[PEN-L:3179] Back to the land

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Doug:
>The WB says 53% of the population was urban in 1980. Of course the urban
>population is swelled by dispossession (just like England a couple of
>centuries ago), and in the case of Central America, by war. But they're
>there in cities now. What would an appropriate policy be? Back to the land?

Back to the land? Absolutely. That was what the FSLN and FMLN and the
Guerrilla Army of the Poor in Guatemala fought for. These were basically
peasant struggles for land reform, which was also at the heart of the
Chinese and Cuban revolutions. The name of this appropriate policy is
called socialist revolution. Its appeal should be obvious from Cuba's
ability to withstand imperialist blockade, chemical and biological warfare,
and nonstop propaganda barrages.

>In China, the communes are gone, all broken up. Hundreds of millions of un-
>and semiemployed people are in China's cities now. Should Mexico City and
>Managua be depopulated?

Depopulated? You have a way of phrasing questions that reflect your own
political bias. Socialists advocate the expropriation of agribusiness.
Period. When there are landless peasants in Central America, while land is
being used for exports such as flowers, tomatos, mangos, tobacco, coffee
for the imperialist markets, a revolutionary government should proclaim
"Food First." Land should be used to produce rice, beans, corn and
vegetables. If the country needs foreign exchange, it should reserve a
certain percentage of land for cash crops. I worked with the Nicaraguan
Central Bank to automate foreign exchange calculations for just this purpose.

>There's no question that great crimes have been
>committed against peasants everywhere over the last few centuries; the
>question is what to do about the world around us. I think the reason Lou
>spends so much time in the 17th century is that he doesn't know what to do
>about the 21st.

"I" don't matter. Unless there is a socialist movement to tackle these
problems, we are doomed. I am trying to pull together people
internationally to apply Marxism creatively. I regret that you no longer
find socialism attractive.



Louis Proyect

(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)