Global Policy Forum

By Ranjit Dev Raj

New Delhi - Out of place in the departure terminal of the international airport, a group of rustic Indian farmers wait to board a cheap Aeroflot flight to begin a month long sojourn in Europe starting Monday. ''We are going to visit the offices of Monsanto and other big seed companies and ask them why they are destroying us,'' explains Omkar Singh, a mustard farmer from the neighbouring state of Haryana and a member of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), a major northern Indian peasant's union.

Omkar is illiterate but he readily understands the dangers of transnationals elbowing their way into Indian agriculture which for all its supposed inefficiency feeds a billion people cheaply and is the mainstay of the economy. Last year, Omkar was among thousands of mustard farmers who were ruined after the government banned the sale of mustard oil, northern India's staple cooking oil and ordered a million tonnes of the U.S-based Monsanto's genetically engineered soyabean. The government was forced to ban mustard oil because stocks were unaccountably adulterated to a point where hundreds of people fell seriously ill with dropsy and at least 50 of them died in the capital alone. So when Omkar heard about Inter-Continental Caravan-99 (ICC- 99) which is organising the month-long farmers' tour in the EU he readily clambered aboard. ''This is the first time I am going to be away for so long from my farm, family and village.''

Omkar said he was looking forward to join 400 Indian farmers who are to participate in demonstrations in Cologne, Germany, when the next G-8 summit takes place in June.

''ICC-99 will also demonstrate in front of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) headquarters in Geneva, the European Commission in Brussels and the Organisation of Economically Developed Countries (OECD) in Paris,'' said chief organiser Prof. Nanjundaswamy before departing for Europe. Last November, Nanjundaswamy spearheaded a movement in Karnataka to ''weed out'' Monsanto after the Indian government clandestinely allowed the transnational to conduct trials of genetically engineered cotton at 40 locations across India. Nanjundaswamy who leads the KRRS, the largest peasant movement in southern India, justified the 'weeding' after accusing Monsanto of being behind the spectacular failure of cotton crops in southern Indian leading to mass suicides by ruined farmers.

Apart from large farmers organisations like the KRRS and the BKU, participants in ICC-99 include the powerful National Forum of Fishworkers which opposes shrimp aquaculture, and mechanised trawling which are robbing them of their livelihoods. Also represented are well-known people's movements such as the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada Movement) which represents farmers and tribals displaced by the massive Narmada valley project in western India and women's groups such as the All- India Women Farmers Association (AIFWA).

Said Swaraj Lamba, AIFWA president, ''the new century will witness spectacular progress in genetic engineering and bio- technology but it is also certain that millions will continue to suffer from hunger and shortages of drinking water.'' Lamba said the fight was not just against transnationals but the new culture of the ''so-called knowledge-driven society'' which sees no immorality in making nuclear weapons and to which India is desperately seeking entry. ''What this nation (India) needs desperately is investments in education, health and agriculture and not in weapons of mass destruction,'' she said.

But Lamba blames the West and its transnationals for setting the pace of an inhuman agenda, the logic of which, according to her, led to India going nuclear. ''We denounce the nuclear tests carried out by India and Pakistan but also oppose the hypocrisy of western governments which encourage the monopoly of which, if shared, could benefit all of humanity,'' she said.

Nanjundaswamy said the aims of ICC-99 will certainly not be realised in the short term and therefore it will not waste too much time with politicians and transnationals but concentrate on ''people- to-people contacts.'' In fact, the farmers are going to be supported in Europe by like- minded people's organisations and will live frugally, staying in churches, farms, sports stadia and auditoria. ''We are used to hardship,'' said Onkar, drawing his thin blanket around his body.

Welcoming committees have been set up in several EU countries by peasant organisations such as the French Peasant Confederation, the Dutch Agricultural Association, EuroDusnie in Leiden, Leoncavallo in Milan, the Reithalle in Berne and women's organisations like Espace Femmes International. But ICC-99 is choosy about who it accepts help from. ''We will not play into the hands of institutions that are eager to claim to have democratic consultations with civil society to pursue their own agenda,'' Nanjundaswamy said.

Nanjundaswamy termed as ''outrageous'' the social clause proposed to be incorporated into the WTO system which, he said would never protect fundamental labour rights but allow countries in the North to practice selective protectionism.

''One reason we are going to Europe is because we wish to expose organisations in the North that claim to speak on behalf of the poor of the South just because we are not around to make our views felt.'' ''We do not want western money or, technology or development models and we refuse to be used as political tools to ask the elites for reforms that we never demanded,'' he said.

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