Transnational Agrarian Movements Confronting Globalization

Readers of this book will encounter peasants and farmers who struggle at home and traverse national borders to challenge the World Trade Organization and other powerful global institutions. Here are activists in Brazil who uproot plots of genetically modified soybeans, forest dwellers in Indonesia who chop down rubber plantations to cultivate rice to feed their families, ‘runaway villages’ in China that take up arms to resist corrupt officials, and Mexican migrants who, having exited in desperation, return from abroad to transform their communities. Little-known transnational agrarian movements of the early twentieth century share the stage with more recent, high-profile global alliances, such as Vía Campesina. Rather than simply celebrating a dynamic sector of international civil society, the authors tackle thorny questions of successes and failures, ethical and political dilemmas, troubled alliances with NGOs, protest repertoires, and representation claims. The essays in Transnational Agrarian Movements Confronting Globalization analyze contemporary collective action in all its complexity, acknowledging ambiguities and contradictions, posing challenging questions, and providing concrete strategies for scholars and activists. Contributors include: Suraya Afiff, Xochitl Bada, Brenda Baletti, Saturnino M. Borras Jr, Marc Edelman, Jonathan Fox, Harriet Friedmann, Tamara M. Johnson, Cristóbal Kay, Kevin Malseed, Philip McMichael, Amber McNair, Peter Newell, Nancy Lee Peluso, Noer Fauzi Rachman, Ian Scoones, Kathy Le Mons Walker and Wendy Wolford.