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The Larzac plateau in south-west France was the scene of a disturbance that began in 1971 and eventually involved tens of thousands of people. The reason for it was a government plan to evict local farmers in order to extend a nearby military camp—a plan that sparked a decade-long protest by people of all kinds throughout France.
Victory for the protesters in 1981 did not, however, put an end to their activism: for the next 30 years, a militant group fought for the redistribution of the land as well as forming an agricultural union and setting up networks to protect farmers—an early anti-globalization movement.
Thanks to this latterday “peasant revolt,” the Larzac plateau became a symbol of resistance that inspired several other movements and continues to resonate today in the context of the struggles for environmental protection, for rural regeneration, for “quick fix” farming techniques, and for organic food production.
