SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Tens of thousands of farmers and supporters marched in India's capital of Delhi on Wednesday, protesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "anti-people" policies. (Photo: @Rahul43902322/Twitter)
Condemning Modi's 'Anti-People Policies' Ahead of India's Election, Striking Farmers and Workers Grind New Delhi to Halt
"The main question remains as to whether the elected government stands with the common people or with the corporates."
Sep 05, 2018
Fed up with the "anti-people policies" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing government, tens of thousands of farmers and workers in India brought central Delhi to a standstill on Wednesday in a huge demonstration to demand higher wages, debt waivers, and other economic reforms.
The protests, marked by crowds of protesters wearing red and carrying red flags lining the entire stretch of Parliament Street, came ahead of next year's general elections and at the end of a summer when Indians struggled to live on stagnant wages and farmers faced barely-rising prices on the produce they provide to their communities.
Demonstrators expressed anger at Modi, who promised during his 2014 campaign to tackle the country's high unemployment rate among young people, affecting more than 10 percent of 15 to 24 year olds at the time. Last year 10.5 percent of young Indians were still in need of jobs.
"This historic rally...demanding better wages, more jobs, better prices for farm produce, end to privatization, stopping changes in labor laws, marks a new stage in the struggle of working people," the Communist Party of India said in a statement. The party led the protest along with the left-wing Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), and All-India Agricultural Workers' Union (AIAWU).
In a column for Common Dreams on Wednesday, Vijay Prashad, director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, summarized the demands of the protesters:
The agricultural workers and farmers ask a simple question: shouldn't the state provide land, credit and fair prices to protect those who work the land from the irrational destruction of agriculture by monopoly firms?
Farmers repeated calls, made in protests earlier this year, for loan forgiveness, a minimum income, and higher crop prices.
Loan waivers were the subject of another major protest in June, where demonstrators decried the harsh treatment of indebted farming families--making up more than half of farm owners in India.
"It is about lack of viability in farming, accentuated by climate change, whereby farmers land up in a constant debt economy," Kavitha Kuruganti, of the farmers' advocacy group ASHA, told Al Jazeera at the time. "While a whole lot of things make the situation difficult to deal with (falling incomes, crop losses, etc.), the immediate trigger for farmer suicides is often the pressure from creditors to repay, where 'naming and shaming' happens, or property is seized, etc."
"The main question remains as to whether the elected government stands with the common people or with the corporates," Sumesh Naranikkal, a construction worker, told Indian Express. "Farmers are the lifeline of the country, but our government is working in favor of the corporates. It waives off the loans of big corporates, but leaves no stone unturned in coercing the farmers for the recovery of loans."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Fed up with the "anti-people policies" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing government, tens of thousands of farmers and workers in India brought central Delhi to a standstill on Wednesday in a huge demonstration to demand higher wages, debt waivers, and other economic reforms.
The protests, marked by crowds of protesters wearing red and carrying red flags lining the entire stretch of Parliament Street, came ahead of next year's general elections and at the end of a summer when Indians struggled to live on stagnant wages and farmers faced barely-rising prices on the produce they provide to their communities.
Demonstrators expressed anger at Modi, who promised during his 2014 campaign to tackle the country's high unemployment rate among young people, affecting more than 10 percent of 15 to 24 year olds at the time. Last year 10.5 percent of young Indians were still in need of jobs.
"This historic rally...demanding better wages, more jobs, better prices for farm produce, end to privatization, stopping changes in labor laws, marks a new stage in the struggle of working people," the Communist Party of India said in a statement. The party led the protest along with the left-wing Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), and All-India Agricultural Workers' Union (AIAWU).
In a column for Common Dreams on Wednesday, Vijay Prashad, director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, summarized the demands of the protesters:
The agricultural workers and farmers ask a simple question: shouldn't the state provide land, credit and fair prices to protect those who work the land from the irrational destruction of agriculture by monopoly firms?
Farmers repeated calls, made in protests earlier this year, for loan forgiveness, a minimum income, and higher crop prices.
Loan waivers were the subject of another major protest in June, where demonstrators decried the harsh treatment of indebted farming families--making up more than half of farm owners in India.
"It is about lack of viability in farming, accentuated by climate change, whereby farmers land up in a constant debt economy," Kavitha Kuruganti, of the farmers' advocacy group ASHA, told Al Jazeera at the time. "While a whole lot of things make the situation difficult to deal with (falling incomes, crop losses, etc.), the immediate trigger for farmer suicides is often the pressure from creditors to repay, where 'naming and shaming' happens, or property is seized, etc."
"The main question remains as to whether the elected government stands with the common people or with the corporates," Sumesh Naranikkal, a construction worker, told Indian Express. "Farmers are the lifeline of the country, but our government is working in favor of the corporates. It waives off the loans of big corporates, but leaves no stone unturned in coercing the farmers for the recovery of loans."
Fed up with the "anti-people policies" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's right-wing government, tens of thousands of farmers and workers in India brought central Delhi to a standstill on Wednesday in a huge demonstration to demand higher wages, debt waivers, and other economic reforms.
The protests, marked by crowds of protesters wearing red and carrying red flags lining the entire stretch of Parliament Street, came ahead of next year's general elections and at the end of a summer when Indians struggled to live on stagnant wages and farmers faced barely-rising prices on the produce they provide to their communities.
Demonstrators expressed anger at Modi, who promised during his 2014 campaign to tackle the country's high unemployment rate among young people, affecting more than 10 percent of 15 to 24 year olds at the time. Last year 10.5 percent of young Indians were still in need of jobs.
"This historic rally...demanding better wages, more jobs, better prices for farm produce, end to privatization, stopping changes in labor laws, marks a new stage in the struggle of working people," the Communist Party of India said in a statement. The party led the protest along with the left-wing Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), and All-India Agricultural Workers' Union (AIAWU).
In a column for Common Dreams on Wednesday, Vijay Prashad, director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, summarized the demands of the protesters:
The agricultural workers and farmers ask a simple question: shouldn't the state provide land, credit and fair prices to protect those who work the land from the irrational destruction of agriculture by monopoly firms?
Farmers repeated calls, made in protests earlier this year, for loan forgiveness, a minimum income, and higher crop prices.
Loan waivers were the subject of another major protest in June, where demonstrators decried the harsh treatment of indebted farming families--making up more than half of farm owners in India.
"It is about lack of viability in farming, accentuated by climate change, whereby farmers land up in a constant debt economy," Kavitha Kuruganti, of the farmers' advocacy group ASHA, told Al Jazeera at the time. "While a whole lot of things make the situation difficult to deal with (falling incomes, crop losses, etc.), the immediate trigger for farmer suicides is often the pressure from creditors to repay, where 'naming and shaming' happens, or property is seized, etc."
"The main question remains as to whether the elected government stands with the common people or with the corporates," Sumesh Naranikkal, a construction worker, told Indian Express. "Farmers are the lifeline of the country, but our government is working in favor of the corporates. It waives off the loans of big corporates, but leaves no stone unturned in coercing the farmers for the recovery of loans."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.