ABSTRACT

In all Arab countries large-scale landownership prevails. In Iraq, for example, half of all the cultivable land is concentrated in the hands of the landlords. In almost all Arab countries labour rents and share-cropping are widespread. The landlords, representing an

insignificant proportion of the population, exploit millions of smallholding and landless fellahin, leaseholders, and labourers, taking advantage of the enormous cheap labour market created as a result of the growing impoverishment of the peasantry and the slow development of industry. The domination of foreign capitalrobbing the people by means of its banks, capitalist undertakings, export firms which buy agricultural raw materials for a trifle and ruin the peasantry-adds capitalist servitude to the servitude on the land.