This part of the process consists of the expropriation of land and extraction of natural resources. This is also called original, primitive or primary accumulation.

We are told that this was a practice confined to the colonial period, but it’s ongoing. One of today’s “great investment opportunities” for imperialists is land-grabbing in Africa, Asia and Latin America for export-oriented mechanized monoculture agribusiness (displacing subsistence farmers and pastoralists). The World Bank provides capital for multinational land investors and speculators, who, from 2000-2010, have already taken between 2 and 6 million acres of land. 15% of land in Cambodia has been sold since 2005, 1/3 of that to foreign investors. In Ethiopia, land can be leased for $1/acre. So far, 5% of the entire continent of Africa’s agricultural land has been sold or leased to foreign investors.