Henri Lefebvre: A Critical Introduction - autonomous learning

G L o b a L i z a t i o n a n d t H e s t a t e
men, women, and children in Millau, southwest France, tore apart
a partly constructed McDonald’s eatery. This was an “organized
dismantling,” a Lefebvrian moment, spontaneous yet carefully
planned by ewe’s milk farmer José Bové, longtime rural militant
and unionist, and cofounder of the Confédération Paysanne. In
the wake of this widely reported event, Bové was arrested and
accused of a million dollars worth of criminal vandalism. Bail
money poured in fast, particularly from U.S. farmers, and an erstwhile
working-class Frenchman became a radical folk hero around
the world.
Specifics date back to February 1998, when the World Trade
Organization, responding to the American meat lobby, condemned
the European Union’s refusal to import American hormone-treated
beef. The proneoliberal World Trade Organization gave Europe
fifteen months to open its frontiers, or else. The deadline expired
in May 1999, and almost immediately the Clinton administration
responded, slapping 100 percent customs import surcharge on
assorted European products, Roquefort cheese included. Overnight,
the price of Roquefort doubled from $30 a kilo to $60, effectively
prohibiting sale. “We sell 440 tonnes of cheese annually to the
states,” Bové explained in his aptly titled book The World Is Not
for Sale, “worth 30 million francs [€4.5 million]. Given that the
cost of [ewe’s milk] is half the value of the Roquefort, the producers
are losing 15 million francs [€2.2 million].” 24 Ewe’s milk farming
is crucial to the economy of the Larzac region and a livelihood
for Bové. “So on the one side of the Atlantic a wholesome product
like Roquefort was being surcharged, while on this side we were
being forced to eat hormone-treated beef.” 25
Lefebvre lists among absolute space such items as caves, mountaintops,
springs, and rivers (cf. POS, p. 48). Roquefort cheese is
“absolutely” unique in its production process; it’s a special alchemy
of ewe’s milk, bread, and the caves of Aveyron’s Massif Central,
whose natural damp and airy grottos spawn “penicillin roqueforti,”
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