My friend Walden Bello has been characteristically busy. He has just announced his intention to run for parliament in the Philippines (check out his site here, which is already gathering vast numbers of endorsements from the global left). Part of the reason so many regard him so highly is that he’s an unusually lucid and clear thinker. A couple of days ago, he wrote this excellent and readable review of the plight of farmers struggling against international trade. Check it out, and see why he concludes that
As environmental crises multiply and the social dysfunctions of urban-industrial life pile up, the farmers’ movement has relevance not only to peasants but to everyone who is threatened by the catastrophic consequences of obsolete modernist paradigms for organizing production, community, and life.
Also, in the same issue of Countercurrents, see the article by Vandana Shiva on Why India Needs Her Small Farmers.