Peasant's Day in the Middle of the WTO's VI Ministerial Meeting, Hong Kong

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Press Release
Federation of Indonesian Peasant Union (FSPI)
In the Struggle against the WTO’s VI Ministerial Meeting, Hong Kong

More than two thousand peasants gathered in Victoria Park (17/12) to commemorate the Peasant’s Day. They gathered for the action series to reject the WTO, in the middle of the WTO’s VI ministerial meeting in the Hong Kong Convention Centre.

While the WTO was talking the agenda of trade liberalization and was facing a dead-locked inside, thousands of peasants from all over the world gathered in solidarity to reject the agenda of trade liberalization. They have the fixed will that is to kick the WTO out of agriculture. There were 1300 Korean peasants and more than 500 Indonesian peasants and migrant workers.

Peasant Solidarity
This agenda was started by an oration from the initiative of Korean peasant. They sang the struggle songs and yelled the anti-WTO slogans. These Korean peasants are the delegations of Korean Peasant League (KPL) member of La Via Campesina in South Korea.

The Indonesian peasants followed in action. FSPI’s delegations were united with the migrant workers having the same fate due to the world’s trade liberalization regime: WTO. They gathered and sang the struggle songs.

“We want no deal to be made in this ministerial meeting,” said Henry Saragih, the General Secretary of Federation of Indonesian Peasant Union (FSPI). Henry added that there was an indication that the WTO’s VI ministerial meeting ended with no deal, however the Doha Round lasting on 2006 is worried to result in a new trade liberalization agreement by holding Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting part 2. The plan is that the continuation of this ministerial meeting will be held on March or April in the coming year.

Therefore, the peasants and all elements have to hand in hand and close ranks since the trade liberalism agenda must be combated. “The struggle is still long, there are still another neolibelism agendas. There are still many free-trade agreements such as FTAs, BFTAs, and other kinds of its camouflages,” said Hendry.

Franky and Rieke “Oneng”
Franky Sahilatua and Rieke “Oneng” Dyah Pitaloka took part in the peasant and migrant struggle in Hong Kong. The two pro-people artists went on 16 December to support the peasant struggle. They sympathized to the struggle of the peasants and the migrant workers in struggling against the trade liberalization killing the people.

“I will take part in the action with the peasants in Hong Kong,” said Franky steadily. The peasant’s day rally in Hong Kong was planned to be held at 2.00 pm in the following day. The peasants from all over the world united in the La Via Campesina planned to conduct the rally from afternoon until evening and the next day when the WTO’s VI ministerial meeting ended.

Franky and Rieke asked the whole peasants from all over the world to sing together. They sang “We Shall Overcome”, a song well-known in the people struggle. This song was echoing on the stage in the Victoria Park.

Afterwards, Franky sang his top songs, such as “Orang Pinggiran (Marginal People)”. and a new song created especially for the peasant and the migrant worker struggle in Hong Kong. The lyric is so simple, “The Poorer getting Poorer, The Richer getting Richer”, and it was followed directly by the audience dominated by the Indonesians.

Meanwhile, Rieke yelled “People united can not be defeated, Peasants united to reject the WTO, labors united can not be defeated”. She said that, “I concern to the peasants and the labors’ fate and will always keep struggling with them”.

The action was continued with the show of Thai-Boxing from Thailand symbolizing the struggle action against the WTO. Afterwards, there were orations from many countries, such as Iraq, Philippine, South Korea, Indonesia, and others. They also conducted a great action starting from the Victoria Park to the Convention Centre where the WTO’s VI ministerial meeting took place. The struggle keeps raging. Down! Down! WTO!