From Confrontation to Collaboration: Peasant Negotiations in the Arena of Decentralization

Decentralization and local democracy are two inseparable elements of post-New Order Indonesia development politics. Furthermore, the quality of decentralization to a certain extent is influenced by the depth and quality of local democratic practices. This study reveals that decentralization is not only an arena of competition between local elites in possession of capital through local democratic institutions, but also an arena in which grassroots groups (peasants) could fight for their land rights. This study observes that local democratic procedures and institutions that are practiced in unison with decentralization are not utilized by the lower classes in the struggle for their rights. This shows the failure of local democratic institutions from taking root in the marginal groups. The success of peasant movements in the struggle for their rights and the practice of local elite domination of the decentralization arena does not come out of the blue, but is related to the history of the formation of the agrarian structure and social class. This study concludes that on one side, local elites trust democratic institutions and procedures to achieve their goals, while on the other side the grassroots have their own logic on how local democracy should have been practiced, namely by not separating practice of local democracy from the missions of justice and social welfare for the common good.

Listening to the Voice of Pachamama: Assessing Food Sovereignty as a Local Strategy for Community Well-Being in Ecuador

<p>This thesis explores how the concepts of food sovereignty and agroecology have been adopted in Ecuador, and evaluates their potential to contribute to farming communities' well-being. It draws on the perceptions of civil society and grassroots movements. Consequently, this study has adopted a multiple case study approach. The first case study analyses the formation and consolidation into a single movement of a federation of peasant movements that pursue food sovereignty as one of their main objectives. The way in which food sovereignty has been institutionalised within the movement is elucidated, in order to examine the strategies put into place by the social apparatus. The second case study carefully examines a community undertaking that has successfully applied the principles of food sovereignty, while improving the farmers' livelihoods. This case study elaborates on the specific characteristics inherent in the practice of food sovereignty and agroecology in the field, and intertwines this information with the culture and philosophy of the community involved. In order to identify the potentiality of replication, the community undertaking is put into global perspective through a comparative analysis that allows the identification of local and global influences that can make such an initiative successful. Acknowledging that food sovereignty is a holistic and complex concept, and that appropriate frameworks need to be established, this study has scrutinised the current governance framework in Ecuador, and consequently suggested policy recommendations that would support the widespread practice of food sovereignty and agroecology. Two aspects beyond the research objectives have emerged: firstly, the potential of the food sovereignty approach for the improvement of farmers' livelihoods; and secondly, the political significance of the concept, manifested through resistance and resilience at the grassroots level.</p>

Listening to the Voice of Pachamama: Assessing Food Sovereignty as a Local Strategy for Community Well-Being in Ecuador

<p>This thesis explores how the concepts of food sovereignty and agroecology have been adopted in Ecuador, and evaluates their potential to contribute to farming communities' well-being. It draws on the perceptions of civil society and grassroots movements. Consequently, this study has adopted a multiple case study approach. The first case study analyses the formation and consolidation into a single movement of a federation of peasant movements that pursue food sovereignty as one of their main objectives. The way in which food sovereignty has been institutionalised within the movement is elucidated, in order to examine the strategies put into place by the social apparatus. The second case study carefully examines a community undertaking that has successfully applied the principles of food sovereignty, while improving the farmers' livelihoods. This case study elaborates on the specific characteristics inherent in the practice of food sovereignty and agroecology in the field, and intertwines this information with the culture and philosophy of the community involved. In order to identify the potentiality of replication, the community undertaking is put into global perspective through a comparative analysis that allows the identification of local and global influences that can make such an initiative successful. Acknowledging that food sovereignty is a holistic and complex concept, and that appropriate frameworks need to be established, this study has scrutinised the current governance framework in Ecuador, and consequently suggested policy recommendations that would support the widespread practice of food sovereignty and agroecology. Two aspects beyond the research objectives have emerged: firstly, the potential of the food sovereignty approach for the improvement of farmers' livelihoods; and secondly, the political significance of the concept, manifested through resistance and resilience at the grassroots level.</p>

Ecological neo-Narodnism and the peasant economy: history and contemporary relevance

Based on the ecological utopianism of Narodnik thinkers, this article assesses the programmatic concept of ecological neo-narodnism, as put forth by Martinez-Alier (1987), addressing (1) to what extent it conforms to the intellectual legacy of the Narodniki? (2) what are its main theoretical foundations and policy recommendations for a peasant economy in the 21st century? and (3) how it contributes to contemporary social and environmental challenges. It explores in detail the ecological economic theories which can be applied to the peasant economy according to the ideology of ecological neo-narodnism, the latter analyzed from the perspectives of the fields of political economy and political ecology. Peasant movements are addressed as the manifestation of such a worldview. Finally, the contributions of ecological neo-narodnism to overcome current social and environmental challenges are discussed and associated with economic degrowth.

Women’s Liberation and the Agrarian Question: Insights from Peasant Movements in India

This article explores some questions arising from recent debates on patriarchy and capitalism. The focus is on the role of women in communist-led peasant movements in India and the implications of such struggles on the project of women’s emancipation. The first section lays out a framework for discussing the interface between class consciousness and the anti-patriarchal project, whereby patriarchy is located within the structural contradictions arising out of the contestations within the process of accumulation. The second section documents the historical context, focusing on the relationship between land reforms and social transformation in semi-feudal and early capitalist contexts, and analyzes the extent to which communist-led struggles are anti-patriarchal in character. The third section turns to the participation of women in the contemporary struggles of both agricultural workers and peasant movements and underlines the new emerging dialectics between women’s and peasant organizations under a neoliberal state and with deepening agrarian distress.

Leszczyński zaryzykował syntezę historiograficzną – proludową, antyelitarną, daleką od „polityki historycznej”

Adam Leszczyński’s book Ludowa historia Polski. Historia wyzysku i oporu. Mitologia panowania (2020) [A People’s History of Poland: A Story of Exploitation and Resistance – the Mythology of Ruling] contains a historiosophical vision and covers the entire history of Poland in a manner that has not been seen in academic Polish historiography for years. Leszczyński focuses on analyzing the history of the popular classes. He describes this peasant nation and its work, status, and living conditions, along with the poor state of the countryside; he writes of the humiliating treatment of the peasants in the interwar period, and about popular behavior and revolts, first, for example, in the form of flight from the manor, then in the development of socialist, national, or peasant movements, and later as revolts in rural areas in the interwar period and opposition to collectivization in the People’s Republic of Poland. Leszczyński shows that in the past the peasants had no interest in working well. He presents the working conditions in factories in the early period of industrialization and the emerging conflicts. The author of the essay considers that the facts and phenomena in the history of the peasants presented by Leszczyński may be a good starting and reference point for analyses of very different matters in historiography and in contemporary research. He appreciates Leszczyński’s wide-ranging, anti-elite, and pro-people synthesis.

Popular Religion

As communist and nationalist militants made direct contact with rural society they faced the difficulty of potential confrontation with the conservative nature of peasant ‘marabout’ culture, including rituals surrounding holy shrines, magic, and pilgrimages. The Native Affairs department made instrumental use of such traditional practices as a way of reinforcing popular support for the caids, the charismatic and patrimonial authority of chiefs like the bachaga Boualam in the Ouarsenis. However, such manipulation by the colonial state was contested in a number of ways. The annual cycle of pilgrimages, often involving thousands of peasants, was also used as an occasion by communist and nationalist leaders to address the crowds, as seen during a communist intervention during the pilgrimage to Miliana in May 1950 and 1951. Some pilgrimages, like that to the shrine of Sidi Maamar, were harnessed by anti-colonial peasant movements led by the djemâas. The reformist Ulema movement of Ben Badis, usually interpreted by historians as an urban-based movement, penetrated into the peasant communities of the Chelif region and students trained in the medersas and the great Islamic centres of Constantine, Tunisia, and Morocco returned to inject nationalism through Koranic schools that became a later support base of the FLN.

Challenges Facing Latin American Peasant Movements under Progressive Governments and New Right-Wing Parties: The Case of Brazil

This article analyzes the dilemmas faced by peasant movements in Brazil during the “progressive governments” and the return of the right to power. To this end, it analyzes the case of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) in two scenarios of recent political history. The first is that of the progressive governments, characterized by a simultaneous opening of public space and public policies to popular movements, although at the same time and contradictorily, also to the private sector linked to financial and transnational capital. The second scenario is that of the rise of the far right to power, first through a parliamentary coup d’état, and then by an electoral process. O artigo analisa os dilemas enfrentados pelos movimentos camponeses no Brasil durante os “governos progressistas” e no retorno das direitas ao poder. Para tanto, se analisa o caso do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) em dois cenários da história política recente: o primeiro, no marco dos governos progressistas, caracterizado por uma abertura do espaço público, no campo das políticas públicas, aos movimentos populares, ainda que ao mesmo tempo e de maneira contraditória, também ao setor privado vinculado ao capital financeiro e transnacional. O segundo cenário é o da ascensão, mediante um golpe de Estado parlamentário, seguido de processo eleitoral, da direita ao poder.