Mass Evictions Research Articles

To Be Free and Independent: Crofting, Popular Protest and Lord Leverhulme's Hebridean Development Projects, 1917–25

The ‘land question’ occupies a central role in the history of Highland Scotland. The system of estate ownership and tenure introduced in the aftermath of the battle of Culloden (1746) commodified the land as private possession. In its wake came mass evictions of tenants in large-scale ‘Clearances’ designed to convert crofting-lands to other agrarian or sporting uses. During the main period of Clearances (1780–1855), protest by the crofters remained spontaneous and sporadic. It was not until the last part of the nineteenth century, especially during the so-called Crofters' War (1881–96), that a resurgent crofting community engaged in sustained protest. The threat of civil unrest prompted some ameliorative measures, most notably the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act of 1886. This stabilised the situation and gave protection from further mass evictions but did not restore lands to the landless population from which their ancestors had been displaced. The demand for restitution, therefore, remained a powerful rallying cry.

Interview. Chris Peters talks to Catalina Hinchey Trujillo, about her work for the UN agency Habitat.

In this interview, Catalina Hinchey Trujillo, head of the Gender Unit of the UN's Habitat program, describes Habitat as a think-tank that helps formulate and promote urban policies. The first mandate of the Gender Unit is to ensure that Habitat incorporates a clear gender perspective in its policies, programs, projects, and activities and, thus, addresses the real needs of urban populations. The major problems facing poor women in Africa include achieving equal inheritance rights and rights to own land and property. Women also face problems when houses designed by men are too small to accommodate them and when zoning laws are inappropriate. In Asia, women are fighting mass evictions and seeking credit for businesses. In Latin America, women suffer from the feminization of poverty caused by structural adjustment policies that have ignored the notion that economic development should be subordinate to human development. Throughout the world, people fail to realize that space is a gendered issue. If women were involved in the design and planning or maintenance of cities, the nature of cities would change drastically. The upcoming Habitat II Conference will represent the first UN conference where nongovernmental organizations and local governments will have a voice and a vote in the actual conference. At this conference, concrete actions will be approved and delegated to national and local governments with an agreed upon schedule for reaching goals. The success of the conference will depend upon the degree to which different interest groups apply pressure to forward their issues.

OCTOBER REVOLUTION AND JEWS OF RUSSIA

It is proposed to consider the cause of the 1917 revolution as a set of causes of discontent among various social and national groups. The reasons for dissatisfaction with their position of the national group of Jews of Russia are considered. In this regard, an overview of various decisions of Russian government and their consequences for the Jews is given. The procedure of self-determination of Jews between the Bolsheviks and anti-Bolsheviks is analyzed. The history of the settlement of Jews in theterritoryofRussiaat the end of the 18th century after the sections ofPolandis considered. The policy of Catherine II aimed at "correcting" Jews and involving them in public life of the state is described. The analysis of the difficulties of the absorption of Jews into the economy of the country, their extrusion by the government from central regions to the outskirts of the country – into the notorious "Pale of Settlement". The problem of conscription of Jews for military service and institution of cantonists is considered. Numerous oppressions that they endured during the reign of Paul I, Alexander I, and Nicholas I are described. The reforms of Alexander II, which made life easier for Jews inRussia, are analyzed in great detail. The era of Alexander III is considered, when anti-Semitism became an official policy towards Jews. It was then that mass Jewish emigration fromRussiabegan. The participation of Jews in the Russian revolutionary movement is considered in detail. Also the participation of Jews in the World War I and their mass evictions from the war zone is touched. In conclusion, the support that the Jewish masses rendered to the February Revolution of 1917, their life under the Provisional Government, is described. At the end of the article, the difficulties faced by Russian Jews after October coup, mass pogroms during the Civil War and their transition to the side of Bolsheviks, who defended them from pogroms, are analyzed. Article is written on basis of latest Russian and foreign sources: monographs, reference books, encyclopedias and textbooks.