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Youth for

Socialist Action

 

 

Newspaper

 

 

Socialist Action is a dynamic newspaper that has been arriving in workers’ mailboxes and finding its ways into the hands of countless activists at protests, street corners and plant gates every month since 1983.  Click the logo above for more on SA newspaper.

 

 

Socialism 101

 

 -What is Socialism?
 -How to Make a Revolution
 -Marxism vs. Anarchism
 -What'll Socialism Look Like?
 -Vanguard Parties

 -Was Russia Socialist?

 -Marxist Analysis of Cuba

 -Gains of Past Revolutions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Struggles of Family Farmers

 

Introduction: Socialist Action and YSA are supporters of working farmers in their struggle to stay on the land and be paid decent prices for their produce. Along with workers, farmers are the other major class of producers in this country off whose labor the capitalist class has grown so wealthy. As commodity producers who own, or who aspire to own, the land they work, most farmers are not part of the working class (they don't have to sell their labor power). But like wage workers, farmers are exploited by the capitalists; workers as wage slaves, farmers as debt slaves.


Over the past few decades, this exploitation of farmers has been intensified by the banks and by the seed, fertilizer, food processing, farm implement and energy monopolies. This tightening squeeze comes on top of the inflation, tax burden, war danger and other social problems facing working people.


SA and YSA advocates solidarity between workers and farmers, and seeks to help direct their struggles against their common oppressor, the capitalists.

   
We’ve set up this page to report on developments in the farmers' movement, post articles on the lessons of past farmer struggles, and explain the role that Marxists believe farmers can and will play. We welcome your feedback.

 

 

 

Family Farmer News & Views:

 

 Farm Worker March Hits Burger King’s Greed:  A November 30th demonstration of more than 1500 farm workers and supporters marched in Miami to the national headquarters of the giant Burger King corporation to demand that it pay farm workers in Immokalee, Florida one more penny a pound to pick tomatoes and improve working conditions. Observers have called conditions in this Central Florida town,  "modern day slavery." Many of the Miami marchers wore T-shirts with "Exploitation King" imposed over Burger King logos. continued

 

 The Struggle of Black Farmers Today:  The primary issue contributing to Black farmers’ decline is rooted in the reforged class structure that followed the abolition of chattel slavery after the Civil War. The war left the South’s infrastructure in ruins. Stripped of its main source of surplus value (profit)—slave labor—the Southern economy became subordinate to the new king, Northern industrial capitalism.  continued

 

 Power Line Fight in Wisconsin:  For years the American Transmission Company has been trying, with a lot of success, to intimidate and bribe local governments, courts and regulatory bodies to give it a green light for the Arrowhead-Weston line.  The Arrowhead-Weston, if built, will be a massive 345 Kilovolt (that’s 345,000 volts!) bulk transmission line that will allow ATC to sell cheap electricity from the Manitoba Hydro project in Canada to the Chicago area, where it could make a handsome profit underselling existing electric providers.  continued

 

 Down on the ‘Socially Responsible’ Farm:  "Think Green," says Whole Foods' CEO John Mackey. But if the issue is labor rights or how many Fair Trade coffee companies mostly still profit from exploiting farmers, he may not want you to think too much. continued

 


Archived Articles:

The Plight of Working Farmers:

 

* Washington D.C. rally highlights Black farmers’ struggle in America

* Down on the 'Socially Responsible' Farm

* The Ongoing National Farm Crisis
 Minnesota Farmers Are Facing Disaster
 State of Agriculture in Wisconsin

* Dust Bowl Blues

* Hot enough for you?

Rural Activism:

 

* Farmers & Students Block the American Transmission Company

* Interview W/ an Activist From Save Our Unique Lands

* Rural Midwesterners Stand Up to Electric Power Monopoly
 History of the American Agriculture Movement

 Critique of the Movement for Sustainability

Gas, Crop & Livestock Prices:

 

* $7 a Gallon?

* What You Should Know About the Price of Gas

International Farm Issues:

 

* World Food Day 2004: The political Economy of Hunger

Farm Workers:

 

* Farmworker March Hits Burger King's Greed

* Immigrant Workers and the AFL-CIO Split

 UFW Reverses Itself on "Guest Workers"
 Bush’s new ‘bracero’ program: Temporary work, starvation wages

 UFW Marches Again - but Toward What Goal?

 AFL-CIO Backs Amnesty for Undocumented Workers

Farmer Links & Resources:

 

* National Black Farmers Association

* Family Farm Defenders
 American Agriculture Movement
 Friends of Agriculture
 National Farmers Organization
 National Family Farm Coalition
 National Farmers Union

 

 

[labor donated by union labor]

 

 

 

 

 

Issues From 1996-2003:

Click here for info on how to subscribe to Socialist Action newspaper.

 

Human Needs, Not Profits!

 

 

BLACK

 LIBERATION

 

              

WOMENS

LIBERATION

 

 

LABOR

 

 

PALESTINE

 

 

ANTI-WAR

 

 

IMMIGRANT

RIGHTS

 

 

NATIVE

AMERICAN

 

 

LATIN AMERICA

 

 

QUEER

LIBERATION

 

 

ECONOMY

 

 

FARMERS

 

 

SCIENCE

 

 

ECOLOGY

 

 

IRELAND

 

 

ELECTIONS

 

 

CULTURE