Author: Fatemeh Ghorayshi

Publisher:

Published: 1976

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

Land reform measures in Iran from 1962 are compared with the land reforms in Cuba begun in 1959. Three stages of land reform are described in Iran, initiated in 1962, 1963 and 1969. The limited changes introduced by the Shah's GovernI ment tended to favour larger and wealthier residents in the villages. A new class of "kulaks" has developed. Those absentee landlords whose lands were re-distributed were compensated by means of stocks in industrial enterprises. Peasants with small holdings, and the numerous class of landless rural workers, these groups (constituting up to onehalf of the village population) received little additional land. The net effect of the Iranian reforms has been to weaken the feudal elements in the countryside, and to strengthen capitalistic agriculture. At the same time, the class struggle between small farmers, sharecroppers and landless laborers, on the one side, and the richer farmers on the other hand - this struggle has been intensified. Many of the poorer peasants have migrated into the cities in search of work. In Cuba, the large estates were confiscated. About four-fifths of the confiscated lands were turned into large-scale state farms. The rest was given to those farmers whose holdings were below 165 acres, to bring them up to a "vital minimum". The first stage of Cuban land reform left 44 per cent of the land in the hands of the State; the second stage (1963) brought the holdings of the State to 60 per cent. The socialist sector undertook to modernize agriculture in the context of a national plan. Productivity was increased; technology was improved; sugar and cattle were the main industries. No drift of surplus rural workers to the cities has occurred. Workers are employed on the State farms, while new services such as education and health are taken out into the countryside. Though many problems remain in Cuba, land reform has been highly successful. By contrast, land reform in Iran has falled to resolve the basic contradictions in Iranian social structure. The reasons are briefly discussed.