Joe R. Golowka JoeG at ieee.org Anarchist FAQ - http://www.anarchistfaq.org
"According to the libertarian litany, if an industry or an institution is making a profit, it is satisfying "wants" whose origins and content are deliberately disregarded. But what we want, what we are capable of wanting is relative to the forms of social organization. People "want" fast food because they have to hurry back to work, because processed supermarket food doesn't taste much better anyway, because the nuclear family (for the dwindling minority who have even that to go home to) is too small and too stressed to sustain much festivity in cooking and eating -- and so forth. It is only people who can't get what they want who resign themselves to want more of what they can get. Since we cannot be friends and lovers, we wail for more candy." - Bob Black ----- Original Message ----- From: "el desaparecido" <desaparecido at nadir.org> To: <caravan99 at mail.nadir.org>; <ainfos-en at tao.ca> Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2001 3:01 PM Subject: (en) Indian farmers continue struggle against WTO
> ________________________________________________
> A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
> http://www.ainfos.ca/
> ________________________________________________
>
> - please spread this message to relevant people/groups/lists -
>
> After the month long caravan through India against the WTO, and the mass
> direct action on February 19th in the harbour of Mumbai, where 51.000
Indian
> farmers tried to destroy imported agricultural products and were submitted
to
> a mass arrest....the actions still go on.
>
> On March 19th, farmers from all over India (including from the KRRS) will
> converge massively in New Delhi for a mammoth rally and a siege of the
> parliament, urging the government to withdraw agriculture from the WTO.
>
> Below you'll find the letter that will be presented to the president
signed by
> Members of Parliament.
>
> It'd be great if people could help spreading this news around the world
and
> Independent Media Centre activists could help making the voice of Indian
> farmers heard around here. Solidarity actions of all kind can help
amplifiying
> their voice and create more pressure on the Indian government.
>
> For more information, pictures, interviews etc, you can contact:
>
> KRRS
> Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha
> [Karnataka State Farmer's Association]
> 2111,7th-A Cross,3rd Main,
> Vijayanagar 2nd Stage
> Bangalore-560 040-India
> Phone:+91-80-3300965
> Fax:+91-80-3302171
> E-mail:swamy.krrs at vsnl.com;
> krrs_123 at yahoo.com
>
> > From: KRRS <swamy.krrs at vsnl.com>
>
> NATIONAL COORDINATION OF FARMERS MOVEMENTS
>
> MAMMOTH RALLY AND PARLIAMENT GHERAO(SIEGE) TO GET
> AGRICULTURE OUT OF W.T.O.
>
> AT KISAN GHAT, NEW DELHI ON 19TH MARCH, 2001.
>
> Five years of liberalization in agriculture has made it clear to all that
it
> has given a death-blow to Indian agriculture and Indian farmers.
>
> All the Political Parties/ except the BJP and most of the Political
leaders
> have understood the fraud that is being played by the developed countries,
> especially the USA and the European Union, by abusing the W.T.O
> machinery.
> With their high levels of Domestic support to their farmers and export
> subsidies and trickeries in tarrification these developing countries are
on
> the one hand out to conquer our markets and on the other are excluding us
> from their markets.
>
> But, inspite of this knowledge, all our Political Parties and leaders are
> not showing enough courage to suggest clear-cut solutions to come out of
> this "unfair market".
>
> To enlist the opinion of our Members of Parliament and to elicit their
clear
> stand on this issue of taking agriculture out of this "unfair market"
called
> W.T.O. we are launching an opinion poll among our MPs from 12th March to
> 18th March, 2001 and later join in lakhs at the Kisan Ghat in a mammoth
> rally on 19th March, 2001 and later on the same day Gherao Parliament to
> press our demand to take Agriculture out of W.T.O.
>
>
> COME TO KISAN GHAT IN LAKHS AND LAKHS
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Hon'ble President of India
> New Delhi
>
> Sir,
>
> Sub: Taking Agriculture out of W.T.O.
>
> One of the main reasons for the failure of the Seattle Ministerial
> Conference of W.T.O. is attributed to the major disagreements between and
> among the major trading nations, especially in the area of agriculture.
>
> We believe, it is essential to use this development as an opportunity to
> change course and develop an alternative, humane, democratically
> accountable
> and sustainable system of commerce that benefits all.
>
> The time has come to acknowledge the crises the international trading
> system
> is causing and the crises in which its main administering institution, the
> W.T. O. itself is.
>
> The GATT Uruguay Round Agreements and the establishment of the W.T.O.
> were
> proclaimed as a means of enhancing the creation of global wealth and
> property and promoting the well being of all people in all member states.
In
> reality, however, the WTO has contributed to the concentration of wealth
in
> the hands of the rich few; increasing the poverty for the majority of the
> World's peoples, especially in the third world countries.
>
> The W.T.O. and GATT Uruguay Round Agreements have functioned
> principally to
> pry open markets for the benefit of transnational corporations at the
> expense of national and local economies, workers, farmers, indigenous
> peoples, women and other social groups as also of health and safety, the
> environment and animal welfare.
>
> Under these circumstances, it is urgent that India should take the lead in
> projecting the imbalances, particularly in the Agreement on Agriculture,
by
> demonstrating how the imbalances have seriously hamstrung the ability and
> potential of India and third world countries to develop agriculture, and
> also by exposing and arguing against the inequities in the Agreement which
> include the Provision that provides different sets of rules which
> effectively allow developed countries to maintain their subsidies while
> denying developing countries the same rights and how by reclassifying
these
> subsidies the developed countries are creating better market access for
> their products and denying the same to the developing countries.
>
> But, though it has become clear that agriculture has become the most
> distorted sector of trade, the developed countries with their
> trade-distorting subsidies and import barriers still are determined to
> continue with this same "Unfair Trade".
>
> It is time to turn this "Unfair Trade" around. This process entails
rolling
> back the power and authority of the W.T.O. by making it recognize that in
> countries like India, where the main source of assured access to food is
> food production itself, either in the form of subsistence farming or
through
> generation of farm incomes, and that imports of food could not be an
> alternative to domestic production.
>
> International trade regimes should realize that Food is a Basic Human
Right
> and not a commodity of Trade. So much so, measures necessary to
> promote and
> protect food security and food sovereignty, subsistence farming, humane
> farming practices and sustainable agriculture must be exempt from
> international free trade rules.
>
> In view of this, Sir, we urge upon you to interfere, using your
> Constitutional powers, to save Indian Farming and farmers from the
impending
> and increasing dangers of "Free Trade" in Agriculture by advising the
> Government of India to strive towards taking Agriculture out of the World
> Trade Organisation.
>
>
> New Delhi
>
Your
> s sincerely
> Date: ............
>
>
>
....
> ............
>
> Member
> of Parliament
>
>
>
>
>
> 88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
> KRRS
> Karnataka Rajya Ryota Sangha
> [Karnataka State Farmer's Association]
> Prof.Nanjundaswamy
> President
> 2111,7th-A Cross,3rd Main,
> Vijayanagar 2nd Stage
> Bangalore-560 040-India
> Phone:+91-80-3300965
> Fax:+91-80-3302171
> E-mail:swamy.krrs at vsnl.com;krrs_123 at yahoo.com
>
> ------------------------------------
> caravan99 at mail.nadir.org
> subscription:
> mail to caravan99-request at mail.nadir.org
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>
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