46 THE GREEN RISING 



The alliance between organized labor and agricul- 

 tural labor forces is the most recent manifestation 

 of the agrarian movement. 



Rural Syndicalism 



Syndicalism was one of the earliest methods of 

 industrial labor to be adopted by the peasantry of 

 England. Rural syndicalism spread from the cities 

 to the country rather early. We hear of the first 

 agricultural trade union in England in 1833, when 

 six Dorsetshire agricultural laborers attempted to 

 form a union. They were severely condemned and 

 nothing came of their efforts. It was not until 1872 

 that the National Agricultural Laborers' Union was 

 founded by Joseph Arch, a rural minister. In 

 1875 the National Farm Laborers' Union was or- 

 ganized for the purpose of buying land for farm 

 laborers out of the subscriptions of members. The 

 Land Restoration League in England, whose policy 

 it is to tax landlords in order to abolish rent, is one 

 of the numerous manifestations of the rural syndical 

 movement. 



The land nationalization movement is one of the 

 interesting manifestations of agrarianism in Eng- 

 land. The forerunners of this movement were 

 Thomas Spence (1750-1814), William Ogilvie (1736- 

 1813), and Thomas Paine (1737-1809). Thomas 

 Spence's lecture on The Real Rights of Man, 

 William Ogilvie's essay on The Right of Property 

 in Land, and Thomas Paine's Agrarian Justice 



