Farmers And Other Civil Society Groups Give A Wake Up Call To The G-20 - But Are They Listening?

Mumbai.

Chronology of events in New Delhi:

March 15, 2005:

Over 50 groups including farmers groups, social movements and NGOs from across India meet in New Delhi and propose a peoples agenda on the G-20. The resolution from the meeting demands a fundamental change in the G20’s approach to agriculture and calls the grouping to a) Reject the AOA paradigm b) Stand for the peasants of the south and c) Confront the agribusiness of the north. They also insisted that developing countries use Quantitative Restrictions to de-link their economies from the AOA and called for a GSTP (Global System of Trade Preferences) that would be derived from the basic objective of protecting and furthering the interests of their peasantry and preserving the food sovereignty of their peoples. S P Shukla, former trade ambassador to the GATT, cautioned that “An AOA led approach would lead to billions of people losing livelihoods in the agricultural sector because its basic approach is biased towards the interests of temperate zone, large scale, capital intensive, trade oriented, agribusiness centered, peasant insensitive and mass livelihood threatening agriculture”. “The 16000 farmer suicides witnessed in India last year are largely a result of the approach underlying the AOA framework. More than the WTO impacting us we’ve impacted it - peoples movements across the world have shamed the institution,” said Vandana Shiva. The groups resolved to work together in the run-up to the Hong Kong Ministerial to replicate the historic successes achieved by people’s movements at Seattle and Cancun.

March 17, 2005:

The Heads of Delegation meeting of the G-20 begins at 10 am at the heavily guarded Maurya Sheraton Hotel and Towers. At around the same time over 30,000 farmers from across rural India brave the Delhi heat and gather at the nearby Kisan Ghat (Farmers Ground) to protest against the WTO. These included the powerful Bharatiya Kisan Union (The Indian Farmers Union) and their affiliate organisations from different states in India. There was a 12,000 strong delegation of farmers, from the KRRS - Karnataka Rajya Raita Sangha (Karnataka State Farmers Association), who traveled nearly 2500 kilometers from southern India by train for justice from a government that was elected on a progressive pro-farmer platform. After a series of powerful speeches from the state leaders the rally begins to move towards the Indian Parliament. They are stopped just before the Parliament by a series of barricades (6 levels of fences, armoured trucks and vans). An argument ensues with the heavily armed Delhi Police and soon the first barricade is breached. The police soon get the upper hand and the fallen fence is put up. Finally at around 6 pm a 27-member team comprising representatives from different parts of India is allowed to hand a memorandum to the Prime Ministers Office. The memorandum calls upon the G-20 for the exclusion of the agriculture sector from the WTO purview, reimposition of Quantitative Restrictions, increase in duty in import of agriculture products and proper insurance cover for farmers. It also demanded promotion of small-scale industries based on agriculture for employment in rural areas.

At 7.45 pm a delegation of farmers groups and NGOs meet Clodoaldo Hugueney and US Bhatia, the Trade Ambassadors of Brazil and India. The Peoples agenda on the G-20 is presented to both Ambassadors. Amb. Hugueney says that in a 148-member organisation it is a given that small groups will negotiate on behalf of others and to this end the FIPS (Five Interested Parties) provides for the first time better representation for developing countries. On reimposition of QRs which was a demand of farmers groups across the developing world he said that it was administratively a complex issue. He mentions that the G-20 has attempted to get more developing country groupings on board like the G-33, ACP, Caricom, African group and the LDCs. The coordinators of all these groups were present at the G-20 Ministerial as observers. Amb. Bhatia agreed that negotiators are often not aware of the real impacts of trade commitments and it was an important learning for him to listen to farmers groups. “ The G-20 is being attacked by the big powers - we’re counting on the support of civil society,” says Amb. Bhatia in his closing remarks.

March 18, 2005

The Ministerial Meeting begins. The people’s agenda on the G-20 is sent to various Ministers in India and distributed among parliamentarians. The Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath claims “the gathering here today signals a coming together in the common cause of almost the entire developing world”.

March 19, 2005

At 12 Noon the Ministers address a press conference to release the G-20 Ministerial Declaration. Only accredited press is given access into the hall and farmers groups (from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu) who gather outside the hotel asking to be allowed are refused entry even to the porch of the hotel. They unfurl a banner that reads “ G-20 get out of the WTO, Agriculture out of the WTO”. As the Ministerial Declaration is released and Ministers begin to congratulate each other, the group is asked to disperse by the police. They demand to meet the Ministers. As a huge crowd gathers outside the hotel the police call for reinforcements and in minutes over 200 policemen with automatic rifles surround the farmers. They turn on a water cannon in an attempt to separate the group but that doesn’t succeed. Copies of the Ministerial Declaration are burnt to loud cheers from the crowd. “The ministers inside claim to be negotiating for small farmers - we want to know why they have ignored our demands and on whose behalf they are negotiating” argued Chukki Nanjudaswamy of the KRRS, a member of the Via Campesina. Vijay Jawandhia of the Shetkari Sanghatana (Farmers Collective) in Maharastra said “ In the 10 years of the AOA we have seen thousands of farmers in India take their lives. The G-20 is not discussing real issues facing the farmer - it is a masquerade and their empty rhetoric should be exposed by farmers groups across the developing world”.