Post date: Aug 13, 2012 9:54:52 AM
Spain-Market Looting -- Poor people speak for labor union members' Robin Hood-style supermarket raids
CCTV BEIJING - The recent Robin Hood-style looting of a Spain supermarket by labor union members for providing relief to poor people has raised wide concerns among Spanish residents.
A group of labor union members from the southern Spain region of Andalusia, have recently ransacked food and daily necessities worth some 1,000 euros from a local supermarket in the little town of Ecija and left without paying.
The looting also slightly injured three staff members of the supermarket when they tried to resist.
A Carrefour supermarket in the city of Acros, in Andalusia region, was also a target of the looting on the same day. The supermarket manager reached agreement with those union members to donate some amount of food to local charity organization, avoiding violence between the two sides.
The union members said the looting was to highlight the plight of people suffering in the country's recession.
Though most of the Spanish residents stand against this kind of law-breaking acts, the poor people who received the relief goods said the union members had done a better thing at least than what the Spanish government did.
The 65-year-old woman Manuela is one of the people who received the goods ransacked from the supermarket days ago. She said there is nothing wrong with the members' looting things from the rich and then delivering them to the poor.
"I don't think they are wrong. We have to eat even though the government can not give jobs to the poor. You can see now even the dogs on the street are living well, but we the grassroots Spanish people have to struggle to live on," said Manuela.
Manuela is a widow who used to be a housekeeper, but she lost the job after her employer died. She can only get a monthly 400 euros in government grant.
Unable to pay the mortgage, Manuela, together with almost 100 homeless people, occupied a new building that belongs to the local bank and the land agent in Sevilla and was waiting to be marketed three months ago.
For the people like Manuela, the behavior of the union members is better than the government who is unable to give people protections under the financial crisis.
"The future? I can not see my future. I am just faring along day in, day out. I dare not predict the future. I am living a very hard life now. The future is beyond my imagination," said Manuela.
Sanchez Gordillo, leader of Andalusia region's labor union, also the mayor of the city of Marinaleda and a member of the region's parliament, led in the looting, hoping to provide some aid to the poor.
"The German banks, Spanish government and the Prime Minister (Mariano) Rajoy are the real robbers. They robbed the money of the poor to support the rich and help the banks. I just want to oppose them by my acts," said Gordillo.
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