A local resident in Gambela, Ethiopia, looks on as former peasant lands are enclosed by a corporate interest—one of several such instances around the world. In New York City, Brooklyn's Maple Street Community Garden is battling in the courts for its survival against suspected fraudsters who claim they own the lot and want to build a condo development there. Last year, the gardeners faced off with a work crew sent to destroy their creation. Writing in Skunk Magazine, Bill Weinberg argues that this case is paradigmatic of a global trend of land-grabbing, with peasants and indigenous peoples facing off against corporate interests from Ethiopia to Colombia to the Philippines to Mongolia. The aid group Oxfam has launched a global campaign against land-grabbing, but is in a race against time as the phenomenon rapidly escalates.
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