Rob Horgan
IT may have been all change in town halls across the country but one mayor in Sevilla refuses to budge.
Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, mayor of Marinaleda, won a record NINTH local election with an absolute majority of 73%.
The IU candidate, who has been top of the tree in Marinaleda since 1979, has largely been hailed as a key campaigner for working class Spaniards.
Turning Marinaleda into a ‘communist utopia’, the town’s unemployment is as low as 5% and the need for mortgages was scrapped in the early 1990s.
This is a commie/pinko lie – could’nt possibly be – could it?
5% unemployment – nah. No mortgages – you mean the parasitic lenders are’nt making money for doing nothing – disgusting – send in the blackshirts to take control immediately.
Juan Gordillo – que beuno, que pasa?
“… the need for mortgages was scrapped in the early 1990s…”? What on earth does that mean? How do people buy houses there? Is this a revolutionary new concept? How well is it working? How has it affected property prices there?
That all sounds like big news. Why aren’t you covering it?
Perhaps there is no need for mortgages because all properties are state owned. Communism definitely isn’t my idea of utopia.
There’s no such thing as a Utopia Jane. Just some arrangements better than others. Try not to have a closed mind, read “The Village Against The World” by Dan Hancox, it may soften your stance. Properties and businesses in Marinaleda aren’t “state owned”. The town is a Co-operative, democratically owned and run by it’s inhabitants. Fortunately and happily steered by a charismatic idealist called Juan Gordillo. He must be doing something right or he would have been booted out long ago.
Alun, perhaps a read of the book I mentioned would answer your question too.
Ah so that’s where Fidel Castro went, it all makes sense now, Communist town, Spanish speaking, beard, face lift of sorts!
I see the Thatcherites are out in force LOL.
My French friends ask me about the insane house price inflation in the UK and how the ordinary tax payer has to subsidise the BTL crowd they cannot understand why there has’nt been a revolution because for sure the French and indeed the Dutch and Germans would never stand for this outrageous nonsense.
I have to tell them that unfortunately the vast majority of the Brits are overweight passive serfs frightened of their own shadows. Never mind when the Ponzi scheme collapses which it will – the market will not tolerate irrationality for too long, then we will see some very unhappy little Thatcherites. I well remember phoning all my clients to tell them to sell and go live in a caravan for a year or so when Fatty Lawson removed double tax relief in 89 – they laughed – but not for long. It gave me great pleasure once I no longer needed my Consumer Credit Licence to harangue them in the street – one idiot lost everything and literally ended up living on the street.
Here we have a small town that has given the finger to the parasites in banking and has a much lower unemployment rate than anywhere else in Spain and indeed in Europe as a whole and some pathetic joker talks about Castro.
Hey Joker where would you like to get ill, without much money or expensive health insurance – Cuba or the USA?
You silly man Crawford, the joke referencing Castro was about the look-a-like character who is mayor, nothing to do with whether I agree with communism or not, and no I was never a Thatcherite. I well remember the dual Miras relief coming off and house prices diving and knew people who lost a fortune, that was their hard luck, but the market did bounce back (unlike France) You clearly get ‘great pleasure’ about peoples’ misfortunes you saddo!
So pathetic Crawford get a life and understand the difference, get off your high horse and also realise the unemployment rate is far lower in the UK than in Spain and about half what it is in France.
No I’m not a Thatcherite Stuart Crawford, as for calling posters pathetic jokers when you can’t see the reference to likening a Castro look-alike to him by way of a joke suggests you are the joker.
My post was nothing to do with where anyone would rather get ill and I take no pleasure as you do from calling people idiots because they lost money. Since when did you become an expert on Ponzi schemes, ever heard of ‘supply and demand’ which currently means more demand than supply in the UK and set fair following a Conservative victory although us not voting Conservative?
BTW you do know the UK’s unemployment rate is roughly half that of France’s? Lol
Either your grasp of economics is really poor or you are being disingenuous, I rather think it is the latter. You were’nt making a joke about Castro and don’t try to use the excuse of poor eyesight since Jan looks nothing like Fidel.
Ponzi schemes – try using the net to research them as anyone can. Supply and demand – deliberately distorted for over 30 years to make money for the greedy. You are quite clearly one of the greedy ones as your post shows so graphically.
The character I mentioned was greedy instead of prudent and paid the price – good. Any idiot could see clearly what would happen after the 1989 budget became known.
The housing market in the UK is even more fragile now than in 89 and the whole of Europe is standing back waiting for it to collapse – try viewing some of the better financial TV programmes – CNBC (probably the best on the planet) Bloomberg etc.
Yes France’s unemployment is more than the UK but if I was to be unemployed I know for sure which country I would rather be in but no ref. to Marinaleda’s 5%.
As Stefanjo has pointed out this is a co-operative town not a communist one – maybe the writer works for Sky News – otherwise known as Murdoch Speak, the UK’s answer to Fox LOL News.
So – where would you rather get ill – Cuba or the UK. 5 people dead in the Sussex County hospital – food left by uncaring nurses out of reach of the patients, who were left soiled and suffering from dehydration – I’ll take Cuba. Rated by those well known communists the Americans as the best health system in the world – for sure there’s a biased idiot around here.
Worked in the City for many years and very good at maths thank you, covered economics too Lol Your third para is twaddle, a UK housing market re-adjustment may occur especially in hot spots and is needed, in the Thatcherite one it went down 30% unlike Spain for example. However supply and demand followed and up it went again, I know because I along with many others benefitted just by living in UK property. As for me being now called greedy, you know nothing about me, you make it up as you go and somewhat rudely too. Still rather have UK property than French.
You mention your small town and it’s low unemployment rate, imagine if it was somewhere like Viserny with a population of 200 ish, a low unemployment rate would hardly make a difference to the overall rate in France? As for towns in France with communist mayors, how many is it, 750 or so. Even quite a few with large populations. Maybe they should follow the SNP’s example and try and break away, as Richard Littlejohn jokingly refers to the Scots Nuts, oh blast, another joke! Loll
Not been to Cuba yet, would only holiday there if so. Thy manage on average salaries of $20 per month and subsidised everything else but that’s hardly to last now relationships with the US are changing.
Stuart, prepare yourself for a shock. Not everyone shares your political ideology or enthusiasm for communism and wants their home and business to be owned by a cooperative. This does not mean they are nasty, greedy or have a closed mind, it simply means they do not wish to live in that way – it is called freedom of choice. If people want to live in Marinaleda or Cuba and are happy with the regime then fine, they (and you) should be free to do so but it does not give them moral superiority over those who do not. Live and let live is a much better approach than “my way or no way”.
As if Capitalist live and let live. They steal the labor of people and steal resources which belong to everyone. And the idea that humans have to pay for land is ridiculous in the extreme.
Jane, he seems the biased one here, he says his town (small commune) has given ‘the finger to the parasites in banking’ PMSL at that one, don’t they need Banks there, whether you like them or not, most people need Banks. Maybe they trade beads or beans! Maybe this is more to do with the fact that French property prices fell as much as 50%. Even have halved since 2007 and the Telegraph ran an article last October where experts reckon French prices are still overpriced by 30%. There will soon be bargains.
As for illness and his examples of Cuba, US, UK, well, I’ll stick with the UK (as resident there but holiday home in Spain), and why? Well I needed to see consultant last year and follow up operation. Was offered Choose and Book including 3 Private Hospitals as well as NHS Hospitals, but chose private but all done and dusted quickly under the NHS, could not fault it. Superb service and choice, the biased one shouldn’t just home in on one NHS hospital such as Sussex Lol
Live and let live is a much better approach than “my way or no way”.
What do you think is being applied now.
The problem is not math per say but logic.