From: "Rebecca Peoples" <wellsfargo-AT-tinet.ie> Subject: Re: M-I: CAP Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 10:30:28 -0800 Your informative message was much appreciated James. Can you elaborate a little on the comment of yours below. It does not make sense to me: the charge that capitalism =famine. Are you saying theat the law of value does not operate in relation to food in that period. James All of the developed nations subsidised agriculture after the Second World War, in part because of their sensitivity to the charge that capitalism = famine (as had been the case in Bangladesh, where some 3.5 million died under British rule). ------------------------------------------- I dont get the gist of the comments below. Could you elaborate a little again. James Resting on the suppression of working class consumption, individual capitalists usually need some official persuading to get into markets that rely on it, like housing or food. -------------- In what way: James: In the post-war world, food became a weapon in the struggle against Stalin. ------------------------- Again in what way: James Truman's inauguration of food aid was entirely framed in terms of defending the West, and promoting US values. As Michael Maren explains in The Road To Hell, food aid is a gigantic boondoggle for US farmers, who are paid massively over the odds by the govt. to dump food in fragile African economies. Clearly it did not take long for British, French and German farmers to realise that this was a gravy-train and agricultural production rapidly outstripped domestic needs. Eventually the surplus product was being stored in 'beef mountains' and 'wine lakes'. A few years ago I was out of work and was entitled to receive, on top of the cash benefits, a whole tin of preserved European beef mountain a fortnight. It was never that tempting, but I often wish that I had, so that I could put it on the mantle-piece next to the fragment of Berlin wall. ------------------ But are the comments below not off the mark. Surely then the political parties in question would equally pander to the working class to win their support especially as a means of buying them off. I mean the working class was a massive voter too. Linked with this how come there has been so little criticism by both the working class movement and sections of the industrial capitalist class over this massive farming welfare. We hear capitalist politicians going on about the need to curtian the welfare state but they dont mean farming welfare which has been massive massive. I find it hard to believe that the massive farming dole has been simply basied on the narrow political considerations you allude to. Surely industrial capital would have gotten a pain in the face with this situation given it was eating into the their total surplus value etc. You seem to be suggesting that their is a chasm between politics and class interests. James The real reason that the beef mountain was sustained as long as it was was political, not economic. An unexpected side-effect of the agricultural subsidies was that the parties of the right in Europe were supported by rural districts. Less populated than urban areas, electoral boundaries tend to give greater weight to rural voters, who proved to be a useful counter-weight to urban voters, who tended to the left. Bleow are you suggesting that politics virtually exists at the centre and that there are no ends worth talking about. James Only recently has the left-right divide in European politics begun to break down. Working class support for parties of the left is less active than it was, and the middle classes have largely taken them over as electoral machines. The traditional parties of the right are much less important to the ruling classes today because they do not feel the need to mobilise popular support against the left. Everywhere, the case for subsidising rural districts by subsidising agriculture has fallen away. I dont get the point your are making here. Are you claiming that BSE is a political device by which to cut back on farming dole going to to the farming community. James The current campaign against Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) is a part of the process of downsizing European agriculture. This disease which has been in cattle for years and sheep (where it's called Scrapie) for two hundred years is alleged to be the source of a similar human condition (Creutzfeld Jakob Disease, CJD). No evidence exists of any cross-infection and CJD is still thankfully rare (except where the Health Service infected everybody who gets pituitary gland treatment with CJD). The compulsory herd culling and the restrictions on exports have led to a considerable shake-out not just in British agriculture, but throughout Europe, where bef-sales have plummeted. --------- I would appreciate answers to the above as I have already learned a good bit from your last message James. Please excuse the messy state of my posting. Rebecca --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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