Farmers organisations, trade Unions and workers’ organisations across India have set the stage for the nationwide civic unrest planned from November 26, 2020 onwards.

During a press conference on November 25, coordinating members of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) said all states were geared up for “Dilli Chalo” programme for November 26 and 27.

Similarly, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) on Wednesday strongly denounced government’s repression on peasants and workers since the last two days.

Both organisations and their coalitions asserted many times in recent days that peasant unrest will continue indefinitely if the central government does not accede to their demands.

“Farmers’ indefinite struggle with Dilli Chalo on November 26th onwards has been launched in full strength and we will intensify the struggle from here on”, said the AIKSCC.

Their main demands include a repeal of the three central farm Acts and a withdrawal of the Electricity Bill 2020. The farmers’ body called these legislations “anti-farmer and anti-people,” created mainly to facilitate the expansion of corporate control over agriculture and food systems.

Meanwhile, trade Unions demanded that the Union government abstain from privatising the public sector of India that serves as the backbone of the economy. They congratulated the working class and the peasantry for displaying such strong solidarity and determination to fight and warned the BJP-led government that the anger of the people against its disastrous and destructive policies will not be suppressed by dictatorial measures.

To illustrate this point, organisations referred and condemned arrests of several farmer and Trade Union leaders there since November 24. As many as 31 leaders have been detained or arrested in Haryana.

“Workers, employees and peasants in Haryana are jointly protesting against the repression and are sitting on dharna in many places demanding immediate release of the arrested leaders. The working class throughout the country has condemned these arrests,” said CITU.

To make matters worse, the Odisha government invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) that ensures the continuance of certain services. State workers have organised protest demonstrations in front of the state assembly against the decision.

Undeterred by the arrests, tens of thousands of peasants from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and other states are moving towards Delhi using different modes of transport. Hundreds of people will reach Delhi in vehicle convoys from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

In locations distant from Delhi, simultaneous protests will happen locally, at taluka, district and state levels. For example, 16 newly-elected MLAs in Bihar will protest outside the Legislative Assembly on Constitution Day while dharnas and demonstrations are observed at most districts of the state. Similarly, Jharkhand protesters will march to the Raj Bhavan.

Southern state Karnataka has created a thousand points to implement village-level bandhs with Jathas underway in different districts. Tamil Nadu will witness rasta roko and rail roko agitation in more than 500 places.

District and taluka level protests are planned in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The two southern states will also hold demonstrations at central government offices at all district centres on November 27.

Andhra Pradesh farmers will protest on Friday in front of power sub-stations across the state against the Electricity Bill and reforms while south Odisha will observe complete bandh.

Maharashtra farmers will close all Mandis as part of the Grameen Hartal and in 200 tehsils of 37 districts, tehsil level protests will be held. There is also a plan to have indefinite protests launched in some districts in parallel with the Delhi protest. In West Bengal, Grameen Hartal will be observed in all districts. More than 500 conventions and outreach programs have been held in the past few weeks in the state.

On Tuesday, trade Unions had said that workers from banks and insurance companies, coal sector, power sector, steam sector, oil sector, defence sector, railways sector, various central government employees, several state governments, even private transport sectors such as auto drivers, taxi driver unions promised to abstain from work. Leaders warned that some buses may not arrive early morning on Thursday. Further, scheme workers like anganwadi workers, ASHA personnel as well as hawkers, bidi workers, agriculture workers and construction workers will also join the strike.

The growing coalition warned the Union government not to use Covid-19 as an excuse to thwart the democratic right of citizens to protest against anti-people moves.

“Covid-19 care requires several medical and preventive steps, like distribution of masks, sanitizers, physical care of the needy and jobless, etc where the government’s performance is woefully wanting. The Government has rather imposed policing and fines which are counter-productive and meant to blame people and demoralize them. The Government of India should stop mis-utilising coronavirus threats to harm farmers,” said the AIKSCC in a press conference.

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The All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP) on November 25, 2020 promised to join the ‘Dilli Chalo’ farmers protest rally as well as the nationwide workers’ strike scheduled to commence November 26 onwards.

The strike and protest decry the central government’s anti-farmer laws and anti-labour policies and the Electricity Bill, all of which allegedly work for the benefit of different corporate lobbies.

AIUFWP General Secretary Ashok Choudhary called the laws a direct attack on peasants, workers and India’s sovereignty under the current right wing neoliberal regime.

“We as forest working communities are equally concerned about the repercussion of such anti-farmers and anti-labour laws. Adivasi and forest dwellers communities would never allow any vested interests to control or compromise their freedom and autonomy under the garb of anti-farmers acts and anti-labour reforms (anti-people’s) law,” said Choudhary in a press release.

The Union’s representatives will be a part of the farmers march organised by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) on November 26 and November 27 along with 500 farmers organizations from Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and eastern Rajasthan.

Similarly, labour trade Unions including informal workers shall observe a national strike on November 27 to oppose ‘labour reforms.’ Workers will also lay siege on state capitals and Delhi.

“This siege may go long, longer than a day, week and months. We as a framing community are coming prepared against privatization of forest, land, water and human resources,” they said.

AIUFWP has been very active in claiming land, water and forest resources through the Forest Rights Act 2006. Members are determined to prevent their rights from being further dictated by foreign and corporate lobbies through such anti-farmers laws and anti-labour reforms.

Related:

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Forest rangers relent; release Forest Rights Committee Chairman in face of resounding dissent
Bihar Govt has worst record on Land Rights to Adivasis: Brinda Karat
Kaimur Mukti Morcha stands firm on boycotting Bihar election until they are given forest rights

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Dilli Chalo is gaining momentum in the capital as farmers from across the country gather to march to the parliament to demand their rights. On November 29, farmers are scheduled to gather at four locations on the outskirts of Delhi, from where they will march into the capital city.
 
The march will be undertaken to demand a 21-day special session of Parliament besides passing two bills related to loan waivers and raising the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farm produce. The Kisan Mukti March is organised and supported by 200 organisations that comprise the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC).
 
At the recently concluded Farmer’s rights convention in Mumbai, Hannan Mollah, Secretary, AIKS said, “We have invited the leadership of all political parties except the BJP, to come and speak on the 30th of November. Let them give us an assurance that they will keep our issues in their manifestos and will lend their support to the proposed parliament session.”
 
P Sainath, the founder of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) & former rural affairs editor of The Hindu, hopes to join the eastern part of India in the debate surrounding farm crisis. A meeting has been organised on Nov 23 to support over 210 farmers’ organisations, farmers and farm workers. The meeting is scheduled from 10 am to 1 pm at Gandhi Sangrahalaya, Patna.
 
Urging all citizens to join the march, P Sainath wrote a concept note about the crisis in the eastern part of India. “What are the concrete ways in which we can extend our support and solidarity to the lakhs who will march into Delhi on Nov. 29? How do we best meet this upcoming historic moment? We have before us the example of the Nashik-Mumbai march of March 06-12 2018,” he asked.
 
“While the crisis of farmers and agricultural workers in Western, Southern and Northern India has received some attention in the media and central legislature, the plight of those in the Eastern region of the country (Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Eastern UP) has remained on the margins. Eastern India was the most prosperous region in the country till the 1950s, maintaining a lead over the other regions with the highest foodgrain yield of 644 kg/ha. It lost its leading position with the advent of the Green Revolution. This revolution seems to have undermined farming, farmers and farm workers in this region,” he wrote.
 
He added that, “As a nation, fellow citizens cannot afford to remain mute spectators to the plight of farming, farmers and farm labourers when indebtedness related consequences compels them to end their life even as indebted commercial czars get bailed out or get protected or run with impunity paving the way for return of the money lenders who create yet another vicious circle of poor being poor because they are poor.”

 
Full text:
 
While crisis of farmers and agricultural workers in Western, Southern and Northern India has received some attention in the media and central legislature, the plight of those in the Eastern region of the country (Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Eastern UP) has remained on the margins. Eastern India was the most prosperous region in the country till the 1950s, maintaining a lead over the other regions with highest food grain yield of 644 kg/ha. It lost its leading position with the advent of the Green Revolution. This revolution seems to have undermined farming, farmers and farm workers in this region.
 
The Eastern region comprising of about 28% of the country’s geographical area and is inhabited by about 35% of the country’s population. In Bihar, 91 percent of all land holdings fall in the category of marginal holdings with farm size less than 1 hectare. High cost of diesel-based irrigation (70 %) has made agriculture difficult.
 
The credit availability per hectare in Bihar, water logging and drainage problems remain predominant concerns. Bihar possessed about 3% of the total cultivated area of the country and 8% of the country’s population. The fact remains problems of farmers and agricultural workers of Bihar and eastern India cannot be seen in isolation from the problems of being faced by farmers and agricultural workers all over the country.
 
Over 210 farmer and agricultural workers organisations of the country have given a call for a march to Parliament on 29-30 November 2018. They are demanding a special session of 21- days to deliberate on remedial measures for safeguarding the interest of farm, farmers and agricultural workers. The Eastern region merits special attention in the 21-day special session of the Parliament.
 
The special session of parliament is required to focus solely on the agrarian crisis & related issues and the honouring of the recommendations made in the Reports of the National Commission for Farmers, which have been lying for over 12 years in Parliament without a day’s serious discussion. It is one of their major demands. Meanwhile, agrarian and rural distress has been deepening daily accompanied by massive loss of livelihoods.  While successive governments have failed and, indeed, consciously undermined the agrarian sector for two decades now, the past few years have taken the damage to unprecedented levels. The devastation of demonetisation and the assault on the cattle economy are just two examples of the new dimensions of distress.
 
What are the concrete ways in which we can extend our support and solidarity to the lakhs who will march into Delhi on Nov. 29? How do we best meet this upcoming historic moment? We have before us the example of the Nashik-Mumbai march of March 06-12 2018.
 
This context creates a logical compulsion on those who belong to the professional and other groups of the middle and lower-middle classes to support call of the farmers and farm labourers readying for their massive protest.
 
1.      In a situation where over three lakh farmers have committed suicide in our country in the last 20 years, agrarian crisis is no more about food security, farmers and farm labourers alone. It has now become a crisis of the society and civilization. It is these very farmers who saved the country from ship-to-mouth existence to feed Indians without waiting for ships to arrive.    
 
2.      Now that it has officially been admitted that between 1991 and 2011, the number of farmers/cultivators declined by 1.5 crore as per census, it is quite clear that the wages and salary of all including legislators have increased but freezing of farm incomes has been marginalizing farming communities. Despite this 94 per cent of the farmers’ have been kept out of the purview of income security.                 
 
3.      As a nation, fellow citizens cannot afford to remain mute spectators to the plight of farming, farmers and farm labourers when indebtedness related consequences compels them to end their life even as indebted commercial czars get bailed out or get protected or run with impunity paving the way for return of the money lenders who create yet another vicious circle of poor being poor because they are poor. Shouldn’t indebted farmers need to be treated in the same way as beneficial owners of indebted companies? Credit policy of the banking system has adopted double standards. It waives off the defaulting amount of credit at the earliest opportunity arguing that it leads to economic growth. It restructures the loans of the beneficial owners of corporate sector but penalizes the farmers. In such a scenario, waiving of farm loan too can lead to such growth. If waiving loans is a moral hazard than it is so for both the corporate and farm sector.  
 
4.      Land and water co-exist but their commodification, corporatization and acquisition is undermining farming as source of livelihood. The conversion of agricultural land into non-agricultural land across the country is happening without cumulative impact assessment in a business as usual scenario. Ongoing corporatization of water and promotion of cash crops have turned rivers and ground water aquifers into monetizing machines. Such an approach has prevented rivers and other water sources to perform their geological and ecological functions. One of the core natural functions of rivers is land building. Amidst shrinking of land under agriculture, anonymous donors of political parties, real estate operators and development fundamentalists have stopped the river from performing their natural work.    
 
5.      Collapse of agriculture has created problems of unemployment, increased informalisation of workers, indebtedness and devastation of cattle economy has made agricultural mode of livelihood precarious. Amidst indefensible inequality and technological unemployment driven mass poverty, the well-being of fellow citizens cannot be divorced from the well-being of farmers and farm labourers.
 
6.      Given the fact that an unjust structural arrangement has ensured that market remains consistently against farmers, it has emerged that fall in the prices in the open market of farm produce despite there being a bountiful harvest is a bigger calamity than continuing drought, heavy rainfall or any other natural disaster. So much so that farming is no more about farming crops but it about cultivating losses. There are situations where milk becomes cheaper than the water.
 
7.      Rich countries are providing 190-billion-dollar product specific subsidy but are coercing India through anonymous donations to ruling political parties to cut the subsidy although investing in agriculture is at least five times more productive than infrastructure. In a demonstration of flawed priorities, previous government built nearly 2.5 lakh panchayat houses unmindful of the compelling need for rural godowns.          
 
8.      Farmers and farm workers seem to have also been adversely affected by futures contracts unleashed by financial speculators and investors. Such contracts in agricultural commodity market entails formal obligation to sell or buy a given amount of commodity at a specified time and price. Although only a miniscule of such contracts actually result in the delivery of physical commodity as they are traded before their expiration date, it is clear that they are structurally inimical to the interest of farm, farmers and farm workers. In such arrangements neither the primary producer nor the consumers benefit from agricultural commodity future trading.   
 
9.      One cannot remain callous towards the unprecedented suffering of farmers and farm workers due to law and policy driven dispossession, deprivation, misery and distress migration. Although agriculture is the biggest employer in the country and has the potential to rejuvenate country’s economy, existing policies and laws have given it least priority in comparison to corporate sector.   
 
10.  Taking lessons from the fellow citizens and residents of Mumbai who participated and extended support to the farmers and farm workers during the weeklong Padyatra of 40, 000 farmers and farm workers from Nashik to Mumbai in March 2018, there is a compelling reason for fellow citizens and residents of Bihar to participate in the long march of our farmers from all over the country during 29- 30 November 2018 to Parliament in Delhi demanding 21 day special session of parliament to deliberate and legislate on life-threatening concerns of the nation.
 
In order to dwell on possible actions to respond to these issues, you are cordially invited to come to a meeting on “Why are farmers & farm workers demanding 21-day special session of Parliament” co-organised by Nation for Farmers which is a collective formed by non-farmers to support over 210 farmers’ organisations, farmers and farm workers. It aims to amplify the voice of farmers & farm workers. Nation for Farmers is organizing this meeting in collaboration with its friends in Bihar’s non-farmer organizations like Tatpar Foundation, Sanmat, Indian Society for Cultural Co-operation & Friendship (ISCUF), National Alliance for People’s Movement (NAPM), Kedar Das Institute for Labour and Social Studies (KDILSS), Bihar Mahila Samaj & Indian Peoples Theatre Association (IPTA). The meeting is scheduled from 10 am to 1 pm on November 23, 2018, at Gandhi Sangrahalaya, Patna.
 
P Sainath, founder of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) & former rural affairs editor of The Hindu will address the meeting.
 
Kindly join us to deliberate on how organisations representing workers, public & private sector employees, doctors, lawyers, journalists, artists, scientists, engineers, teachers, students, women, youth, and many, many others can form an alliance to help build support for the proposed Kisan Mukti March during November 29-30, 2018.
 
Organisers:
 
Nation for Farmers | Tatpar Foundation | Indian Society for Cultural Co-operation & Friendship (ISCUF) | Sanmat | Chintaharan Social Development Trust (CSDT) | National Alliance for People’s Movement (NAPM) | Kedar Das Institute for Labour and Social Studies (KDILSS) | Bihar MahilaSamaj | Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA)
 

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