What happens to Marinaleda since 1979 far exceeds in importance the small Andalusian town
of 3,000 inhabitants. An example to follow, enrich, expand worldwide. ---- While the major
problem of countries that are said to "civilized" and "advanced" is "crisis" and massive
unemployment, Marinaleda there is only 5% unemployment, against 30% in the rest of
Andalusia. And everyone has a roof. At the cooperative makes city living, the workers work
in a relaxed atmosphere, music and without leaders. They feel work for them. And their
work is theirs. The production is first class, including olive oil, exported to Italy.
---- A social experiment ---- The city officials could hardly be corrupted by their
dependents: they do not touch a penny to occupy. They signed before a notary public
commitment to be the first to act to bring about economic and social progress in
Marinaleda and the last to benefit.
Rents for modern and spacious accommodations are 15, 52 euros per month. The nursery,
including food, costs 12 euros per month per child. The annual subscription for the pool
costs 3 euros. All municipal decisions are proposed at general meetings where the
inhabitants and residents debate and vote, including children. There are a hundred general
meetings per year. There are no offenders, no police and no fines .... And no capitalists,
bankers and speculators, who are the legal offenders of economic liberalism.
Another thing is to remember: what happens in Marinaleda was achieved without violence,
except that of the guardia civil , who came to oppose the people and inhabitants during
the years when they struggled peacefully to get to work the land. In 1936, when
pronunciamiento , Franco's military uprising, Franco murdered Republican Mayor Vicente
Cejas, his son and three dozen residents of this small town.
A story to follow
The day laborers , the vast mass of landless laborers, are opposed to large estates ,
wealthy owners of huge properties, often fallow. The largest owner in the area of
Marinaleda the Duke of Infantado. It has 17 000 hectares, which bring him a lot of money,
because it affects Europe "aid", which amounted to two million euros per year in the 1980s.
After the death of General Franco, is based in Marinaleda in 1977 Sindicato de Obreros del
Campo (Union of Workers of the Earth, SAT). It has 55 members from the beginning. Soon
they will be 600. He will fight to sustain and decent living conditions for the
population. First to get water and for the earth. As necessary, activists engage in
political struggle. And won the first free elections since the end of Francoism. In 1979,
Juan Manuel S?nchez Gordillo, a teacher born in 1952, becomes the youngest mayor
Marinaleda Spain. In his office, the Republican flag replaces the royal flag, Che Guevara
portrait of the king's. Mayor wearing a red shirt and a Palestinian scarf. He happened to
be beaten by the police. Twice organizations of the extreme right have tried to
assassinate him.
He claims to be inspired by the example of Che, Christ, Gandhi and Andalusian anarchists.
After his election, the struggle for land will continue for years, with farm occupations,
road blockades, line railway, airport ... The action focuses in particular on the grounds
of the Duke of Infantado . They are defended by the guardia civil, police regime.
Countless lawsuits are brought against the protesters, who suffer violence including
physical repression. The Mayor will make the prison. And will be constantly re-elected and
since his first election.
By dint of peaceful protests, a victory is won. In 1991, the Spanish government buys the
Duke in 1259 hectares of agricultural land and remit to the municipality of Marinaleda.
They will be grown as a cooperative. Every employee, regardless of his position, now
reaches 47 euros for 6 and a half hours of work per day, 7 to 14 hours. The average salary
in Andalusia is 30 to 35 euros per day.
The work is divided. If, for example, there 200 workers and need 50, is made of four
teams, each working 50 turns for one week. And everyone is paid for four weeks of work.
When there is a temporary increase in workload, we hire outside workers. It does not
increase the intensity or the usual working hours of the inhabitants of the cooperative
Marinaleda. If profits are made, they are not distributed but are used to create new jobs.
When unemployment appears with the onset of the economic crisis from 2008, it applies that
each family Marinaleda has at least one job in the cooperative so that it is not left
destitute. The principle is that everyone has the right to eat. And also housing. The
municipality expropriated amount of land around the city, then made freely available to
poor housing in the city. Building materials are provided through support of the state and
the region. The municipality pays an architect and skilled workers. Plans of the
architect, the future inhabitants of the whole house may propose amendments. Once housed,
they just pay 15.52 euros per month to repay construction materials. The result of this
self-build policy is one third of the inhabitants of Marinelada is housed in more than 300
houses.
And today?
Other action: in August 2012, with 400 union activists SAT, Mayor expropriated food
staples in two supermarkets in the region. It was distributed to homeless Seville
squatting a building block. During the same summer, wishing to offer more land to
cultivate, the mayor of Marinaleda with activists unionists SAT, served for eighteen days
the farm Las Turquillas Osuna, belonging to the Spanish army. Fallow, just twenty horses
live there. Occupying and occupants were chased by the police.
In November 2013, the court sentenced the region for this occupation Marinaleda Mayor and
the Secretary General of the SAT Diego Ca?amero a very large fine and seven months in
prison. After the confiscation of food made in August 2012, the Spanish Minister of the
Interior has blasted this action by saying that there were certainly problems, but we
should not react well, because it would be "the law of jungle. "
Basile (friend AL)
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