[THIS useful book* proves that food is a…]
Socialist Organiser1982 1982-09-30Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 6 →
Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.
Scan page 6
THIS useful book* proves that food is a crucial political issue in the world today -that the satisfaction of that most fundamental of needs is dependant on the barbaric world rule of capitalism.
After describing how the invention of agriculture allowed the development of "civilisation" and class society, with the possibility of want amidst plenty, it shows how capitalism internationalised and made more systematic this crime against humanity.
crops Colonial powers forced subject countries to produce cash crops or raw materials, reducing the food surplus and so causing more frequent famines after poor harvests,. Where capitalism required food from its colonies, famine often raged alongside food exports. (e.g. so% Leland and India).
After colonialism, Third World countries are stil dependant on cash crops to get dollars to pay for industrial goods, while the fall in cash crop prices over 20 years together with inflation in the West has robbed them of the expected fruits of independence. Since monopoly capitalism mostly locates its profitable processing plants in the West, producer countries receive only a fraction of the final price of their products.
Capitalism causes hunger in the Third World in several ways - and then blames the victims!
One favourite is the "population explosion" actually a symptom of the problem of insecurity. Other problems, such as bad weather, spreading deserts or soil erosion, are presented as natural phenomena. The book points out that where previously indigenous peoples lived harmony
Scan page 7
Socialist Organiser, Thursday 30 September 1982