False Choices On The Land

The debate about inheritance tax misses the point on land ownership

The recent protests staged by farmer against the Labour governments change sin the inheritance tax laws has, yet again, inspired a lot of noise but the real issues affecting British workers are (of course) not included in this barrage of propaganda. The inheritance tax changes affect a number of farmers who own land and other assets that are quite valuable but who are not what would be referred to as “cash rich”. Prior to the recent budget these farmers enjoyed a loophole in the inheritance laws that exempted them from paying tax on the value of this land that they would pass on to those who inherit the estates. The withdrawal of that will leave many who inherit medium sized farms facing a tax bill that they cannot afford except if they sell the land. This proposed change to the law was seen by the National Farmers Union and their supporters as being means of driving out smaller farmers by forcing them to sell the land to the big landowners and agribusiness such as Monsanto. This suspicion appeared to have been confirmed when Keir Starmer (grinning like an idiot as he always does when meeting the high powered bourgeois) sat down Larry Fink of Blackrock and declared his delight about attracting “Investment” from one of the biggest asset management funds in the world. These companies are of course far more interested in extracting profits than they are actually backing productive activities so many have accused Starmer of seeking to assist in the monopolisation of farmland in Britain by companies like Blackrock. Many of the people making this critique are those who would describe themselves as “right wing” and often come from the petit bourgeoisie. Like many critiques of capitalism that come from this layer though the wider point is missed. Capitalism has a natural tendency towards monopolisation in all areas of economic activity including with regard to land ownership. Britain is already at an advanced stage of monopolisation of land ownership with (according to some estimates) 50% of the land being owned by around 1% of the population. Unlike in France, the Netherlands or Germany the small and medium farms in Britain have long since been removed from playing a significant role in food production due to the extreme nature of monopolisation and the fact that over 50% of our food is actually imported. It has long been standard practice of the British ruling class to try and import food from countries where working conditions are hyper-exploitative with much lower production costs, this enables wages to be kept low in Britain as food can be brought in at cheaper prices and thus the impact of wage suppression can be mitigated. This was being observed by Karl Marx himself as early as the later 1840s and the British ruling class have used the tactic to great effect ever since then. The argument about inheritance tax and farm ownership misses the point here though as it doesn’t ask these important questions. What we must do is to let workers know that the solution to the problems of land ownership and food production cannot be found under capitalism. We could produce the great majority of the food required in this country within the lands available in Britain. Under a socialist system with a planned economy we would actually have a much bigger agricultural sector with many more workers employed within it. This would require the takeover of the big estates which are currently in the possession of the aristocracy and agribusiness and the bringing into cultivation land that has been left idle for decades as it would not have been profitable enough to farm on it. The interests of our class lie in the maximum development of agriculture here, not in the exploitation of poorer countries. Proper usage of our own land can only come under a system where the workers control the state and the people own the land.