We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Who Owns Agricultural Land in Ukraine?

Click here to access article by Elizabeth Fraser from Oakland Institute.

Here you can see one of two major reasons that explain why the Empire's capitalist directors sponsored the overthrow of the elected government in Ukraine in early 2014: to plunder their rich farming lands by capitalist agricultural corporations. The other major reason was to set up more NATO bases on the edge of Russia as a way to intimidate the Russian government.
The fate of Ukraine’s agricultural sector is on shaky ground. Last year, the Oakland Institute reported that over 1.6 million hectares (ha) of land in Ukraine are now under the control of foreign-based corporations. Further research has allowed for the identification of additional foreign investments. Some estimates now bring the total of Ukrainian farmland controlled by foreign companies to over 2.2 million ha [hectares: one hectare equals 2.47 acres].
It appears that Western agents and their Ukrainian fascist collaborators are using the same method that they used in Russia and other satellite countries to convert and concentrate ownership of former collective and state owned properties into private hands--this time into the possession of Western corporations in addition to their Ukrainian collaborators.