The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 278)

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عنوان

The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 278)

المحتوى

262
leased in or leased out. However, the information we do have is sufficient to apply
the labor-exploitation criterion in a more or less schematic manner. Before this
application, a reproduction of Patnaik’s categorization of the different strata of the
peasantry is in order.
(1) The first category contains both big landowners of the
federal type and capitalist, distinguished from the peasants by the
fact that family members do not perform manual labour [sic] in any
major farm operations. They rely entirely on the labour of others,
where through direct labour hiring or indirectly with a predominance
of rent-extraction, defining the still “feudal” type of landlord. This
category constitutes the large-scale appropriators of surplus (whether
in the form of labour, product or value) in agriculture.
(2) The second category is the top stratum of the peasantry,
the rich peasants. They perform some manual work in major farm
operations. By their resource position per capita is so favorable that
appropriation of others’ labour, whether directly or indirectly, is at
least as important as family labour in cultivation. Depending on
whether labour-hiring or rent predominates we may distinguish
between a proto-bourgeois and proto-landlord stratum, respectively,
within the rich peasantry. The rich peasantry is thus also an
exploiting, surplus appropriating class.
(3) The middle peasantry is primarily self-employed, since on
average its resource position per capita is such as to just employ
family labour adequately and provide a livelihood at a customary
subsistence level. However, the middle peasantry has a dual
character. A middle peasant holding may be a net exploiter of
others’ labour, or it may be exploited itself. In both cases, of
course, self-employment is more important. It is necessary to make a
subclassification within this large category. (a) We designate as
“upper-middle peasants” those who are net exploiters of others’
labour. These holdings have just crossed the subsistence barrier and
can generate small retainable surpluses through such small-scale
exploitation. (b) The “lower-middle peasants” are those who either
do not exploit any labour at all or they are themselves exploited to
some extent. The lower-middle peasants, typically are still
constrained by the struggle to reach a subsistence; they either just
manage to break even through self-employment or, more commonly,
must supplement inadequate income from own resources by working
to a small degree for others.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

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The Dispossession of the Peasantry

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المنشئ

Riyad Mousa

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