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People’s Caravan for Justice, Dignity and Sovereignty, 2005 Press Hand-out

Our Caravan

• We, who represent the marginalized and excluded sections of the Indian people have come together to constitute the People’s Caravan for Justice, Dignity and Sovereignty in order to protect our livelihood, our dignity and our future in the context of the assault against ordinary people through the processes of neo-liberal globalisation led by the ‘unholy trinity’ of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund/World Trade Organisation.
• The 6th ministerial conference of the WTO is being held at Hong Kong from 13th to 18th December 2005 and in preparation of the same many efforts to arrive at pre-determined conclusions are on.
• The Doha round wanted that implementation issues should be taken up first. It was opposed to the attempt of the developed world to push for further liberalization.
• It is widely reported that the Hong Kong ministerial seeks to entrap the poorer countries into its vicious grip – by compelling its terms and conditions in respect of Agriculture, NAMA, General Agreement on Trade in Services, Intellectual Property Rights, etc. – this is clearly an agenda to force open the markets of the poorer countries and thus destroy the minimum of livelihood, food security, basic needs and social security that is presently available.

People’s Resistance We represent people’s organization in different parts of the country. We work on a day to day basis with the poor and the excluded. We are witness to the following:

• Loss of access and control over land, natural resources, water bodies, food security and employment.
• Unavailability of food, health facility, education, employment, minimum wages, and human security.
• Loss of dignity, freedom and self respect due to socio-cultural and socio-economic oppression and plunder.

The Dangers Ahead:

• All these deprivations are being further aggravated by the neo-liberal regime of which WTO is a major instrumentality – we can clearly foresee
• the collapse of subsistence farming;
• the collapse of employment opportunities in agriculture, weaving sector, small scale industry, traditional artisanal sectors;
• the collapse of the health system and the steady increase in price of essential drugs, including life saving drugs – especially for HIV-AIDS patients;
• the steady erosion of access to education, water supply, electricity and other basic needs.
• the plunder of mineral wealth and forest resources leading to massive displacement and denial of life with dignity;
• the pressure to privatize all forms of industrial activity including manufacture;
• the pressure to privatize the financial sector, especially banking and insurance; and
• the aggressive penetration by foreign capital into all walks of life.
• There is growing resistance by ordinary people- especially the poor and the marginalized and these protests are spreading across all continents. Successful anti-neoliberalisation movements were seen in Seattle, in Cancun and every corner of the world and they will be manifested again in Hong Kong.
• We have already met in different parts of the world to build unity among ourselves. More recently we met in Delhi and in Colombo and we adopted two declarations. We in the people’s caravan endorse and adopt the Colombo Declaration which is attached herewith.
• We therefore reject the July framework and we are of the strong opinion that any engagement at the WTO Ministerial within this frame will be detrimental to our people.

Our Demands:

• We therefore demand the following:
• That we should not succumb to any of the conditions of the Agreement on Agriculture. We must remember that our agricultural export is 0.4% of the world trade.
• Reject NAMA since it will deprive us of existing employment opportunities – such as handlooms which give massive employment to our weavers.
• That our access to fishing and marine resources must not be destroyed.
• We demand an end to the cheap plunder of our mineral resources, marine wealth and forest wealth.
• We should not succumb to the pressure to withdraw the state from basic needs and necessary subsidy to agriculture.
• While we demand freedom of movement for labour we also want to reverse human resource drainage and erosion of our own self-reliance.
• We demand amendment to the Constitution of India to ensure that no treaty should be binding unless it is ratified by both houses of Parliament and by the majority of State Legislatures.
• We demand that India should withdraw from FIPS (Five Interested Partners - USA, Europe, Australia, Brazil and India) and not betray G-20 and the poorer countries of the Third World by becoming a sub-imperialist power.

Our Action Plan

• Our people’s caravan will traverse the length and breadth of India.
• All most all states will be covered by six zonally coordinated caravan processes.
• We aim to move towards the villages and distribute material for wide dissemination.
• We are identifying and liking up peoples struggles against coco-cola, bauxite and mineral wealth plunder as in Orissa, and against depriving artisans of marine resources, through post Tsunami liberalization.
• We are coordinating with those against privatization of water, land and forest wealth.
• We will confront parliamentarians and legislators for abdicating their duties and responsibilities to the electorate.
• We call upon our elected representatives from local self government to Parliament to uphold democratic values and not surrender to the ‘unholy trinity’.
• We will mobilize ordinary people through media, advocacy, mobilization and all peaceful means in order to assert the sovereignty of people against neo-liberalisers.
• We will lobby with parliamentarians, ministers and official negotiators not to betray the ordinary people and demand transparency and accountability to the citizens of India.
• We will join hands with people’s resistance all over the world culminating at Hong Kong.

List of people’s movements, drawn from 22 states, converging at six zonal levels and at the All India level.

JVALA, JAN YATRA National Conference of Dalit Organisations World Dignity Forum World Social Forum National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers Manav Adhikar Forum ActionAid India National Forum of Forest People and Forest Workers National Alliance of Agricultural Workers Union People's Caravan Regional Team Van Gram Evam Bhumi Adhikar Manch Rashtriya Van Shramjibi Manch Labour League Foundation, Delhi Ekta Parishad, Bihar Manabadhikar Sandarbh Kendra, Jaipur, Rajasthan Grammy Vikash Mancha, Assam Khatarshnong Socio-Organisation Nirman Majdoor Panchayat Sangam APWAD, Bihar Chaptar APWAD, Delhi Ashray Adhikar Abhijan Volunteers for Social Justice (VSJ), Punjab Dalit Dastan Virodhi Andolan Sankalp/ E S Chamba Gautam Buddh Nagar, APWAD, Sreepur Mahila O Khadi Unnayan Samity (SMOKUS), Raiganj, Mount Valley Development Association, Doni Jandesh Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Viritidarulu Union Bhoruka Public Welfare Trust, Mushahar Vikash Pahal, Kushinagar Nadi Ghati Morcha, Chhattisgarh

For further details, please contact: Sonali Banerjee (Mobile: 9868063802) Natasha Gupta (Mobile: 9350926225)

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