With vigor of the youth, intensify the struggle for land and life!

#NolandNoLIfe

DAY OF THE LANDLESS 2018

We mark the Day of the Landless this year amid ever pervasive landlessness and land grabbing, driven by the competition of global powers and local elites to control the world’s resources at the expense of small food producers and the food sovereignty of poor countries. This is accompanied by rising militarism and violent repression of rural communities. Among those worst affected by deepening poverty and hunger as well as increasing human rights violations are the rural youth.

But we face these challenges with even greater resolve and optimism as we look forward to the energy and renewed commitment of the youth to help defend the rural people’s right to land and life.

Worsening landlessness

Land is the central aspect of rural life and society. But the increasing commodification of land amid relentless neoliberal onslaught, tightening corporate and monopoly control over agriculture, and the lack of genuine agrarian reform that ensures the people’s right to land and adequately supported by the state, are threatening rural peoples’ access to and control over land and natural resources. Global and regional developments, including the continuing global financial and economic crises and unrelenting push to further liberalize agriculture, the emergence of new economic powers hungry for new markets of surplus capital and products and sources of raw materials, and the rise of fascists and authoritarian governments, are also creating conditions for the ever intensifying unrest and conflicts in the rural areas.

China’s aggressive expansion through its enormous US$890-billion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), for instance, is dispossessing and displacing farming, fishing, indigenous, and other traditional communities all over the world. The BRI, dubbed as the “only large-scale multilateral development project in the 21st century,” involves 65 countries with 900 ongoing and planned infrastructure projects stretching from the Pacific to western Asia, and all the way to Africa and Europe.

According to the Land Matrix, an independent initiative monitoring land deals, 26.7 million hectares of agricultural land worldwide have been transferred into the hands of foreign investors since 2000. China was able to acquire 2.23 million hectares of them in the period 2000-2014 alone. And this was even before the BRI gained ground.

Meanwhile, multilateral financial institutions such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank, working with corrupt politicians and foreign investors, continue to fund and implement programs and projects that result in the massive dislocation and marginalization of rural communities. Infrastructure development, including through public-private partnership (PPP), for transportation, energy, and economic zones, among others, are grabbing away or destroying vast tracts of lands and other agricultural resources.

The competition for agricultural land and resources is happening amid the intensified militarism of the world’s powers led by the US. Its pivot to Asia to contain China’s rise has meant, among others, increased support to militaries in the region, long notorious for their human rights atrocities. They have been waging wars and counterinsurgency campaigns that often target rural communities, including those that are embroiled in land conflicts with governments and corporations. This has resulted in increased repression and human rights abuses in the rural areas.

The growing threats to access to and control over land and natural resources not only perpetuate but worsen the vicious cycle of underdevelopment in the rural areas and the poverty and hunger among rural peoples. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), more than 80% of the world’s extreme poor live in the rural areas, and 65% work in agriculture. Around half of those living in extreme poverty are under the age of 18.

The state of the rural youth

The rural youth – which make up 55% of the global youth population – traditionally already suffer from limited access to basic services such as education, health and shelter, as well as to opportunities in terms of livelihood. In general, the youth are two to three times more likely than adults to be unemployed, according to a joint report of the World Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Official unemployment rate among the rural youth ranges from 7.5% in Sub-Saharan Africa; Asia, 8.1%; Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 19.7%; Latin America and the Caribbean, 21%; to 22.8% in the Middle East and North Africa.

When the rural youth do find employment, majority are in the informal economy and engaged in household-based and agriculture-related activities such as family workers, subsistence farmers, home-based micro-entrepreneurs, or unskilled workers. They earn very low wages and often face unsafe and exploitative working conditions. Young rural women experience worse, as they also suffer traditional gender-based stereotypes and gender-based division of labor.

The worsening situation of rural communities are forcing the rural youth into labor migration. The youth account for the bulk of migration flows: FAO data shows that 15-34 years old account for one third of all international migrants. The rural youth however, are “most likely to migrate in response to the lack of gainful employment and entrepreneurial opportunities in agriculture and related rural economic activities.”

At the heart of this lack of opportunity to be economically productive is the chronic and prevalent landlessness in the rural areas, made even worse by land and resource grabbing.

Fighting back with a strong youth movement

To defend the right to land and livelihood as well as to protect the way of living of their communities, many young farmers and indigenous people have been at the forefront of the struggle to stop land and resource grabbing, promote food sovereignty and advance genuine agrarian reform. This is despite the intensifying repression of rural communities to pave the way for large-scale corporate agriculture and profit-oriented mega infrastructure projects that saw 166 killed and 342 arrested and detained in the past 14 months due to land conflicts and struggles, including young farmers, farm workers, indigenous people and activists, based on PAN Asia Pacific’s (PANAP) monitoring.

Thus, we welcome with enthusiasm and excitement the first general assembly of the Youth for Food Sovereignty (YFS) on March 30 to April 2. The YFS is an international network of youth organizations that promotes food sovereignty and supports the peasant struggle for genuine agrarian reform as well as the indigenous people’s assertion of their right to their ancestral lands. We strongly support the YFS’s assembly that aims to highlight the plight and struggles of the rural youth, as well as to “enlist the vigor of the youth in the peasants’ intensifying struggle for land and life.”

The future belongs to the youth, and they will help forge today this future where land truly belongs to those who till and enrich the land for the benefit of the people and the planet, and not just for profits of the few.

With the vigor of the youth, we commit to intensify our struggle for land and life!

Endorsed by –

 

1. Asian Peasant Coalition (APC)
2. PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP)
3. Peoples’ Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS)
4. Youth for Food Sovereignty (YFS)
5. International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) Commission No. 6
6. Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN)
7. Asia Pacific Network for Food Sovereignty (APNFS)
8. Asian Rural Women’s Coalition (ARWC)
9. People Over Profit (POP)
10. GRAIN
11. GREEN FOUNDATION
12. IBON International
13. ALGA, Kyrgyzstan
14. Aliansi Gerakan Reforma Agraria (AGRA), Indonesia
15. Andra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruthidarula Union (APVVU), India
16. Bangladesh Adivasi Samity
17. Bangladesh Bhumiheen Samity
18. Bangladesh Kishani Sabha
19. Bangladesh Krishok Federation
20. Bangladesh Resource Center for Indigenous Knowledge (BARCIK)
21. Building Ecological Regenerative Agriculture and Society (BERAS), India
22. Cambodia Youth Network (CYN)
23. Cambodian Food and Service Workers Federation (CFSWF)
24. Center for Environmental Concerns (CEC), Philippines
25. Center for Human Rights and Development in Mongolia
26. Center for Sustainable Development in Mountainous Areas (CSDM), Vietnam
27. Centre for Improved Rural Health and Environmental Protection (CIRHEP), India
28. Citizens’ Alliance for Consumer Protection of Korea
29. Climate Watch, Thailand
30. Coalition of Cambodian Farmers Community (CCFC)
31. Coalition of Services of the Elderly, Inc. (COSE), Philippines
32. CECODECON, India
33. Community Reference Group (CRG), Myanmar
34. CREATE, India
35. Dharti Development Foundation, Pakistan
36. E Consumers, South Korea
37. Farmer-Scientist Partnership for Development (MASIPAG), Philippines
38. Federation of Free Workers (FFW), Philippines
39. Feminist League, Kazakhstan
40. Food Sovereignty Alliance, India
41. Food Sovereignty Network Nepal
42. Forest and Farmers Foundation, Thailand
43. Forum of Women’s NGOs, Kyrgyzstan
44. Front Mahasiswa Nasional (FMN), Indonesia
45. Future Earth, India
46. Gabungan Serikat Buruh Indonesia (GSBI)
47. GwangJu Local Council, South Korea
48. Human Rights Focus Pakistan (HRFP)
49. Independent Democracy of Economy Association (IDEA), Cambodia
50. Institute for National and Democracy (INDIES), Indonesia
51. International Movement of Catholic Agricultural and Rural Youth (MIJARC)
52. Khoj Society for People’s Education, Pakistan
53. Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Philippines
54. Kudumbam, India
55. Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) Network, India
56. Madhya Pradesh Samaj Seva Sanstha, Bhopal (MP FORUM), India
57. Nash Vek Public Foundation, Kyrgzstan
58. National Federation of Peasant Women (AMIHAN), Philippines
59. National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), Philippines
60. National Fisheries Solidarity Organization (NAFSO), Sri Lanka
61. National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocate (NNARA-Youth), Philippines
62. North-East Affected Area Development Society (NEADS), Assam-India
63. Pagkakaisa para sa Tunay na Repormang Agrararyo (SENTRA), Philippines
64. Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT)
65. PAN Aotearoa New Zealand
66. Panalipdan-Mindanao, Philippines
67. Pemuda Baru (PEMBARU), Indonesia
68. Pesticide Action Network (PAN) – Philippines
69. Philippine Network of Food Security Programmes, Inc.
70. Ponlok Khmer, Cambodia
71. Radanar Ayar Rural Development Association, Myanmar
72. RESIST Agrochem TNCs, Philippines
73. Roots for Equity, Pakistan
74. Rural NGO for the Protection of Women’s Rights, Kyrgyzstan
75. SAHANIVASA, India
76. SERAC Bangladesh
77. Serikat Keluarga Buruh Migrant Indonesia (KABAR BUMI)
78. Serikat Perempuan Indonesia (SERUNI)
79. SIBAT, Philippines
80. SINAGBAYAN, Philippines
81. Sining Kadamay, Philippines
82. Solidarity House (SH), Cambodia
83. Social Work Institute, Nepal
84. Sustainable Development Foundation (SDF), Thailand
85. Tamil Nadu Women’s Forum (TWNF), India
86. Tanggol Bayi (Defend Women), Philippines
87. Tenaganita, Malaysia
88. Training Education, Development Extention (TEDE) Trust, India
89. Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), Philippines
90. Vikalpani National Women’s Federation, Sri Lanka
91. VOICE, Bangladesh
92. We Women Lanka net Work, Sri Lanka
93. Women Acting Together for Change (WATCH), Nepal