by Rose Cruz Churma
This book was first published in 2005 by Cornell University. The idea that ordinary people’s everyday behavior can impact national policy sounded so intriguing, but this topic is relevant as it will give focus to the upcoming election.
This book describes the history of local resistance that changed national policy on collectivized agriculture in North Vietnam. It gave voice to the farmers who made change possible—not through open opposition but through individual, unorganized behavior.
Based on extensive research in Vietnam’s National Archives and the Red River Delta countryside, through interviews and interactions with the folks in that area, the author describes the “formation of collective farms in northern Vietnam in the late 1950s, their enlargement during wartime in the 1960s to the 1970s, and their collapse in the 1980s,” as described in the book’s cover.
The country’s national government eventually changed the system of collectivization because it was compromised and diminished by the activities of the villagers—thus it can be said that the villagers themselves initiated the dissolution of collective farms in favor of family farms: national policy simply followed what was being practiced.
“Everyday politics matters. That, in a nutshell, is a critical conclusion to draw from this book…Collective farming, a major program of the Communist Party government collapsed without social upheaval, without violence, without a change in government, without even organized opposition,” writes the author in the first paragraph of the book’s last chapter.
The villagers practiced forms of everyday resistance, a specific type of everyday politics.
Their lackadaisical work in the collective farms contrasted with well-tended crops in their own gardens and household plots, some even venturing into making handicrafts and practicing other family-centered economic activities (such as buying and selling)—usually at the expense of resources that were supposed to go into the collective farms.
According to the author, the power of everyday politics is not unique to Vietnam. He believes that everyday activities that don’t conform to the behavior required by authorities may carry considerable political weight.
In his earlier book Everyday Politics in the Philippines: Class and Status Relations in a Central Luzon Village (1990, University of California Press), the author shows how everyday politics reflect the conflicting beliefs about what is fair, who has rights, and how resources should be distributed—and describes “a highly nuanced and fascinating portrait of political relationships among villagers.”
However, unlike the situation in Vietnam where the impact of everyday politics was manifested in the policy change on collectivization, policy changes on the national level in the Philippine setting were not as clear-cut.
In this study, the interviews with the farmers occurred in the 1970s before land reform was implemented fully.
However, in the book’s Appendix A where the author described his methodology, he went back to the village in 1985 and found out that about one hundred poor landless families took over a wealthy landowning family’s fields—a seemingly organized action that stemmed from years of everyday resistance from individuals and small family units.
How can the power of everyday politics be translated into action that matters in today’s political landscape, particularly in the Filipino community where there is little interest in civic engagement?
The most basic of civic engagements is voting and from the statistics derived from the last election, Hawai’i traditionally has the lowest turnouts, noting that lower Kalihi (known as a Filipino enclave) registered the lowest turnout at 30%.
Perhaps the key is to show concrete examples of how everyday politics in the local context can be translated into agents of change. The sentiment is that, as ordinary people, we have no voice, we don’t matter.
We need to look for examples in our recent history where acts of ordinary citizens have been translated into measurable gains. These minor triumphs should be told in accessible storytelling by those who lived it or had a part in making it happen.
The author, Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet is a retired professor of political science at the University of Hawaii in Manoa (UHM).
He also was a professor and head of the Department of Political Science and Social Change at the Australian National University.
Aside from the two books mentioned in this book review, he also wrote The Huk Rebellion: A Study of Peasant Revolt in the Philippines. He continues to do research and is writing his next book.
ROSE CRUZ CHURMA established Kalamansi Books & Things three decades ago. It has evolved from a mail-order bookstore into an online advocacy with the intent of helping global Pinoys discover their heritage by promoting books of value from the Philippines and those written by Filipinos in the Diaspora. We can be reached at kalamansibooks@gmail.com.
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