
The Green Transition Needs Land | Max Ajl
Why agrarian reform is key to solving the climate crisis
“In many post-colonial countries, if the issue is that you have an excess of labour, which is the case across Latin America, Africa, West Asia, you actually have capacity to mobilise labour and apply it to land. And the best way to do that is to carry out an agrarian reform, to actually increase the size of the units of land available to the poorest people…
“Automatically, you would increase national production and you would increase the wellbeing of the poorest sectors of your population. So this is actually a developmental imperative. Therefore, unless there's some overriding ecological reason to say we shouldn't be doing that, then it should be an overriding developmental imperative in any form of green transition.”
Max Ajl is a fellow at Ghent university researching the climate and agrarian issues. He's also the author of the acclaimed A People’s Green New Deal, a “radical alternative” to the Green New Deals peddled by government institutions over the past years.
Max joined me to discuss the necessity of land reform in the global green transition, explaining the importance of peasants, the relationship between land, production and debt, and how the post-colonial nations can liberate themselves from the late stage capitalist economy inflicted upon them by the global north.
The Green Transition Needs Land | Max Ajl
Hi Rachel, I'd like to promote Fadhel Kaboub as an interview partner for your show. "How to gain economic sovereignty and sustainable prosperity for the Global South" https://youtu.be/KNdeyMlgB8U
Great interview and some really challenging points made. The conversation really opened up when Max was asked why Agricultural Reform had stalled. I was aware of the shock doctrine coups in Chile and other South American countries but hadn’t made the connection with agricultural reforms.