The Militant (logo) 
   Vol.65/No.35            September 17, 2001 
 
 
Oregon family farmers fight for water rights
(feature article)
 
BY ROLLANDE GIRARD  
KLAMATH FALLS, Oregon--On April 6 the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), the federal government water management agency overseeing the Klamath Irrigation Project, announced that for the first time in 92 years there would be no water available for irrigation, and that the headgates through which the water usually flows were to be kept closed. The government cited as reasons for their action the ongoing drought in the Pacific Northwest and the protection under the Endangered Species Act of the sucker fish in the Upper Klamath Lake and the coho salmon downstream in the Klamath River.

In addition to the 1,400 farm families who are fighting for their existence, the drought is affecting several Native American peoples, as well as commercial fishermen, because it adds to the long-term decline in the numbers of fish in the lake and river, which flow through northern California into the Pacific Ocean.

By closing the headgates the BOR denied water to about 90 percent of the farmers here. In face of this devastating act, many farmers have had to sell off their cattle, let pastures and hay fields go fallow, and give up their annual crops. Farmers, local merchants, and some local and state government officials organized several rallies to protest the BOR action. On March 9, farmers and their supporters drove hundreds of tractors and other vehicles through Klamath Falls. A second rally of some 6,000 people was held April 12, followed by a "bucket brigade" May 7. There, an estimated 10,000 people dumped water from buckets into the canal in a symbolic gesture of their demand that water be released for the farmers.

In July, protesters took over the headgates and opened them, releasing water into the canals leading to the farms. Each time the federal marshals came and closed the gates. The protesters have set up an encampment near the headgates and have promised to stay there until a long-term solution is reached that guarantees the farmers water for irrigation.

Access to water--for irrigation, hydroelectric power generation, drinking, and fishing--has been at the center of political and economic conflicts for decades in the West, as competing capitalist interests jockey for their own advantage and profit. As in the past, these forces, aided by rightist groups and the big-business media, are attempting to turn workers, small farmers, fishermen, and Native peoples against each other, blaming one or another for the crisis.

Under capitalism natural disasters such as droughts, floods, or hurricanes tend to be turned into social disasters for working people as capitalist corporations and their government refuse to mobilize available resources and aid needed to ensure the lives and livelihoods of workers and farmers are protected. This situation can be seen today from Klamath Falls to drought-ridden Central America, where tens of thousands of peasants face food shortages, loss of jobs, and homelessness as neither Washington nor the capitalist regimes in the region will take steps to benefit working people.  
 
Bureau of Reclamation
While the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is often cast as a friend of the working farmer, it is in fact an arm of the most powerful imperialist government in the world and serves the interests of the giant agribusinesses and the energy monopolies. The agency is the largest wholesaler of water in the country and controls water access for one out of five farmers in the West, irrigating land that produces 60 percent of the nation's vegetable crop and 25 percent of its fruits and nuts. The BOR runs 58 power plants generating more than 40 billion kilowatt hours a year, making it the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the western United States.

Last month a fact-finding team of socialist workers from Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles visited Klamath Falls to report on the crisis for the Militant. Signs supporting the farmers are prominent in store windows throughout the town. Given the importance of agriculture to the economy, the entire population is affected by the water crisis and everyone we talked to had opinions about it. There are about 25,000 residents in the Klamath Basin, which includes the town of Klamath Falls. It does not rain often, but thanks to irrigation, farmers here can grow alfalfa, barley, potatoes, and onions.

"With irrigation the soil can produce 8,000 to 10,000 pounds of alfalfa per acre," Klamath farmer Jim Shadduck told us. "But without water, you only get 200 to 400 pounds per acre." He also explained that he relies on his family to farm "because we can't afford hiring migrant workers." Thousands of migrant workers have left the area because there is no work for them on the farms.

Jim Enman, a 70-year-old farmer who participated in a BOR pilot program for farmers to sell their irrigation water rights for the year, said that he drilled his own well. He was lucky and got enough water to irrigate his 225 acres of land where he cultivates alfalfa and raises cows. Others who drilled for water were not as fortunate.

At the irrigation canal headgates, cattle rancher Bill Oetting told us that he had to sell most of his cattle in order "to feed the cattle left through the summer and to have enough hay to go through the winter, because there is no pasture without irrigation."

Another farmer we spoke to was Gavin Rajnus, whose grandfather was one of the first Czechoslovakians to receive land here in 1911. "He came here because the project guaranteed them water," Rajnus explained. Rajnus has not cultivated his 165 acres of potatoes this year.  
 
Government promised water
The Klamath Project was one of the first projects built through the Newlands Reclamation Act, which was signed by the federal government in 1902. The act had as its objective developing the power of capitalist agribusiness as U.S. imperialism was beginning to expand economically and militarily. The federal government encouraged working people to become farmers and began a massive project to reclaim desert land, drain swamps and lakes, and construct irrigation projects and reservoirs to convert the land for agricultural use.

Much of the land in the Klamath Project was sold to veterans of the two world wars. Today the project provides water for 240,000 acres of cropland to around 1,400 mainly small farmers. The headgates to the canals which bring water to the farmland have been opened every spring since 1909.

In face of the protests the federal government announced July 24 that they would release 75,000 acre-feet of water into the canal (an acre-foot is the amount of water that would cover one acre one foot deep). This is one-sixth of the 450,000 acre-feet normally used. The headgates were opened by federal officials until August 23 when they closed them again as some protesters watched.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on August 17 that payments to landowners and producers will be given soon under the $20 million Klamath Basin Water Conservation Program. Those payments will range, it said, between $90 to $110 per eligible acre.

Gloria Palacios, a former raisin grower in the San Joaquin Valley, took issue with the federal government's paltry aid to stricken farmers in the Basin. "This aid won't be enough and we'll see in whose hands it ends up," she said. Behind the water crisis, she continued, "are always big corporations that are using the environment issues for their own interests."  
 
Rightist intervention
On August 21 some 4,000 farmers and their supporters rallied in Klamath Falls to greet the "Freedom Day" convoy, which traveled to the Basin from the states of Montana, California, Idaho, Nevada, and Washington. While many people attended the rally to show their support for the Klamath farmers, a number of the organizers of the program were rightists.

In Malibu, for example, where the California convoy originated, one of the rally organizers was the Reform Party, whose candidate for U.S. president in 2000 was ultrarightist Patrick Buchanan. Buchanan advances an American nationalist program that scapegoats immigrants, Blacks, working people who receive welfare, woman's rights advocates, and others for the crisis of capitalism. Buchanan seeks to build a cadre that is the core of a future fascist movement in the United States.

Eloza Foster, a prominent rightist politician who is Black and who stood as Buchanan's vice-presidential running mate, was the rally spokesperson. Foster told participants, "Maybe if some of the farmers in Klamath were Black they'd get some help," referring disparagingly to the class-action lawsuit won by Black farmers who fought against decades of discrimination by the United States Department of Agriculture (see article on opposite page).

Many of the speakers at rallies held on the way to Klamath Falls attacked the Endangered Species Act as the main threat to the "property rights" of small farmers. Some trucks sported bumper stickers such as "RAGE--Revolution Against Green Extremism." Environmental groups calling for farmland buyouts to reduce water demand were labeled "green bigots" and other names. Signs also said "Government Agencies Are Unconstitutional."

Because of the magnitude of the crisis in the Klamath Basin, radical rightist solutions and unscientific nostrums have gotten a hearing from some farmers. For example, the web site maintained by an organization called Klamath Basin Crisis contains articles about "environmental groups that are trying to eliminate rural lifestyles in the Klamath basin." Books extolling reactionary conspiracy theories are featured, with titles like "Ecoscam: The False Prophets of Ecological Apocalypse." The most prominent sponsor of the web site is a group called Frontiers of Freedom/People for the USA, which describes itself as having "a strong history of promoting property rights and an empowered citizenry served by a limited government."

Not everyone in the Basin agreed with these views. Allen Foreman, chairman of the Klamath Indian Tribes, disagreed with the idea that the main problem is "environmentalism." The "Freedom Day" convoys message "will actually hurt farmers and ranchers in the Basin, by raising false hopes and discouraging people from coming together to focus on the search for workable answers," he said. He pointed out that altering or eliminating the Endangered Species Act would not solve long-term problems such as the allocation of water, or poor water quality caused by agricultural chemical runoff.

Foreman issued a statement in July that explained the Klamath Tribes "gave up 20 million acres of land" in 1864 in exchange for a government treaty guaranteeing water rights to support fisheries and other resources. "Later, when the government invited farmers to move into the Basin and suggested that water would be available, the government did not tell the farmers about the Tribal water rights."

Foreman dismissed the idea that keeping the fish species from extinction was an acceptable solution. He noted that the "federal government's responsibilities to our people will not be met until fish populations are restored to harvestable levels. We also believe the federal government has a responsibility to the farm families who, like the Klamath Tribes, now depend on a water system that is simply incapable of meeting current demands. We are a people," he added, "who for years have felt the pain of being unable to meet the needs of our families and communities, and we do not want to see our friends and neighbors in the agricultural community suffer."

The Klamath have fought for more than two centuries against dispossession, including a 1954 Act of Congress terminating their federal recognition, which was not reversed until a 1986 Supreme Court ruling. The court restored the Klamath's fishing and hunting rights in the Upper Klamath Lake region, but not the 1.8 million acres of land taken from them in 1954.

Some activists point to the power monopolies as the main beneficiary of the crisis. Because farmers were denied irrigation water, the electricity that they contract at a lower rate was not used, making it available for sale at a much higher rate on the open market. Additionally, water not being used for irrigation means more water flowing downstream, where Pacific Power and Light (PPL) owns and operates six hydroelectric projects along the Klamath River.

Further down the river, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA) issued their position on this issue. "The Klamath River was once the third most productive salmon river system in the United States. Today, thanks to habitat blocking dams, poor water quality, and too little water left in the river, the once abundant Klamath salmon runs have now been reduced to less than 10 percent of their historic size." Glen Spain, a regional representative of the PCFFA told the Sacramento Bee that an estimated 4,000 fishing-related jobs have been lost and thousands more put at risk by the decline of the Klamath salmon.

On August 6 Eureka Fisheries laid off 140 workers at its fish processing plants in Eureka and Crescent City because of lack of product. As a statement by the Klamath tribes explained, "The real problem is that the demand for water in the Klamath Basin has been allowed to exceed the supply.... The fisheries, the farming communities, the Klamath Tribes culture and economy are all at risk." The Klamath Tribes supports the closing of the head gates in order to save fish.  
 
Allies of small farmers and fishermen
The enemies of working farmers in the Klamath Basin are not Native Americans or commercial fishermen, but the capitalist class and its government in Washington, which has been able to pit these producers who rely on the land and natural resources for a living against one another. This undercuts the ability of working people to join in a common struggle to defend their common interests against the wealthy ruling minority. Workers in the cities, farmers, the rural poor in the countryside, and individual commodity producers such as fishermen face common problems and a common exploiter--the capitalist class and the government that represents them. This makes labor a necessary ally of farmers and fishermen in the fight against the profit squeeze of big business.

The capitalist class routinely ruins the environment in their unquenchable thirst for greater and greater profits. The history of their class is the history of the extinction of whole species of flora and fauna. And legislation like the Endangered Species Act is hypocritically used to promote one or another set of big-business interests, not to protect fish or forests.

For example, Gale Norton, the U.S. Interior Secretary who oversees the BOR, has consistently opposed the Endangered Species Act as well as the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, and supported a "self-audit" law in Colorado that allows companies to monitor themselves on environmental regulations.

The Pentagon is also requesting from Congress to rewrite the Endangered Species Act to exempt their military training exercises from restrictions to protect endangered species.

Working people and our unions should and must support the fight for a viable solution to the government-imposed dilemma in the Basin, such as demanding full compensation for lost crops or fish harvests; and a ban on foreclosures of any farmers; and immediate cheap credit and loans to working farmers and fishermen. Committees of workers and farmers chosen by farm organizations, fishermen associations, Native Americans, and labor unions must be created to oversee how the water is being allocated.

The labor movement should also demand that the government pay unemployment compensation at union-scale wages to farm workers who have lost their jobs due to the lack of water. They should receive health-care benefits as well. And it is in the interests of both workers and farmers to demand that the U.S. government uphold all Native American treaty rights.

Militia-type outfits and rightist populist organizations, no matter how radical, antigovernment, or anticapitalist their appeal, do not point to the need for workers and farmers to join together in a battle to overturn the capitalist government and replace it with one of their own. Instead, they end up pitting working people against one another and undercutting the social solidarity necessary to resist and fight against the offensive of the employers and their government.

It is only through a revolutionary struggle to put in place a workers and farmers government that tens of millions of working people can be mobilized in the fight to abolish capitalism and join with toilers of other countries in the battle for a socialist society, where the rational utilization of water and other natural resources will be based on human needs, not the capitalist profit drive.

Rollande Girard is a sewing machine operator in San Francisco. Elizabeth Lariscy also contributed to this article.
 
 
Related article:
Farmers speak out against discrimination at Alabama meeting  
 
 
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