Spain's Robin Hood mayor and a radical nun speak out against market forces
abracad, · Categories: externally authored, spiritual politicsby Niels Bos
Two Spanish citizens have successfully rallied the voice of the people against government austerity measures that threaten the very fabric of life in Spain.
He is the 57-year-old mayor of an Andalusian town who has been dubbed "the Robin Hood of Spain" for organising anti-austerity marches across the region, occupying banks and supporting a food raid on a supermarket in order to distribute the food to the poor. She is a Benedictine nun, a Harvard-educated theologian and a doctor by training, who has emerged as a leading voice in Spain's "indignant" protest movement against the excesses of capitalism. They both have been making the national and international headlines separately for their outspoken ideas, words and actions.Â
Sánchez Gordillo: "The thieves who have caused this crisis must pay the consequences for what they have done."
Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, the mayor of Marinaleda, has gained national notoriety after he and a group of labourers refused to pay a supermarket for 10 shopping trolleys filled with staple foods, which they distributed to the area's food banks. Sánchez Gordillo explains: "That was to draw attention to the fact there are so many people in Spain who have a hard time getting enough to eat right now. We wanted to say, in the 21st century in Spain, this problem exists. Gandhi would have supported it." Mr Sánchez Gordillo has a long record of activism, having spent more than 30 years fighting for wealth redistribution through land occupations, cheap housing and co-operatives. Perhaps it was the long history of Andalusian struggle for land, dating back to Roman times, which inspired the villagers to occupy tracts of under-utilised land belonging to the local nobility more than two decades ago. After a struggle lasting 12 years, in a landmark decision back in 1992, the villagers were awarded hectares of land for their co-operative farming programme by the local government. Justice was served in the eyes of the townspeople, because as Sánchez Gordillo explains: "'la tierra es de quien la trabaja' - the land is for those who work it. We're insisting that natural resources should be at the service of people, that they have a natural right to the land, and that land is not something to be marketed." Successes like these have turned the small town of Marinaleda - with a little fewer than 3,000 inhabitants - into what some call a "communist utopia". But when challenged on the level of democracy in his constituency Sánchez Gordillo is quick to refer to Marinaleda's system of direct democracy, where all major decisions are made collectively in large assemblies. Bearing witness to the success of Marinaleda's co-operative policies, the gap between Spain's 27.2 per cent unemployment rate - the highest in the EU - and virtually full employment in Marinaleda fill the mayor with "hope and desperation, both at the same time". Since the beginning of the crisis, Andalusia, whose levels of unemployment are among the highest in the entire European Union, has become a focal point for the government's draconian austerity measures aimed at public services. Sánchez Gordillo strongly believes Spain's deep recession is the fault of its government. "Unfortunately, this [national] government's policies have not been directed towards the people's problems; they were directed towards the banks' problems," he says. "People are more important than banks, particularly when the profits are received by a handful of bankers who have speculated with basic human rights. The money they've provided doesn't reach the base of the social pyramid, which is why the economy is paralyzed. It's the small property holders and businesses who have been hurt the most. [We have] six million unemployed and twice that number living in poverty."  Â
Sánchez Gordillo, easily recognizable by his large beard and Palestinian-style scarf, worn in support of the Palestinian cause, said he was attacking banks for repossessing the homes of people unable to pay their mortgages, and supermarkets for damaging local farmers. "We are going to occupy all of the banks and supermarkets we are able to in Andalusia. The thieves who have caused this crisis must pay the consequences for what they have done."   Â
Not unlike his famous predecessor the actions and words of the 'Robin Hood mayor' have been received with a mixture of contempt and outrage by the authorities that he lashes out against. "One can't be Robin Hood and at the same time be earning a salary as the sheriff of Nottingham," remarked the parliamentary spokesman for the ruling party in Spain's parliament. But, as Sánchez Gordillo indicates, this project is about much more than its mayor and his reputation. "The most important thing we've done here is to struggle and obtain land through peaceful means, and to ensure that housing is a right, not a business. And as a village we work together, discuss and collaborate together: that's fundamental for any society, too."
Sister Teresa Forcades, the campaigning nun
Sister Teresa Forcades, a soft-spoken nun who resides at a peaceful convent in the mountains near Barcelona, has had her own share of fierce clashes with authorities on their home turf. Her rise to prominence occurred during the height of the global swine flu outbreak in 2009 when she recorded a video in her convent, which was viewed by more than a million people, expressing her concerns about the dangers of the vaccine. She quickly found herself in a polemical spat with the World Health Organisation and the pharmaceutical industry but Forcades, who trained as a doctor in the US and has a public health PhD, explains that after three months of studying the science she was simply astonished by the lack of scientific ground for any of the public policies and decisions regarding swine flu vaccination. "The campaign was not based on scientific fact, but was orchestrated to favour the industrial interests of the big pharmaceutical companies," she says. This affair turned out to be just the beginning of her public presence, as she began publically denouncing the austerity measures implemented by Spain's conservative government, which include cuts to health and education spending. The government imposed the cuts to rein in the public deficit. But Forcades said: "The cuts go against the needs of the majority and go in favour of the interests of a minority. The economic crisis in Spain has got to a point where it threatens the fabric of society," she continues. "This is something that has happened in Greece. The precariousness of people's lives is progressing at an accelerated pace and they cannot cope. The danger of violence and upheaval in some non-democratic way is a possibility. This is a version of capitalism where the rights and needs of people are pushed aside," she says, pointing to how taxes are higher on selling bread than on financial speculation. "Why should there be a tax on basic goods and no tax on financial trading?"
Recently Forcades has launched a political manifesto, in co-operation with Arcadi Oliveres, a Catalan economist who is one of the ideologues behind Spain's 'indignados' movement. Within just two days it collected 14,000 signatures. Among the duo's proposals is a unilateral declaration of independence by Catalonia, the nationalisation of banks and energy firms, protection of housing rights and tough measures against corruption. "We think it is imperative, necessary and possible to change society by non-violent means," said Forcades. While her critique of neoliberal capitalism might stem from a basic Christian desire to protect the weak, more specifically she says the basis of her religious convictions lay in Liberation Theology, a strand of Catholicism that emerged in the 1960s in Latin America which seeks to empower the poor. The Benedictine nun is also known to be a supporter of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, she even admits to praying that "the achievements of the Bolivarian revolution aren't thrown away". She explains: "When he's accused of being a dictator here, that's completely false; it's contrary to the facts. He's the leader who has passed through the most democratic validations (monitored and observed by the Carter Institute)." Visiting Venezuela in 2009 she found a country which in no way resembled the critical descriptions that had appeared in Spanish newspapers. "Marginalised people spoke as if what they thought and wanted was important in the politics of their country," she says. "They had a sense of counting, which is essential in democracy."Â Â Â
Finally, Sister Teresa's critical view on outworn power structures is not just reserved for the world outside the convent walls, in fact, she has commented that a structural part of the church is outdated, arguing openly for women priests while leaving contraception and abortion to individuals' consciences. She states: "The Roman Catholic church, which is my church, is misogynist and patriarchal in its structure. That needs to be changed as quickly as possible."Â
© Share International, September 2013
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Filed in: externally authored, spiritual politics
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