Viewing page 73 of 94

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

U. S. Agriculture and Tasks of the Communist Party, U. S. A.

A Draft Program submitted for general discussions. - Conclusion.

SECTION V

FARM CAPITAL'S CONQUEST BY FINANCE CAPITAL

The farmer capitalist and farm corporations have incomes of wide variations concealed by statistical averages. Some of these have profited by the marked national dietary change from cereals and meats to dairy products, fruits and vegetables. This dietary change, however, which bourgeois apologists unhesitatingly ascribe to "growing urbanization" (and how should that affect the diet were it not for growing proletarianization?) undoubtedly reflects the lower living standards of the masses rather than some fancifully conceived epidemic of vegetarianism. The low amount of "farm-made butter" in comparison to "butter sold" indicates how such as dairy products are with comparative ease subjected to monopoly marketing, and dairying has been very highly rationalized. In such fields farm capital has tried itself to obtain local monopoly control through "co-operatives." But no sooner are such "producers' cooperatives" formed than they are swallowed up in the maw of finance capital. Indeed, finance capital has a policy of forcing dispersed farm capital to "co-operatives," at times by campaigns of violence (destruction of the crops of independent growers by the California Raisin Growers' Association, owned by the Dillon Read Wall Street bank, for example), as well as by "peaceful compulsion" through credit control and centralized purchasing.

(a) The so-called "co-operatives" or "pools" constitute one of the greatest deceptions not only for farmers, but for deluding the masses with the idea that some sort of "near socialism" is being attained through them for farmers. This deception is on a level with the demagogy of the "B. & O. Plan" of class collaboration put out by the fascist bureaucracy of the A.F. of L. Reformists of all stripes, but particularly the "left" phrase mongers, delight in picking out some isolated and local "success" of a few farmers, distorting it, exaggerating its significance and putting it forth as "proof" that all farmers should flock into "co-operatives." As a matter of fact, even to join co-operatives, i.e., to become a shareholder in a business run for profit, requires usually and invest-

[359]