The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America - autonomous ...

116 Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America
Of course, conflict and inequality exist among peasants and are
not restricted to the agribusiness-peasant relationship. Yet, in the
peasant sphere they have a totally different character. Distinctions
of wealth between peasants are mitigated by redistributive and reciprocal
mechanisms, which conflict serves to regulate, and the
ideological distinction between a rich and a poor peasant is further
diluted because all peasants define themselves as poor (pobres) in
contrast with the rich (ricos) who manage the agribusiness sphere.
This sense of a common oppressor exists because nobody expects
the rich to be concerned with reciprocity or redistribution, and that
there is little that can be done to get even with them.
The pervasive sense of historical injustice enforces these contrasts.
Plantation development robbed the peasants of their lands
and continues to do so. "The landlords took our lands from us for
this purpose. Still there exist ancient people born at the beginning of
the century who can physically narrate the imperialist history of
these senoies landlords. The holdings of our forebears are now concentrated
into great latifundia reducing the recent born to the worst
misery." This sense of injustice extends beyond the immediate issue
of land per se. Land is a way of referring to a way of life. Its appropriation
by agribusiness signifies moral as well as material plunder.
Countless examples can be given, but the following text from a letter
written by a group of peasants to a government agency in 1972
should suffice. "For a long time we have been suffering from the
enormous damages inflicted upon us by the industrial lords dedicated
to the benefit of sugarcane ... for which they remove water
from the Palo River without any type of control. . . without practicing
nor respecting the sacred norms as written in the law books. So
long as justice based on equality, justice as the voice of God, is still
in motion, we ask for your attention."
Of course this is rhetorical. The appeals to the "sacred norms,"
"justice based on equality," and "justice as the voice of God" are a
means of making the argument more persuasive. But to dismiss
these tropes as cynical manipulation is to forget that this mode of
expression was chosen because it was believed to be effective. The
issue concerns the use of land and water in a way that violates the
sacred norms, justice, equality, and God. In other words, the issue
concerns the moral revolution that, according to Tawney, is required
for the birth of the modern capitalist system: "It is the change of
moral standards which . . . canonized as the economic virtues habits
which in earlier ages had been denounced as vices" (1958:2,). Similar
to this letter of peasant protest is Mercado's principle expressed in
the heady days of the anarcho-religious uprisings of 1849: "The peo-