The demonstrations by farmers and their supporters represent a shift in direction towards political action--the only course that can combat the conditions imposed on tens of thousands of farmers by the ruling class.

A partial rundown of the conditions working farmers face today highlights the scope of this crisis.

• Farm income in the United States plummeted 17 percent between 1996 and 1999. Thousands of farmers have been driven to bankruptcy. In this period farmers have seen a 42 percent drop in wheat prices, 39 percent in corn, and 20 percent in soybeans. Wheat and corn are at their lowest prices in 13 years and soybean prices are at a 25-year low.
• High cost insurance protection for crops seldom covers total losses.
• The worst drought conditions nationwide in half a century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. Hardest hit states include Arkansas, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Tennessee in the South, and Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Nebraska in the Midwest. Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama had the driest February since the 1890s. Farmers in Texas have incurred more than $90 million in losses so far this year, solely due to the drought.
• "Disaster relief" packages available to most farmers are like water from an eye dropper. One example is West Virginia. Some $40 million in federal grants is available from the government for drought-related losses. Total reported damages: $200 million. A West Virginia farmer is only eligible for a $2,500 maximum in grants. Rice farmers in Louisville, Kentucky, don't even get compensated for their loses because of a law passed to not pay farmers whose crops are normally irrigated.
• Prices U.S. dairy farmers receive for milk has been driven down by 40 percent since last September. In the Northeast, farmers are paid just over half the cost to produce a hundredweight of milk. While prices paid to hog farmers have risen from all-time lows, some 14,000 hog farmers were still driven out of business last year.
• Fuel prices are at a 20-year high, a major expense for farmers.
• There are signs of widening poverty in rural areas, as hospitals, wages, and social services are cut.

At the same time working farmers and their families are going through ever-toughening conditions, capitalist politicians are pushing legislation to increase the profit margins of the rich farmers and agribusiness giants. The government just lifted any cap on the yearly subsidy an individual can receive, which is just a massive boon to wealthy growers and agribusiness. Most farmers receive a paltry amount each year in support payments of any kind.

Farmers who are Black--hit hardest by the crisis due to racist discrimination on top of miserly loan policies of the government--have been part of a vanguard fighting to hold onto their land. The Washington, D.C., rally will give them the opportunity to join forces with other layers of fighters against foreclosures. This also deals a blow to divisions and prejudices the rulers try to sow among farmers.

Farmers have a crucial ally in their fight against debt slavery--the working class. The mood among working people--just like the farmers--has also shifted towards resistance, towards solidarity. Toilers increasingly see skirmishes in their plants as part of a larger fight for dignity and the right to work in a safe environment.

The rulers would have farmers believe that the cause of their plight rests with toilers of another nation or a foreign country. But working farmers and peasants around the world face similar crises and are part of struggles right now against a common exploiter. Tens of thousands of landless peasants in Brazil are fighting for land. Farmers in the Republic of Ireland have picketed packinghouses for higher prices. We should draw on each others examples around the world and see them as part of the same fight.

The root cause of the conditions farmers face from Memphis, Tennessee, to Donegal, Ireland, is capitalism. The only road toward ending the pauperization of rural toilers is to build a revolutionary movement of workers and farmers that has the imagination, capacity, courage, and leadership to throw off the system of capitalism like an old coat. This proletarian movement can then turn toward the enormous task of building socialism and reversing the cancerous effects capitalism has had on humanity and the earth on which we live.

Working people and the unions should demand:

Immediate federal cash grants for all farmers devastated by the drought!

A guaranteed market for farmers' crops and livestock with prices adequate to meet production costs and provide a decent living!

Abolish small and middle farmers' debts owed to the banks and the government!

Cheap credit to working farmers who need it, with special preference to those who need it most. No discrimination against Black, Latino, or Asian farmers!

Guaranteed government-funded crop and livestock insurance with 100 percent protection against so-called natural disasters!

End property taxes. Institute a sharply graduated income tax that puts the burden on the rich, not workers and farmers!

Create committees of farmers and workers chosen by unions, farm organizations, and consumer groups to police the prices and profits of supermarkets and big business producers. This can help counter attempts to use commodity prices to divide workers and farmers and expose the bosses' practice of paying farmers bargain-basement prices for a product, then shooting up the price at supermarkets.  
 
 
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