Showing posts with label Land and liberty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Land and liberty. Show all posts

Sunday 17 June 2018

Land And Liberty.

       Life in the modern city is far removed from life in a rural or agricultural area, and though millions of people live crammed into cities, land is still a very important issue. The greedy parasite class knows this well, and gobble up as much of the earth's surface as they can grab. To them land is power, wealth and control, an asset that is above all else.  
      Though the city appears to be the hub, we should never forget we don't just want the factories, market places, and the logistics infrastructure, we also must have the land.
       From an article by London based Anarchist Communist Group, three quotes from Flores Magon:


The anarchist Flores Magon explains why land is crucial to anarchism:
“We want bread for all. We consider it absurd that a few people should possess the earth, and the many not have a place to lay down their heads for rest. We want, then, that the land be accessible to all, just the same as the air, the light, the warm sun rays are there for all creatures on earth. We consider it absurd that those who neither toil nor produce should enjoy all at the expense ‘of those who till and toil and have a life of misery…”
However, Magon made it clear that land was directly linked to liberty:
“We think that political liberty is a beautiful lie so long as it has not for its basis economic liberty and towards the conquest of that liberty our steps are directed… We demand that the proletariat of Mexico organize and by doing so enable itself to take part in the tremendous struggle that alone will liberate the proletariat of this world, the struggle which someday — maybe in the near future-will place all the goods of this earth within the reach and power of all human beings.”

Expropriation is essential if the workers are to be free. Magon:
“In short, I see a society of workers economically free; owning themselves, because, at every step, they own the material on which they work; the land where the potatoes grow; the trees they fell and strip; the timber they fashion into lumber; the houses into which the lumber goes, and so “ad infinitum.” A society purged of tribute to the parasite.”
The article starts with:

       The slogan ‘Land and Liberty’ has long been an anarchist slogan. It was the name of the Russian revolutionary organisation ‘Zemlya i Volya’ in 1878 and was used by the peasants in the Russian Revolution. When women marched in St Petersburg on the 8th of March, 1917, helping to kick off the revolution, the slogan was Bread, Land and Peace. ‘Tierra y Libertad’ was prominent in the Mexican and Spanish Revolutions and is still used today as the name of the Iberian Anarchist Federation paper.
       It is not surprising that land is a key demand. Rural land workers represented the majority of the working population well into the 20th century in much of the world. Land ownership was concentrated in the hands of a few large landowners and people struggled to survive under this semi-feudal system. And it is still an important demand for many peasants and agricultural labourers around the world.
Read the full article HERE: 
ann arky's home. 
 

Tuesday 12 April 2011

INTRODUCTION TO ANARCHY, PAGE 6.

  Here is the next page in the wee Teapot Collective's Introduction to Anarchy, page 6. Page 5 can be found HERE. It's a wee book, so it only has wee pages, but a great wee book.

      The Mexican revolution at the turn of the 19/20th century was the result of traditional communally worked land around the villages being seized by large landowners in a military dictatorship. With Emiliano Zapata as its most prominent figure a revolutionary peasants' army was formed under the rally, "Land and liberty!" reclaiming the land. Zapata was offered the presidency but declined, preferring to live and fight with the people.

      In the Russian revolution of 1917, there was hope in the often spontaneous formation of soviets (workers councils), many of which practised direct democracy until the Bolsheviks installed their centralised state apparatus and crushed any free federation.