The Deed and the Wage · Episode 8 of 10 · 20 min
Land Reform as Labor Policy: Mexico, Bolivia, Japan, Taiwan
Across the twentieth century, states on every continent tore up their land-tenure maps on purpose, and each time they rewrote their labor systems too. Bolivia's 1953 reform abolished unpaid hacienda labor, Taiwan turned landlords into industrial shareholders, and collectivization brought famine. Wolf Ladejinsky, who wrote Asia's land reforms and was purged for it, threads the story.
Who's who
- Emiliano ZapataMorelos peasant revolutionary whose Plan de Ayala demanded return of village lands
- Lázaro Cárdenas+2 more episodesMexican president who redistributed roughly 18 million hectares
- Víctor Paz Estenssoro+2 more episodesBolivian president who signed the 1953 agrarian reform
- Wolf Ladejinsky+1 more episodeAmerican agricultural economist who shaped land reforms in Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam
- Douglas MacArthur+1 more episodeSupreme Commander whose occupation government carried out Japan's land reform
- Chen ChengTaiwan governor who drove the 1949 rent cap and 1953 Land-to-the-Tiller program
- Ezra Taft BensonAgriculture Secretary who declared Ladejinsky a security risk
Where it happens
- Morelos, MexicoHome of Zapata's peasant revolution
- Ucureña, Cochabamba Valley, Bolivia+1 more episodeWhere the 1953 agrarian reform decree was signed
- Taiwan+1 more episodeConverted landlords' claims into shares of industrial companies
- Kerala, IndiaState whose 1969-70 law abolished landlordism and tenancy
Timeline
- November 1911Zapata proclaims the Plan de Ayala
- February 5, 1917Mexico's Article 27 declares land belongs originally to the nation
- October 1946Japan's Diet passes the revised Agricultural Land Reform Law
- January 20, 1953Taiwan's Land-to-the-Tiller Act promulgated
- August 2, 1953Paz Estenssoro signs Bolivia's agrarian reform decree
- December 1954-January 1955Ladejinsky dismissed as a security risk, then rehired and cleared
Still debated
Whether the Holodomor was genocide or catastrophic policy without extermination intent is argued, and the Great Leap famine toll ranges widely. How much East Asian growth land reform explains, Bolivia's long-run results, and Zimbabwe's outcome are also disputed.
← PreviousHenry George: The Land Reformer America's Labor Movement LovedNext →Housing Is the New Land Question: Rent, Wages, and Zoning
Connected episodes in other series
Redrawing the MapThe Ground Rules · Episode 9Also features Lázaro Cárdenas, Víctor Paz Estenssoro
How the Tin Barons Bought BoliviaBackyard Empire: The U.S. in Latin America · Episode 6Also features Víctor Paz Estenssoro
How the CCC Secretly Rehearsed World War IIRoosevelt's Forest Army · Episode 3Also features Douglas MacArthur