APC leaders said that hunger and poverty of Asian peasants and sectors in
agriculture are among the direct results of centuries-old landlessness.
Large-scale land deals and acquisitions -
land grabs led by corporations
have dispossessed and displaced farmers from the land they till. Millions
of hectares of land planted with staples, grains, and other food crops, as well
as indigenous lands, and public lands were land grabbed and converted into
plantations, extractive mining projects, and farms devoted to export cash
crops. Governments have become willing accomplices in these land grabs through
public-private partnerships that take away land, water, and other natural
resources from the people. Profits keep pouring into the pockets of the few as
the majority of peasants and their families endure worsening landlessness and
land grabs amid a pandemic. Farmers who assert land rights are faced with
attacks either from local landlords, big corporations, and even government
agencies. Peasant killings and other forms of brutalities against farmers
happen on a daily basis.
In Asia, the largest mobilizations we have seen in recent months are of India's
farmers, taking to the streets in hundreds of millions, to oppose and protest
neoliberal agricultural laws that will make them more vulnerable to a few
powerful corporations.
APC statement
alarms that "ongoing efforts to address the rising global hunger and
poverty through the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit will only end up in
legitimizing and further advancing tighter imperialist control over food and
agriculture."
APC called for
just, equitable, healthy, and sustainable food systems that would bring to the
fore the peasant's aspirations and struggles for land and genuine agrarian
reform.
Cathy Estavillo, Chairperson of Amihan women peasant federation,
Philippines, and Vice Chair of APC;
Ravindra, landless person from
Hardoi in UP, India; and
Anil Mishra, a farmer from Unnao, UP, India and
President of Socialist Kisan Sabha also addressed the Satyagraha which gave a
unified call for Land Must Belong To The Tillers.
Bobby
Ramakant - CNS
(Bobby Ramakant
is part of CNS (Citizen News Service), Asha Parivar, APCAT Media, and Socialist
Party (India). Follow him on Twitter @bobbyramakant or read
www.bit.ly/BobbyRamakant)
- Shared under Creative Commons (CC)
Next Page 1 | 2
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
