Juan Manuel Snchez Gordillo

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the rst or a Don Quixote.[7] Snchez Gordillo has also been called
paternal family name is Snchez and the second or a modern Robin Hood and the revolutionary of Andalumaternal family name is Gordillo.
sia by several Spanish newspapers, including the centerleft El Pas.[4][10] Gordillo has been criticised by several
Spanish citizens and ocials, including Alfonso Alonso,
Juan Manuel Snchez Gordillo (Spanish: [xwan manwel sante oio]; born 5 February 1952) is a a spokesman for the governing Peoples Party in Spains
Spanish politician, labour leader and history school national parliament, who said One cant be Robin Hood
time earning a salary as the sheri of
teacher. Since 1979 he has been the Mayor of Mari- and at the same
[8]
Nottingham.
naleda and since 2008 deputy for United Left (UL) in
the Parliament of Andalusia.[2] He is also leader of the
party Collective for the Unity of Workers - Andalusian
Left Bloc (CUT-BAI), part of UF and the rural workerss
union Andalusian Workers Union.[3]

2 2012 anti austerity march

On 16 August, Gordillo set o on a three-week march
to Madrid; on the way he planned to occupy banks and
to persuade local authorities to default on their debts
and refuse to implement austerity. So far this has included a brief occupation of a Unicaja branch in Mancha
Real.[11][12]

Snchez Gordillo has a long history of participating in

militant action for the benet of Spanish working class.
He helped to transform Marinaleda from a town blighted
by rural poverty into what Snchez Gordillo himself and
The Guardian have described as a communist utopia,[4]
where since the early 1990s there has been no need
for mortgagesthe town has virtually full employment,
communally owned land and wage equality. In August
2012 the town had only 5% unemployment, mostly recent
arrivals and economic migrants, contrasting with the rest
of Spain where unemployment is at 25%, and at 34% in
Andalusia.[2][4][5][6][7]

3 2013 sentence
In November 2013, a Spanish court sentenced Snchez
Gordillo and four others to seven months in prison for
occupying unused military land they wanted to be loaned
to farmers hard hit by the economic crisis.[13]

Robin Hood raids

4 References

In mid August 2012, Snchez Gordillo attracted considerable media attention both within Spain and internationally
due to his role in raids on supermarkets in nearby towns,
Seville and Cdiz, where food was stolen and handed out
to poor families and to Food banks. The items stolen
were part of a list chiey made of rice, sugar, pasta,
milk, olive oil and our. Snchez Gordillo did not personally remove food, but was outside in the car parks
while members of his union conducted the raids. Several of these members have been arrested and later released, though Snchez Gordillo himself has immunity
from prosecution. Snchez Gordillo has however said
he is happy to waive his immunity and go to jail for his
cause, in fact he said he expected to be jailed in order to
make his message spread further. English speaking media have widely reported that Snchez Gordillo is seen as
a hero and a national celebrity within Spain, comparing him to Robin Hood.[8][9][10] A dissenting voice came
from Jonathan Blitzer of the New York Times, who suggested he may fail to live up to the hype and be more like

[1] Juan Manuel Snchez Gordillo, alcalde de Marinaleda:

Soy comunista como Cristo, Ghandi y Marx (Spanish)
[2] A Job and No Mortgage for All in a Spanish Town. The
New York Times. 25 May 2009. Retrieved 18 August
2012.
[3] Cuarenta aos de lucha por la tierra de jornaleros en Andaluca (Spanish)
[4] Dan Hancox (2012-08-15). The Spanish Robin Hood.
The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
[5] Spain returns to Snchez Gordillo (in Spanish). El Pas.
2012-08-11. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
[6] Dan Hancox (2012-08-25). Expect more farm protests
in Spain. The Guardian. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
[7] Jonathan Blitzer (2012-08-22). The Don Quixote of the
Spanish Crisis. New York Times. Retrieved 2012-0830.

[8] Miles Johnson (2012-08-17). Robin Hood mayor vows

to occupy banks. The Financial Times. Retrieved 201208-20. (registration required (help)).
[9] Spanish 'Robin Hood' mayor becomes cult hero after ordering raids on local supermarkets before handing out
food to poor families. The Daily Mail. 2012-08-16. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
[10] Fiona Govan (2012-08-10). Spanish mayor hailed as
modern-day Robin Hood. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2012-08-31.
[11] Gordillos union occupies a bank in a symbolic action""
(in Spanish). Telemadrid. 2012-08-17. Retrieved 201208-20.
[12] Reuters (2012-08-15). Spanish 'Robin Hood' mayor sets
o on three-week march. The Guardian. Retrieved
2012-08-20.
[13] Spanish court sentences 'Robin Hood' mayor. The Huington Post. November 21, 2013. Retrieved October 6,
2014.

Further reading
Utopia and the Valley of Tears: A journey through
the Spanish crisis, Dan Hancox (2012) [a Kindle
ebook about Sanchez Gordillo and the town of Marinaleda].
Dan Hancox. (2014). The Village Against the World
London: Verso. ISBN 978-1-781682-98-2

External links
Marinaleda, el pueblo comunista que subsiste por
obra y gracia del capitalismo (Spanish)

EXTERNAL LINKS

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1

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Juan Manuel Snchez Gordillo Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Manuel_S%C3%A1nchez_Gordillo?oldid=697900192 Contributors: Kwamikagami, Bgwhite, Pstinchcombe, PamD, JustAGal, Guy Macon, SummerWithMorons, Ark25, Addbot, Yobot, FeydHuxtable, Andres arg, Omnipaedista, Trust Is All You Need, Kgrad, Gorigori, Dewritech, ZroBot, SporkBot, Funraiser, Marcocapelle,
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