Coalition of Agricultural Workers International Vow to Fight for Those Most Oppressed by the WTO

Hong Kong (Dec 16) — Sri Utami, a domestic helper in Hong Kong, hails from a family of sugarcane workers in East Java, Indonesia. By taking care of other people’s families, she sends money home to enable her little brother to go to school, something that her ageing parents could not achieve through years of what is said to be the lowest paid work in the world: agricultural work.

In solidarity, the Indonesian migrant worker joined other agricultural workers from around the world in the official launch of the Coalition of Agricultural Workers International (CAWI), a unique coalition of people’s movements, trade unions, and NGOs representing agricultural workers, peasants, small farmers, dalits, and fisherfolk.

CAWI was inaugurated in Victoria Park amidst the deafening cry of opposition to the World Trade Organization’s 6th Ministerial Conference at the Peoples Camp on Food Sovereignty, during the People’s Action Week.

In a statement, CAWI called on workers everywhere to junk the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), which tilts heavily in favour of developed countries and stands to intensify the crisis in Third World agriculture.

The agricultural labour force represents the largest singular occupational group with over 40 per cent of the world’s workforce. “Yet, no other work in the world is being remunerated with such low wages as that of work done in agriculture”, said P. Chennaiah of the Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruthidarula Union (APVVU) in his introductory speech.

“Thus, it is time for agricultural workers to rise up collectively all over the world to show how we have been dehumanised and exploited,” he said.

In the program, agricultural workers from several countries came forward to share their experiences and struggles. Sadly, the CAWI delegate from Tanzania, Yahya Msangi of the Tanzanian Plantation and Agricultural Worker’s Union, was not able to join the launch. He was not allowed to board the flight to Hong Kong, even on the second attempt, in spite of having proper letters of invitation and assurance. “I was again barred from boarding yesterdays’ flight,” he communicated in an email on December 15, “I am so sorry and disappointed for not being able to attend the meeting”. He is among many grassroots representatives from around the world that have been barred fom coming to Hong Kong to protest the WTO.

Proceedings continued with the sharing by Cynthia Deduro of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) in the Philippines, who related how sugar workers have been exploited by the feudal system since the 1800s. However, the Philippine sugar industry took a turn for the worse when agricultural trade liberalisation was introduced in the 1970s. Today, sugar workers in Negros earn only between U.S. 50 cents to U.S. $1.50 a day or between U.S.$3 to $7 a week, since they are only given work 4 to 5 days a week.

A study by the NFSW shows that an average family of sugar workers survives on a budget of only U.S. 50 cents per meal. Only 50 per cent of the children of sugar workers are able to go to elementary school, 20 per cent to high school, and only about 1 per cent are able to go to college.

Audiences were moved by the film showing of “Kapait” (The Bitterness in Sugar), which depicted the indefatigable fighting spirit of Filipino sugar workers despite the hardships they face daily.

Meanwhile Sukarman, an agricultural worker and leader of the workers union Perbunni in Indonesia, recounted how workers of the largest oil palm plantations in North Sumatra were also historically enslaved, first by Dutch colonisers, then by dictator General Suharto, and now by neo-colonialism of the global world order.

He said that the legal basis of oppression was removed when agricultural workers were allowed to organise unions in the 1990s, but much of their situation remains unchanged. Harassment and intimidation of union organisers continues and is intensifying.

Further, most agricultural workers are now doing ‘casual work’, and earn only about US$1 a day. Thus, most families cannot even buy milk for their children and can only eat meat once a month.

Their poverty is exacerbated by the forced use of hazardous pesticides such as paraquat, which has been banned in several countries. Paraquat “destroys the lungs, hearts, and livers of workers,” stated Sukarman. Most workers suffer from a variety of grave diseases, but the plantation owners dismiss these and offer no medical help.

“Indeed, it is a bitter joke for us plantation workers when we are told by the company that we suffer nothing more than the flu,” said Sukarman.

Fatima Burnad of the Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED) in India and Charles Wesley of APVVU also related the double oppression of gender and caste for women and Dalit agricultural workers. Dalits are forced to migrate and scavenge for a living in the urban areas because of loss of jobs. Women are being pushed into prostitution because of the same loss of livelihood.

Zainul Abedin of BAFLF in Bangladesh, meanwhile, talked about landlessness and the possible negative effects of the introduction of genetically engineered seeds on agricultural workers. Commercial seeds and pesticides have increased the cost of production and made competition with cheap imports almost impossible, he said.

“There is only one way to save millions of agricultural workers in Bangladesh: land reform and job assurance,” he said.

Dr. Romeo Quijano of Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Philippines talked about how the forced use of, and exposure to, pesticides have harmed agricultural workers in Kamukhaan, a village near a vast banana plantation in Davao del Sur. He showed delegates to the CAWI launch pictures of the illnesses and deformities currently being suffered by the people of Kamukhaan, who were indigenous settlers robbed of land by American plantation owners half a century ago.

In connection with this, Fe Pelletero of Cause-DS in Davao del Sur related how the WTO related policies of the Filipino government are currently enabling big agribusinesses to widen their areas of expansion to upland areas, the ancestral domains of indigenous peoples. These agribusinesses threaten local food security as they convert food crop production into banana, sugarcane, and mango production for export markets.

Meanwhile, Nagama, a palm oil plantation worker, related that there are 30,000 pesticide sprayers in Malaysia, most of whom are women. She showed pictures of the ill effects that the spraying of paraquat has had on women and their children, and blames the WTO for coddling the chemical industry. She stated that the multinational company Syngenta, the world’s largest producer of paraquat, is apparently lobbying hard to repeal Malaysia’s ban on paraquat.

“WTO is worse than rubbish…Workers unite and kick WTO out of this world!” Nagama said.

Other speakers at the CAWI launch included Ashok Chowdry, who represented forest workers in India. He expressed gratefulness to CAWI for being an international forum that could develop and achieve a common platform and framework for livelihood rights of agricultural workers.

Dharma Debkota of the All-Nepal Peasants Association meanwhile told of how political parties and the Maoist movement in his country are uniting for a democracy that would benefit people, particularly rural workers. He emphasised the need for a strong link between national political movements and the global anti-WTO struggle.

In closing, Chennaiah put forward the demands of agricultural workers across the world. These include living wages, and access to safe food and decent livelihood; security of employment; upholding and respecting labour rights and the right to form trade unions; genuine land reform; and that governments should provide subsidies to improve domestic production and prevent dumping in order to protect the livelihoods and welfare of people engaged in the agriculture and fishery sectors.

“To realise this, to end poverty, hunger and suicides, and to enshrine the principles of food sovereignty in international law, CAWI strongly rejects agricultural and food liberalisation, and categorically calls for WTO to be out of agriculture and food!”

After the CAWI launch, women agricultural workers joined the International Women’s March to the Hong Kong Convention Center where the WTO MC6 is being held.

CAWI currently represents agricultural workers groups from Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and the United States of America.

The CAWI launch was one of the many activities taking place between December 15 to 17 at the People’s Camp on Food Sovereignty organised by the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Asia Pacific and the Peoples Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) together with 40 People’s Organisations and support NGOs from all over Asia and other regions.