However, Marinaleda, a small communist-style town in the south, claims to have no unemployment and no repossessions.
Self-study activity:
Watch the short BBC video clip by clicking on the link here or the picture below and answer the questions about it.
The activity is suitable for Básico 2 and Intermediate 1 students.
1 What is the unemployment rate in Andalucia?
2 What does the town hall give David for free?
3 How long do houses take to be finished?
4 What does '15€ a month' refer to?
5 How many people work in the agriculture sector?
6 What did Gordillo's followers do last summer?
You can check your answers by reading the transcript below.
Marinaleda is a small town in Andalucia, a region where more than one in three are out of work and record numbers of homes being repossessed after Spain’s property bubble burst. But in this town they’re working to make mortgages a thing of the past.
Residents like David Gonzales Molina are building their own homes. David tells us the situation in his town is much better than in places nearby. People there are claiming state benefits because there’s no work, he says, especially now the construction industry in places like Malaga has ground to a halt.
The town hall here gives David 190 square metres of land for free. The cost of the materials is initially covered by the regional government and professional builders employed by the town hall help out. When the houses are finished in about two years’ time, they’ll look something like this, and then the owner will have to pay just 15 euros a month to the town hall to pay back the cost of the bricks and mortar.
When you finish building your house, what are going to do for work?
David says he’ll work in the countryside or in metal work in which he’s trained. There’s always crops to harvest, he says.
Agriculture employs about half of the population. The town has a collective farm, so work is shared out meaning no one has no work. The graffiti here shows the ideals and politics of this place. The town hall is run by Spain’s United Left Party, and the mayor hopes to create some type of communist-style utopia.
Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo sparked controversy last summer when he and his supporters stole food from supermarkets to hand it out to the poor. But could his formula for this town really work in other parts of Spain?
I think we need to rethink our values, the consumer society, the value we place on money, selfishness and individualism.
On the streets of the Spanish capital protest continue against austerity. There are signs that the ideas of the left are gaining support. What they are building in this town is a small challenge to capitalism. Because of Spain’s crisis the credibility of the current system here has taken a knock.
