Pitchfork Power

Down Brussels' Anspach Boulevard last week marched 80,000 farmers from six countries of the European Economic Community (E.E.C.). With every step, their mood turned uglier.

Wielding long pitchforks and carrying placards inscribed E.E.C.--COUNCIL OF ASSES, they demolished telephone booths, smashed newsstands and shattered store windows, occasionally hopping inside for some quick looting. In skirmishes with some 4,000 Belgian riot police, one farmer was killed by a gas grenade that broke his neck, and more than 140 persons were injured.

Demonstrations for higher produce prices were also staged in The Netherlands and France. But the fact that the principal protest was held in Brussels underscored a significant political development: Europe's farmers now recognize that agricultural policy is no longer decided at the national level but in the capital of an entity that more and more people think of simply as "Europe."

Water Cannon. The protests were timed to coincide with the Brussels meeting of the E.E.C.'s agricultural ministers. Behind a protective barrier of concertina wire, water cannon and heavily armed cops, the ministers are trying to thresh out solutions to the Common Market's troublesome agricultural crisis.

The basic problem is that there are too many farmers on small and inefficient farms; 12% of the Common Market's work force, roughly 9,000,000 people, are engaged in agriculture. The farmers want 15% price increases for their products, even though the E.E.C.'s external tariffs and food prices are already very high. A ring of Italian smugglers was recently able to make $6,000,000--or 80-L- a pound--by importing 5,000 tons of butter from Communist Eastern Europe and reselling it in Common Market countries.

The farmers also resent that economic pressures are gradually squeezing them off the land.

Despite the farmers' demonstration, the agricultural ministers refused to reverse the trends. After three days of talks, including a final, nonstop, 25-hour session, the ministers granted only an average 4% increase on farm products, hardly enough to keep the farmers abreast of inflation. More important, the ministers accepted the plan put forward by E.E.C.

Vice President Sicco Mansholt to halve the number of Europe's agricultural workers by 1980. Under the plan the ministers set aside $1.4 billion to be used during the next five years to entice people to the cities, while teaching those who remain on the land to be more efficient and ultimately more profitable.

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