Dukes and Peasants: Land Justice Network calls for a Day of Action for International Peasants Day
Land ownership in Britain is one of the most unequal in the world with 0.6% of the population owning over 70% of the land. More than a third of our land is still owned by the aristocracy, whose ancestors seized it during the Norman Conquest. By fencing off land and using violence to exclude people, landowners have deprived the rest of us of what is rightfully a shared resource. The vast majority of us own little or nothing, making us effectively landless peasants.
Land distribution lies at the heart of so much inequality and environmental degradation in society today. Landowners are able to control and exploit our natural resources and force the rest of us to be beholden to them for food, shelter and other needs. Despite their huge wealth, our taxes are used to pay landowners millions in farming subsidies and housing benefit, increasing inequality still further.
In order to highlight the injustices of unequal land ownership, the Land Justice Network is calling for a Day of Action for International Day of Peasant Struggles on April 17, 2018. We will show the Dukes that the peasants have had enough!
The Day of Action’s next planning meeting will take place on at 12pm 22nd October, Friends of the Earth. The Printworks, 139 Clapham Rd, London, SW9 OHP.