The Hindu : Farmers demonstrate against WTO

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 14, 2003

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Farmers demonstrate against WTO

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI SEPT. 13. Hundreds of farmers today staged a demonstration here asking India to quit the World Trade Organisation (WTO) if it did not fulfil the aspirations of the Indian working class.

In a memorandum submitted to the President later, the activists — under the banner of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and some farmers unions — said that they were watching with grave concern the developments at the fifth ministerial meeting of the WTO at Cancun under the shadow of the tragic suicide by a Korean farmer, Kun Hai Lee. ``The farmer's suicide symbolises both the plight and anger of the entire developing world against the unilateral dictates of the WTO,'' the protestors said. The future of India's working population must not be sacrificed at the altar of the WTO, they said. Regardless of what transpires at Cancun, Indian agricultural population should be guaranteed procurement of crops at an adequate price by the State, provision for adequate distribution of essential commodities of mass consumption through the Public Distribution System (PDS), immediate enactment of legislation to guarantee minimum wages and social security for all agricultural labourers, besides an inalienable right to the tribal people over their traditional habitat and natural produce.

The protestors, including members of the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, All-India Khet Mazdoor Sabha and CPI (M-Pasla) came from as far as Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, M.P., Uttaranchal, and Uttar Pradesh.

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