International agrarian restructuring and the practical ethics of peasant movement solidarity

Abstract

Amid the range of organizations and forces described in a variety of social movement literature, organizations of people living and working in rural areas receive short shrift. This is not a new phenomenon, but it is one that has increasingly little justification. In this article, the contemporary context of neoliberal agrarian change is discussed, and the formation of the Via Campesina peasant network is presented using a Marxist sociological analysis. The problem of social movement reproduction and solidarity is then discussed drawing on the ideas of Alain Badiou. Copyright © 2006 SAGE Publications.