South Asian Members mark the International Day of Peasant Struggles
On April 17th, members of La Via Campesina in South Asia commemorated the International Day of Peasant Struggles to remember the Eldorado do Carajás massacre of 1996 and to highlight the continued criminalization, oppression, and repression of peasant, worker, and indigenous people communities around the world. As we begin the fourth decade of our collective struggles for food sovereignty, popular agrarian reform, and dignity, members also celebrated the historic 30th anniversary.
To commemorate the International Day of Peasants, Pakistan Kisan Rabita Committee (PKRC) hosted a meeting and iftar party. Representatives from at least 70 villages on Jaranwala state territory were in attendance. Members of the gathering demanded that all agricultural state land be shared among peasants in order to boost agricultural production and alleviate rural poverty.
“All state agriculture land must be allocated among landless peasants and small farmers to help alleviate poverty among the rural population,” stated PKRC general secretary Farooq Tariq. The PKRC demanded that the feudal system be abolished and that large farmlands be distributed to small farmers. Only radical land distribution and agrarian reforms can address the country’s food insecurity. The PKRC, according to Farooq Tariq, is advocating a natural and sustainable farming system in the country because it thinks that humanity must return to nature in order to rescue the earth and their own lives.
The Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labour Federation – BAFLF and Jatiyo Kisani Shramik Samity – JKSS remembered the massacre of landless farmers in Brazil on the International Day of Peasants Struggle in Bangladesh. To mark the occasion, BAFLF and JKSS organised a demonstration in Gazipur. The event was attended by farmers, women peasants, and agricultural workers who demanded comprehensive and effective agrarian reform to secure people’s food sovereignty. Following the programme, there was a discussion meeting.
The All Nepal Peasants Federation ANPFa organised an interaction programme on socialist transformation of agriculture on the International Day of Action for Peasant Struggles in Nepal.
