Britain
Farmers Protest Against Labour Government's Inheritance Tax Changes
Farmers' tractor rally in
Whitehall, London, December 11, 2024
Farmers across Britain have been protesting against the government's inheritance tax changes introduced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The Labour Government has imposed a 20 per cent inheritance tax on agricultural assets exceeding £1 million. The increase is set to take effect in April 2026.
A fundamental issue facing the farmers, as is the case with the working people across England, Scotland and Wales as well as the north of Ireland which the British rulers continue to declare belongs to them, is the seizure of the decision-making power on all matters of concern by narrow private interests. This is what the Labour Party represents no less than the other cartel parties which are presented as "choices" when people participate in electing new governments.
The pay-the-rich policy will force farming families to sell all or parts of their farms to pay the new tax bills, threatening to destabilize small to medium-sized farms, which will in turn disproportionately affect rural communities reliant on farming.
On November 19,
the National Farmers' Union (NFU) organized
thousands of farmers to demonstrate outside Parliament in
London. The
event included lobbying MPs with 1,800 NFU members meeting with
them to
urge policy reversals. The event also included holding public
demonstrations where protesters
staged symbolic actions, such as leading children on toy
tractors and
wearing T-shirts bearing slogans. Though not officially part of
this
action, some protesters also drove tractors through Westminster.
On December 11 more than 600 tractors paraded through Westminster in a noisy protest against the Autumn Budget's impact on farming. Organized by Save British Farming and Kent Fairness for Farmers, the rally showcased the growing frustration of farmers who believe government policies threaten the future of British agriculture and their livelihoods.
Farmers travelled from as far afield as Exmoor, Worcestershire, Somerset and the Isle of Wight. Although the NFU did not officially participate, its president, Tom Bradshaw, voiced support for the cause, acknowledging the strong feelings within the agricultural community and urging the government to take note.
Farmers Weekly reported: "Simultaneously, farmers in Yorkshire and Wales organized their own protests, amplifying the call for change. In York, more than 120 tractors filled the city centre in a rally headlined 'Save Family Farms.' Meanwhile, Welsh farmers gathered outside the Senedd in Cardiff, decrying the Welsh Labour administration's policies, which they say threaten farming."
The protests over the tax changes come in the wake of actions held earlier in the year to demand support for food production and to express concerns about the future of agriculture.[1]
The farming crisis is growing in Britain and across Europe, with rising costs for energy, fertilizers, and transport, while farm-gate prices are dropping. The agribusiness oligopolies have the power to manipulate prices from land and other raw resources to livestock, feed, and fertilizers, while supermarkets fix prices below the cost of production. In their drive to take over the land and production, oligopolies drive smaller producers out of business.
The competition for markets and control over regions and trade routes is also reaching unprecedented levels, also closely linked with war preparations. U.S./NATO sanctions and embargoes on Russian oil and gas have been a factor, while fertilizers from Ukraine and Russia have been a subject of contention, as has the waiving of quotas and duties on Ukrainian produce.
But farmers in India, the European countries, the U.S., Canada and all over the world are rising to defend their farms and demand control over the decisions which affect their lives. Recent actions include Bulgarian farmers blocking roads in Sofia to demand government support for rising energy and fertilizer costs and for relief from EU regulations. Farmers in France, Italy and Greece staged demonstrations against agricultural policies, cheap imports, and rising costs.
Despite the destruction of productive forces, farming is still crucial for food production, with over half of food consumed in Britain being produced in the country.[2] These productive forces should not be further destroyed; destruction of the land and productive forces is an extremely dangerous trend carrying the real threat of starvation.
The issue raises the question of who owns the land. What purposes does it serve, whose interests are being put forward? Competing parts of the international oligarchy and the oligopolies in agribusiness are seizing control of the land, usurping the decision-making power to pass anti-social measures such as these increases in the inheritance tax in Britain. It is also a fact that "the Crown" and aristocracy own the lion's share of the land, which they "inherit" since medieval times.
Workers' Weekly, the newspaper of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) points out: "The inheritance tax protests highlight growing tensions between Britain's farming community and the gatekeepers of power in parliament, as small and medium-sized farmers are evidently marginalized from decision-making along with all other sections of the working people. The need for a decision-making role for those working the land, and for their concerns to be heard, and people to organize themselves to address the crisis in food and other sectors is crucial. The struggle of farmers and farm labourers is just; their problems are part of the problems of society in conditions of generalized chaos and destruction that all people face. It is agricultural workers who hold the solutions to the problems of food production; what they lack is the political power."
Notes
2. Britain imported 46 per cent of food consumed in 2020; 54 per cent was produced in the country. See "An Overview of the UK's Food Imports," SSO International Forwarding, September 28, 2023.
(With files from Workers' Weekly, NFU, Politico, The Standard, The Independent, Farmers Weekly)
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 12 - December 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M5401214.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca