The Elysian power is very far from popular concerns. The Prime Minister’s communication operation with rain boots to shout three scoops next to a bale of hay did not create any illusions.
The mobilization of farmers follows multiple crises, revealing a liberal impasse of an authoritarian government, deaf to popular demands.
A groundswell is common to these movements: front-line workers are unable to make a dignified living from their work. The government, the right, the far right, the employers may pit those who have work against those who are deprived of it, but the reality is that the wealth produced by work is captured by a minority.
Land workers are not immune to this social injustice. They in fact embody many of the issues of a nation that wants to be sovereign: our food and with it the issues of public health, land use planning and adaptation to climate change.
The evil is deep and comes from far away, well before the arrival of the current Republican monarch at the Élysée. The insertion of our agriculture into liberal globalization has caused damage. In the name of competitiveness, agricultural production has been financialized like commodities. Sell as much as possible and at the lowest price: the agribusiness model has become the structuring element of agricultural life, to the detriment of the mass of producers. Added to this are contradictory injunctions. We should produce more, better and above all always cheaper. Untenable for a profession which often feels singled out and whose suicide rate reveals deep unease.
The free trade treaties, signed in complete opacity by the European Union, of which the French governments were the driving forces, have accentuated this trend. French farmers are asked to respect environmental and social standards which do not apply to equivalent imported products, “mirror clauses” having never been introduced. The example of the latest agreement, signed with New Zealand, is an illustration of the sacrifice of breeders and dairymen on the altar of free trade.
Despite the Egalim laws, which recognized the problem of fair-price remuneration, large processing groups and large purchasing centers are taking advantage of their balance of power to capture most of the margins.
If we consider agricultural production essential in our lives, we must review the essentials of the chain, from the way of production to the distribution circuits and up to consumption.
The shabby attempts at recovery by the reactionaries and liberals and by the leadership of the FNSEA will not make us forget that they were ardent defenders of free trade.
We need to hear the main message. Fair remuneration guaranteed with floor prices which would make selling at a loss impossible. While 500,000 farmers must retire within ten years, the price of land must be controlled to allow young farmers to set up and prevent farms from being monopolized by large groups or foreign powers.
Finally, let us support the necessary ecological transition, already underway, in this sector which cannot be reduced to an administrative workload.
Let’s not oppose social and ecology as the coalition rights are trying to do. For agriculture, as for other sectors of activity, it is the popular resumption of power and wealth in the face of capital which must unite those who struggle.
2024-02-02 19:07:42
#Living #work #LHumanité