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Farmers

India: Farmers Intensify Mobilization Despite Government Crackdown

December 11, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Scores of women held candlelight vigils in support of over a hundred farmer leaders arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police in India on Tuesday, December 10. The protesting women warned authorities against intimidating the families of the farmers and demanded the immediate release of all those detained. The vigils took place in villages near New Delhi, where farmers have been agitating for months. Their demands include proper compensation for land acquired for the development of large townships, the return of 10% of developed lands to those affected, and adequate rehabilitation for families who have lost their only source of income under the Land Acquisition Act of 2013.

Farmers And Workers In India Unite Against Neoliberal Assaults

November 30, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Thousands of farmers and workers took to the streets in India on Tuesday, November 26 demanding minimum support price for their farm produce and preservation of labor rights in the country against the assaults from the pro-corporate government. The protests were called by all a joint platform of central trade unions and Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), a joint platform of farmers groups formed during the 2020-21 farmers’ agitation against the three pro-corporate farms laws. The central demands of the protesters include repeal of four labor codes introduced by the ultra right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Indian Farmers And Workers Unite Again For National Mobilization

November 23, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
India’s major farmers and workers unions are coming together to launch a nationwide mobilization on Tuesday, November 26, to demand the government address the distress faced by the majority of the country’s population of farmers and workers. A call for nationwide protests was given by the united farmers front, Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and a joint platform of the Central Trade Unions earlier this month. Left-affiliated farmer’s organizations All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), All India Agricultural Workers Union (ALAWU), and Center for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), one of India’s largest trade union federations, are part of the call to mobilize.

New Protections Empower H-2A Agricultural Workers To Organize

June 29, 2024 Tina Vásquez, Prism. , , ,
Agriculture is rife with labor violations and abuse, but thanks to a new rule going into effect this month, the industry’s most vulnerable migrant H-2A workers now have better protections to organize against unfair treatment from American employers. The H-2A Temporary Agricultural Program allows American employers to bring migrant workers to the U.S. with visas to perform temporary or seasonal agricultural jobs that could not be filled by American workers. Unlike other visa categories, there is no cap on the number of H-2A workers who can work in the U.S. each year. The program has exploded in recent years because of ongoing labor shortages in the agricultural industry, where labor violations run rampant. In 2023, the Department of Labor (DOL) certified nearly 380,000 H-2A jobs, compared to 79,000 in 2010.

India: 2024 Election Was A ‘Revolt Of The Farmers’

June 28, 2024 Radhika Desai, Geopolitical Economy. , , , , , , , , ,
The election results from India made the whole world sit up and take notice. Headlines used words like “stunning” and “shocked” to describe the result. No Indian election has elicited such worldwide attention. Modi and his BJP have thundered into the electoral arena with the slogan “Ab Ki Baar, Char So Paar”, which means “this time will go over 400”. The National Democratic Alliance, the coalition that the BJP leads, was to win more than 400 seats in a Lok Sabha that has 545 seats. And the BJP itself was supposed to win 370 seats, which would have itself constituted the super majority of over two-thirds.

Around The Mountain Valley Pipeline, Farmers Losing Access To Clean Water

June 24, 2024 Eve Andrews, Ambrook. , , , , ,
There are some who say the water of Monroe County, West Virginia, is the purest and best-tasting in the world — or at least it was in the 1990s. The springs on Peters Mountain, which straddles the border with Virginia, won first prize at the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting four times in that decade, beating out — as farmer Maury Johnson will tell you — the renowned municipal water of New York City. Johnson’s family has owned over 200 acres of farmland in Monroe County for 130 years, in the verdant Hans Creek Valley. Coming around the bend of a two-lane road into the valley, you behold a patchwork of dandelion-dotted pastures where small farmers raise sheep, cattle, pigs, and even a paddock of wide-eyed, statue-still deer. Underneath that farmland is a geological formation called karst, which is found throughout the greater Appalachian region.

Organizing Rural And Small Towns For Affordable Housing And Racial Justice

June 17, 2024 Joel Bleifuss and Justin Perkins, Resilience. , , , ,
In March, the Rural Democracy Initiative conducted a wide-ranging survey of rural and small town voters that found the number one issue for people was rising costs, particularly the cost of buying a home. When asked if the rising cost of housing preventing people from buying homes was a major or minor problem where they lived, 68% or respondents said it was a major problem, including 64% of Democrats, 71% of Independents and 68% of Republicans. That comes as no surprise to Jaime Izaguirre, a housing organizer in Dubuque, Iowa, for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. Not only is the cost of buying a house beyond the reach of many, finding an affordable, well-maintained apartment or house or mobile home to rent is increasingly difficult in rural and small town America.

European Farmers Shun Anti-Green Deal Protest In Brussels

June 1, 2024 Katharina Wecker, DeSmog. , , , , , ,
Europe’s largest farming unions representing millions of agricultural workers have rejected calls to join next week’s protest against EU green reforms, DeSmog can reveal. Smaller groups have also shunned the demo – some wanting to avoid the prospect of violence, others claiming they didn’t know it was happening. Preparations for the June 4 demo have been ramping up ahead of the start of the EU elections next Thursday, with protesters set to gather in Brussels days before European citizens head to the polls. The hardline Dutch group Farmers Defence Force (FDF) has urged farmer “warriors” to attend the demo, with its spokesperson claiming: “we are defending the rights of farmers and the standards of the European Union as it’s supposed to be”.

Revealed: Far-Right Links Of Polish Farmer Hunger Strikers

May 28, 2024 Marta Kasztelan, Claire Carlile and Phoebe Cooke, DeSmog. , , , , , , ,
An obscure far-right linked farmers group has risen to prominence in Poland after it was championed by populist politicians ahead of the EU elections, DeSmog can reveal. Orka, a new farmers’ movement that materialised earlier this month, entered Warsaw’s parliament building on May 9 to protest against EU climate plans and Ukrainian food imports. Protesters suspended a 10-day hunger strike last week after winning the attention of Polish President Andrzej Duda, who invited them to talks, and reportedly offered one member a role on his council for agriculture. The protest group was accompanied by the far-right Confederation Party’s Marta Chech, who is running as a candidate in the June 6-9 EU ballot.

India’s BJP Faces Ire Of Farmers In Final Phase Of Elections

May 23, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Only two phases remain in India’s seven-phase national elections. The voting for the next two phases are scheduled on May 25 and June 1. The ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is facing a united challenge from the center-left alliance led by the Congress Party across the country. The BJP’s battles in these last two phases of the elections are proving to be even more fierce due to the organized popular resentment against its farm policies in the region. Significant parts of the states polling in these two final phases, the state of Haryana with 10 seats in the Lok Sabha and Punjab with 13 seats, have been the epicenter of the ongoing farmers’ agitation.

Pakistani Farmers Launch A Nationwide Movement

May 8, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. , , , ,
Thousands of farmers in Pakistan have launched a nationwide movement demanding increased government procurement of wheat. The campaign will kick off with national mobilizations on Friday, May 10, Khalid Khokhar, the leader of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (Pakistan Farmer Movement or PKI), a united body of most of the farmers’ unions in the country, said in a press conference on Sunday. The mobilizations are set to kick off in Multan, Punjab and would be a continuation of the last month’s agitation in several parts of the country. Khokhar claimed that an even greater number of farmers’ organizations and groups would be participating in the campaign and mobilizations.

Farm Organizations Announce National ‘Enough Is Enough Tour’

April 22, 2024 Farm Action. , , , ,
Sixteen farm organizations announced the launch of the national Enough Is Enough Tour in protest of government policies that drive consolidation of the food system into the hands of the largest multinational corporations to the detriment of farmers and ranchers. With Congress preparing to debate the farm bill during prime planting and calving season, restricting farmers’ and ranchers’ ability to bring their voices to Washington D.C., farm groups will gather at events in at least five states to call on members of Congress to deliver a bill that levels the playing field.

How To Stop To Israel’s Genocidal Starvation Of Palestinians

April 8, 2024 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , , , , , ,
Gaza has been under a blockade for over 15 years that created bare subsistence conditions for Palestinians, but since October 7, 2023, the noose has been tightened. Palestinians are dying of starvation and dehydration in addition to the massacres committed by Israeli soldiers. In Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC-Pal) has been struggling to provide water and materials to Palestinians to grow food and has been purchasing produce to provide to families in need. Clearing the FOG speaks with Fuad Abu Saif, director of UAWC-Pal, about their work and the global days of fasting in solidarity with Palestine. The next one is April 13. Click here to donate to the UAWC-Pal. Clearing the FOG also speaks with USAF Airman Larry Hebert, an active duty member of the military who began an open-ended hunger strike on March 31 to press the Biden administration for a ceasefire and an end to the starvation of Palestinians.

Mexico Provides Non-GM Corn Opportunity For US Farmers

March 12, 2024 Ken Roseboro and Timothy A. Wise, Food Tank. , , , ,
United States commodity organizations have cheered on the U.S. government as it tries to get Mexico’s restrictions on genetically modified (GM) corn declared in violation of our trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, arguing that it cuts farmers’ export markets and sales revenues. But what if Mexico’s modest restrictions could instead turn out to benefit U.S. farmers who shift to premium non-genetically modified (GM) corn markets as international corn prices fall? It sounds counter-intuitive, but it might just be true. The math is pretty simple.

Farmers’ Protests Challenging EU Policies Spread To Eastern Europe

February 28, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , ,
Farmers and their unions in Eastern and Central Europe, are mobilizing in large numbers against growing economic distress. They have expressed their rejection of provisions in the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Green Deal, and against the high cost of production and low incomes, import of tariff-free grains from Ukraine war efforts, and exhaustive bureaucratic procedures in farm-related laws and regulations. Farmers affiliated with the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic (AKCR), Slovak Chamber of Agriculture and Food Industry, unions in Poland, and many others participated in rallies and road blocks on February 22, demanding concrete policy measures from their respective governments and the European Union (EU) in solving their grievances.
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