To intensify struggle against WTO and New Economic Policies

Representatives of many peoples organisations from various parts of the country reached Delhi on the morning of 13 October at Ambedkar Bhawan in Rani Jhansi Road.  They were determined to struggle shoulder to shoulder in order to initiate and intensify an all-India level movement against imperialist globalization.

Imperialist globalization covers the series of exploitative policies unleashed by the imperialist powers and implemented by our rulers since 1991. It includes the structural adjustments forced along with IMF loans, WB and IMF dictated 'reforms' in various sectors, and the WTO regime. These have all been implemented by the Indian rulers both at the Central level and in states quite irrespective of the political party in power. The net effect today is grossly visible. They have further ruined our economy, further pauperized the peasantry and destroyed our industry.

Sixty-two people’s organizations from Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Delhi attended the meeting. The organisations belong to the struggles of workers, peasants, and agricultural labourers, adivasis, dalits, women, youth, students and other sections of society. The meeting began at 12 noon with a song against American attack on Afghanistan. It was presided over by Hardev Singh Sandhu, Vice President of All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha (AIKMS), G N. Saibaba, General Secretary of All India Peoples Resistance Forum (AIPRF), P. K. Shahi, Executive member of All India Federation of Trade Unions, (AIFTU), Subash Roy of Shramik Sangram Committee (West Bengal) and Pishora Singh Siddupur, President of Bharatiya Kisan Union, Punjab (BKU-Ekta).

A two minute silence was observed by the participants as a solemn homage to the great patriotic heroes of the Indian people who laid down their lives fighting British colonialists including great patriotic martyrs Bhagat Singh, Chardashekhar Azad, Ashfaquallah, Udham Singh, Birsa Munda, Veer Kunwar Singh, Komaram Bhim, Alluri Seetharamaraju, and thousands and thousands of others who died sacrificed their lives fighting imperialism. A mention was also made of Carlo Gulliani who was killed in police firing at the anti-globalization demonstration at Genoa recently. The representatives of the mass organizations raised slogans against the present onslaught of imperialism in the name of globalization and against the ongoing US-UK attacks against Afghanistan.

The meeting set before itself the agenda of forming an All India Forum for struggle against imperialist globalization. To this end the first session was devoted to finalizing the political and organizational perspective for such an organization. The draft political perspective was introduced on behalf of the Preparatory Committee by Ashish Mital (Secretary, AIKMS). Several participating organizations expressed their views on the same and eventually, after the Preparatory Committee summed up the agreed suggestions, the draft was adopted by the participants by consensus. The organizational perspective was next introduced and similarly passed after discussion. The name of the organization was resolved to be the Forum against Imperialist Globalization and 50 organizations became members of its All-India Forum Committee. They in turn elected a 20 member All India Coordination Committee to coordinate and lead the struggle. Coordination Committee in turn elected a 3 member Convenors' Committee comprising of Vemulapalli Venkataramaiah (AIKMS), G.N. Saibaba (AIPRF) and Ms. Savithri (Pragati Mahila Sangathan, Maharashtra) to co-ordinate their activities.

Four resolution were presented by the Preparatory Committee, namely: on WTO calling upon the Govt. to Quit WTO and not participate in Doha round; against agreements by various state govts. with World Bank, against the Anglo-American military aggression on Afghanistan; against the communal agenda of Hindutva forces and the NDA Govt., and the cultural onslaught of imperialism. These were referred to the Coordination Committee for finalization and adoption.

The resolution against WTO stated that the WTO regime has already played havoc with our country’s economy at large and it has become the most important instrument in the period of globalization for the imperialist powers to exploit the third world. The meeting resolved to build a consistent and protracted mass movement to force the Indian rulers to withdraw the country from the unjust, and pro-imperialist WTO. The organisations also felt that no amount of reform within the WTO can change its intrinsic imperialist mission. The organisations resolutely decided to pressurize India government not to accept the second round of negotiations that the G-8 nations want to initiate at Doha.

The Forum immediately decided the following action progammes:

1.         Anti-US imperialist war protest demonstrations for a week                    between 18 and 24th October all over India.

2.         All India convention in Delhi on 2nd November against US war and Doha WTO Ministerial Conference.

3.         Quit WTO and Stop the US war —Anti –WTO demonstrations during the 4th Ministerial Conference of WTO  9 Nov. to 13 Nov.

AIKMS, IFTU, POW (AP) and PMS (Delhi), PDSU (AP), PSU (Punjab), Pendu Mazdoor Union (Punjab), NBS (Delhi) and PYL (AP), PDSF (West Bengal) and Arunodaya (AP) were among the organizations which attended the meeting as participants while a representative of Jan Hastakshep participated as an observer.

The Forum concluded the meeting with a call to all people’s organisations to join this process of building a united and collective mass movement against imperialist globalization.

Formation of Forum Against Imperialist Globalization (FAIG) by a number of mass organizations is a good beginning to unleash people's struggle against imperialist globalization. In fact many such initiatives had been taken and are mobilizing the people against WTO and imperialist globalization. There was however a need for such a Forum at the level of mass organizations to mobilize the people with a clear perspective to demand Quit WTO and Struggle against imperialist globalization.

Delhi founding meeting is a good beginning. It is hoped that this Forum will undertake active mobilization of the people into struggles and also expand itself by including other organizations which are not members of the Forum but may share the perspective of the Forum. In this regard it is important to point out the decision of the Forum to accord equality to all participant organizations and all decisions to be taken by consensus. There shall be no discrimination between those who attended the founding meeting and those who may join later sharing the Forum's perspective and being willing to participate in its activities.