The bill covers three areas--the right of crofting communities (small farmers) to force their landlord to sell crofters the land that they work along with associated common grazing land; broader rights for rural communities to buy the island or other land they live on; and legal protection for public access to land.

Land reform was one of the first acts the Scottish Parliament committed itself to when it was formed in 1999. The pattern of land ownership has changed little in the last two centuries and the landowning class remains a powerful force in the country. In 1872 for example, 1,758 people each owned estates of more than 1,000 acres. By 1999 only 1,252 people owned estates of that size. They own 66 percent of all private rural land in the country, or 57 percent of the total land. Of those landlords, 343 people own half of all private land. This includes the "Crown estates"--the private property of the queen, Elizabeth Windsor, who owns more than 95,000 acres of the country.

The land question is deeply tied into the national oppression of Scotland. The ancestors of many of the large landowners of today had received money and titles in exchange for surrendering Scotland's independence by voting for the union with England. London, unable to defeat Scotland, forced through the union of the two countries in 1707 by making concessions to sections of the Scottish ruling classes, in particular the landlords. As a result, class relations in the countryside here have remained more or less frozen for the last 300 years.

The rising sentiment against the national oppression of Scotland has helped push this question to the fore today.

While organizations like the Scottish Landowners Federation and the Conservative Party oppose the entire bill, the most contentious piece is the proposal to give crofting communities the right to buy the land they work, whether the landowner wishes to sell it or not. Crofting was introduced in Scotland around the start of the 19th century. At that time a huge percentage of the rural population was driven off the land through force and violence.  
 
Highland Clearances
Karl Marx, writing in Capital, describes how the Duchess of Sutherland had the county's inhabitants "systematically hunted and rooted out. All their villages were destroyed and burnt, all their fields turned into pasturage. British soldiers enforced this mass of evictions, and came to blows with the inhabitants. One old woman was burnt to death in the flames of the hut she refused to leave. It was in this manner that this fine lady appropriated 794,000 acres of land that had belonged to the clan from time immemorial."

These Highland Clearances drove most Highlanders into the new factories and mills of the industrial cities, or onto the "death boats" bound for the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. The clearances made way for large sheep farms and later deer on the big estates, which were much more profitable than other kinds of farming because of the terrain.

At a certain point, however, the landowners realized they would have no labor left in the Highlands and Islands to work on their own estates and in rural industries like kelping (seaweed processing) and fishing. So they rented out small pieces of land that would not provide enough to live on, thereby creating a seasonal labor force that could be left to its own devices when it was not needed.

Over the years crofters have carried out vigorous fights to gain security of tenure on the land they work, including a 13-year land war at the end of the 19th century, that culminated in the 1886 Crofters Act.

Today 33,000 people live and work on 17,700 crofts, concentrated in the five "crofting counties" in the West Highlands and the Islands. These crofts total about one third of all agricultural holdings in Scotland. Some 3,500 crofts are owner-occupied; the rest are tenanted. The average croft size is 12.3 acres, so most crofters supplement their earnings from other sources such as fishing, aquaculture, or tourism.

Since 1976, individual crofters have had the right to buy their own croft, at a price of 15 times the annual rent. Under the new legislation crofting communities can buy whole areas of crofting land and associated common land such as grazings.  
 
'A change in attitude needed'
In a statement, the Scottish Crofting Foundation, the main crofters organization, "wholeheartedly welcomed" the publication of the bill, stating, "we are confident that the bill will actually encourage the sale of crofting land to tenants by landowners.... It will also send a signal to the detached absentee landowners that a change in attitude may be needed towards crofters and crofting communities."

At the same time, the federation cautions against crofters being forced into buying. "We feel it would be a mistake for crofters to be pushed into this purchase without having had time to consider how the land would viably be managed in the future," the statement said.

The Scottish Landowners Federation (SLF) in turn released a furious statement claiming, the "crofting right to buy perpetuates the nightmare scenario. Nothing of significance has been done to change the perception of expropriation of private property just because someone else wants it.... Ministers should be honest enough to call it nationalization." Lord Strathclyde of the Conservative Party in the House of Lords stated, "Even the Soviet Union never tried something like this."

The federation is also vigorously lobbying for the exclusion of title to fishing and mineral rights from compulsory purchase. In fact, the bill does separate these rights from the land, offering crofting communities the ability to buy the fishing and mineral rights at market price for up to one year after they have successfully taken over crofting land. Any bid has to be accompanied by a business plan subject to government approval. It is also unclear if the right to buy includes the seabed adjacent to crofting land, currently owned by the "crown estate."  
 
Tenant farmers demand rights
Landowners are also concerned about a move amongst some tenant farmers--the majority of small farmers in Scotland--to push for legislation also giving them the right to compulsory purchase of the land they work. Many tenant farmers rent land on the big estates. The National Farmers Union of Scotland (NFUS) announced it would consult its members on the question.

The NFUS, like its counterparts in England and Wales, is dominated by capitalist farmers. One-third of its members are tenant farmers. Pressure is growing within the organization as the class interests of large and small farmers diverge under the pressure of the agricultural crisis. John Kinnaird, vice president of NFUS, described the issue as "potentially divisive."

The Scottish Landowners Federation was less restrained, expressing "dismay" over the "very serious development" and noting that "this is the absolute opposite of everything which both SLF and NFU Scotland have tried to achieve in negotiations for a new style of agricultural holding lease."

The provision in the bill for a broader "community right to buy," which forces landowners to give preferential consideration to collective bids from rural communities when land they live on is put on the market, reflects a movement that has grown over the past several years in these areas. In 1993, 100 crofters in Assynt, in the north of the country, bought 21,000 acres. Since then, there have been around 40 community buyouts. A driving force behind these moves is the fact that Highland estates and islands have long been treated as investment opportunities and playgrounds for hunting and other country sports by the rich. Those living on the estates find themselves passed on from one landlord to the next, usually with little or no interest being taken for their livelihoods.

Up until now communities have had to pay top rate for the land. The Land Reform Bill will force landowners to take community bids at a market price set by a government commission. To make a successful bid, a commercial company has to be set up in the name of a community, and then has to provide a business plan. So far, such companies have been dominated by middle-class professionals and local business people.

The Land Reform Bill is due to become law in February. In the meantime discussions and public hearings continue.  
 
 
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