review de kay sobre el libro de brass latin american peasants

8/12/2019 Review de Kay Sobre El Libro de Brass Latin American Peasants

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Latin American Peasants by Tom BrassReview by: Cristbal KayJournal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Aug., 2004), pp. 591-593Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3875996.

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Reviews 591discoursebylookingatpublicreaction.Therecovering f EmilioCastelar,thegreatSpanishparliamentaryrator n an ageof eloquence (p. 128),fromoblivion s theaim of the separatecontributionsby EduardoPosada-Carb6 nd CharlesHale.Recognising hattodayfew people know of Castelar, is oratory killsand his im-pact,Posada-Carb6raceshis relevance n LatinAmericaamongprominentpoliticaland intellectual ircles.One of the reasonsbehindthe attraction f Castelar, esideshis oratory, ies in the fact that his ideas were transformed ver the extent of hiscareer,becomingappealing or those who defendedrepublican, emocratic,iberaland conservative auses. Castelar spolitical deasand theirimpact n Mexicoafterthe restorationof the Republic n I867 is the focus of the chapterby Hale.Thereconciliatory spectsof his discoursemadeCastelar regularigure n thepagesofthe press during heporfiriato.arlosMalamud sinalchapteranalyses he oratoryskills of ArgentinepoliticianLisandrode la Torre at the turn of the nineteenthcentury.Rather hanconcentratingn his most famousspeeches,Malamud hoosesto analysede laTorre s acticsandrhetoricaltechniquesn congressional ebatesaswell as during he presidentialampaign f 1916.In reviewing dited volumesit is common to note the variednatureof the con-tributionsas a negative eatureof the collection.I foundthis,however,a refreshingmark,both inevitableandwelcome,particularlyn a new field.The chapterspres-ented here sharesome commonfeatures: heyare restricted o politics,defined n awide-enoughsense to includeideasand practice,but still sufficiently estricted omaintainmeaning; heyavoidgrand heoriesandloudclaims,concentratingnsteadon empiricalresearchon the power of the word. Above all, however, they arediverse anddistinctive,each suggestive, n its particularway,of the potentiality fthe theme.UniversidadeSanAndris/CONICET PAULA ALONSO

. Lat. Amer. Stud. 36 (2004). DOI: 1o.ioI7/Soozzzi6Xo4248o88Tom Brass (ed.),LatinAmerican easantsLondonand Portland,OR: FrankCassPublishers, 003),pp. 421,?45.oo,?18.5o pb.This is one of the most importantbooks to be publishedon the LatinAmericanpeasantry incethe neoliberal urnof the 198os.The resurgence f peasantstudiesover the past decaderespondsto the rise of peasantand indigenousmovements,suchas the ZapatistaArmyof NationalLiberationEZLN)in the Mexican tateofChiapasand the LandlessRuralWorkersMovement(MST) n Brazil,which havebeen in the forefrontof the struggleagainstneoliberalism.t is mybelief thatthisbookwillcome to standalongside uch classicsasAndrewPearse s sadlyneglected)TheLatinAmerican easantLondon,I975),KennethDuncan sand Ian Rutledge seditedvolume,LandandLabournLatinAmerica(Cambridge,977),Alan deJanvry sTheAgrarianQuestionndReformismn LatinAmerica(Baltimore,1981) and DavidGoodman sandMichaelRedclift sFromPeasantoProletarian:apitalist evelopmentandAgrarianransitionsOxford,I98 ). Each of these booksis areflectionof its time.The DuncanandRutledge ext focusedon the developmentof agrarian apitalismsince the nineteenth entury,deJanvry s n landreform,Goodman sandRedclift sand thatof Pearseon thevarioustrajectoriesnd destiniesof thepeasantry. omeofthose themes reappearn the book underreview,but arenow placedin the newcontextof LatinAmerica sneoliberal ransformation.However,the main thrustof

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592 Reviewsthe book is to debunk the postmodernistview of the peasantry hathas becomefashionable incethe aboveclassictextswere written.The editorcontributes wo generalchapters:one introductory LatinAmericanPeasants New ParadigmsorOld? ) and theother n thewayof a conclusion Onwhichside of whatbarricade?ubaltern esistancenLatinAmerica ndelsewhere ).The only other chapter o addressthe regionas a whole is by JamesPetrasandHenryVeltmeyerwho discussthe relationship etweenthe peasantry ndthe state.Thereare two chapters ach on BoliviaandBraziland one chaptereachon CentralAmerica,Chile and Peru.While the omission of Colombia,Ecuador,Guatemala,Nicaragua nd Paraguays regrettable,he absenceof a chapteron Mexicois par-ticularly o in view of the Chiapas ebellion, he reformof the Constitutionwhichputs an end to the land reform,and the impact on the peasantryof Mexico smembership f NAFTA.The chaptersbyBrassand PetrasandVeltmeyer re forcefulMarxistcritiques fpostmodern,post-colonialand subaltern tudiesof the peasantry.Postmodernismreplacesclass with identityand ethnicityand refusesto address he class-statere-lationship hereby eavingthe neoliberal tate free to continuepoliciesdesignedtoempty the countryside .Brass, n particular,aunchesa relentlessattackon sub-alternstudies.Whileforhim,as for the post-modernists, nowledges a battlefield,the battle s one of classstruggle ather hanfor the pursuitof identity, alterityorculturaldifference .He laments the resurrection f indigenismof the 1920sand1930s by post-modernpopulism ,seeing it as romanticisinghe peasantry, heircultureandtradition.PetrasandVeltmeyerare also critical f the neo-mercantilistand neo-imperial state in the USA, the EuropeanUnion (EU) and Japan forpursuingprotectionistpoliciesat home while forcingopen marketsabroad.Theirsubsidisedagriculture nderminesLatin Americanpeasants.In short, for Brass,Petrasand Veltmeyer,as well for some of the other authorsin this collection,subalternismreproducesthe neo-liberalstatus quo rather than empowers thepeasantry. ohn McNeish schapteron the politicsof communityand ethnicity nhighlandBoliviaandKeesJansenand EstherRoquas ointchapteron thedevil-pactnarrativesn ruralCentralAmericaare also criticalof postmodernism.But theircriticism s more selectiveandpartial, s certain ssues raisedby theseperspectivesseem to capture heirimagination.

Severalof the contributorsengageeitherdirectly rindirectlywiththecampesinista( peasantist ) nddescampesinistade-peasantist ) ebatewhichragedduring he lateI970s and earlyI980s. The issue of the futureof the peasantryundercapitalismpreoccupiedmost of thebest mindsin LatinAmericanagrariantudiesat the time.This debate on the persistence andintrinsicvalue,if not superiority) f peasantfarmingcompared o capitalist armingmirrored he debate n the earlytwentiethcenturybetweenthe neo-populistChayanovianchool and the agrarianMarxists.Did the developmentof agrarian apitalismead to the proletarianisationnd dis-appearance f the peasantry r was the peasantry bleto surviveandperhapsevento thrive undercapitalism?The era of agrarian eformsin LatinAmerica,whichlasted from the 196osto the early 98os, appeared o give hope to the campesinistapositionwhile the descampesinistasaw the relentlesspenetrationof agribusiness sheraldinghe end of thepeasantry.Marxistswerespliton this issueas some arguedthat the peasanteconomy by providingcheap food and cheap labour could befunctional o the capitalist ystem.This was linkedto anotherprevalentdebate ofthetime,thatrelatingo themodes of production.Thepeasanteconomythroughts



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Reviews 593articulationwith the dominantcapitalisteconomycontributed o capitalaccumu-lationtherebyensuring ts survival. Marxists, f course,sawthis articulation s anexploitative elationship.)With the rise of postmodernismand neoliberalismhis debatehas fadedintoobscurity.By reposingthe questionon the fateof peasantryhis book providesawelcome inkwiththe classic extsmentionedat thebeginningof this review. t alsoshiftsthe focus to one of the centralproblems acingthe peasantryoday:how tosurvive he twinassaultsof globalisation transnationalgribusiness) nd neoliber-alism(unfaircompetition).WarwickMurray swell-grounded nd carefulstudyofthe Chileanpeasantry upportsthe descampesinistaiew. His conclusion that thegainsthepeasantrymadeduring helandreformperiodcaneasilybe reversedunderneoliberalpolicies is valid for other countriesbesidesChile.Indeed,John Crab-tree sanalysis f the impactof neoliberal conomicson thepeasantryn Peru seemsto reacha similar onclusion,although he counter-reform as been far ess drasticthere.Jose de Souza Martinspresentsa numberof novel insights n his thoughtfulchapteron the struggles or and about land in Brazil.He arguesthat the safetyvalves,whichexisted n thepast againstdepeasantisation,ave beencurtailed.Mosttenantshave lost their usufructrights to a piece of land as landlordsbegan tomodernise heirestatesandreplace enantswithcasualwage abourandas capitalistfarms have invaded and dispossessedthe Amazonianpeasantryof their land.StephenNugentalso raises he questionof whether hepeasantrys disappearingnBrazilbuthis analysiss limited o theAmazoniaregion.He laments he factthattheAmazonianpeasantryhave remained nvisibleand excludedfrom socio-historicalanalysis nd he stresses heircontribution o thevalorisation f landby bearing hesignificant ostsof landclearing s well asproducing heapfoodstuffs. n this, then,he sees a dualtendencyof peasantisation ndde-peasantisation.WillemAssies, inhis chapteron the agrariantruggles n the BolivianAmazon,shows how rubbertappers simple commodityproducers,formallysubsumedunder capital havemade a significantcontribution o capitalaccumulation hroughthe creationofabsolutesurplusvalue which has been appropriated y merchantcapital.He con-cludes that the 1996 andlegislationhas failed o resolvethe conflictsover land andresources.Furthermore,orestryand is continuing o be concentrated y agribusi-ness.Thus, the neoliberalmarket-ledandreformpromotedby the WorldBank isnot a solutionto the landproblem,especially s there s no levelplaying ieldin thelandmarket.Let me finishthis review on a lighternote. I often find footnotes or endnotesmorefascinating ndrevealinghan the maintext. andBrassmorethansatisfiedmyappetite.His introductorychapterof just over zo pages includes 67 endnotesamounting o almost 3 pagesand has7 pagesof references,both in smallprint.Inthe last chapterof the book, Brass runsto 30 endnotes,packed nto 26 pagesofsmallprint,outstrippinghewordlengthof the maintext. Butreaders houldnotgetthe impression hatI recommend hisbook only for its endnotes.It is a book thatshould be readby all thosewho areconcernedwith the fateof the LatinAmericanpeasantryn the new millennium.InstituteofSocial tudies, heHague CRIST 6BAL KA Y


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