Police in Spain have arrested five left-wing union activists for their alleged role in a “Robin Hood”-style looting of a supermarket made to highlight the plight of people suffering through the country's recession.

The southern Andalusian Workers' Union made news on Tuesday when a handful of its activists made off with nine trolleys full of food from a supermarket in the southern town of Ecija and left without paying.

They later handed the food to poor, unemployed people.

A police statement said one person was arrested during an eviction on Friday of members of the union who were squatting on Defence Ministry land to protest its abandonment and demanding it be handed over to hard-pressed farmers.

Two others were arrested elsewhere today while two arrests had been made yesterday.