FoodPath:meeting march 2008

De e-glop

English version

Context

Meeting

This meeting happened in Hoek Van Holland, Nederlands, few month after Janadesh, the pacific march for landless people in India, organised by Ekta Parishad. Many present people has just got back from their journey...

Situation in India

Ekta Parishad was born in 1990. It mobilises people locally but evoluate and think nationally. The campaign has three specific demands around land reform. These are:

  • Establishment of a National Land Authority to provide a clear statement of land utilization in India, identify the lands available for redistribution and strengthen pro-poor laws
  • Establishment of fast track courts to settle past and future conflicts related to land
  • Establishment of a single window system so that farmers can resolve easily and freely the land issues, without wasting time, money and energy

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janadesh_2007)

Thank to Janadesh, Ekta Parishad has got the creation in february 2008 of the national commission for the land.

The future with Ekta Parishad

A new march is planned in 2012 or 2015 of 100.000 walkers, if United Nations doesn't integrate poverty and food access in their program. Ekta Parishad is working daily to maintain pression on governement. Concerned people has nothing to loose, they will not "surrender".

First reflexion round

The context helping, violent movements are used (by whom?) to weaken and dissolve this non-violent initiative. Ekta Parishad trains its suppoters to non-violence with three methods :

  • Education
  • Cooptation (some kind of a delegation of trust)
  • Culture (popular, accessible, participative)

We've tried to extend the ideas, the energy, the idian model to Europe...

Sanjay proposed the example of "the theater of the oppressed" and "the legislative theater" (cf. Augusto Boal's book). The limit between actors and spectators is thin and bring to the concept of "spectaCtors". The objective of such an initiative is to make relevant aberrations and injustices in the system, making people react concretely the public, by offering the possibility to come and speak. This is a way to educate people by culture... Some examples come after that point, illustrating things : Between 1993 and 1996, 13 laws have been issued from this citizen constructive approach. In Germany, similar initiatives also exist (supporting by the german green party). To conclude on this orignal approach, the oppressed theater, especially when brought in the street, can make people dreaming, offering them a place of expression and revendication.

For René, there are 2 categories of people in EU :

  • One who knows how to intellectualize sufferings
  • One who lives those sufferings

Then, we noticed that the problem is around the 20% of people who is already involved in social structures like associations, citizen society, politics, culture, ... and who is always the one who do things and participate (the top-middle classes). So the question is : how to involve the people how lives the daily difficulties ? Maybe one way is to get the expression in the streets.

A last reflexion has then come about the global environment and land access issues : The movements have often been launched from an urban context, in a radical opposition with the rural & farmer world. Don't book the debate to the elites.