Here in the UK there are all kinds of useful statistics when it comes to discussing rural relations; only 17% of the population in England live in the countryside. This rural population is substantially older than the much larger urban population and is composed principally of homeowning retirees with gold plated pensions.

It is important to note that all land in England and Wales is required to be registered at His Majesty’s Land Registry following any significant change in title. However, this does not affect land that has not changed hands since registration was made compulsory and the Land Registry estimates that 20% of the land mass in England and Wales remains unregistered with most of it being rural land. Accurate statistics on the identity of landowner and the nature of land holding in the UK are therefore very difficult to produce.

What is clear here is that the countryside is by and large the private property of a rural ruling class, much of it belonging to the last vestiges of the aristocracy. The general public is only free to walk on ~10% of the country’s landmass. The rest is restricted for exclusive use and exploitation by its owners. Much of the actual farming labour doesn’t own the land it works and instead operates under a landlord via an agricultural tenancy agreement. The workforce that collects the harvest every summer has until recently been temp workers from Eastern Europe who live in tents and move from campsite to campsite following the harvest. With the end of freedom of movement after brexit, British farmers (predominately the aforementioned tenants) are increasingly finding themselves in short supply when it comes to cheap exploitable labour, resulting in whole harvests being left to rot in the fields.

In essence, the rural countryside is the province of wealthy landowners and there are remarkably few permanently settled working class people in these areas. Politically speaking, the countryside is a tory stronghold.> BE: 0.16.7

EDIT: For more information on the land question in the UK, I highly recommend reading Kevin Cahill’s incredible book Who Owns Britain? Everything I’ve cited in my post is drawn primarily from the investigations he published in this book.

Coming from someone who regularly visits his grandmother in rural Southern Germany, I would say there might be some revolutionary potential but there is no organisation and little potential to organise. Rural communities have always and everywhere suffered from an exodus to the big cities, but the big problem is that ever since privatisation in the 90s, they also have to deal with the deterioration, demolition, or continuing lack of even critical infrastructure such as hospitals, telecom and internet, public transit, post offices, kindergartens, schools and libraries, and any kind of food or clothing stores, even something as basic as a kiosk. It is nigh impossible to do anything public whatsoever in these villages anymore, except attending church or eating out in a little café.

Even though these villages, which tend to more-or-less have about 500 inhabitants, were established mostly by peasants, few villagers continued to work in agriculture; the farmers mostly work from their own farms which are even further outside. Hardly anyone is under 40 years old, and most are retirees at 65 or older. Those who still work commute to the next town by car, or work for one of the few remaining small businesses as waiters, locksmiths, or repairmen; although recently there has been a small inflow of people who can work from home moving into empty houses.