In response, one farmer after another spoke against the proposed consent decree and for a fair and complete redress of their grievances. Some criticized the decree, others condemned it outright. By their dignified presence, the farmers shifted the normal rules that prevail in a U.S. courtroom. Normally, you don't clap in the courtroom. Farmers clapped. Normally, you don't speak your mind. The farmers spoke their mind, often going over the prescribed time limit. The desperate conditions they face on the land came through loud and clear.
"This is the biggest cover-up in the history of this country," declared Eddie Slaughter, a farmer from Georgia and a leader of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association. "Let the farmers be free," said Mattie Mack, a leader of the Minority Farmers of Meade County. Their statements echoed the feelings of the majority of the farmers present and were not lost on anyone, including the well-paid lawyers and the judge.
J.L. Chestnut, who supports the consent decree and has traveled across the country speaking in support of the settlement, recently called farmers who oppose the deal "fools." In his final statements he said the lawyers had "carried the farmers on their backs," once again showing his utter contempt for the farmers.
Chestnut criticized the farmers for putting forward "political" not "legal" arguments. Throughout the proceedings Judge Friedman made similar points, saying that what the farmers were demanding was beyond the scope of the court. "All I can do is approve the settlement of the lawsuit or not approve the settlement. Systemic solutions" are beyond the authority of the court, said the judge.
The farmers want real changes. They want to root out racism in the USDA. They want to see action taken against the good ol' boys of the notorious "county committees." They want more than $50,000, "a drop in the bucket" as one farmer put it, and not enough to buy one tractor. They want a moratorium on their debts. They want land. They want to be farmers. Above all, they want to be treated with honor and dignity. Their demands call for changes in the "system"; their demands speak to the interests of all exploited producers on the land.
Farmers who are Black face devastating conditions and are being driven off the land at a faster rate than other farmers. This is the product of how capitalism works in a society with a legacy of racial discrimination.
Perhaps the most important fact reflected at the March 2 hearing is that Black farmers are pointing the way forward for all farmers who are struggling to stay on the land. Working farmers across the United States are facing their worst crisis in decades. Real incomes plummet as they are caught in a financial squeeze between falling commodity prices and monopoly costs of seed, fertilizer, pesticides, and farm machinery. This crisis carries over into all aspects of the social and psychological life of rural communities. It does not stop at U.S. borders; in fact, conditions for rural producers are even worse in the semicolonial world and many other imperialist countries.
A new leadership of farmers is coming forward. It is being led in large part by farmers who are Black. The mobilization on March 2 pointed to the collective, political struggle needed to defend the livelihoods of working farmers and workers in the coming years.
The farmers who have led this struggle against the USDA are hungry to link up with farmers across the country, thereby broadening their vision. Meetings being held across the United States over the next month to discuss the tentative settlement provide one opportunity to meet each other. These farmers are also linking up with workers resisting the consequences of the ruler's brutal assault on their human dignity. In the period ahead, vanguard workers, unionists, all fighters for social justice, and rebel youth should join the continuing fight of Black farmers and all toilers on the land.