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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Peasant Sovereignty?
  • Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2015 10:14:20 -0400

On Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 5:11 PM, Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
wrote:

> http://www.independentsciencenews.org/environment/peasant-sovereignty/
> Peasant Sovereignty?
> <http://www.independentsciencenews.org/environment/peasant-sovereignty/>
> March 18, 2015
>
> By Evaggelos Vallianatos
>

I have brought my friend of 55 years, Mike Elvin, into this discussion of
peasant sovereignty
by way of private email between us. His last three replies were so
outstanding that I asked if
I could crosspost them to this list. He agreed with the following comment:
"Full attribution will be fine, as this subject is very important to me.
Attribute to Michael Elvin."

Post one:
=======

The displacement of tenants, active national policy in Europe since the
late 1400s when in England they began to be replaced by sheep operations,
has spread worldwide and has never been more active and purposeful than it
is today. At the core is the legal fact of a lack of legitimate land
ownership. Land tilled by freeholders, including the underlying mineral
rights, is throughout the undeveloped world subject to the state's absolute
claim of ownership. So the state feels free to award land inhabited by the
same families for centuries, but unprotected by deeds, to the highest
bidder.

Major purchasers include China, firms in the US and UK, the Gulf sheikdoms
and major ag interests such as ADM and Monsanto. Quoting the first
reference, "In the last decade, more than 495 million acres of land were
sold or leased in transnational deals, according to a report published by a
coalition of research centers and civil society groups."

Read more: These 14 Countries Are Buying Incredible Amounts Of Foreign Land
In Deals You Never Hear About
<http://www.businessinsider.com/transnational-land-deals-india-china-2012-5?op=1#ixzz3VInoAnqs>


[image: image]
<http://www.businessinsider.com/transnational-land-deals-india-china-2012-5?op=1#ixzz3VInoAnqs>





These 14 Countries Are Buying Incredible Amounts Of Fore...
<http://www.businessinsider.com/transnational-land-deals-india-china-2012-5?op=1#ixzz3VInoAnqs>
Millions of acres of arable land bought in Asia and Africa.
View on www.businessinsider...
<http://www.businessinsider.com/transnational-land-deals-india-china-2012-5?op=1#ixzz3VInoAnqs>
Preview by Yahoo


Article links to the Land Matrix Project Report (pdf).

Further references:

1) "Almost 5% of Africa's agricultural land has been bought or leased by
investors since 2000, according to an international coalition of
researchers and NGOs that has released the world's largest public database
of international land deals <http://www.landportal.info/landmatrix>. The
database, launched on Thursday, lifts the lid on a decade of secretive
deals struck by governments, investors and speculators seeking large tracts
of fertile land in developing countries around the world.
"The past five years have seen a flood of reports of investors snapping up
land at rock-bottom prices in some of the world's poorest countries. But,
despite growing concern
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jan/28/africa-land-grabs-food-security>
about
the local impacts of so-called "land grabs", the lack of reliable data has
made it difficult to pin down the real extent and nature of the global rush
for land."

New international land deals database reveals rush to buy up Africa
<http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/apr/27/international-land-deals-database-africa>


[image: image]
<http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/apr/27/international-land-deals-database-africa>





New international land deals database reveals rush to bu...
<http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/apr/27/international-land-deals-database-africa>
World's largest public database lifts lid on the extent and secretive
nature of the global demand for land
View on www.theguardian.com
<http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/apr/27/international-land-deals-database-africa>
Preview by Yahoo


This report goes on to say "Governments eager for foreign investment have
often gone to great lengths to advertise vast tracts of available "vacant"
land in their countries. But the report says almost half of the
agricultural deals studied showed the areas concerned were already being
farmed before investors moved in. Competition between powerful foreign
investors and local farming communities seems "inevitable", it said."

With links to other stories.

2) Agricultural land investment in Ukraine | Agricultural land lease |
Farming | Invest in Ukraine
<http://www.investukraine.net/real-estate/agricultural-land-investment-in-ukraine/>


[image: image]
<http://www.investukraine.net/real-estate/agricultural-land-investment-in-ukraine/>





Agricultural land investment in Ukraine | Agricultural l...
<http://www.investukraine.net/real-estate/agricultural-land-investment-in-ukraine/>
Agricultural land investment in Ukraine from 800 USD. Leasing agricultural
land for farming. Why invest in land? Cost of agricultural land in Ukraine.
View on www.investukraine.net
<http://www.investukraine.net/real-estate/agricultural-land-investment-in-ukraine/>
Preview by Yahoo


3)
https://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/world-hunger/land-ownership-and-hunger.html

Many links.

4) From the IMF website: "The sharp increase in international food prices
during 2007–08 triggered a spate of cross-border land acquisitions by
sovereign wealth funds, private equity funds, agricultural producers, and
other key players in the food and agribusiness industry—fueled by mistrust
in international food markets, concern about political stability, and
speculation on future demand for food."

Finance and Development
<http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/arezki.htm>


[image: image]
<http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/arezki.htm>





Finance and Development
<http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/arezki.htm>
Finance & Development, March 2012, Vol. 49, No. 1 Rabah Arezki, Klaus
Deininger, and Harris Selod PDF version IMF podcast: Moving beyond
agriculture
View on www.imf.org
<http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/arezki.htm>
Preview by Yahoo


"Agriculture is characterized by long periods between investment and
production with low margins and is complicated by the vagaries of weather
and microclimatic conditions. Small farmers all over the world have had to
live with those challenges, but in many developing countries their ability
to do so is hampered by low public spending on technology and
infrastructure and by inadequate institutions. Therefore, some commentators
welcome these transnational purchases as an opportunity to overcome decades
of underinvestment in developing countries’ agricultural sectors, to create
jobs, and to bring new technology to the local agricultural sector. Others,
though, denounce the transnational investments as a “land grab,” neglecting
local rights, extracting short-term profits at the cost of long-term
environmental sustainability, neglecting social standards, and fostering
corruption on a large scale. In Madagascar the government fell in 2009
after news reports that it intended to transfer 1.3 million hectares to a
South Korean company for free. Our research clarifies the factors
underlying large transnational land acquisitions. This is a critical first
step in the assessment of potential long-term effects of those investments
and in identifying how governments can respond, through policy and
regulation, to use land acquisitions in a way that promotes long-term
economic development and reduces poverty."

5) U.S., U.K, and China Lead Foreign Land Investments In Agriculture and
Finance - Circle of Blue WaterNews
<http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2012/world/u-s-u-k-and-china-lead-foreign-land-investments-in-agriculture-and-finance/>


[image: image]
<http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2012/world/u-s-u-k-and-china-lead-foreign-land-investments-in-agriculture-and-finance/>





U.S., U.K, and China Lead Foreign Land Investments In Ag...
<http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2012/world/u-s-u-k-and-china-lead-foreign-land-investments-in-agriculture-and-finance/>
GRAIN’s online database is the foundation for much of what the world knows
about foreign investments in land. Though the majority of “land grabs” are
for agribusine...
View on www.circleofblue.org
<http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2012/world/u-s-u-k-and-china-lead-foreign-land-investments-in-agriculture-and-finance/>
Preview by Yahoo


6) Rich Countries Are Buying Up Poor Countries’ Land
<http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/feed_the_world/2014/04/land_grab_in_the_developing_world_big_agriculture_will_make_more_people.html>


[image: image]
<http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/feed_the_world/2014/04/land_grab_in_the_developing_world_big_agriculture_will_make_more_people.html>





Rich Countries Are Buying Up Poor Countries’ Land
<http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/feed_the_world/2014/04/land_grab_in_the_developing_world_big_agriculture_will_make_more_people.html>
Chhek Sambo works a little farm on the fertile plains stemming from a
sacred Cambodian mountain known as Phnom Kulen. For 17 years this tropical
plot has given...
View on www.slate.com
<http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/feed_the_world/2014/04/land_grab_in_the_developing_world_big_agriculture_will_make_more_people.html>
Preview by Yahoo




Post Two:
=======

On Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 5:11 PM, Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
wrote:

> http://www.independentsciencenews.org/environment/peasant-sovereignty/
> Peasant Sovereignty?
> <http://www.independentsciencenews.org/environment/peasant-sovereignty/>
> March 18, 2015
>
> By Evaggelos Vallianatos
>

Evaggelos Vallianatos, eh? His reading of history is impeccable. It looks
like they have better schools in Europe than we do. People educated in the
US don't learn their history-- they just repeat and repeat it.

The core of the problems we're struggling with today have to do with class
differentiation, a process that has been going on for the last 6,000 years
or so. It's not enough for enlightenment to spread, so that everyone is
able to make an independent living without having to take from his
neighbor-- that would have been the permaculture way. No-- we as a species
have many members driven to become stronger than our neighbor, or wilier,
or better at some game, so they can enslave that neighbor and take for
themselves the fruits of his labors. That is, historically, we have always
been ruled by the most successful and ruthless thieves. And those people--
with their cronies-- make up the ruling classes.

They are not necessarily the strongest-- they are more likely only the
smartest. For muscle, they prefer to hire the less intelligent brutes and
mold them into armies ready to obey their command. It's armies working at
the direction of imperialists-- plus those newer armies working under the
inspiration of religious zealots-- who are causing all the damage today.
Why are there so very few who create the laws that funnel all the wealth to
the powerful, and so many who are afraid to break those laws? Because there
are armies, and police.

It's like I've said before. Without authoritarian followers, authoritarian
leaders would just be guys on soap boxes.

Post Three:
========

[Some of this describes treatment of Jews in Russia during the Soviet
regime and is based on his extensive reading of history and not to be taken
as racist. He and I became acquainted around 1960 and became part and
parcel of the international cultural renaissance known as the Sixties, not
to be confused with the Beatnik and Hippy Movements. This era was in part
characterized as uncompromisingly liberal,
in the traditional sense, fairness, justice, equality, open mindedness,
creative innovation, cultural, religious, lifestyle and racial diversity
and pure common sense. - LL]

Lenin and Stalin both hated the peasants, considering them to be backward
and counter-revolutionary. So when the revolution succeeded, the Party
didn't represent the fortunes of the urban proletarians and peasants
against the interests of the rich. They stole from the peasants to enrich
the urban proles. Instead of paying for food supplies they requisitioned
them at gunpoint, leaving peasant families without even seed corn.

The peasant was deliberately crushed and then starved. They realized that
soviet-led communes would never have the support of the people without
starving and abusing them within an inch of their lives. So the traditional
peasant-organized communes were destroyed according to plan.

This was at the heart of how Ukrainians feel about Russians. Not to mention
the fact that most of the Communist organizers who actually performed the
dirty work at the village level happened to come from an underclass of
urban Jews-- little nobodies suddenly given immense, state-backed power to
ruin the lives of others. One thing the Communists had learned from the old
nobility... let Jews do your dirty work. If things go wrong they'll get the
blame for it.




--
Lawrence F. London
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared/ <http://www.avantgeared.com>
https://plus.google.com/+Avantgeared
Ello: https://ello.co/ecoponderosa <https://ello.co/ecoponderosa>
Twitter: @ecoponderosa <https://twitter.com/ecoponderosa>
Reddit: ecoponderosa
Cellphone: lfljcell@gmail.com




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