When Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo led a farm labourer's raid on a supermarket he was
redistributing wealth to the poor. You'd expect nothing less from the mayor of the
communist utopia of Marinaleda ---- 'Utopias aren't chimeras, they are the most noble
dreams that people have' … Mayor Sánchez Gordillo. Photograph: Cristina Quicler/AFP ----
Last week, and not for the first time, Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo found himself in the
Spanish headlines. Dubbed "Robin Hood" by El Pais, Sánchez Gordillo, the mayor of a small
town in rural Andalusia, led farm labourers into supermarkets to expropriate basic living
supplies: they filled trolleys with pasta, sugar, chickpeas and milk, left without paying,
and distributed the loot to local food banks. His reasoning was blunt: "The crisis has a
face and a name. There are many families who can't afford to eat."
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