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. Studies the 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 Celebrates a dynamic sector of international civil society, and tackles the thorny questions of successes and failures, ethical and political dilemmas, troubled alliances with NGOs, protest repertoires, and representation claims Analyzes contemporary collective action in all its complexity, acknowledging ambiguities and contradictions, posing challenging questions, and providing concrete strategies for scholars and activists

Preface. 1. Transnational Agrarian Movements: Origins and Politics, Campaigns and Impact (Saturnino M. Borras Jr, Marc Edelman and Cristóbal Kay). 2. Peasants Make Their Own History, But Not Just as They Please . . .  (Philip McMichael). 3. Transnational Organizing in Agrarian Central America: Histories, Challenges, Prospects (Marc Edelman). 4. La Vía Campesina and its Global Campaign for Agrarian Reform (Saturnino M. Borras Jr). 5 ‘Late Mobilization’: Transnational Peasant Networks and Grassroots Organizing in Brazil and South Africa (Brenda Baletti, Tamara M. Johnson and Wendy Wolford). 6. Mobilizing Against GM Crops in India, South Africa and Brazil (Ian Scoones). 7. Trade and Biotechnology in Latin America: Democratization, Contestation and the Politics of Mobilization (Peter Newell). 8. Claiming the Grounds for Reform: Agrarian and Environmental Movements in Indonesia (Nancy Lee Peluso, Suraya Afiff and Noer Fauzi Rachman). 9. Whose Rules Rule? Contested Projects to Certify ‘Local Production for Distant Consumers’ (Harriet Friedmann and Amber Mcnair). 10. Migrant Organization and Hometown Impacts in Rural Mexico (Jonathan Fox and Xochitl Bada). 11. From Covert to Overt: Everyday Peasant Politics in China and the Implications for Transnational Agrarian Movements (Kathy Le Mons Walker). 12. Where There Is No Movement: Local Resistance and the Potential for Solidarity (Kevin Malseed). Index.