Agrarian Reform and Acculturation

Mar 23

By Isaak Heller ‘22, Independent Fellow

Working for Focus On The Global South has been a fascinating process, with opportunities for learning at every turn. The day to day of agrarian reform work has been one very interesting line of work. So far, this has included holding an agrarian reform conference, working on on-the-ground struggles for land redistribution (from Manila), and planning an upcoming regional agrarian reform conference that will be held in Thailand in March (this will be my second time there, the first occurring around a month ago, when I went there for two weeks for Focus’s annual staff meeting, which brought together staff from Focus’s offices in the Philippines, India, Cambodia, and Thailand). Agrarian reform cases are fascinating, in part because they are mini campaigns that include many strategies that are relevant to larger social movements. Unfortunately, I cannot go into the specifics from specific cases.

Agrarian reform takes place within agrarian reform laws that give some legal precedent for land redistribution. However, implementation is generally very slow (as in, it can take 30 years for a piece of land to get redistributed), and often (usually) takes a lot of pressure on government agencies from the ground. Additionally, there are too many loopholes to describe that allow the original land owners to retain control.

Many agrarian reform cases include various government agencies (with often times conflicting perspectives), the people who work and live on the land, the original land owner and their corporation(s), powerful investors who rely on local land grabbers to do their dirty work, and outside NGO(s) of different political leanings. Some NGOs work with local community leaders in order to organize local communities to use collective actions to resist land grabbing, and force the hand of the government. Coalitions of organized local communities can then work together to mobilize for policy changes, as well as to support each other on their individual agrarian reform cases.

On the ground demonstrations are often met with resistance from armed guards and goons hired by the land owner/land grabber. Goons harass local communities by installing fences and other methods for keeping people off of a piece of land, with violence (eg. murder, rape, etc, often directed towards community leaders), and by destroying crops and houses. On the ground struggles can also include “astroturf” groups (ie. groups that pretend to be grassroots based) created by land grabbers, as well as competition between different factions of the left.

Another set of struggles happens in various legal arenas. This includes the main agrarian reform case for land redistribution, as well as SLAPP cases (Strategic lawsuits against public participation), where land grabbers aim to suppress peasant resistance by suing farmer leaders. While these cases often have very little substantial evidence in their favor, communities have a very hard time paying for legal fees and finding lawyers. NGOs can be very useful at supporting local communities in this arena because they can connect farmers to lawyers and resources to pay these lawyers. This legal struggle is problematic because judges can be bought, and may have personal ties to various involved parties (ie. patronage politics).

The final “arena” in which these agrarian reform conflicts occur revolves around the media. This includes grassroots level social media campaigns, as well as media access that NGOs build by creating networks and connections to institutions and reporters that can mainstream local struggles. This tactic can be used to put pressure on the government, land grabbers, and investors. Corporations generally compete in this arena using hired media managers.

All three of these arenas interact with each other in interesting ways. Informants and personal connections playing a role throughout. Furthermore, even if peasants successfully win agrarian reform suits (and they actually get implemented) surviving as a small farmer in one of the most neoliberal countries in Asia may be an even more formidable challenge (the entire supply chain is full of monopolies, and free trade laws mean that local producers must compete with heavily subsidized imports from other countries). Over the last four months, I have gotten to see many of these dynamics come into play in real agrarian reform cases, as well as how this affects Focus’s grassroots partners whose livelihoods are intimately tied up in the outcomes.

These experiences have shown me first hand how global capitalism is often rooted in expropriation that does not follow the rules of the market taught in standard economics classes. This cannot be demonstrated more clearly than the practice where multinational corporations buy land from land grabbers who do the dirty work of “cleaning up” a piece of land. This less legitimate face of capitalism is better hidden in the US, in part because rule of law is stronger there. Looking at a situation where capitalism is less constrained shows more clearly how capitalism often becomes “rule by the powerful,” as well as the type of corruption that it incentivises. This work has also taught me a lot of practical intelligence: there is a lot of meeting new people, building alliances, gaining people’s trust, learning what to share, and learning what not to share. I have learned a lot by being with people when they hear about good news, as well as when they first learn about (really) bad news.

Outside of work, there is also a ton to learn. Learning Tagalog, and the cultural

references that come with it has been a lot of fun, especially because this learning process has been very experiential (instead of the grammar heavy language classes from school). Getting to know my family better has been a lot of fun (and navigating family dynamics has at times been a can of worms lol). Metro Manila’s nightlife continues to be very fun, in part because it often features Karaoke. In line with this, drinking with friends has been a great way to get to know new people, and continues to be quite educational from a Tagalog standpoint (in particular, filling in knowledge gaps with regard to some of the more interesting aspects of the language). Drinking also seems to play an interesting role in grassroots organizing and social movement work here, with many interesting conversations held and alliances formed after the work day officially ends. Outside of work, during daylight hours, social activities have mainly revolved around playing basketball, exploring Quezon city on bike, and going to malls.

Speaking of exploring the city, a major part of life in Manila is transportation. This is because Manila has one of the worst transportation systems in the world (if I remember correctly from an article from my language class, it ranks second to last in a study of 70 major cities). Fortunately for me, Shansi pays enough for me to rent a place where I do not have to deal with awful commutes. In order to get around, I have primarily used jeeps (an open air vehicle with two long benches that go from front to back, where the entrance is), tricycles (a motorcycle with a sidecar for passengers), busses, and the MRT (the train line that runs from north to south). At times, I have also used my bike for transportation. When commuting does not make sense, there is an equivalent of Uber, but this means waiting in Manila’s awful traffic. Instead, these situations usually call for the use of Angkas- motorcycle uber. I also drove my uncles’ car around when he was out of town (an interesting experience), have tried my friend’s motorcycle, may learn to drive stick shift, and have been boating.

This has enabled a number of fun adventures. For Chinese new year, my language teachers (and now friends) invited me to go to Binondo (China town), where we saw lots of firecrackers, lion dancers, had lots of good food, and went to the Divisoria (a large indoor mall with many different small vendors selling cheap goods). I have also been to the province a few times, mostly to see family, and will likely end up in a number of different rural areas in the future as part of my job working with farming communities. The last time I went to the province (for fun, with my coworker/friend), we saw a Cock fight (knives are tied to the back of two roosters who fight to the death in what almost looks like a Muay Thai stadium. This comes along with a lot of betting), and took part in the celebration of Santo Nino (the local kids went on a parade behind an adult who was carrying a larger than life size Baby Jesus).

Overall, life has gotten a lot more interesting, fun, and relaxed. Everything has felt a lot more real, grounded, and alive. I do not want to jinx it, but culture shock has not really been a big thing yet, even though there is obviously a lot that I do not know. Due to Shansi, I may have just discovered that the US really is not the place for me.

Trade Justice Philippines press conference, Quezon Circle, Max’s Restaurant, February 1st

Playing basketball with friends, Quezon City, January 19th

Santo Nino day at a coworker’s family farm/community, Bulacan, January 21st

Day before Chinese New Year with language teachers, Jan 21, Binondo Metro Manila

Hike, Geomasungi nature reserve, January 4th

A coworker’s family farm/community, Bulacan, January 21st

Exploring a thrift store with friends, Quezon City, January 3

My Boss’s band, Quezon city human rights day festival, December 10th

Teacher Nina’s Birthday, January 26th, Quezon City, Christian Language Study Center

Quezon city human rights day festival, December 10th

Christmas eve with family, Bataan, December 24th

Thai TV’s version of Ganesh, December 1, Bangkok

Oberlin Shansi