IPS press release, 24 May
By Ranjit Dev Raj
NEW DELHI, May 24 (IPS) - Out of place in the departure terminal of the international airport, a group of rustic Indian farmers wait toboard a cheap Aeroflot flight to begin a month long sojourn in Europe starting Monday.
“We are going to visit the offices of Monsanto and other big seed companies and ask them why they are destroying us,” explains Omkar Singh, a mustard farmer from the neighbouring state of Haryana and a member of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), a major northern Indian peasant's union.
Omkar is illiterate but he readily understands the dangers of transnationals elbowing their way into Indian agriculture which for all its supposed inefficiency feeds a billion people cheaply and is the mainstay of the economy.
Last year, Omkar was among thousands of mustard farmers who were ruined after the government banned the sale of mustard oil, northern India's staple cooking oil and ordered a million tonnes of the U.S-based Monsanto's genetically engineered soyabean.
The government was forced to ban mustard oil because stocks were unaccountably adulterated to a point where hundreds of people fell seriously ill with dropsy and at least 50 of them died in the capital alone.
So when Omkar heard about Inter-Continental Caravan-99 (ICC- 99) which is organising the month-long farmers' tour in the EU hereadily clambered aboard. “This is the first time I am going to beaway for so long from my farm, family and village.” Omkar said he was looking forward to join 400 Indian farmers whoare to participate in demonstrations in Cologne, Germany, whenthe next G-8 summit takes place in June.
“ICC-99 will also demonstrate in front of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) headquarters in Geneva, the EuropeanCommission in Brussels and the Organisation of EconomicallyDeveloped Countries (OECD) in Paris,” said chief organiser Prof.Nanjundaswamy before departing for Europe. Last November, Nanjundaswamy spearheaded a movement inKarnataka to “weed out” Monsanto after the Indian governmentclandestinely allowed the transnational to conduct trials ofgenetically engineered cotton at 40 locations across India. Nanjundaswamy who leads the KRRS, the largest peasantmovement in southern India, justified the 'weeding' after accusingMonsanto of being behind the spectacular failure of cotton crops insouthern Indian leading to mass suicides by ruined farmers. Apart from large farmers organisations like the KRRS and the BKU,participants in ICC-99 include the powerful National Forum ofFishworkers which opposes shrimp aquaculture, and mechanisedtrawling which are robbing them of their livelihoods.
Also represented are well-known people's movements such as the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Movement) whichrepresents farmers and tribals displaced by the massive Narmadavalley project in western India and women's groups such as the All-India Women Farmers Association (AIFWA). Said Swaraj Lamba, AIFWA president, “the new century willwitness spectacular progress in genetic engineering and bio-technology but it is also certain that millions will continue to sufferfrom hunger and shortages of drinking water.”
Lamba said the fight was not just against transnationals but the new culture of the “so-called knowledge-driven society” which seesno immorality in making nuclear weapons and to which India isdesperately seeking entry.
“What this nation (India) needs desperately is investments ineducation, health and agriculture and not in weapons of massdestruction,” she said.
But Lamba blames the West and its transnationals for setting the pace of an inhuman agenda, the logic of which, according to her,led to India going nuclear.
“We denounce the nuclear tests carried out by India and Pakistanbut also oppose the hypocrisy of western governments whichencourage the monopoly of which, if shared, could benefit all ofhumanity,” she said.
Nanjundaswamy said the aims of ICC-99 will certainly not be realised in the short term and therefore it will not waste too muchtime with politicians and transnationals but concentrate on “people-to-people contacts.”
In fact, the farmers are going to be supported in Europe by like-minded people's organisations and will live frugally, staying inchurches, farms, sports stadia and auditoria. “We are used tohardship,” said Onkar, drawing his thin blanket around his body. Welcoming committees have been set up in several EU countries by peasant organisations such as the French Peasant Confederation, the Dutch Agricultural Association, EuroDusnie inLeiden, Leoncavallo in Milan, the Reithalle in Berne and women'sorganisations like Espace Femmes International. But ICC-99 is choosy about who it accepts help from. “We will notplay into the hands of institutions that are eager to claim to havedemocratic consultations with civil society to pursue their own agenda,” Nanjundaswamy said.
Nanjundaswamy termed as “outrageous” the social clause proposed to be incorporated into the WTO system which, he said would never protect fundamental labour rights but allow countries in the North to practice selective protectionism.” One reason we are going to Europe is because we wish to expose organisations in the North that claim to speak on behalf of the poor of the South just because we are not around to make our views felt.”
“We do not want western money or, technology or development models and we refuse to be used as political tools to ask the elites for reforms that we never demanded,” he said.
(END/IPS/rdr/an/99)