Ask Prof Wolff: How Socialists Win in Rural and Farm Areas

A patron of Economic Update asks: "I am fascinated about socialist & marxist movements in rural areas, small towns and among farmers. This seems inconceivable in todays climate. Especially when these are normally people who are historically suspicious of government intervention. I am curious as to what kind of socialism did these rural socialist envision? Was it government ownership of land? Land redistribution? Cooperatives? A combination?"

This is Professor Richard Wolff's video response.

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[travismalone]

I just spoke with a small hemp farmer in Indiana who formed a small co-op with other hemp farmers to protect against predatory middle men and rights to produce.

[akeemlawrence]

Originally from Jamaica but grew up in rural PA and this couldn’t be more spot on. I always wondered why these places were entrenched in repub rhetoric and Trumpism but this video brought everything full circle.

[artrock]

Dr. Wolff + Joe Rogan Podcast = Needs to happen ASAP!

[HypatiaMuse]

Unfortunately, decades of Cold War, religious right & neoliberal propaganda have changed the cultural and political mindset a lot since the days when working class & rural Labor was an organized movement. I'm not completely without hope, I believe we are seeing people starting to question the neoliberal elite hegemony now, even if a lot of people don't yet have a clear articulation of the system they are distrusting.

[DinoCism]

Americans who are interested in rural socialism and winning medicare for all in their country should read about the history of Saskatchewan and the CCF party. This party was the first Socialist government in North America and would later become Canada's Social Democratic NDP party. Their name stood for the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation. They were a coalition of farmers cooperatives which were formed to stand up to the price fixing grain monopolies, union workers in the cities, methodist church members who believed in a social justice oriented version of Christianity and Communist/Socialist intellectuals from the universities. This diverse class coalition of farmers, union workers, academics and christian socialists created the OG "medicare" program in North America, the one which originated the word. While they were threatened, shot at, smeared as "jewish bolsheviks" in a disgusting anti-semitic red scare campaign and opposed by misled and greedy doctors who would rather go on strike than treat all people with the help of the government they pushed through despite all opposition and after a year of the people of Saskatchewan experiencing a single payer healthcare the program (rather than giving childbirth in a farmhouse with nothing but an old midwife with chloroform for medical attention) it improved lives so much that there was no turning back. It became so popular that it was never overturned by the conservative, anti-communist zealots and soon other provinces one by one were all creating their own versions. These programs became so popular that to head off the popularity of the NDP the Liberals introduced a national single payer system which eventually became the Canadian healthcare system which American leftists look to as an example of the way forward today.

In short: the reason Canada has single payer healthcare is because of rural socialist farmers who were members of agricultural cooperatives. Co-ops were so central to their political party that they were in its very name. So in building worker co-ops in blighted rural communities workers can not only protect themselves from exploitation and take back some of their alienated labor they can also build the basis for a kind of working class alliance with radical unions and other working class organizations which can be the basis for a third party, a people's party like American leftists sick of the DNC want to create. And these kind of parties can create single payer healthcare programs on a state level which can stand up to the insurance industry and the red baiting of the right and eventual win the struggle for universal healthcare on a national level... Ok, so that wasn't very short but it is important. There's a lot of boring beaver fucking in Canadian history but we do have a few fascinating and telling stories which the American left could learn a lot from like the story of how worker co-ops, farmer co-ops no less, got us universal healthcare.

[froozen]

To your point re coalition, there was a Farmer Labor Party in Minnesota back in the day.

[earlviney]

Doc Wolff always fighting for the workin man. Always.

[ericmiller]

In case you're wondering whether socialism can win in rural areas, let me just remind you that Vermont is the most rural state in the USA. 'Nuf said.

[sandraeskandar]

Thank you for explaining this so clearly. I appreciate all your contributions to the community. You've taught me so much, ever since my high school teacher recommended I look you up a few years ago.

[Dinofaustivoro]

The land needs no owners, only workers, and balance with nature

[markbirkeland]

In Minnesota, the DFL meets the needs of the people. Democratic, Farmer, Labor was the ticket that moved the needle for a half-century. Time to return to the days of working for the people who make America great.

[scrambaba]

Marx said that farmers exhibit the norms of the small bourgeoisie, basically conservative. Agrarian socialism was far more palatable to farmers than Marxism 100 years ago. Now we need a formulation that is suited for today and I think it resides in some concept of local production for food security and farmer control over their lands?

[allcatall]

What of ownership of farmland, not only vs farm employees, but also regarding the geographic origins and given land rights of farmland owners in north America.

[Mediumdoo]

I come from rural, the people in the United States living in these communities are so deep into republican rhetoric I cannot even imagine, never mind execute a socialist coalition. Our media is actively and relentlessly targeting this community it would take a lifetime of full time activism...I’m in New England btw

[matthewkopp]

I have been saying this for decades. Farmers have employed socialist strategies since the very beginnings of the nation in various ways.

Everything from Amish, Mennonite religious based socialism to collective price bargaining.

But there is another factor which really has to do with the fact that Northern farmers especially originated from German and Scandinavian communities. So the ideas are truly in the back of their minds. The Germans instituted multiple socialist institutions that we entirely take for granted. And the history of that goes back to 1848 were actual real socialists and Marxists came to the USA.

Two big examples of socialist German ideas include Kindergarten and Health Insurance. Both are socialist ideas.

There is another identity factor. Many of these German immigrants traditionally identify with the Republican Party generationally. They identify with the Party of Lincoln. This is not a contradiction when you understand what the Party of Lincoln once was. It was an equal opportunity Party.

[mahirrahman]

William Jennings Bryan in the Gilded Age as well as FDR did well in rural America. It's all about the grassroots.

[fareedakhter]

Most of farmers in India owns about one acre or
Their children are educated
the should be encouraged to start agriculture related businesses in the village.
Some examples.Seed banks, vermicompost and compost, solar power and windmills, small and medium size ware houses for agriculture produce storage, cold storage, wholesale markets for consumer goods, clinics where visiting doctors will be contracted for a group of villages and numerous ohther activities which will make them more
independent of big businesses and healthily interdependent.
This is in line workers co_ op .

[peachypietro]

Let's not forget a big reason for the collapse of socialist projects in the rural US has to do with big agribusinesses buying up land from small farmers whom they could put out of business through price controls and out competing smaller farmers. Very little remains of small farming in the US, and for all intents and purposes, the US has no peasantry.

[joseanguiano]

mr. wolff am with you when it comes to fairness and social! justice I also read passages of <ANIMAL FARM> and 1984 by George Orwell some people think or get the perception that this book refers how communists and socialists really are but that is not the case it is against any society on favor of institutional SLAVERY of the have nots or the very poor regardless of the color of their skin then why do we have social security social media social distancing an must be for the good of all sociable when capitalism is completely all against SOCIALISM that is my opinion and I will keep on watching your videos and comments thank you mr. Wolff.

[davidskeffington]

It should be recognized that Tommy Douglas and the CCF, the Canadian Commonwealth Federation, formed, what was called at the time, the first socialist government in North America, which was in the province of Saskatchewan. He brought universal health care to his province. Under him the CCF became, the New Democratic Party and they brought universal health care to the whole country. The NDP became the third major political party of Canada and thereby, as a party on the left keeps the whole system in the true democratic center.