Our land, our freedom

Our land, our freedom

Protesters plant leeks (vegetables) outside a military building in the Basque Country, northern Spain, to show support for the occupations in the south. (Vicent West/Reuters)

People know about land occupations in countries like Brazil and Guatemala. But now rural communities in Andalusia are also trying to get back their land for farms.

The most successful reclaimed farm is Somonte en Palma del Río, in Cordoba province. People have occupied this farm for more than 18 months, and 30 families now live there.

The union supporting land reform is the Sindicato Andaluz de Trabajadores (Andalusian Workers’ Union, or "SAT").

SAT had been ‘symbolically occupying’ lands owned by Andalusian aristocracy for many years. But when it heard regional government was selling 20,000 hectares of public land, it decided to make this occupation permanent.

Somonte was for sale in March 2011 and is over 400 hectares. It was producing nothing, and there were few people living there –in an area where 50 per cent of people are unemployed. The families who now work the land support themselves by selling the food they grow such as peppers and chard at farmers’ markets and through consumer co-ops.

The occupation of Somonte has made other people want to take over land in other parts of Andalusia. Workers have occupied farms owned by the military, such as Las Turquillas en Osuna in Seville province to the West, and La Rueda – which lost all its money and 600 jobs – in Jaén to the east.

And workers in greenhouses in Almería are also fighting to get land managed by co-operatives.

SAT has demanded land reform in southern Spain since the 1970s. When the crisis began in 2008, SAT began to protest, by occupying banks and public housing. Last year, ‘Robin Hood’ mayor Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo, one of SAT’s leaders, took food from supermarkets to give to poor families. In September, SAT took materials for the new school year to give away. The police and the law are strongly against this. There have been over 150 arrests and $540,000 in fines.

http://www.sindicatoandaluz.org/

As this article has been simplified, the words, text structure and quotes may have been changed. For the original, please see: http://newint.org/sections/agenda/2013/11/01/tierra-y-libertad/