest budget deficits to prevent the continent's debt crisis from spreading. Rajoy, in power since December, has ordered spending cuts and tax rises. With poverty rising, protests have gained momentum.
Despite the small size of the town where he has been mayor for 30 years, Sánchez Gordillo has long been a fringe figure on the national stage, known for criticism of the mainstream political parties.
He has introduced a cooperative farming system in Marinaleda and has repeatedly tried to take over land for farming, the latest target being 1,200 hectares of land owned by the Ministry of Defence.
His message used to draw only a small following during Spain's boom years when many farm workers, especially in agricultural Andalusia, abandoned fields to work in the profitable construction sector.
But now he has won far more attention as the collapse of a housing bubble forced thousands of unskilled workers back onto farms, while the government sank billions of euros of taxpayer funds into weak banks.
"They say I'm dangerous. And the bankers who are let off for fraud? That's not dangerous? The banks which borrow from the ECB for 1% then resell that debt to Spaniards for 6% - they're not dangerous?" he said.
and note at the FT link , the planned march includes occupying banks ...
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f1b089d2-e885-11e1-8397-00144feab49a.html#axzz23uALPesO
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