BOERENBOND. –
I. ORIGINS
It is a Belgian agricultural organization founded in Leuven in 1890 on the initiative of Abbé Mellaerts, who conceived it and became its convinced and tenacious promoter. Its earliest origin can be traced to a modest committee of seven peasants established at Goor during a meeting of the Conference of St. Vincent de Paul, with the aim of organizing an association for the purchase of fertilizers. This association was called Boerengild, a cooperative of peasants, and had St. Isidore as its patron.Through his articles on agricultural organization published in Het Land, Abbé Mellaerts came to know Prof. Helleputte, a lecturer at the Catholic University of Leuven, who organized a large meeting in that city at the headquarters of the trade and craft unions. At this meeting, with the aim of remedying the acute agricultural crisis affecting farmers, the desirability was recognized of their organizing associations for purchasing and selling, in support of their small and medium-sized farms. To this end, the assembly expressed its support for the foundation, in every rural municipality of Belgium, of peasant associations called Boerengilden, modeled on the one already established and operating at Goor. The need for a national league bringing together all the local associations was then proclaimed. Thus the B. was founded, with Prof. Helleputte as president and Abbé Mellaerts as secretary.
II. ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
The B. sought to oppose the isolation of individuals with organizational solidarity, in order to give stability to the peasant class and the rank due to II. Article 2, which has remained unchanged to this day, stated: « The B. has the general purpose of working for the religious, intellectual, and social progress of its members and of taking their material interests to heart; in a word, it seeks to make our agricultural populations a strong, educated, and Christian class ».The organizing initiative, animated by the zeal of the founders, proceeded from the center to the periphery, and the local Guilds were soon organized in the great majority of rural municipalities. The method followed by the promoters was to impress upon all the local organizations the same unity of action and life, and the results were positive. Locally, success was assured by the support of the clergy, who, sharing in the peasants’ daily problems, found a way to assist them concretely through a social movement founded on the corporative union of workers and landowners, woven together by a spirit of Christian love.
III. MEMBERS AND STRUCTURE
Membership in the B. is open to all who accept the principles of religion, property, and the family as the basic cell of society. The person who enrolls is properly the head of the household, while the family is regarded as affiliated; this is opposed to the individualism introduced by the French Revolution. Members of a municipality are grouped in the Gilde, which, in order to safeguard specialized interests, has established distinct sections: purchasing and sales section; savings and credit bank; mutual insurance fund; study section; male youth section; circles of rural housewives and female youth; cooperative dairy; beet growers’ association; livestock breeders’ association; horticultural federation, etc. All these activities find a coordinating center in the local Gilde, which is directed by a committee. The Gilde is assisted by a chaplain, whose duties are spiritual direction and the teaching of Christian social doctrine. He ensures that the organized members observe the spirit of Christian justice and charity. The interests of the municipal Gildes are represented before the administrative districts of the various regions by regional federations. At the center there is a general secretary, under whose authority operate the technical service, the inspection service, the central purchasing and sales office, the league of rural housewives and young women, the federation of young farmers, the inspection service, the central credit bank, and the insurance company. All these central services or sections promote, coordinate, and assist the activities of the corresponding sections of the local Gildes. The entire organization is headed by a supreme council and an executive committee.IV. OPERATION
The general secretary is like the heart of the entire organization. He promotes and oversees: the organization and practice of social life; religious and moral life; general formation and vocational education; agricultural and horticultural technique; the defense of agricultural interests of a general nature. He is responsible for the preparation of the press organs, organizes conferences, study days, and inspection visits. He monitors the work of each section or central service in order to ensure compliance with the principles of the Christian social school.The inspection service is the one that most strongly supports the work of the general secretary. Inspection extends to the central credit fund, the central purchasing and sales office, and the various sections of the local Gilde: horticultural federation, livestock breeders’ union, cooperative dairy, savings and credit fund, and study section. The youth and rural housewives’ sections are likewise connected with the inspection service.
This service is carried out by priests, agronomists, agricultural chemists, and accountants, and serves to provide technical and economic assistance, to impart unity and discipline to the movement, to supervise the implementation of the general secretary’s directives, and generally to establish continuous contact between the center and the periphery. Particular care is devoted to the moral, religious, social, and technical formation of young men and women and of rural housewives. The courses of vocational instruction include lessons in Christian sociology and religion, so that the B. succeeds in forming within its members a living religious-social synthesis. The B. owns mills, oil mills, experimental stations, fertilizer factories, and livestock-breeding facilities. The war period, now past, evidently brought about a considerable reduction in the volume of activities. But as early as 1945 the services had resumed their normal operation, and new offices had been established to meet the needs of the postwar period, such as local action committees for assisting those affected by war damage, a tax service, etc.
The press organs of the B. are: De Boer, Le Poynan, Onze Ploeg (Notre Charrue), De Boerin, Onze Gids (Notre Guide).