Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

CHAPTER VIII

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

The corporate invader, then, is among us. Small towns and rural communities will be laid waste, as by pestilence. Markets will be destroyed. Land will be bought away from us. In short, rural America will be depersonalized, altered, and depleted.

The first question we must ask ourselves is: Do we have the will to do anything about it?

If we have the will, we can develop the way to resist the invader. No one can tell us, nor can any of us tell, what our course should be. It must come from our own movement. It must grow out of our combined instinct for survival and our own judgments about the needs of rural America. Rural America must guide its own destiny. Only rural America knows its problems and can develop its solutions. It must exercise its group wisdom and strength. It can be invincible.

The corporate invader has only recently entered the countryside in force. Corporate America derives power from segments of the economy that are protected and subsidized and favored politically. With undistributed profits running at the rate of about $28 billion a year, the resources of corporate America defy the imagination. It is from these resources that it fuels the engines of invasion.

It is aided by a fifth column, already in rural America, that tells its neighbors there is really nothing to fear. Partners in the new corporate power structure are persuaded into service. They include members of organizations, varying from civic clubs, chambers of commerce, some of the leaders of farm organizations, professional groups and, above all, the mass media. They are, for the most part, unwitting tools of their masters. They do not mean to harm rural America. Hardly a single one of them would admit to himself, and certainly not to his neighbors, that he bears malice against the welfare of rural America. This makes him more dangerous, of course.

The intellectual front of this partnership against rural America abides in the land grant universities. Academic economists too often divert the attention of rural America from real issues. They discuss "efficiency" instead of "market

88

THE CORPORATE INVASION OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE

power," "progress" instead of "stability," and "alternative enterprises" instead of "agricultural resources."

Many professors have grants from corporations. They are not free agents. And they prostitute themselves again and again for more research grants.

But the basic weapon for the demoralization of rural America is the mass media. They acclimate us to the winds of destruction and depopulation, familiarize us with withering institutions and migration, habituate us to our condition of second-class citizenship, and addict us to the opiate of the inevitability of change and dislocation.

The media has introduced the language of the invader to rural America. We now accept and speak this language. It includes such terms as "tax free municipals," "oil depletion allowance," "conglomerate corporations," and "tax write-offs." These new phrases are made acceptable by their frequent and sympathetic use.

Can rural America be saved?

Only if we organize ourselves to defeat this unprecedented domination of our lives, this diversion, this depressant that deactivates us from pre-dawn radio to midnight television.

Let us begin by examining our resources. They are enormous. The strengths of rural America, so lauded throughout our history, will prove to have been underestimated.

But no one can tell rural America how to defend itself. It must decide for itself. But, as this is written, the defense would seem to consist, at least in part, of the following:

We must inform ourselves, our wives, and our children.

Let us educate America, instilling a sense of urgency in the rural areas, as well as in the urban sectors.

The importance of the organizing effort cannot be overstated. Information and organization are the vital first steps in the process. There must be renewed effort to tighten the communications network.

The myth that women cannot be effective in politics was long ago laid to rest. Women are now more than half the voters. Neither should we overlook the resource of our elderly people. They proved themselves in the campaign for Medicare.

A new fact is emerging that has not yet been fully assessed. This is the energy, intelligence, idealism, and effectiveness of young people.

No group has been quicker to see that the institutional values of the corporate society are inconsistent with the wellbeing of people. It has caused them to protest, march, picket, and join political campaigns in unprecedented

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

numbers.

89

Farmers Union young people have traditionally been quick to see through to the core of the problems of rural America. Efforts should be made to assist farm youth in organized study of the problem. Isn't the prospect of a coalition with the young generation better than alienation?

Study and action should begin in local communities. A survey of ownership of farms in the county would be a good start. Equally important, a survey of the loss of farms in the area during the last five years should be revealing, with such information as the age of farmers, number of young people who have gone into farming during the same period, farmers and wives working off farms to supplement income, and migration of high school graduates from the community. The resulting loss of jobs and businesses in the community can also be calculated. Studies in several states have shown that one business in town is closed down for every six farms lost in the community; and each farmer lost means one less job in town.

Other studies should include state legislation pending or laws on the books that relate to corporation farming. Tax laws are especially important.

After study, your group should launch a program to tell others what has been learned. This program might include skits for churches and civic groups, window displays, panel discussions, and a speakers' bureau. Stories can go into local newspapers. Radio and television news departments can be asked to cover the subject. Letters to editors should be written.

Ask radio and television stations for free time in which Farmers Union members might appear to discuss the subject. Debates may be arranged. Students can write term papers or reports on the subject.

Ask civic organizations, service clubs, auxiliaries, churches, parent-teacher associations, youth groups, and farm groups to invite speakers on the subject. Plan a farmer-businessman dinner. A county group could set up a tour of several farms. Include among guests state legislators, Congressmen and Senators.

Write letters to Congressmen and Senators. When the time is right, circulate petitions calling for action. Floats in parades and booths at county fairs should be arranged, with printed material for distribution. Ask your Farmers Union representative for help.

Plan a "Ladies Day" or a "Three Generations Day" (with the elderly, the middle-age group and the youngsters) with local co-ops and REAs where the story can be told.

Plan a trip to the state legislature. Meet with all candidates, even local county offices, and ask for commitments on this issue. Ask questions at

90

THE CORPORATE INVASION OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE

political or other public meetings.

These kinds of activities are a necessary part of the campaign. As a result of study and discussion, the organization will be growing in strength, developing its knowledge, and sharpening its point of view so that when political action is needed, you will be ready.

Remember, no one can tell you what to do. You must decide for yourselves. As your movement develops, you will know.

We must develop our alliances--with organizations and people in small towns, with church leaders, with cooperatives and REAs, with working people, and other sympathetic groups.

We cannot win alone. We have natural allies. Among these are the small towns and institutions of rural communities throughout America. All are suffering at the hands of the invader.

Churches are important in this campaign. A moral issue is involved. Hardly a church exists that has not been losing members. People are moving away-physically and spiritually. Churches and the commitment to morality are never as strong in the corporation-dominated community as in the community dominated by independent farm families, small businesses and working people. Corporations have little or no moral commitment. Profits at any cost too often dominate their motives. Pastors and lay leaders will be quick to agree with you on this.

No one is harder hit by the corporate invasion than the small town businessman. Declining population and the tendency of the new corporate neighbor to buy wholesale or direct from the manufacturer has not escaped the notice of the farm implement dealer, the appliance dealer, nor the grocery store and drug store. Automobile dealers would rather sell six Chevrolets than one Cadillac.

Members of labor unions will identify with the struggle against corporate America. Remember that they have been bargaining collectively with the corporation under their union contracts. They have a unique understanding of corporate power. They know of the contest that is necessary to get pay increases, vacations, fringe benefits and, sometimes, just decent treatment on the job.

They are familiar with the pattern of exploitation of employees that is characteristic of the big corporations in California, the Rio Grande Valley, New Jersey, and elsewhere. They will join in any campaign to limit the power of the corporations.

Union members are also interested as consumers. They will see readily that exorbitant prices in the grocery store are not the fault of farmers, but

WHAT CAN BE DONE?

91

the fault of the inordinate power that exists in the market place on the part of processors and distributors who deal with the farmer--who must sell; and the consumer--who must buy.

Contacts and coalition with consumer groups at the local level should be encouraged. Consumers are losing to the unholy alliance between the supermarket corporations, the giant feed companies, and the corporation farms.

Remember, in developing alliances, we must not only seek to join them but, in many instances, we must help them strengthen their own organizations. We must, through social and legislative action, attempt to diminish corporate America's sources of supply that are fed by the discriminatory tax system and the creation of trust and monopoly concentrations.

This is the beginning of the action program.

It cannot occur until the vital first steps are well along. Only after we have organized ourselves and developed our alliances, will we be strong enough to take action.

Tax reform should have high priority. Out battle cry should be: Everyone should pay his fair share of taxes.

There must be vigorous enforcement--and perhaps extension--of our anti-trust and anti-monopoly laws.

In states, and even at the national level, we might seek to pass laws that limit the rights of conglomerate corporations to acquire land. Such laws are now in force in Oklahoma, North Dakota, Minnesota and Kansas.

The state laws restricting corporation farming are similar. Only one state, Oklahoma, has the restriction in its constitution. The Oklahoma law simply makes it illegal for a corporation to acquire farm land, except in connection with indebtedness. In that event, the corporation has seven years to get rid of the land.

The law is now being tested before the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

The road is seldom smooth for laws that limit corporations in farming, or anything else, of course.

Kansas and Minnesota have statutes that limit corporations to farming operations under 5,000 acres. Under a 1932 law, North Dakota prohibits corporation farming. Cooperative corporations may own farm land and carry on agricultural production provided seventy-five percent of the stockholders are actual farmers residing on farms or depending principally on farming for their livelihood.

Major attempts to repeal the Kansas and North Dakota laws have occurred recently. In Kansas, the repeal attempt was killed in a legislative committee. The 1967 North Dakota legislature, over the governor's veto, virtually repealed the 1932 law. The repeal has been submitted to the people in a referendum to be voted on in November 1968. North Dakota Farmers Union has put on a strong fight for maintaining the 1932 anti-corporation farming law. There was in the summer

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »