Automatically translated from Basque, translation may contain errors. More information here. Elhuyarren itzultzaile automatikoaren logoa

Paying 600 Deaths, Indian Farmers Win Big Neoliberalism Strike 2021

  • From November to November, millions of farmers in India have been on strike and mobilized for a year, calling for the government of Narendra Modi to withdraw three laws for the liberalization of crop prices and the market as a whole. The most forceful working-class struggle the world has seen in 2021 has achieved the goal after the regression of the authorities in decision-making, at the head of many struggles and sufferings.
Garaipena ospatzen du emakume baserritarrak haurra sorbaldan duela, Indian azaroaren 29an egindako elkarretaratze ugarietako batean.
Argazkia: Asiana.
Garaipena ospatzen du emakume baserritarrak haurra sorbaldan duela, Indian azaroaren 29an egindako elkarretaratze ugarietako batean. Argazkia: Asiana.

On 19 November, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, said aloud to the peasants and all the citizens: “Today I have come to tell you, the whole country, that we have decided to abolish the three agricultural laws. At the parliamentary session that will begin this month, we will complete the constitutional process of repealing these three agricultural laws.” And then he asked the peasants who have been protesting for a year. “Now, come back to your houses.”

In February, Jenofa Berhokoirigoin advanced what would be one of the most important events in the world in 2021: “On 26 November, we learned of the demands of Indian farmers, thanks to the historic strike of 250 million farmers and workers: They do not want a liberalisation of the crop voted by the Indian Parliament. On that day, about 250,000 farmers started the camp in the New Delhi area, blocking the eight entrances to the capital. On 26 January they took a step further and entered the heart of the capital, with Parliament’s goal by 1 February.”

The protest has given way to Modi a week before the end of the year, the day when the Sichism – the religions of the Sikh people – celebrates the birth of the founder Guru Nanak. Few coincidences in the political agendas: the strike has mobilized mainly the countries of northern India, the countries of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjabe, and in the latter, 60% of the population is a Sikh believer. In order to discredit the mobilization, Sikhez Modi, the majority peasant of the strikers, said that they are the “anti-nationalists” and the “Khalistaneses”, independentists who want to build the sovereign Khalistan of Punjab. “Better not to stop with them forever,” thought the old dog Modi, who always comes the election.

The Indian police are mercilessly attacking the Protestants. Photo: Indian Express

The news of the government’s defeat caused a great feast among the camp peasants around Delhi and supporters, according to Charu Kartikey, a correspondent for the German newspaper Die Welt: “You could hear rockets and music. People dancing, one to the other distributing candy…”. However, the leaders of the movement announced that they would not move around until Parliament definitively withdraws the laws.

They had little reason to be suspicious. The peasants have had to resume the struggle for a year, most of them far from the native countries of India, facing the tiredness of long mobilization, the weather greed and the barriers imposed by the authorities, the police barricades, pomegranates and water cannons. Anyone who, from the outset, appeared as a pacifist movement has suffered violence of all kinds. On the road to victory he has killed between 600-700, almost all peasants or their families.

Wikipedia explains in detail the deaths during the mobilizations. The first was Dhanna Singh, a 45-year-old peasant leader: He died on November 26, 2020, according to the media, when Haryana was negotiating with the state police on a roadblock to prevent the passage of the huelguistas.Desde then the deaths have increased daily, reaching 600 in the accounts of about 750 in the case of others by the end of November of this year.

WINNING WITH BLOOD AND TEARS

Among the victims have been the police officers directly killed, crushed by their cars as shots or grenades. During the hostilities, their tractors have exploded accidentally. Many others have died of starvation, cold or illness, heart attacks or pneumonia. And there have also been suicides.

Kashmir Singh, 71, is one of the many
peasants who have committed suicide.

Many of the suicides have been caused by despair, ruining or taking the poison at their disposal. Some have left the protest to the authorities in writing with the last cry before committing suicide.

On November 28, 2020, Kashmir Singh, among the camped with his son and grandson in the Delhi area, hanged himself in the bathroom. The police found the following paper in punjabe: “How long should we be here cold? This government does not want to hear. That’s why I offer my life to come up with a solution.”

A month later, on December 16, the priest Baba Ram Singh shot himself in the caravan heading to the capital by the state of Singhu. He left a 10-page letter stating that he could not withstand the pain of the peasants. The text was read in the commemorative funeral ceremony: “Only rifle bullets kill their cats. However, bullets of injustice kill a lot of people for every blow. It is humiliating to suffer injustice.”

Nevertheless, at the head of Oro, the Indian peasants have achieved a historic victory, according to People’s Archive of Rural India, journalist Palagummi Sainath, who has investigated many of his problems: “Although the mainstream media will never recognize it, this has been the greatest democratic and peaceful triumph the world has seen in recent years, certainly the largest of the Covid-19 pandemic. (...) They have achieved more than one victoria.Uno, and not the smallest, they have won the media controlled by the wealthy.”

In Sainath's analysis, the peasants know that this great victory is not the first step. As a result of the abolition of laws, big companies are not going to exploit honesty for the time being. But other problems remain to be solved, from the minimum prices for crop products, through public markets and much broader economic policy issues.

“The government of Modi,” says Sainath, persecutes, crushes and imprisons its rivals, and the mobilized peasants have given new breath to the other movements facing the authorities. The government is arresting citizens to their liking, including journalists, under the 2019 laws, oppressing independent media by charging for possible economic crimes. That is why this day has been more than a peasant victory, a victory in the struggle for the civil liberties of the Indians.”

One of the soundtracks of the biggest mobilization in 2021 has been "Wapas Jao", performed by punjabueño singer-songwriter Poojan Sahil adapting the classic "Bella Ciao" to India's peasant strike. Translating the words into Basque:

Wapas Jao (Here)

Leaving the shame behind / We have been singing:
“We’re not going to resign! / Alde, alde, alde hemen!” Every
leek on Earth, scream with us:
“We’re not going to resign! / Please flee here!”

Dark Black Nights / Wants Us
To Fend But Dawn Comes Breaking All Songs / Chains:
“Alde, go over here” / People are waking up from the dark
night / They are referring to the prayers to make it The
beginning of your last / All shouts the same:
“Please, here” Aloud,
we decided: / We give up
on “Please flee here”
Your lethal black laws / Our bet:
“We’re not going to resign! Please go over here!”

Leaving the shame behind / We have been singing:
“We’re not going to resign! / Alde, alde, alde hemen!” Every
leek on Earth, scream with us:
“We’re not going to resign! / Please flee here!”

 


You are interested in the channel: Laborantza
2025-01-29 | Kelo Arribas
Food sovereignty and resistance to genocide
The struggle of the peasants in Palestine
Today, there is a ceasefire in Gaza, and we do not know how long it will last, while massacres, annexations, colonization and all kinds of human rights violations continue in the rest of the occupied territories. The following are not isolated cases, but a few isolated examples... [+]

2025-01-24 | Euskal Irratiak
ELB sindikatuaren zerrendaburu Julen Perez
“Laborarientzako proiektu azkar bat dugu, Euskal Herriari itzulia dena”

Datorren astean Departamenduko Laborantza Ganbarako hauteskundeak ospatuko dira Ipar Euskal Herrian. Frantzia mailako FDSEA eta CR sindikatuez gain, ELB Euskal Herriko Laborarien Batasuna aurkezten da, "euskal laborarien defentsa" bermatzeko.


Ipar Euskal Herriko laborantza
EHLGk hogei urte beteko dituela, egitura publikorik ez zerumugan

Euskal Herriko Laborantza Ganbera elkartearen hogei urteak ospatu zituzten asteburuan Ainhize-Monjolosen. 2005eko urtarrilaren 15 hartan sortu zuten Lapurdi, Baxenabarre eta Zuberoako laborantzaren garapena –hori bai, iraunkorra eta herrikoia izan nahi duena–... [+]


The Parliament of Navarre will press the Spanish government to avoid establishing a free trade agreement between the EU and Mercosur
The letter proposed by Contigo-Zurekin explains that the new agreement between the main European and South American trade organizations would lead to the elimination of tariffs, harming local producers, especially small ones. The UPN, EH Bila, the PP and Vox vote for the motion,... [+]

2025-01-16 | Euskal Irratiak
Laborantzari buruzko ikuspegi desberdinak agerian, Departamenduko Laborantza Ganbararako bozetan

Departamenduko Laborantza Ganbarako hauteskundeen kanpaina abiatu da. Urtarrilaren 14an bozetara aurkezten diren hiru sindikatuen ordezkariekin bi oreneko eztabaida sakona antolatu zuten Euskal Hedabideek, osoki euskaraz.


2025-01-13 | Garazi Zabaleta
Caserío Urteaga-Urkulegi
Vegetables, fruits and meat, diversification as the basis of production
Urteaga and Urkulegi are two neighbouring villages of Itsaso (Gipuzkoa), which joined together years ago and launched a joint project. “We put the two houses together and started the production project, and since 2011 I have been working with total dedication,” explains... [+]

2025-01-09 | Julene Flamarique
The Basque Country Sagardoa, formed by Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia and Álava, extends towards Iparralde
The Basque Designation of Origin project has received European support to develop a strategic plan for 18 years. The north has already joined, and both Treviño and Navarra have begun to take steps.

Smell of growing mouths
The demonstrations of the peasants throughout the French State have resumed. Despite the demands of the various trade unions, the first one that has been heard and that has been invited to the mainstream media has been the "dominant" FNSEA. What do you have to sell? A multitude of... [+]

2025-01-06 | Garazi Zabaleta
Trebatu Association
Project to boost relief in the primary sector in Gipuzkoa
The Trebatu association has been in operation for years in Ipar Euskal Herria, with the objective that those people who want to start this project can be trained beforehand. Taking as a model the project of Ipar Euskal Herria and pulling the same idea, in Gipuzkoa the... [+]

Twenty groups support the struggle for the lands of Marienia
The agency Bouygues Realimmobilier already has a housing construction project in the area of Marienia, in Kanbo. Through a joint declaration, they have expressed their "determination" to carry out the struggle to achieve "denial of the project" through "collaboration" and the... [+]

2024-12-26 | Estitxu Eizagirre
Representatives of Vía Campesina have witnessed the violence suffered by the Palestinian peasants
A delegation from Via Campesina visited Palestine from 8 to 18 December, invited by the Union of Palestinian Working Committees (UAWC), of which it is a member. On this journey, they wanted to show their solidarity with the Palestinian people "amid the genocide taking place in... [+]

2024-12-16 | Jon Torner Zabala
Sidra Vasca
North and South, centuries-old tradition under the same hat
The Euskal Sagardoa Designation of Origin has been challenged: Collection of apples and sidreros from all over the Basque Country. “The cider culture is all over the territory and apples have been kept for cider throughout the territory,” says Unai Agirre, coordinator of the... [+]

2024-12-16 | Garazi Zabaleta
Production of Ozaeta apple juice (barrundia)
8,000 litres of apple juice produced in 900 inhabitants
“Will I take out an apple juice?” With this question begins an interview with the members of the Economate of Barrundia Koldo López Borobia, Susana López de Ullibarri and Santi Txintxurreta. We've gathered around the apple bridge and in the garden surrounded by apples. This... [+]

2024-12-13 | Euskal Irratiak
The ELB wants to respond jointly and severally to the consequences of the bluetongue disease of sheep
The ELB trade union calls for solidarity for those who have suffered the bluetongue disease of sheep. At the beginning of December, more than 650 sheep in the department have been affected. In some cases, breeders have lost dozens of sheep, especially marros. Some farms have... [+]

Eguneraketa berriak daude