Land is the basis for social life. It is a foundation not only for
agricultural production, but also shapes and is shaped by societies'
political, economic, and cultural dynamics: power affects land access,
and land access grants power.
Given land's central role to human society, it is unsurprising that it
has also been central to profit accumulation in the expansion of global
capitalism. Long distance land grabs - the expropriation,
commodification, and privatisation of distant lands - have been a
central feature of world history for 500 years.
Governments have always sought to control land, but since the enclosures
of peasants' land in England and European conquests of indigenous lands
starting in 1492, land grabbing has been entwined in the colonial and
imperial interests of private capital alongside states. The result:
continuing waves of dispossession, genocide, and enslavement of
Indigenous, Black, and Brown peoples. So while recent land grabs reflect
continuity, contemporary drivers and impacts must also be understood in
their current context.
This issue of Nyéléni is the first part of two editions (June and
September) dedicated to the theme of land. This issue examines the
challenges of the current rush for land by financial and corporate
actors, from the local to the global. It assesses current opportunities
and maps out strategies and solutions to promote change. Land is a site
of contention and injustice; it is also an area of struggle, and
advancement, for food sovereignty and justice.
DOWNLOAD THE NEWSLETTER [1]
Links:
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[1] http://www.nyeleni.org/ccount/click.php?id=146
