Marinaleda is a small rural town in the south of Spain with most of the 2700 residents deriving their income from agricultural pursuits. The town has had the same mayor since 1979, Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo.
At a time when about one in three Spaniards can find no employment, there is no unemployment in Marinaleda. There is also no hunger, no homelessness, and no police force.
The story of Marinaleda has been told many times over the past thirty years; the most recent account of town's social democratic cooperative governance is related in an article by Sophie McAdam at Salon.com.
Marinaleda has its own web site.
The Spanish Wikipedia page provides a good over-view of the town's characteristics, organization and history.
A story from the NY Times in 2009 looked at Marinaleda as the country was plunging into the depths of the on-going economic collapse.
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