Grabbing back: essays against the global land grab

ABSTRACT

Extensive research, mainly undertaken by nutrition scientists and economists, indicates that the presence of a home garden is positively associated with improved household nutrition in rural households of the global South. However, this literature is relatively silent on the contexts that influence home garden uptake. This is problematic given rapidly changing social and economic landscapes, which reshape the place and scope for home gardens within households’ livelihood and food provisioning arrangements. Original research from Myanmar reported here reveals that emergent socio-economic contexts for rural households are posing heightened challenges for home gardens to contribute to food and nutrition security.     

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During the past two decades agrarian (‘land and farm’) reforms have been widespread in the transition economies of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA), following earlier ones in Asia (China and Vietnam). However, independent family farms did not become the predominant sector in most of Eastern Europe. A new dual (or bi-modal) agrarian structure emerged, consisting of large farm enterprises (with much less social functions than they had before), and very small peasant farms or subsidiary plots. The paper compares five case studies, looking at agrarian actors, property rights, state influence, and rural poverty. These are Russia, Armenia, Moldova and Uzbekistan in the EECCA region, and China's Xinjiang province in Asia. The paper concludes that state influence is still substantial, property rights regimes are quite diverse and rural poverty remains medium to high. State-led agrarian reform, in particular where a redistributive (or restitution-based) land reform was implemented led in some cases to land-based wealth redistribution, but policies and institutions were lacking to support the individual farm sector. More often the outcome was a rapid transfer of land in the hands of corporate farm enterprises, reversing the initial process of ‘re-peasantization’. It seems that the old ‘Soviet dream’ of mega-farm enterprises in the ‘transition to capitalism’ has regained prominence, with huge agro-holdings ‘calling the shots’, providing an insecure future for agricultural workers, peasants and farmers.     

美国工会应对经济危机的政策措施及启示

经济危机给美国工人阶级带来重大影响。美国工会视危机为创新工会工作和发展工会的大好时机,积极从国家层面和地区层面上采取措施积极应对经济危机以保护工人权益,虽然在宏观上收效甚微,但是其在地区层面上采取的策略和方法收效较好,值得我国工会借鉴。     

推行工资集体协商的实践与思考

在中国特色社会主义的现实环境和“党政主导、工会运作”的维权机制下,国有及其控股企业要带头开展工资集体协商,这是有所争论的理论与现实问题。面对国有企业在建立职工工资正常增长机制和权益维护方面存在的问题,企业利益与职工利益之间存在的矛盾,国有企业要发挥较好的民主传统和健全的政工体制优势,率先搞好工资集体协商,进一步健全企业民主管理机制,为实现科学化、规范化管理打下更坚实基础。     

加强满意度调查 促进工会工作纵深发展——以某学校工会工作满意度调查研究为例

为了解工会会员对工会工作的满意度,促进工会工作进一步发展与提高,采用问卷调查法进行调查.调查发现群众对工会的满意度比较高,工会工作卓有成效;组织建设和文化建设工作突出,生活保障职能、维护职工权益和参与决策工作职能需加强;工会干部素质满意度评价很高,也需要进一步加强创新意识、政治法律素质、服务意识与协调能力的培养;工会活...     

试论工会干部应对突发事件的能力提升

突发事件是指在一定区域内突然发生的,规模较大且对社会产生广泛负面影响的,对公众生命和财产构成严重威胁的事件和灾难。在应对突发事件的过程中,工会组织要正确定位与党委、政府、企事业行政的关系,工会干部要努力提升应对突发事件的能力。     

充分发挥工会在创新社会管理中的重要作用

工会要站在巩固党的执政地位、维护国家长治久安、保障人民安居乐业的高度,充分认识参与创新社会管理的重大意义,找准参与创新社会管理和构建和谐社会的切入点和着力点,要在组织动员广大职工,促进科学发展上下功夫;在发展和谐劳动关系,促进社会和谐稳定上下功夫;在改善民生,解决职工最关心最直接最现实的利益问题上下功夫.不断提高工会干部参与创新社会管理的能力和水平,在党和国家工作大局中更好地发挥工会组织作用.     

论工会在推进新生代农民工城市融入中的作用

与老一代农民工相比,新生代农民工城市融入愿望更为强烈。然而,受到城乡二元结构的限制与自身文化、技能的制约,新生代农民工城市融入水平较低。工会作为党联系职工群众的纽带和桥梁,作为职工利益的代表者和维护者,理应发挥组织优势,加快推进新生代农民工城市融入。     

Class,nation and religion: changing nature of Akali Dal politics in Punjab,India

The Akali Dal is the best organised political party in Punjab and has ruled over Punjab for a longer period than any other political party since the creation of the Punjabi-speaking state in 1966. It articulates aspirations of Punjabi regional nationalism along with trying to protect the interests of the Sikhs as a religious minority in India and abroad. As a part of shaping Punjab's economic future, it deals with the pressures of Indian and global capitalism. This paper is an attempt to track the multi-faceted pressures of class, religion and nationalism in the way Akali Dal negotiates its politics in Indian federalism.     

The role of collective mobilization in the divergent performance of the rural economies of China and India (1950–2005)

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that the divergent performance of the rural economies of China and India after 1950 was a product of the different capabilities of the Chinese and Indian governments to mobilize the labor force and financial resources of the rural population. By mobilizing unpaid labor and the financial resources of the villagers through mediation by the collectives (before 1984) and local administrations (from 1984 to the abolition of agricultural taxation and compulsory rural labor mobilization in 2006), the Chinese state developed rural infrastructure and the quality of the labor force at a pace and geographical scope that was far beyond its limited fiscal capacity. Efforts by the Indian state to establish rural organizations with similar mobilization capabilities failed due to the effective opposition of well-entrenched political and economic interests in the countryside. Unable to mobilize the labor and financial resources of the villagers, the Indian government relied primarily on its limited fiscal resources, which produced a much slower development of physical infrastructure and labor force quality. These are the primary reasons why China’s rural economy developed much more rapidly than India’s, which contributed significantly to the divergence of their national economies in the post-1950 era.