The Political Economy of Learning in Agrarian Contention
Transnational Networks and Interracial Alliance Formation
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Abstract
This article explains how an interracial alliance that promotes a radical restructuring of agriculture, featuring African American small-scale producers, farmers of Euro-American descent, Latino farmworkers, and Indigenous people, has come into existence. As I argue, this coalition formed due to changes in international political economy and within transnational activist networks. Specifically, the implementation of neoliberal international trade deals beginning in the 1970s disrupted farmers’ livelihoods in the Global North and South. It drove migrants from countries such as Mexico and Guatemala to the United States with their experiences of agrarian reform, and it saw US farmers simultaneously begin to engage farmers of color in new and important ways. The transnational activist networks that facilitated visits and meetings subsequently provided opportunities for activists to learn from one another and have new experiences, which, as I explore, led people from diverse backgrounds to agree on various principles and forge a common vision.
Contributor Notes
Anthony Robert Pahnke is Associate Professor of International Relations at San Francisco State University and Vice President of the Family Farm Defenders. Raised on a dairy farm in Eastern Wisconsin, he has remained active with small-scale farmer and farmworker groups for over 12 years. His research has appeared in journals such as New Political Science, International Studies Review, and Rethinking Marxism. He is also the author of Brazil's Long Revolution: Radical Achievements of the Landless Workers Movement (2018) and Agrarian Crisis in the United States: Pathways for Reform (2023). His popular writing on agriculture, immigration, and international politics has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Progressive, and The Hill, among other print and online publications. Email: anthonypahnke@sfsu.edu