Abstract
This Independent Study is an examination of the role, both existing and potential, of rural and agricultural workers in 21st century anti-capitalism and how it varies and becomes entangled across borders. To do this, I use a case study of La Via Campesina (LVC), a grassroots transnational agrarian movement operating in 81 different countries that is explicitly anti-capitalist. I use ethnographic methods of formal interviews and participant-observation to procure original research on the predominant member organizations of two countries, the United States’ Rural Coalition and Nicaragua’s Asociación de Trabajadores del Campo (ATC). I provide a review of literature regarding the historical formation and precedents of LVC itself and peasant anti-capitalism more broadly, as well as a theoretical analysis of Marxist texts held up to contemporary peasant realities. My study posits that a movement of peasant anti-capitalism must encompass both a frame of building material and ideological resiliency, which is inherently local, and a frame of leveraging material and ideological resistance, which is inherently global.
Advisor
Mariola, Matthew
Department
Sociology and Anthropology
Recommended Citation
Newcomb, Robyn O., "Hope and Struggle: Towards a Socialist Internationalism for the Rural Working Class" (2020). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 8880.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/8880
Disciplines
Inequality and Stratification | Politics and Social Change | Rural Sociology
Keywords
La Via Campesina, capitalism, anti-capitalism, peasant
Publication Date
2020
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis
© Copyright 2020 Robyn O. Newcomb