People's Democracy

THE upcoming meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at Doha from November 9 to 13, for a new round of trade negotiations, threatens the third world countries with a further intensification of their exploitation. The US, European Union and Japan, the world’s most developed capitalist countries, are out to further squeeze the developing countries via the instrumentality of these negotiations.

In all probability, the BJP government of India, which has outdone its Congress predecessor in its blind pursuit of liberalisation and privatisation, has already come over to the view that there is no way but to surrender to this new onslaught of imperialist powers. Having issued some brave statements earlier about this round, etc, Murasoli Maran has of late come out with a statement that there is nothing to do but to try for some concessions in the new round. Maran branded the WTO and its conditions as an "evil" but a necessary evil. Thus the BJP government put down its weapons even before the war began.

The harmful impact of the past agreements imposed on us is there for all to see. The effects of the WTO conditionalities and the government of India’s so-called "first round of reforms" on the life of our people have already compelled many sections who were earlier supporting "reforms," to come out against these evil policies.

According to the Central Statistical Organisation, the rate of growth has been tumbling down, especially since 1999-2000, in all sectors of our economy. In farming sector, it came down to 0.2 per cent in 2000-2001 against 0.7 per cent the previous year. Industrial growth rate was only 2.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2001 against 6.1 per cent a year before.

The rate of employment growth in India has declined sharply. The Planning Commission states, "The decline in employment growth during the time of peaking of economic reforms between 1994-2000 has raised doubts about the benefit from economic reforms."

Since the quantitative restrictions were removed by the BJP regime, Indian farmers have been subject to unfair competition from the heavily subsidised grains imported from advanced countries. Many of the Indian states have reported suicides by farmers; hundreds of them sold their kidneys so as to repay their loans.

As of today, the government has 6 crore 40 lakh tonnes of foodgrain in its godowns and is spending Rs 16 crore per day on its care and storage. But it refuses to distribute it among the poor, even after so many starvation deaths in several parts of the country. The prices of foodgrains sold through the public distribution system (PDS) have been heavily hiked, and are in the vicinity of the open market prices.

It is in the midst of this ruinous impact of the earlier rounds of WTO negotiations and the first round of "reforms" in India that the BJP government has now announced to implement the "second round of reforms" and "harsh" decisions.

It is in this situation that the upcoming Doha conference will discuss many vital issues like free capital investments, procurement, trade debt and finance. If not checked, the fresh impositions will threaten the very survival of the developing countries’ economies, including ours. Moreover, utilising the September 11 events, the US has been able to rally more support for the new round. As for India under the BJP, it is almost certain to meekly surrender. It is here that, addressing the concern of all developing countries to check any further onslaught by imperialist powers, democratic and progressive forces have to urgently intervene.

In continuance of the their struggles against the LPG policies in the past ten years, the Left and democratic forces in India have come out with a call for struggle all over India. Delhi, the national capital, will witness a massive rally on November 6, called by parties of the Lok Morcha and by various mass and class organisations. At the same time, various trade unions as well as the organisations of peasants, agricultural workers, etc, will hold rallies, picketing and other actions all over India on November 9, to reflect the growing anger of our people against the WTO conditionalities and the meek surrender by BJP government. These protest actions all over India will definitely mark a turning point in the history of the Indian people’s struggle.

Further, on November 9, trade unions are going to mobilise lakhs and lakhs of working people against the policies of globalisation not only in India but all over the world. A globalisation of the fight against globalisation is thus definitely in the offing --- to send the message to imperialist powers that "the governments may surrender but the people will not."