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Enclosures

Primitive Accumulation and “Accumulation by Dispossession”: Enclosures, New Enclosures, and Resistance Struggles. Enclosures. A central part of Primitive Accumulation (The Prehistory of Capitalism)

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Enclosures

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  1. Primitive Accumulation and “Accumulation by Dispossession”:Enclosures, New Enclosures, and Resistance Struggles

  2. Enclosures • A central part of Primitive Accumulation (The Prehistory of Capitalism) • The process by which common land is taken into fully private ownership and use (the word comes originally from 1600's England) - Under enclosure, common land is fenced (enclosed) and deeded or entitled to one or more private owners, who then enjoy the possession and fruits of the land to the exclusion of all others - Enclosure is often accompanied by force, resistance, and bloodshed

  3. New Enclosures or “Accumulation by Dispossession” • These terms describe processes that are very similar to Primitive Accumulation, but which occur after capitalism has become the dominant mode of production.

  4. Struggles against ongoing Accumulation by Disposession or New Enclosures * Abahlali baseMjondolo in South Africa * Zapatista Army of National Liberation (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) in Chiapas, Mexico * Fanmi Lavalas in Haiti * The Landless Worker's Movement in Brazil * The Movement for Justice in el Barrio in New York (Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio)

  5. Abahlali baseMjondolo  http://www.abahlali.org/node/239 • Largest shack-dweller's organization in South Africa • Aims to improve the conditions of poor people and democratize society from below • Calls for 'a living communism' (Strong Marxism in South Africa) • Demanded expropriation of private land for public housing (re-creating common land)

  6. Abahlali refuses to participate in party politics or any NGO-style professionalization or individualization of struggle. • Instead seeks to build democratic people's power where people live and work • Abahlali has many interesting and influential campaigns, from demanding good public housing for all, to refusing Electoral Politics and pursuing “Dual Power”: • The movement states that it aims to build a counter power to that of the state by creating a series of linked collectives and communes. This position is shared by all the organisations in the “Poor People's Alliance.”

  7. EMINENT DOMAIN • The law of Eminent Domain allows the state to seize a citizen’s private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen’s rights in property with due monetary compensation but without the owner’s consent. • Eminent Domain is believed to be for creating public services like public utilities, highways, and railroads. • However, in practice, Eminent Domain has been used to destroy poor communities and communities of color, and expropriate land from these communities in order to give or sell it to developers at a very low price.

  8. The Revival of the Commons, today • The commons refers to resources that are collectively owned. • Today, there are many movements around things other than land that are re-creating Commons. • A good example is “Open-source” software (OpenOffice, Linux, etc) • Also, there are always people attempting to establish networks to create food commons, clothing commons, and the like.

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