Call for PGA Day-of-Action on Land

[office at tlio.demon.co.uk]

To: pgauk at cupboard.org
Subject: [pgauk] [convenors] call for April 17th day of action on land
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 

Call for People's Global Action Day-of-Action on Land

Call for April 17th 2004 

Land has become a big issue all over the world. Every day people are 
losing their land. Because of the global exploitation process perpetrated by 
capitalist globalisation land ownership has become increasingly concentrated. 
Finally, more and more land is going to the hands of big transnational 
corporations. Transnational corporations seek ownership of land for commercial 
interests. The common people who have relatively little political and economical control are the ones losing out in this process. By losing their land their access to food and a better future is declining. 

These alarming circumstances are visible throughout the world in different 
forms. The people have started protesting for their land rights. They started 
fighting to protect their land and establish their right to land. The poor 
landless men and women feel the necessity of having comprehensive land reform as 
well as agrarian reform. On April 17th 1996 in Brazil, thousands of landless 
people took to the streetS for a genuine agrarian reform. The ruling class 
launched a major attack in order to suppress the audacity of poor landless   men 
and women by resorting (to) massive repression. The police fired on them and 
killed 19 landless people brutally. 

In the same year in November-December in Bangladesh, the police also launched a 
massive attack on the landless people who had occupied land in the southern 
coastal belt of Bangladesh by killing one landless man, by throwing 16 children 
into the river water and by destroying 536 huts made by the settlers. Since the 
brutal incident in Brazil, April 17th is commemorated every year as Global 
Peasant Day world wide. 

This year this day is even more important than ever before. We are celebrating 
the tenth anniversary of the Zapatista uprising. The US-UK led war victimizes 
the common people in Afghanistan and Iraq. North-American and European 
capitalist globalisation is also continuously threatening other countries in 
order to establish their monopoly over the entire world. Thus, military bases 
are being established almost everywhere in the world in different forms. 
On other hand there is the World Trade Organization, WTO. This institution, 
along with the World Bank and the IMF has become a key player in promoting the 
concept of globalization that serves the interests of Transnational 
Corporations. The WTO wants to extend trade to life as a whole, including 
agriculture and services all over the world on unequal terms. 

In the mean time, massive negative impacts of the globalization process are 
being faced by the people. For example, women are affected severely in various 
ways. Capitalist globalisation is using the patriarchal system that roots very 
much in society the world over. 

Considering April 17th as Global Action Day we call on networks and groups all 
over the world to stage demonstrations, rallies, direct actions, sit-ins, 
strikes, blockades, etc. and resist all forms of capitalist globalisation. We 
urge grass-root movements throughout the world to raise their loud and strong 
voice this day based on the following hallmarks: 

1. A very clear rejection of capitalism, imperialism and feudalism; all trade 
agreements, institutions and governments that promote destructive globalisation; 

2. We reject all forms and systems of domination and discrimination including, 
but not limited to, patriarchy, racism and religious fundamentalism of all 
creeds. We embrace the full dignity of all human beings. 

3. A confrontational attitude, since we do not think that lobbying can have a 
major impact in such biased and undemocratic organisations, in which 
transnational capital is the only real policy-maker; 

4. A call to direct action and civil disobedience, support for social 
movements' struggles, advocating forms of resistance which maximize respect for 
life and oppressed peoples' rights, as well as the construction of local 
alternatives to global capitalism; 

5. An organisational philosophy based on decentralisation and autonomy. 

and to express opposition against: 
(1) Imperialist war & militarism 
(2) Conspiracies against genuine agrarian reform 
(3) Institutions like the WTO 
(4) World Bank and IMF 
(5) Patriarchy, racism and fundamentalism of all creeds 

see also: 
Journal for Exchange and Analysis on Agriculture: 

http://global.so36.net/2004/01/564.shtml