Peasant Social Movements And Agrarian Reform: Mccarthy And Zald's Resource Mobilization Theory In The Struggle For Land RightsIn Indonesia

Abstract

This study examines Indonesian peasant social movements through the analytical lens of Resource Mobilization Theory (RMT), as originally formulated by McCarthy and Zald (1977). Agrarian conflict remains a persistent structural problem in Indonesia: between 2015 and 2023, KPA (Konsorsium Pembaruan Agraria) documented 2,963 land conflicts covering 5.8 million hectares and displacing approximately 1.75 million farming households. Despite decades of advocacy and the constitutional mandate of UUPA No. 5/1960, agrarian reform has remained incomplete. Drawing on documentary analysis, secondary data synthesis, and systematic literature review, this article applies three core RMT dimensions  resource mobilization, political opportunity structures, and framing processes  to analyze the organizational dynamics of key Social Movement Organizations (SMOs) including SPI (Serikat Petani Indonesia), KPA, WALHI, and local peasant federations in Sumatera and Papua. The analysis reveals that while Indonesian peasant movements have significantly expanded their organizational capacity since the Reformasi era (1998), persistent structural constraints  including elite capture of land redistribution programs, repression of direct action, and framing contestation from state and corporate actors  limit movement effectiveness. The study contributes to rural sociology by demonstrating how RMT provides a robust explanatory framework for understanding agrarian mobilization in post-colonial societies, while also identifying theoretical limitations that require supplementation from political ecology and postcolonial approaches.