March 16, 2021
Day 111
Toll 296
#FarmersProtest
United Nations
Over the past few weeks, especially after the incidents of January 26th, the farmers protests have gone international. While lapdog media in India is largely blanking out the immense horizontal growth of the protests by ways of mahapanchayats and now election campaigns, on ground the protests are spreading like wildfire.
Of course, for vertical growth we need dialogue with the government which are being consistently denied for close to 50 days now. But then vertical growth can happen in other ways too – through spread and reach.
I was not aware that the United Nations actually has a ‘United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas’, sponsored by Bolivia and adopted by the United Nations in 2018. It is very telling that when it was adopted 119 voted For, 7 voted Against, 49 Abstained. I just looked up the list of votes. Most Yes were from Asia and Africa – the developing nations, and most No and Abstain were from Europe and South America.
India has signed this Declaration.
Yesterday, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha spokesperson Dr Darshan Pal addressed the UN session. His statement is brief but on a loop. Do listen.
We know the United Nations has been rendered rather toothless now. Still, that there exists a ‘UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants …’ and the vote on it is itself an indication on how capital is controlled at the global level. When we look at any protest, any struggle, we need to know what is its highest level of conflict. We know in the case of farmers protests it is not just the current government but the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund. Now, I learnt that a huge ally is the United Nations. How it will play out is yet to be seen.
The Declaration itself is elaborate. Notice how it raises every issue that the farmers are raising:
Article 3: Equality
Article 4: Women
Articles 5 and 18: Right to Nature
Articles 6, 7, 8 and 9: Liberties and civil and political rights
Article 10, 11 and 12: Justice, Right to Participation and Information
Article 13, 14 and 16: Labour Rights
Article 17: Right to Land
Article 19: Right to Seeds
Article 20: Right to Biodiversity
Article 21: Right to water and clean water systems
Articles 22 and 23: Right to health and social security
Article 24: Right to Housing
Article 25: Right to Education
Article 26: Cultural rights, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions
What I found most important and it has been missing in our discourse cantered around monies and requirements of a changed India society over half a century is:
Article 15: Food Sovereignty.
That, to me is core and exactly what WTO and IMF are against so the developed world keeps us the developing world as its slaves – not literally but in debt and hence servile.
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On the other hand, at the high visibility Grammy awards, Canadian YouTuber Lilly Singh wore a mask supporting farmers.
That too has gone viral.