The message of the state-level convention held in Bathinda :
- Mobilise farmers and agricultural laborers to demand radical land reforms. - Strengthen the common foundation of both the struggle for land distribution and struggle against the land acquisition drive.
On August 29, the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union and Lok Morcha Punjab organized a state-level convention in Bathinda on the issues of land distribution and land acquisition drive. To mobilize farmers and agricultural laborers on these issues, a mobilization campaign named “Redistribute Land Again” was launched in the state. The conference, held at the Grain Market, was attended by active workers of both organizations, struggling farmer activists, and leaders.
The convention was specially addressed by Dr. Navsharan, a prominent activist for democratic rights, who arrived from Delhi. She stated that the country’s governments had long abandoned the formal agenda of addressing the issue of land reforms and set right the unjust, unequal ownership of land. On the contrary, alongside landlords, corporate houses are now emerging as new landlords by acquiring vast tracts of land. She discussed the scale and severity of the nationwide assault to grab farmers’ lands and hand them over to companies. She explained how the central and state governments are planning to create land banks for the business interests of imperialist multinational corporations, and Punjab’s land pooling policy was also a part of this land bank policy. She emphasized that for the betterment of people’s lives, instead of handing over land to companies, there is a need to grant land ownership rights to agricultural laborers and poor farmers through land reforms. She stressed that land reforms are essential to rescue the rural economy from crisis. She welcomed the efforts of both organizations to make the critical and fundamental issues of just land distribution and protection of farmers’ lands from attacks, a rallying point for mobilizing people.
The convention was also addressed by Lachman Singh Sewewala, State Secretary of the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, Jagmel Singh, State Secretary of Lok Morcha Punjab, and prominent farmer leader Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan. The leaders called upon the people to mobilize on the core issue of implementing radical land reforms to grant land and agricultural equipment ownership to agricultural laborers and landless farmers. They urged people to organize and wage struggle for the demands, such as: strictly enforcing the Land Ceiling Act, plugging the loopholes which allow landlords to hold surplus land, rationalizing land demarcation as needed to provide land to all families, ending the exploitation by moneylenders, reserving government nazool and benami lands for agricultural laborers and landless farmers, imposing a complete ban on transferring such lands to large companies, granting land ownership rights to settler farmers, and preventing the grabbing of the tenant farmers’ lands by former and current landlords. The speakers linked the resolution of these demands to an alternative people-centric development model, describing these steps as fundamental in adopting a path of people-centric development. The need to eliminate feudal exploitation in the agricultural sector, alongside imperialist exploitation, was also highlighted. Discussions emphasized the necessity of moving beyond ordinary formal struggles to intense mass movements to achieve these demands.
The agricultural laborers’ spokesperson linked the phenomenon of caste-based oppression and discrimination to the lack of land ownership, while the farmer leader emphasized the unity of farmers and agricultural laborers in the struggle for land distribution and protection against attacks on farmers’ lands. They stressed the need to defeat the malicious trend of landlords mobilizing farmers against agricultural laborers based on caste; and the need to advance the common interests of farmers and agricultural laborers in protecting lands from attacks and securing land ownership. They outrightly rejected caste-based arrogance, describing it as a major obstacle to farmer-laborer unity. They praised the so-called lower caste people as great workers. The Lok Morcha Punjab spokesperson highlighted the rising demand for land distribution in Punjab and the growing urge among agricultural laborers for land rights, citing the events in Sangrur, where laborers asserted their rights over lands, as a positive sign of this intensifying urge.
The convention, held under the chairmanship of Zora Singh Nasrali, State President of the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, announced that conferences and public demonstrations would be organized in various parts of Punjab next month to address these issues. During the convention, a special resolution was passed demanding an immediate halt to the steps being taken by the Punjab government to acquire panchayat lands through alternative methods following the cancellation of the land pooling policy, and that instructions to pass proposals for selling panchayat lands be immediately withdrawn. Additionally, the convention expressed concern over the severe flood situation in the state and extended sympathy to the flood-affected people. They demanded that the government undertake relief operations on a war footing for those in flood-affected areas and take immediate steps for rehabilitation and compensation from the state treasury. The organizations called upon all pro-people organizations and forces to come forward and provide every possible assistance to the flood-affected people. At the conclusion of the convention, a symbolic march was held, during which spirited slogans were raised in support of these demands.
The organizing leaders of the convention stated that the discussions held in today’s convention would be propagated among agricultural laborers and poor and landless farmers over the next month, to mobilise them around these issues while urging them to set in motion vigorous struggles for these issuea. Both organizations have also published a booklet discussing these issues, which will be distributed in villages during the campaign in the coming days.
The main message of the convention was to link the question of land redistribution and related issues with the concerns of the ongoing farmers’ movement struggling to protect their lands against the land-grabbing drive. The message also highlighted the need to address the caste-based obstacles with a correct class perspective; without which these obstacles divide the concerns of protecting land against land-grabbing assault and concerns of land redistribution. Thus, through this convention, the necessary direction for building a revolutionary land movement was brought to light. It is hoped that mobilization in this direction will serve as a means to bring the land issue to the forefront within the appropriate framework of struggle in the state…
(Report by Surkh Leeh)
