Real agriculture is the mainstay of strong communities, environmental responsibility and animal welfare (leading to safe, healthy and inexpensive food), as against “factory farming”. It is also a clear example of the importance of central and local government action in safeguarding and delivering social, cultural, political and environmental goods against the ravages of the “free” market.
Furthermore, the United Kingdom’s sovereignty, liberty, democracy and identity have all been, and are all being, eroded by a heavy reliance on imported goods rather than on a domestic manufacturing base. By a heavy dependence on imports in order to feed the British People. And by the ownership or control of much of British agriculture, industry and commerce by persons who are either not British subjects or not resident in the United Kingdom for tax purposes, as well as increasingly by foreign states through sovereign wealth funds.
Benn has begun a much wider, hugely overdue debate. Let it lead without delay to much wider, hugely overdue action.
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His father will be proud of him, today. The bloke from the farmers' union seemed pleased at this pronouncement too. But words must be matched with deeds...
ReplyDeleteThe biggest farming concern in the UK today is the Cooperative Group. Many dairy farmers have opted to join sales and marketing cooperatives to survive the supermarkets price squeeze. Of course, during and after WW2 the government encouraged co-operation in agriculture. There are lessons here...
There certainly are.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you coming over from Marxism.
Coming over from Marxism?
ReplyDeleteNone of the Marxists I know have been opposed to any of the things discussed here.
What, co-ops? Very un-Communist. Not even seen as left-wing in many countries.
ReplyDeleteThe countries with the largest cooperative sectors historically were those described as having a socialist system.
ReplyDeleteDescribed by whom? And which ones, exactly?
ReplyDeleteStates which declared they had a "socialist economy" included Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the GDR, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia. Cooperatives existed particularly in agriculture, though in the case of the former Yugoslavia, the "self-managed" enterprises were effectively cooperatives operating in a market economy.
ReplyDeleteBoth China and Vietnam now claim to have a "socialist market economy", and Cuba, Laos, and the DPRK appear to be moving in this direction.
Many of the former colonial countries had socialist-oriented governments which strongly supported the development of the cooperative sector, such as Tanzania.
So, Marxism and cooperatives - not mutually exclusive.
I wouldn't have liked to try explaining that to any of the great Marxist theorists! Proof that it doesn't work, of course, and that something else has to be done instead.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that the co-op movement has become something of a bastion of the Left within Labour in recent years. But only compared to what has become of Labour in general in recent years. The Hard Left certainly never used to like it, or vice versa, to say the very, very least.
"I wouldn't have liked to try explaining that to any of the great Marxist theorists!"
ReplyDeleteWho are you thinking of? Marx himself spoke favourably of cooperatives - Lenin, famously so.
"The Hard Left certainly never used to like it, or vice versa, to say the very, very least."
I'm not informed enough to comment on that either way.