The Agrarian Question a Century after October 1917: Capitalist Agriculture and Agricultures in Capitalism

Abstract

This article addresses one of the key dimensions confronting the Russian and Chinese revolutions, that of the agrarian question for the peasantry which constituted popular majorities in each of these countries at the time of their revolutions. In commemoration of the centennial of the Russian Revolution, two challenges are presented here. The first concerns the manner through which historical capitalism has ‘settled’ the (agrarian) question in favour of minorities comprising the populations of the developed capitalist economies of the centre (about 15 per cent of the total world population). Is the reproduction of this model of ‘development’ feasible or achievable for the populations of contemporary Asia, Africa and South America? It is argued that the agrarian question of the peoples of the South can only be solved by a bold vision of socialism. The second challenge concerns the strategy of stages which I propose as a longer-term process of constructing a socialist alternative for the populations of these three continents. As it must, the new agrarian question is the key issue to be addressed in the processes of building socialism in the twenty-first century.