(Passed by the Founding Conference of the All India Kisan-Mazdoor Sabha from December 12 to 14, 2000

at Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh)

1.1 India is a vast agricultural country. Nearly 75% of the population resides in the villages and 70% of the population is directly dependent on agriculture. Agriculture contributes nearly one fourth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is obvious that the progress of the country depends largely on the improvement of the conditions of the peasantry. The solution of the peasant problem, therefore, is necessary not only for the improvement of the conditions of the peasantry but is also imperative for industrial development in the country. Without developing the agrarian base and market potential of the vast masses living in the countryside, industrial development will remain a mirage. The agrarian revolution, therefore, forms the axis of the new democratic revolution in India and the peasant masses its main force.

1.2 Peasantry in India suffers from acute oppression and backwardness, and overwhelming majority of them is forced to lead a life of misery, deprivation and poverty. Peasantry is continuously wrought down by the oppressive semi-feudal land relations and backwardness of villages in general and that of agriculture in particular. More than half of the rural people live below the poverty line and the lot of the landless peasants (agricultural labourers) and the poor peasants is worst. They have little or no land, not even regular employment and suffer from the lack of basic human needs like adequate food, proper housing, drinking water, education, medical treatment and even burial grounds. In most states, share-croppers have no rights; share-cropping is not even recorded. The whole peasantry is burdened by excessive taxes while the nexus of landlords, comprador capitalists and the foreign companies rob them of the fruits of their labour. Peasants are denied remunerative prices for the agricultural produce. The crude oppression of the landlords and the backwardness of agriculture leads to gross unemployment and underemployment in the rural areas with hordes of the rural poor forced to migrate to cities in search of employment and livelihood and this is being perpetuated by the anti-peasant policies of the ruling classes. Besides, vast sections of peasant masses belonging to dalits and other oppressed castes suffer from inhuman caste oppression. The new economic policies applied to agriculture are leading to further impoverishment of the peasantry and are intensifying the contradictions in the villages.

1.3 Since the advent of British the Indian peasants have been in the forefront of struggle against the oppression and exploitation by the British colonial rulers, who imposed heavy burden on the peasantry by fixing revenue on the area of land. After defeating the feudal kings and princes who rose against them and crushing the First War of Indian Independence, the British patronized the feudal kings and landlords. They also developed a new stratum of landlords through permanent settlement beginning since 1793. Thus, they utilized the subservient landlords as their social prop. While they crudely exploited the peasantry, they neglected the maintenance of irrigation system and agriculture. The Indian peasantry rose in revolt against the colonial rulers and their feudal servitors. Bhumij revolt, Santhal rebellion and other revolts of tribal peasantry in tribal areas of the then Bengal and Rampa Pithori in AP forests, in Telangana led by Kovaram Bhim and "Pagdi Sambhal Jatta" movement led by S. Ajit Singh are examples of heroic struggles of peasantry. There were also struggles of the peasant masses against caste oppression, which was also patronized by the British colonial rulers. These movements against caste system like the one led by Jyotiba Phule were also against the colonial policy.

1.4 In the 1930s and 1940s a series of struggles against feudal exploitation were fought by the peasantry like Bakasht movement in Bihar, against heavy taxes in UP, Punnapra Vayalar in Kerala, Warli in Maharashtra, struggle of Mujara peasantry of PEPSU in Punjab, Tebhaga movement in West Bengal and to top them all the Great Historic Telangana armed struggle which was consciously fought on the lines of protracted people’s war – the strategy of the victorious Chinese revolution. In this period peasant organizations, particularly the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), played a big role in mobilizing the peasantry against colonial rulers and landlords.

1.5 In the background of intensifying anti-colonial struggle of the Indian people and worldwide struggle against imperialism, colonialism and fascism, the British imperialists transferred power to the domestic reactionary classes — comprador big bourgeoisie and big landlords. The independence of 15th August 1947 was a formal independence, which made the rule of imperialism as indirect and placed power in the hands of the classes subservient to them.

1.6 The rulers employed the weapons of repression and deception to face the peasant struggles, which had forcefully brought the issue of changing the agrarian relations, particularly the land question to the fore. They ruthlessly crushed the peasant struggles with the help of the military, paramilitary and armed police forces. The ruling classes, to quell the restiveness of the peasantry, launched the Bhoodan movement of Vinoba Bhave. The struggle for land had come on the agenda and zamindari was ‘abolished’.

1.7 Under the pressure of peasant struggles and in order to divert them, the Indian ruling classes enacted land reforms. While these reforms abolished certain layers of intermediaries, they allowed the landlords to claim ownership over huge tracts in lieu of their revenue collection rights. Ceiling was kept very high and individual based, and exemptions for homesteads, orchards and similar purposes formed part of all state acts. Land reforms of Nehru period failed miserably in delivering land to the tiller.

1.8 After lull in the peasant struggles due to the path of reformism and parliamentarianism adopted by the then CPI leadership in the 1960s, the peasantry again launched a series of historic struggles carrying forward the tradition of Telangana armed struggle. Naxalbari peasant armed struggle was a path breaker, which continues to illumine the path of Indian revolution. Then followed the Mushaheri, Debra-Gopiballavpur and Shrikakulam Peasant Armed Struggles and the Godavari Valley Resistance Struggle — all of which pushed the land question again on the agenda.

1.9 The rebellious peasantry was once again forcibly crushed by the ruling classes through fascist repression while another round of land reforms were taken up to create illusions among the peasantry and divert them from the path of armed struggle. Terming the earlier reforms as a failure, the Govt. of Mrs. Indira Gandhi launched her own brand of land reforms, which too failed miserably in solving the land problem.

1.10 While these struggles were launched with the aim of liquidating feudalism, in the late 1970s and 1980s, struggle for remunerative prices came up in a big way, demanding higher support prices for the agricultural produce and treatment of agriculture at par with industry. These struggles, led by the landlords and the rich peasantry, were strong in the areas where capitalist methods of agriculture are being employed, and large sections of peasantry from these areas participated in these struggles. These struggles were able to force the Govt. to make some concessions which largely benefited the landlords and the rich peasantry.

1.11 Big capitalist and big landlord ruling classes have been wielding power since the end of direct colonial rule in 1947. The land reforms of the ruling classes have not basically altered the situation. The upper one fifth of the landowners have three fourth of the land, of them 7.88% large landowners (owning 10 acres and above) own 47.91% of land. Nearly half of the rural people own no land or very little land. Because of forced eviction of peasants from land and alienation of land by the peasants, the number of landless labourers is steadily increasing and has reached over one third of rural population.

1.12 The land reform measures of the ruling classes have given enough time and scope to the landlords to save their lands from the Acts ostensibly meant to take them away. The landlords are given time to evict the landless and poor peasants from the land. These Acts had inbuilt loopholes for the benefit of the landlords. Gardens, groves and plantations, which should have been included, were excluded from the ceiling and so were the lands belonging to religious institutions. The way the landlords have been able to defeat the land reform measures with active help from the Govt. can be seen from the following. According to a Govt. declaration in 1956, surplus land for distribution was 8 crore 30 lakh acres, which had come down to 4 crore 30 lakh acres by 1970 and to 2 crore 31.5 lakh acres by 1978, was only 42 lakh 81 thousand acres in 1984, and mere 30 lakh acres in October 1991. And of this, even according to Govt. claims, only 77.8 lakh acres of land was declared surplus upto 1991-1992 and only 45.8 lakh acres was distributed, that too was of low productivity and was uncultivable. Even where the landless and poor peasants have been given pattas, in a large number of cases the landlords have not allowed them to take possession. Land has been disappearing from the record books and only a trickle reached the landless peasantry. The hunger of the landless peasantry for land is still continuing.

1.13 Similar has been the fate of ‘bhoodan’ lands. Of the 41.94 lakh acres collected all over India, only 12.86 lakh acres is claimed to have been distributed. In Bihar in 1956, it was claimed that 21,17,756 acres of land was collected. However, the available land subsequently came down to only 11 lakh acres, while only 7 lakh acres of land was claimed to have been distributed. Of this claim also less than 2 lakh acres land has in fact been distributed and of that a very small portion has actually gone into the possession of the deserving peasants.

1.14 Besides hiding their surplus lands, the landlords are in the occupation of waste lands, Gram Sabha lands, banjar lands, temple lands, forest lands and other types of common lands. The landless and poor peasants are not given even these types of land. Even where the landless and poor peasants have occupied the lands through struggle, the Govt. has not yet issued pattas and the landlords take every opportunity to evict the peasants.

1.15 The agrarian relations continue to be semi-feudal which are acting as fetters in the development of productive forces in the countryside. Landlords continue to extract huge rent from the peasantry with landless and poor peasants having to turn over 50% and more of their annual harvest to the landlords, who extract it under a number of heads. Landlords exploit landless poor peasants and agricultural labourers in many ways including exploitation of wage labour. Landlords also corner most of the funds of the Govt. projects, loans and other benefits and augment their income through other means as well.

1.16 Though the land reform measures have been largely ineffective, land concentration is not uniform in the country and there are significant disparities between states and between different regions of the same state. Land reforms being a state subject, there are differences among states even in the prescribed ceiling. In some states, as a result of strong peasant movement, land reforms and also tenancy reforms have been partially carried out as in West Bengal; large influx of people due to Partition having also played a secondary role. CPI(M) takes the credit that its Govt. has largely solved the question of land reforms. But the facts are otherwise. Total cultivable land in the state is 137 lakh acres and only 13.48 lakh acres, i.e., less than 10%, has been taken over by April, 1998. Moreover of the 13.48 lakh acres acquired till then, 10.08 lakh acres had been acquired prior to 1977 i.e., before the ‘Left’ Front Govt. coming to power. Neither CPI(M) nor Congress (I) can claim credit for this. Struggle of the peasantry was crucial to distribution of land.

1.17 Besides appropriation of the labour of the peasantry, the landlords oppress the labouring rural masses in myriad ways. They crudely exploit the caste divisions to perpetrate cruel oppression on dalits and backward classes. Caste oppression is utilized as a means of extra-economic coercion. They burn their huts on the slightest resistance and pretext, kill them, rape their women as their right and harass them in a number of ways. In some regions of Bihar, the landlords have raised caste armies against the landless and poor peasants. These feudal criminal gangs have committed a number of massacres of rural poor. These ‘armies’ are supported by the ruling classes that perpetuate caste oppression and utilize caste divisions to divide the movement of oppressed and exploited peasantry.

1.18 Besides the dominant semi-feudal relations, there are strong survivals of even more primitive modes. In pockets there is old type of feudalism with its attendant serfs and bonded labour. It is noteworthy that even at the begining of the third millenium, the ruling classes are doing precious little to eradicate even the practice of bonded labour, though the same stands abolished under the Bonded Labour Abolition Act of 1976.

1.19 The tribals constitute the most exploited sections of our society, inhabiting mainly hilly and forest terrains. Their natural habitat has been and is being continually destroyed while they are relegated to the most menial jobs. They suffer from joblessness. They clear the forests and raise crops, facing repression and hardships. They are cruelly exploited and oppressed by forest officials – they are beaten, tortured, killed and their women-folk are molested. Their houses are burnt and foodgrains destroyed by the police and goondas. The Govt. has taken away their traditional rights over forest and its produce, and made them thieves in their own homes. This situation prevails in a number of states where the Govt. takes over the traditional employment and means of livelihood of the people, mainly tribals, without providing any alternate means of livelihood. The forest officials and the Govt. periodically evict the peasants from the forest land occupied and developed by them for cultivation.

1.20 The tribals, like Girijans in AP, are forced to work under the forest department. They cut timber, load and unload them and are paid nominal wages. They raise a number of forest produce but have to sell them at throwaway prices to Girijan Corporation as per the Forest Law and are not allowed to sell their produce in the open market. Forest Acts forbid utilization of trees by the peasants even when it is on their field.

1.21 Peasants in certain areas suffer from cultural and linguistic oppressions as well. Such oppressions, in association with ruling classes’ designs to keep people of an area backward, had given rise to demands for separate states like Jharkhand and Uttarakhand. These demands are being met with by the Central Govt. in a way that has not ameliorated the causes which had given rise to these demands.

1.22 Condition of women remains abysmally bad though they put in important share of labour in agriculture. While patriarchal order deprives them of rights and freedom, they are also subjected to worst exploitation and oppression including sexual assaults by the landlords, contractors and their henchmen. Despite putting in hard labour, they are denied equal wages, nor they enjoy ownership rights. In most of the states land pattas are issued in the name of men only.

1.23 Because of semi-feudal land relations and neglect of the development of agriculture, in large areas the agricultural operations are carried out with backward instruments and agriculture continues to be largely rain fed. Land productivity continues to be quite low despite India having one of the most fertile land masses in the world. Investment in agriculture is quite low and is of late showing a declining trend.

1.24 The performance of irrigation has been quite dismal. Only one third of cultivated area is irrigated. A large number of irrigation projects started since 1947 are lying incomplete. In fact the outlay on rural development is continuously declining. Peasants in vast areas suffer from the vagaries of floods and drought and from the natural calamities due to neglect of the Govt.

1.25 The use of fertilizers is both inadequate and unscientific taking the picture of agricultural production as a whole. Improved seed technology continues to elude the major segments of agricultural production. The poor peasants are in no position to use better technology and even the middle peasants find it difficult while the landlords do not fully invest into agriculture the income derived from the land.

1.26 Because of backwardness of agriculture there is a great deal of unemployment and underemployment in the villages. Most people get employment only seasonally while remaining unemployed for most part of the year. The poor peasants, agricultural labourers, ruined artisans and even the offsprings of middle peasants migrate to cities in search of employment. New policies of the Govt. are intensifying the process

1.27 Alongside the deteriorating conditions of the majority of the peasants, they are becoming more and more indebted to both the moneylenders as well as Banks. Widespread corruption in the Govt. machinery compels them to pay a good part of the loan in securing it and later the Govt. resorts to repressive measures for recovery of loans from the peasants while tens of thousands of crores are appropriated by the powerful.

1.28 In certain parts of the country namely Punjab, Haryana, western UP, parts of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, coastal Andhra Pradesh and pockets in other states where irrigation facilities are available, capitalist methods are being employed in cultivation and emphasis has been on cash crops. The use of advanced means, though quite widespread in the country, has become significant only in such areas. Use of capitalist methods is being patronized by the imperialist countries for the absorption of machinery and other inputs from their companies. Bank loans have been granted to the farmers to enable them to use capitalist methods of cultivation. However, these capitalist methods are not the product of changes in agrarian relations. In fact the land concentration in the Malwa region of Punjab, where capitalist methods are being extensively used, is quite high.

1.29 The employment of these methods under the patronage of imperialist capital has resulted in high degree of indebtedness of the peasantry. In these areas the capitalist methods have not ended the semi-feudal oppression of the peasantry but have been superimposed over it. More importantly this development has been initiated and controlled by the imperialist powers in their interest. In many of these areas, a new type of share-cropping is becoming increasingly prevalent where the investments belong to the landlords but the share of peasants in only one fourth to one fifth. Landlords take care to rotate the share-croppers lest they claim tenancy rights. Also witnessed is hiring of lands of the small land owners by the landlords and rich peasants through their domination over input facilities like irrigation.

1.30 However, due to these methods and benefits derived by a section of rich peasantry along with the landlords, the importance of the issue of the wages of agricultural workers has increased in these areas. Though land problem exists very much in these areas as well, struggle on that can be launched generally at a relatively later stage. Similarly the alliances in the rural areas would need to be adjusted to the ground reality with agricultural labourers playing a more important role and bigger section of the rich peasantry tailing behind the ruling classes. Mobilization of different sections in rural areas will also vary depending on the type of issues. In addition the question of remunerative prices for the agricultural produce and rising prices of agricultural inputs have come high on the agenda as the foreign companies and the Indian big business defraud the peasants by their domination of market and investment. This in fact brings the whole peasantry in collision with the Govt. and the ruling classes.

1.31 While the demand of the landless and poor peasantry for land is still unfulfilled, the govt. policies are squeezing the peasantry further. While the prices of agricultural inputs have been continuously increased, those of the produce have not kept pace and have even fallen in many cases thereby making it hard for the middle and even rich peasantry.

1.32 Going against the strong public opposition, the Govt. has become a member of World Trade Organization (WTO). WTO is an instrument of intensified imperialist economic offensive against third world countries and has strong adverse effect on agriculture in particular as some imperialist powers particularly US imperialism are targeting food markets the world over to relieve their crisis of over-production of foodgrains. Govt.’s policies are dictated by imperialist powers and the international financial institutions e.g. World Bank and IMF, controlled by them. The new agricultural policy announced by the Central Govt. stresses on the implementation of WTO framework of free import, increasing participation of private companies including foreign companies in agriculture. While it mentions land reforms in passing, there is not a word for enactment of protective legislation for agricultural labourers. The new policy provides for contractualization of land in the interest of MNCs and other corporates.

1.33 The basic ingredients of this policy are to promote deeper penetration of foreign companies in the field of agriculture. The export oriented crops are being promoted at the expense of foodgrains that can be disastrous for the country and the people. This change in crops is being brought about to fulfil the needs of the imperialist countries. While the import of agricultural produce is made free, ‘subsidies’ are being withdrawn thereby raising the rates of power, fertilizers and other inputs. Public sector seed agencies and research centres are being closed down. Through patent law amendments as per TRIPS agreement of WTO, the foreign companies are being allowed to control the huge seed market in India. The MNCs are being allowed to experiment with terminator genes which will make the peasants perennially dependent on MNCs for seeds. The ‘new’ policy leaves the question of development to the market forces thereby negating the role of plans. Public Distribution System has been systematically dismantled with raising of rates and restricting it only to the ‘needy’.

1.34 Privatization of public sector undertakings is also hitting the agricultural sector and peasantry by sharply increasing the prices of agricultural inputs. For example privatization of power generation has greatly increased electricity charges. Similarly privatization of banks and insurance will reduce investment by these institutions in rural areas.

1.35 As a part of the new policy the land reforms are being reversed. A number of state govts. have taken steps in this direction. The land ceiling is being abolished and cultivable land is being given to MNCs and big business houses in the name of corporate farming. Huge tracts of land are also being given to MNCs for non-agricultural use, e.g., shrimp farming. Govt. land meant for distribution among the rural poor is being given to corporate sector and they are also being permitted to lease land from peasants. This has made the land problem more acute. The Central Govt. has formed a commission on land use to further speed up the process of reversal of land reforms.

1.36 To justify this reversal, the govt. has launched a propaganda drive against land reforms calling small land holdings uneconomic. They are falsely propagating that land reforms will make Indian agricultural produce more uncompetitive in the world market. But the fact is that in the present era no country has registered sustained development without carrying out land reforms.

1.37 The new policy has further increased the hardships of the peasant masses while benefiting landlords and a section of rich peasants. The anti-imperialist aspect of the peasant struggle is increasingly getting more pronounced as the new policies sharpen the contradictions of the semi-feudal semi-colonial system.

1.38 Successive Govts. at the Centre and in the states have protected the semi-feudal land relations and oppression and exploitation of the peasantry. They have made superficial changes while crudely suppressing the peasant struggles for radical changes. They have supplemented their repressive measures with attempts at dividing the landless and poor peasantry on communal and caste lines.

1.39 Even the parties which promised radical changes in the agrarian structure before coming to power, did not carry out their promises. The CPM led UF Govt. in 1967 in West Bengal brutally suppressed the peasant uprising in Naxalbari and other areas and has continued to suppress the revolutionary peasant movement during their third and uninterrupted stint in power since 1977. The JD, SP Govts. which loudly claim their championing of the Mandal Commission recommendations, have consistently ignored its first recommendation i.e., to carry out radical land reforms. BSP, which claims to be a champion of dalits, a big section of poor peasants and agricultural labourers, has only drawn a handful of them into the power structure while neglecting the basic demands of the poor peasants and agricultural labourers. While they have sought to utilize the anger of peasantry against their oppression and exploitation for electoral purposes, they have not carried out any basic changes.

1.40 Local bodies like panchayats largely remain under the influence of landlords and rural elite and serve mainly their interests. Panchayats have become hotbeds of corruption while creating illusions among the rural poor. While they remain powerless in implementing any plan of basic change or development, they are used by ruling classes for recruiting their agents.

1.41 Among the organizations claiming to fight for the peasantry, there are two significant groups besides revolutionary peasant organizations. Firstly the reformist organizations led by the revisionist parties and secondly the organizations like Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) and Shetkari Sanghatana (SS). Reformist organizations, while articulating some demands of the peasantry, do not build struggle on the basic question of land and even when they do so they turn them into symbolic struggles only. In a nutshell, they confine the struggles of the peasantry within the limits set by the ruling classes. Organizations like SS and BKU which have been taking up demands for remunerative prices for the agricultural produce and decrease in the prices of inputs, oppose the issues of the landless and poor peasantry-overwhelming part of the peasantry; oppose land reforms and payment of minimum wages and enhancement of wages for agricultural labour; demand raising of the land ceiling. Even on the issues they do take up, their struggles end in compromises which largely benefit the landlords and rich peasants. These are the organizations led by the landlords and they have faced disruption with some of them supporting the present direction of policy.

1.42 While trying to organize the peasantry and develop the agrarian movement a concrete analysis of the classes in the villages should be undertaken.

1.43 For determining the landlords it is not enough to just see their landholding. Their mode of exploitation should be carefully studied. It should be remembered that even a rich peasant is a peasant i.e. must be doing the agricultural work with his own hands. Size of the holding itself is not the only thing, we should also pay attention to the type of the land held. In some areas the land is worth lakhs of rupees per acre. The ruling classes had fixed the land ceiling very high though they have not implemented even that. There is urgent need to demand the lowering of ceiling after making due study of the concrete situation obtaining in a state. It is particularly important in the states where land reforms have been partially carried out due to the pressure of the militant peasant movement.

1.44 Another important aspect is that the aim of the agrarian revolution is to confiscate all the lands of the landlords and their properties in the villages and not only the surplus lands. Only after confiscation of all the lands of the landlords, they should generally be considered for distribution depending upon their attitude to the peasant movement. Care should be taken of the livelihood of the members of the families of landlords if they are willing to work and have no other means of livelihood.

1.45 Some people, owing to small size of the land owned by them, rent out their land while they seek employment in industry and services. Such land should be differentiated from the land of landlords. The same is applicable to sick, disabled or widows renting their land. In tribal areas, the tribals often lease out their land as they have neither money nor means of cultivation and then they toil on the same land as agricultural labourers of the landlords. Due to lack of resources and means they become hired workers on their own land.

1.46 Among the major classes in the villages are the landlords who own large quantity of land, do not take part in the labour and depend for their livelihood on the exploitation of the peasants. They collect rent from the peasants though they also employ labour to cultivate the land. They also indulge in money lending and may even be engaged in trade and industry. The managers of land belonging to Govt. farms, public trusts, temples and other religious institutions also behave as landlords. Even a bankrupt landlord living on the labour of others and having living standards better than middle peasant also comes in this category. The money lenders who charge usurious rate of interest from the peasants, lending them money at the time of their needs and trading in sale and purchase of the agricultural produce, are also the enemies of the peasants.

1.47 Rich peasants generally own the land they cultivate but they may also take additional land through bandobast or on rent. Generally they employ improved means of production and have some capital to invest. They or members of their families take part in production which differentiates them from the landlords. But they also employ labour of others and sizable part of their income comes from the exploitation of their labour. They end in surplus every year.

1.48 Middle peasants generally own land and may also take some part of land on bandobast. They do work in the fields, but may employ the labour of others seasonally at the time of sowing and harvesting though they may also regularly employ them for tending of cattle. Middle peasants’ income wholly or mainly comes from their own labour or that of the family. Exploitation of others’ labour is not a significant part of their income and that principally differentiates them from the rich peasants. They generally do not sell their labour power though at times they may do so. In good years they end up with surplus but may end in negative balance in the bad years and have to raise loans.

1.49 Poor peasants have some land and some poor implements. Mostly they take land on rent. But this land is not able to sustain them and their families and they have to sell their labour powers to earn their livelihood which differentiate them from the middle peasants.

1.50 Agricultural labourers and landless peasants neither have land nor means of cultivation of their own though some of them may have some small implements. Their number is steadily rising as the poor peasants become insolvent or are evicted from land. Though they may have some land through pattas but they primarily depend on the sale of labour power. They are not paid even the minimum wages despite being law to that effect. Either there is no legislation to take care of their basic rights or there is no mechanism to enforce them even where such legislation exists.

1.51 Many forms of bonded labour are prevalent in the country which are basically in the category of agricultural labourers but they are engaged for the whole year for fixed amounts and additionally given some field for cultivation. They are often in perpetual loan and are engaged for whole life. Children are often employed for cattle grazing on a yearly basis.

1.52 Vocational or other classes of people are regular part of village life. Artisans and weavers are facing a lot of hardships as their traditional occupations are facing deep crisis and there is little work for them.

1.53 A number of workers engaged in brick-kilns, sugar factories or other agro-industries live in the villages and at places constitute a good section of the population. Besides them teachers, govt. employees, ex-servicemen etc. also are found. Some of them have land but get it cultivated by others.

1.54 Due to widespread unemployment some from among the poor peasant and agricultural labourers undergo lumpenization. These lumpen proletarians, who are products of this anti-peasant oppressive system, are often used by the landlords against the peasants and workers. However, if rectified, they may also play a positive role in the peasant movement.

1.55 Among the classes in the villages, the landless, poor peasants and agricultural labourers form the main force of the peasant struggle. While middle peasants are stable allies, rich peasants are only vacillating allies.

1.56 AIKMS should devote its energies to developing peasants’ struggles on their demands and consciously and systematically develop these into struggle for land. We should take initiative in organizing peasants on their partial issues too. We should take up struggles for the payment of minimum wages for agricultural labourers as well as for house sites for poor peasants and agricultural labourers. The issues like remunerative prices for the produce and lowering the prices of fertilizers, electricity, seeds, pesticides and other inputs, should be taken. Besides these we should take up the common issues of the peasantry like drought and floods, irrigation facilities, as well as the issues of institutional loans, roads, schools, drinking water and medical facilities. AIKMS should be in the forefront of fighting caste oppression and atrocities on dalits by the landlords that are common occurrences in rural life. We should also be in the forefront of defending the lives and rights of the minorities from the attacks of the communal elements. In short AIKMS should not hesitate to take up the issues affecting the lives of the peasants and rural people. We should however, pay particular attention to mobilizing peasantry including agricultural labourers in struggles against all forms of semi-feudal oppression and exploitation.

1.57 The revolutionary peasant movement attempts to overthrow the rule of landlords and evil gentry in the villages by mobilizing the vast sections of peasant masses in anti-feudal struggles and developing these struggles to higher plane. These tasks can be accomplished only by the multitudes of struggling peasants and not by confining the struggles within limits set by the ruling class parties and so assiduously observed by their revisionist allies. Basing on the consciousness of the peasant masses, the peasant movement should be advanced boldly and developed in the direction of overcoming legal confines. In the course of developing the movement all forms of struggle and organization should be employed.

1.58 While we take up all these issues to gather strength and to develop the unity and fighting ability of the peasants, we should consciously build the struggle for land as that alone decisively hits feudalism. We should develop land struggle systematically and to develop effective struggles we should select certain areas for concentration. We may take the issue of banjar lands, waste lands, forest lands and surplus lands in the occupation of the landlords, gradually developing the struggle to confiscate landlords’ own lands. While taking up the land issue we should first develop unity and organization of the peasant masses. Secondly we should remember that it is not possible to take the landlords’ lands unless we have developed the strength to challenge their authority and resist their attacks. In the course of developing the peasant struggle on land issue and against the landlords we should develop the armed strength of the peasants through forming the volunteer squads from among the militants at necessary levels and suitably equipping them from the very beginning. Without this preparation the struggle for land and against feudal landlords cannot be sustained. Revolutionary peasant movement must be clear about the role of the Govt. and the police as well as other organs of the state in the service of the landlords and the need on the part of the peasants to prepare for confronting them. In practice, often the landlords and police jointly attack the fighting peasants.

1.59 In the distribution of the occupied land our basic slogan is land to the tiller. While implementing this policy preference should be given to the landless and poor peasants.

1.60 The revolutionary agrarian movement aims at abolishing the authority of landlords and building up the authority of peasant associations in the countryside. Thus the question of abolishing feudalism is connected with the seizure of political power and hence the peasant movement should be quipped with the orientation of developing organs of power in the countryside. The revolutionary peasant movement is the most potent force for the revolutionary transformation of society by carrying out New Democratic Revolution overthrowing imperialism and feudalism. Revolutionary peasant movement aims to develop and strengthen worker peasant alliance as the core to unite the four revolutionary classes i.e. workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie.

1.61 Peasants including agricultural labourers should be educated in the course of struggle that in our semi-feudal, semi-colonial country, the peasants in their anti-feudal struggles are bound to face the suppression of landlord-goonda-police. They should be politically and organizationally prepared to resist the counter-revolutionary violence of the landlord-goonda-police. Appropriate defence measures should be taken to resist these attacks.

1.62 AIKMS units and committees should function democratically and develop the democratic consciousness of the peasant masses. AIKMS should be organized openly and/or secretly as the situation demands. The main direction of its work should be to develop areas of sustained resistance and to establish the rule of the peasantry including the agricultural labourers and other toilers of the villages.

1.63 We should fight against old obscurantist beliefs among the peasantry and scientific outlook should be propagated. Reactionary feudal culture and imperialist culture should be combatted and progressive democratic culture should be developed.

1.64 At the present stage of struggle of the peasantry, AIKMS should be prepared for joint struggles with other peasant organizations on the issues affecting the peasantry. Such joint struggles should be launched to draw the peasant masses into struggle and revolutionary peasant organization should aim to enhance their consciousness to develop the struggles for the abolition of semi-feudal land relations and to end the oppression and exploitation of the peasantry. AIKMS should also extend support and solidarity to the struggles of workers and of other sections of society and should build joint struggles on people’s issues with mass organizations of other sections.

1.65 While building peasant struggles on the basic issues, we should also take up struggle for implementation of land reform acts and for removing loopholes in them. We should struggle that the change in character of lands from dry lands to wet lands and from fallow lands to cultivable lands should be taken into account; coffee, tea gardens, orchards, fishery tanks, lands of maths and temples should be included for declaration of surplus lands; false divisions of families to avoid surplus lands should be reinvestigated; separate land units allotted for parents in joint families should be taken as surplus; benami sales and transfers should be annulled and such lands distributed and the landlords resorting to illegal acts to avoid land ceiling should be punished.

1.66 Directing our efforts to achieve the objectives set out above, AIKMS resolves to intensify class struggle in rural areas on land and wages, against all forms of oppression by landlords and against backwardness. AIKMS resolves to build struggles on the following basic and immediate demands:

1. Struggle for the occupation and distribution of surplus land, vest land, benami land, temple and math land, forest land, banjar land and all other types of land in the illegal occupation of landlords. Basing ourselves on the consciousness and preparedness of the peasant masses, we should develop the struggle for occupying the landlords’ lands.

2. Struggle for lowering of ceiling of land, plugging the loopholes in the ceiling laws, implementation of ceiling laws from date of introduction of the Bill in Assemblies and inclusion of all types of lands in ceiling. Struggle against intervention by High Courts under Article 226 in favour of landlords and for making the beneficiary peasant a party in land disputes.

3. Mobilize the people for occupying lands under litigation and prevent the landlords from cultivating them and also for occupying the lands donated during Bhoodan movement.

4. Struggle for implementation of minimum wages to agricultural labourers, for increase in their wages and for comprehensive law for protection and advancement of their interests, for uninterrupted employment all round the year to poor peasants and agricultural labourers and for providing house sites, drinking water, private/public lavatories, health and educational facilities.

5. Struggle against New Agricultural Policy and against imports substituting domestic agricultural production. Struggle against giving agricultural lands to MNCs and comprador bourgeoisie.

6. Struggle for withdrawal from WTO. Struggle against Terminator seeds and MNCs’ penetration in agriculture.

7. Struggle for reduction of rent to the landlords in all forms and against evictions, for increase in the share of share-croppers and for ownership rights to them.

8. Struggle against exploitation of tribals by govt. officials and landlords, for their rights over their produce to sell it in the open market, for increase in payment for their lands leased out to landlords and rich peasants.

9. Struggle for implementation of Scheduled Areas Act (e.g. 1 of 1970 in AP), confiscating the lands of nontribal landlords, while defending and strengthening the unity of tribals with non-tribal poor peasants. Struggle for withdrawal of all measures preventing tribals from utilizing forest land and produce and banning shifting cultivation without providing alternate means of livelihood.

10. Struggle against arrests and repressive measures against peasantry including agricultural labourers for recovery of loan. Struggle for waiving of loans of poor and middle peasants and agricultural labourers.

11. Struggle against landlord and police repression and against fake encounters, to organize and equip peasantry appropriately for such resistance and to arouse the peasants’ consciousness for their democratic demands.

12. Struggle for remunerative prices for agricultural produce, for implementation of comprehensive crop insurance scheme taking village as a unit, for payment at market rates in cases of Govt. acquisition of land. Struggle for procurement on MSP; middle and small peasants to get priority.

13. Struggle for reduction in prices of fertilizers, power, seeds, machinery and other inputs and against adulteration of seeds, pesticides and fertilizers; against reduction in subsidies and decrease in investment in scientific research work; for uninterrupted power supply for irrigation, for completion of irrigation projects. Struggle against closure of public sector industries, govt. food processing centres and for proper functioning of Govt. institutions.

14. Struggle for adequate rehabilitation of people to be displaced by irrigation projects before starting of construction work. Struggle for proper rehabilitation of people displaced by different projects.

15. For unqualified peasants’ right to use and sell their seeds. For protection to peasants in cases of crop failure or destruction due to natural causes.

16. For adequate and prompt relief in drought and floods and for removal of their causes.

17. Struggle against exploitation by money lenders and repressive measures for recovery of bank loans from poor and middle peasants and agricultural labourers, for waiving of bank loans to these sections and provision of institutional loans to these sections.

18. Struggle for payment of compensation to the peasants including agricultural labourers in the event of death or injury; for pension to all old peasants.

19. Struggle for abolition of conditions of child labour and against exploitation of child labour.

20. Struggle against atrocities and attacks on women and discrimination against women in wages and for their equality in all walks of life. Land pattas should be issued jointly in the name of man and woman.

21. Struggle against atrocities and attacks on oppressed castes; against caste oppression, discrimination and division and strive for unity of all oppressed particularly of landless poor peasants and agricultural labourers of all castes and communities.

22. Struggle for rights of artisans e.g. weavers, potters, carpenters, fishermen etc. Struggle for protection of industries of the artisans and provision of modern facilities to them on govt. expenses.

23. Struggle against corruption and for people’s supervision over panchayats, water management committees, market committees and local offices and for representation of peasant organizations on land reform committees.

24. Struggle against rise in prices of essential commodities, against dismantling of PDS and for increase in coverage and supplies through PDS.

25. Struggle for scientific education, education in respective mother tongue, medical facilities to the villagers and proper roads and transport facilities in villages.

26. Struggle against destruction of environment by MNCs, comprador big bourgeoisie and contractors and fight for its protection on scientific basis and in people's interest.

27. Struggle against communalism and attacks against minorities

28. Struggle against social evils, dowry and child marriage, obscurantism and casteism; for new democratic culture and scientific outlook; for prohibition.

29. Support to struggle for formation of separate provinces where people with distinct identity constitute substantial part of population and inhabit contiguous areas. Support to struggles of oppressed nationalities.

30. Struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neocolonialism and imperialist intervention and wars. Struggle for improving relations with neighbouring countries and against arms race. Support to people’s struggle against imperialism and reaction.

Comrades,

Let us mobilize the peasant masses including the agricultural labourers for struggle on the above demands with the orientation outlined in this programme. Let us boldly arouse the peasant masses to liberate themselves and the country from the yoke of imperialism, feudalism and comprador-bureaucrat capitalism. Let us unite with all the forces for achieving New Democratic Revolution in our country.

(Passed by the Founding Conference of the All India Kisan-Mazdoor Sabha from December 12 to 14, 2000 at Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh)
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