Skip to main content
How can we reclaim ‘our land?’
If anything, the demand to reform land ownership was stronger in the past. It is no less pressing today and it needs to go far beyond the ‘right to roam,’ explains the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
MASS TRESPASS: Protesters take to Dartmoor to oppose the (since failed) attempt to ban wild camping there by a local landowner, January 22 2023

OUR last answer — to the question “Is this land our land?” was No. “Our” land is owned by a ruling class of landowning, industrial and (increasingly) financial capitalists. And the relatively small amount (between 8 to 10 per cent which is publicly owned is, like our rivers, streams and atmosphere, being privatised and polluted in the interests of profit.

Land presents a paradox. It is a privatisation which dwarfs all others in value, yet today receives relatively little attention. It is less a focus of activism today than it was in 1867 when Karl Marx (or rather his translators) coined the term “land-grabbing” or in 1881 when Alfred Russel Wallace, co-originator with Darwin of the theory of evolution through natural selection, became president of the newly formed Land Nationalisation Society.

In 1909 Winston Churchill (certainly no Marxist) — declared: “Land is by far the greatest of the monopolies… the land monopolist has only to sit and watch complacently his property multiplying in value, sometimes manifold, without either effort or contribution on his part; and that is justice!”

  • Transparency — all information about land ownership, control, subsidies and planning should be published as freely available data including the identities of beneficial owners.
  • Land price stabilisation and tax reform, including policies to discourage land and housing from being treated as financial assets, such as a land value tax, calculated on the basis of the rental value of land, and a review of tax exemptions given to landowners.
  • Community ownership and control including the creation of community land trusts and community-led housing.
  • A community right to buy based on the Scottish model, in the other three UK nations.
  • Compulsory sale orders, granting public authorities the power to require vacant or derelict land to be sold by public auction.
The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Marx Memorial Library
Features / 8 September 2026
8 September 2026

MML director MEIRIAN JUMP outlines the recently refreshed library’s busy autumn schedule that ranges from book sales, archival exploration, community work with online education and the ever popular site tours

The Peasants' Revolt
Full Marx / 6 September 2026
6 September 2026

Class struggle is the motor of history but the direction and detail of change at any time and place is the outcome of many factors, suggests the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School

dignity definition
Full Marx / 14 August 2026
14 August 2026

Dignity is important to all humans, argues the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School, but it does not come about automatically. In a less than perfect world, dignity can accompany suffering, but the collective dignity of working people is achieved through acting together to change the world.

A poster by Otto Lander designed for May 1, 1901: Proletarians of all lands, unite!
Full Marx / 2 August 2026
2 August 2026

Internationalism is deeply embedded in socialist theory and practice. Examination illuminates its complexity asserts the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School