WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE - news journal UPDATE - (en) france, UCL AL #360 - Trade Unionism - Congress of the Peasant Confederation: Consolidating its Foundations, Questioning its Limits (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 From April 15 to 17, 2025, the town of Langres in Haute-Marne hosted

the 28th Congress of the Peasant Confederation. Held a few months after
the January 2025 elections to the Chambers of Agriculture, this congress
took place at a time of major union readjustments, marked by record
abstention and a strong increase in the number of members of the Rural
Coordination (CR) against the majority bloc, the National Federation of
Farmers' Unions (FNSEA) and Young Farmers (JA). In January 2025, nearly
400,000 active farm managers, forming the first of five electoral
colleges, were called upon to elect their representatives to the
departmental Chambers of Agriculture[1]. These strategic bodies are both
professional representative bodies and levers for implementing
agricultural policies. These elections took place in an explosive
context: farmers' protests in 2024, the signing of the free trade
agreement with Mercosur, the crisis of the dominant production-based
model amid an environmental disaster, etc. All these factors fueled
increased polarization among the unions, between conservative retreat
and the desire for profound transformation.

Elections under pressure
Following the elections, the FNSEA/JA bloc suffered a historic setback,
losing its majority in 22 departments. This result directly challenges
the model of agricultural co-management, inherited from the post-war
period, in which the FNSEA established itself as a relay for public
policy and a privileged partner of the State in the regions. This
challenge also implicitly affects the well-established interests of the
major players in the agro-industrial complex, foremost among them Arnaud
Rousseau, President of the FNSEA and head of the Avril group. Even if
their dominance begins to be shaken, their interests will continue to be
firmly defended, as long as the institutional machinery remains unchanged.

If there is one result that deserves special attention, it is the CR's
meteoric rise, going from 3 to 14 departments in the space of a single
election. The result of a split with the FNSEA in 1991, this union
regularly positions itself as a superficial opponent, multiplying
criticisms of the existing system while reproducing much of its logic.
It offers neither a real break nor a constructed alternative. It should
be added that its proven links with the National Rally make it an
organization that must definitely be opposed[2]. This union has
successfully established itself in western departments, where
agriculture has experienced several crises: repeated health crises in
livestock farming, abandonment of livestock farming for cereal
production in areas that do not allow for high yields, the beginning of
a wine crisis, etc. The Confédération Paysanne (CR) has represented an
alternative to the FNSEA (National Federation of Farmers and Farmers) by
developing strong actions and catalyzing anger.

In this polarized context, the Confédération Paysanne (Farmers'
Confederation) held its own, with 20.49% of the votes cast. Four
chambers are under a confederate or affiliated presidency: Ardèche,
French Guiana, and Corsica, in addition to Mayotte, whose election had
been postponed following the devastation of Cyclone Chido. This is also
a first for the Conf' to win a majority in so many departments. While
this result is positive given the strength of the headwinds, the Conf'
must ask itself essential questions in order to be seen as the only
alternative to the majority union.

The Confédération paysanne (Farmers' Confederation) took action to block
a Leclerc delivery truck in January 2025 in the Var region.
The Confédération paysanne (Farmers' Confederation) remains a strong and
structuring union, and the stability of its electoral results is
tangible proof of this. The orientation report presented at the
congress, however, serves as a reminder that many activists today share
the feeling of a glass ceiling hindering the progress of the political
project championed by the Confédération paysanne.

For a transformative unionism
Making peasant agriculture a unifying project seems to be becoming
increasingly complex today in a context of increasingly intense peasant
class struggle. Indeed, we must abandon the idea, still too widely
conveyed by the media and the majority union, of a homogeneous and
supportive peasant class by nature. A vision that denies the diversity
of practices, social situations, and career paths: a young person
established in organic market gardening on less than one hectare of
rented land does not experience the same reality as a farmer who owns
several hundred hectares and employs several employees. Access to land,
taxation, autonomy, income, relationship with living things, the
climate, or the collective: almost everything opposes them. Seeking to
speak with a single voice for these very different realities amounts to
political simplification, even deception.

To strengthen this vision, several structural proposals have been put
forward, beginning with the deployment of a popular peasant political
school. Conceived as a tool for emancipation, it should draw on popular
education methods to train activists, politicize debates in the
countryside, and disseminate the principles and demands of peasant
agriculture beyond the union circle. This is a true project of political
empowerment, which aims to give farmers the means to reflect on their
situation and build alternatives.

Another strong signal: a motion of solidarity with farmers in the
overseas territories, which highlights that these regions remain marked
by a logic of neocolonial exploitation. Overseas territories are too
often considered mere reservoirs and used to serve export sectors
disconnected from local needs. This motion warns of the dynamics of land
dispossession and agricultural extractivism, and calls for strengthening
union solidarity with the farmers in these territories. On the
environmental front, note the unanimously adopted motion opposing the
Lyon-Turin high-speed rail line, a "useless, imposed, and destructive"
project, which embodies a technocratic headlong rush denounced by the union.

Make way for farmers!
But one of the most significant advances of this congress is undoubtedly
the motion launched at the initiative of the Women's Committee of the
Conference and supported by a large number of departmental sections. At
a time when women now represent a third of the agricultural workforce,
their role in union bodies and decision-making remains too marginal. The
adopted motion thus provides for the implementation of an ambitious plan
to combat gender-based and sexual violence (GBV): systematic training
for each new member of the union, the development of a clear protocol
for handling GBV situations, a budget dedicated to prevention, and the
establishment of a specific facilitation network. The clear support
given to the Women's Committee demonstrates that a collective awareness
is growing, and that the union intends to make substantive equality a
central focus of its future action, both in its internal practices and
in its demands.

A Date of Tribute
The closing date of the congress, April 17, was no coincidence. This
date marks the International Day of Peasant Struggle, in memory of the
massacre of 19 peasants from the landless movement in Brazil in 1996.
The Conf' also reaffirmed its solidarity with the Palestinian people,
and in particular its peasants, the last bulwark against the systemic
starvation orchestrated by the genocidal Israeli state.

April 17 was also a moment of remembrance and emotion, one month to the
day after the assassination of Pierre Alessandri, a peasant and general
secretary of Via Campagnola, a Corsican union allied with the Conf'.
Laurence Marandola, national spokesperson, paid a vibrant tribute to
this tireless activist, defender of peasant agriculture, land, and the
dignity of peoples. She denounced the complicit silence of politicians
and government officials following this assassination and reaffirmed
that the Conf' will remain vigilant alongside the Via Campagnola to
ensure the investigation is completed and justice is served![3]

For vibrant countryside
Faced with major, useless and destructive projects, social disruption,
land grabbing, and rampant fascism, we must stand alongside those who,
every day, work the land to feed the population with dignity. The UCL,
like our entire social camp, has a responsibility to stand firmly
alongside the farmers in struggle, both in protests and in the
countryside. Because what is at stake here is also our common future,
that of a vibrant rurality, an emancipated relationship with life, and a
world free from exploitation.

Lysandre (UCL Vosges)

Validate

[1]The results of the 2025 elections to the Chambers of Agriculture by
department and by constituency are available on Chambres-agriculture.fr.

[2]"La Coordination rurale, a union on the far right of the agricultural
world," February 4, 2025, Street press.

[3]"Assassination of Pierre Alessandri: Violence in the service of
agribusiness," Alternative libertaire No. 359, April 2025.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Congres-de-la-Confederation-paysanne-Consolider-ses-bases-interroger-ses
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