Agrarian Reform and Social Movements in the Age of Globalization

Abstract

Although the implementation of neoliberalism would appear to have ended agrarian reform in Latin America, the problem of land distribution remains as serious as ever. New agrarian and peasant social movements are emerging that involve not just the landless but the excluded, the marginalized, and the unemployed, whether rural or urban. While they focus on resistance to the industrial agrarian model promoted by the trans-national corporations, their concerns extend to a number of democratic issues. They are more autonomous than those of the past, and they do not necessarily see power as a prerequisite for social transformation. They tend to ally themselves with antiglobalization and environmentalist movements in calling for food security and food sovereignty on a global scale.