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Ajith
This article addresses the question of what the tasks ahead are of the 'leftists', the 'socialists' in the country, whoever they are, in the face of the forthcoming Presidential elections. The majority of people in the country are economically poor. We have a country rich in natural resources, but past economic policies have not provided for the basic needs of the poor majority but have paved the way for a widening gap between rich and poor. The question is what is to be done and what is the task or indeed the responsibility of the left in this context?
1. INTRODUCTION: LESSONS OF PAST EXPERIENCES
During the last 32 years Sri Lanka has become one of the most undemocratic countries, a country with one of the highest income and social disparities, one of the countries with the sharpest growth in rural poverty (as identified by the Study of “State of the World’s Rural Poverty” by IFAD in 1993 or so), one of the most violent countries with the largest rates of involuntary disappearances, as reported by the UN Committee for involuntary disappearances in 1991, and with one of the highest rates of suicide
In this process the potential that Sri Lanka
These failures have been admitted by the WB and IMF in many of their documents. The leader of the UNP responsible for introducing the more intense process of capitalist development has admitted this in his most recent writing on the “Future Challenges”(Anagatha Abhiyoga), written as a policy declaration for the current Presidential election campaign. Thus, the political leaders who won the subsequent elections such as Chandrika Bandaranayake and Mahinda Rajapakse had to declare policies opposed to the capitalist agenda that had been formulated by J.R. Jayawardane (open market policies) and by Chandrika and Ranil (the Regaining of Sri Lanka policies) in order to win elections. The promise to dissolve the Presidential system which was introduced as the main mechanism of achieving the required “dictatorial” political power is an admission of this failure.
A strategy of the poor to overcome their poverty cannot depend on external capital whether local or international. Whoever invests such capital will have the interest of earning more capital and not of allowing this capital to be distributed or "trickled down" to reduce poverty. Lenders use the process to get what they want. Thus the sovereignty of the people is taken away and even the elected representatives have very little opportunity of disagreeing with them. Therefore, they have to be undemocratic.
(Ref: MONLAR document “Compelling the poor to subsidize the rich” – An analysis of regaining Sri Lanka
The last 32 years of such dependence on borrowed capital has clearly shown
that what was wanted was the creation of cheaper and more subservient labour; displacement of the poorer sections of society from access to natural resources such as land, water, ecology, forest, and the sea and the benefits of environment; more building of infrastructure needed to facilitate the exploitation of resources of nature and of human beings. Thus, we see that encouraging rural small holders to sell their land, pushing fisher people away from the beaches and away from access to sea and fishing resources, pushing rural and urban women to leave their homes, villages and families to sell themselves as cheap labour, compelling the workers to lose their labour rights and job security and the minority communities to become internal and external IDPs losing their rights to villages and livelihoods. Taking away the right of people to have free access to water has all been in the agenda of capital.
The political systems are adjusted accordingly with powers concentrated in the hands of dictatorial regimes, such as the executive presidential system, and more power of decision making in the hands of private capital.
The left parties have understood this and have tried to acquire political power to introduce changes. Since the existing political systems have not allowed such space or possibility they have had to extend their strength to some capitalist leaderships, compromising their principles or have had to rebel. Thus, it is necessary to think of a strategy that can be initiated even before they have political power in their hands.
Present world situations and the situation in Sri Lanka
This does not mean that people should not be struggling to influence changes and to prevent processes that go against their interests and even struggle to capture political power. However, elections have generally served the purpose of getting the poor majorities to give legitimacy to leaders, political parties and programmes that further worsens their condition and makes it even more difficult to work out their strategies for survival.
It is due to these situations that the poor and the oppressed masses of people have had to launch out on struggles outside the electoral political systems and to get involved even in armed rebellion. Having pushed the poor and oppressed people to such rebellion, they are branded terrorists and are suppressed in the name of protecting democracy “saving the country”.
Whether such a strategy today can win the next Presidential election and who represents such a strategy is another matter. The issue of who should be voted for is an issue that should be considered separately and looked upon with other logic.
Therefore, we need to present ordinary people, the majority of whom are poor, with a strategy that addresses their needs directly. It must be economically sound, address social justice, achieve economic sustainability, and deliver true democracy that respects sovereignty of the people and prevents political violence. It should allow ordinary people to take over the agenda of formulating economic policies and political systems that affect them. Poor people have a right to develop their own vision and work out their own strategies, and any moment of intense political discussion and debate such as times of elections should be utilized to help the poor masses of people to think on their own and work out political strategies from their own point of view and from their own interests. The key question then is what the elements of such a strategy should be.
2. ELEMENTS OF A STRATEGY AND PROGRAMME OF THE POOR
2.1 Meeting essential needs first
The poor must have a vision of a process that can help them meet their most essential needs first, and then think of extending and building upon such a process to meet other needs. Today in Sri Lanka
The most basic need is to guarantee the opportunity to use people’s creative potential, and this can begin now. For instance, people who do not have money to buy their essential needs of food and healthcare look into ways in which they could get them from nature at no cost.
Dr. Vandana Shiva identifies three different economies in human history, the “economy of nature”, “economy of the people” (or the subsistence economy, where people meet their economic needs outside the market) and then the “market economy”. Those who cannot survive in the market economy have to maximize their potential in the economy of nature and in the people’s economy where they have considerable comparative advantage.
2.2 Non-dependence on external capital
The fundamental principle of a strategy of non-dependence on capital is to integrate the abilities of human beings, their creativity with the benefits that are available in nature free of cost. A major transformation of the way food is produced is an essential starting point. In today’s Sri Lanka Sri Lanka
It is estimated that over half of all small scale farmers will be reduced to destitution in the process of market globalization. In India
The situation in relation to global leaders’ efforts to solve other global crises such as the international financial crisis and crisis of financial institutions, the global trade crisis, the global warming and climate change crisis and the failure to meet the MDGs are the same.
The world is reaching a stage when the victims of these crises, people who are “excluded” from the globalized market since they are not needed by the globalized market operations, are called upon to develop their own agenda to solve their problems including the problems of the rest of the world. Such a strategy should be one that does not depend on capital operations and on accumulation of capital as their agenda.
2.3 “Survival” instead of “growth-oriented development”
The priority need is for survival. The strategy of growth-led development is an ideology that is needed by those who are involved in further increasing capital accumulation. Their claim of growth being the way of overcoming poverty has proved to be wrong. The other global crises have proved that this strategy of looking for growth is out dated and can only worsen the crises more. “Survival” should be the guiding principle for us all.
2.4 “Regenerative agriculture” in place of “organic” or “sustainable” agriculture
Concerns such as sustainability show that there is an overall threat to survival. But it is necessary to recognize that what the world needs today is not mere sustainability. Trying to sustain systems that are not basically sustainable is impossible. We need the recovery and restoration of regeneration.
The agenda of the people excluded should be one of survival based on recovering nature’s ability to restore, part of an emerging promotion of ecological agriculture. This is much broader than the idea of organic agriculture, which is the production of food without external chemical inputs, or sustainable agriculture. We should refer to “regenerative agriculture”. We need to restore natural processes. We need nature’s ability to regenerate if humankind and other life forms are to survive. (See Appendix)
2.5 “Food sovereignty” instead of “food security”
It is with this understanding that the world movement of small farmers, Via Campasena , with over a 150 million members in some 59 countries, has developed and declared the concept of Food Sovereignty instead of Food Security.
Food Sovereignty is defined as the right of all people to decide on what kind of food to eat, how food should be produced and where it is to be produced so that people will have the possibility of having healthy, nutritious food, produced locally and in having culturally appropriate food. Food security is defined as the right to have food available for a healthy active life.
(Ref: Global Forum of Food Sovereignty held in Mali
2.6 Other points for consideration in applying such a strategy
1. Application of this strategy in the plantation areas and in relation to the plantation people (Ref: plantation Research document of MONLAR and the Uva collective of poison free farmers.
2. Education and livelihoods for youth (Ref: proposals for higher education and the youth programme of MONLAR )
3. How this strategy could be adopted in the present programmes of the Agriculture Department such as “Api Wawamu Rata Nagamu, Gama Neguma, Gemi Diriya etc.
4. Cost savings on reducing the present programmes of infrastructure development to attract foreign investment such as highways, harbours, airports, thermal power stations etc. prevention of human displacement and environmental damage caused by these development projects.
5. Role of scientists and scholars in working out strategies and educational programmes.
6. Learning and experience sharing with other international organisations
i. Via Campasena
ii. Organisations in India such as Kudumbam, Subash Palekar ( Nature Farming ), Animal husbandry in India Vandana Shiva , Brazil ( MST), Cuba,
iii. PAN AP ( Pesticide Action Network – Asia Pacific )
iv. Focus on Global South and its analysis of world issues
v. Forum on Alternatives of the World Social Forum
3. ADVANTAGES OF A NEW STRATEGY AND APPROACH
A very important piece of research done recently under the title International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD)[2] revealed that although there has been much advancement in agriculture and production has increased, this process has made serious mistakes in ignoring the social and ecological aspects of agriculture. Pursuing a strategy of utilizing and enhancing our natural resources base in Sri Lanka Sri Lanka
We cannot continue to depend on imports of food and agricultural inputs such as fertilizer and pesticides. At the moment there is considerable loss of natural soil fertility due to the use of damaging inputs of chemical fertilizer, pesticides and weed-killers; tremendous pollution of water, soil, food and atmosphere, and deaths and illnesses caused by pesticide poisoning; environmental damage caused by unhealthy agricultural and productive activities and loss of immunity caused by chemical contamination of food.
A new strategy would provide economic viability to small farmers with less capital and fully harness their creative potential. It would provide advantages in solving issues of scarcity of food and nutrition due to their high costs. It has the potential to improve health and reduce diseases that are becoming more and more prevalent due to poor nutrition and unhealthy food. This potential improvement in health using better food and medicinal plants could also be a solution to the impossible increase in health bills under the present process of market-led health services. It can also reduce energy consumed in machinery and in transportation by depending more on local food.
4. A PEOPLE’S AGENDA – A WAY FORWARD
It is now possible to think of an agenda that the poor, marginalized and excluded people could put forward as their programme. The overall agenda should be that people use a production process that makes the best use of nature’s resources to meet their survival needs first, then their other needs and those of the rest of society. Since they have only limited access to nature’s resources, this has to be done in a non-depleting and non-destructive manner. Nature’s regenerative capacity is central. This should be relevant to not only the poor, but also to the rest of the country. It should also be meaningful in the present global context, something that can unite the poor people in Sri Lanka
Many organizations and people are currently working on a similar agenda. One way of proceeding would be to present a policy document for wider discussion among those organizations, and through them to the wider public. This should be done without creating any illusion that the elected president, whoever it is, would carry out such an agenda. This has to be a people’s agenda planned and carried out by them. They should claim ownership and it should be based on their experiences. Much of this agenda can be carried out irrespective of what the government does. Practical implementation is the best way of understanding the concepts in depth.
5. ENDNOTE
It is important to recognize that the world has reached a stage when the modes and relationships of production need to have a qualitative change. The quantitative changes attempted so far to solve the problems of human advancement have begun to fail. The problems have reached a stage when their solution cannot be postponed any more.
The relationship between human beings and nature should be something that mutually enriches and regenerates, not one of humans exploiting nature destructively and nature reacting adversely. The present crises have revealed clearly that it is high time that human society realizes this need. This may be the time for such a qualitative change in the relationships of production that Marx predicted, and this would be the way to have socialist relationships of production and of having the right relationship between humans and nature that could allow further advancement of human society. When an ideology is grasped by the masses it becomes a material force that can change society.
These are some relevant basic understandings of Marx’s theory. The leftists in the country have a responsibility to give the poor and the oppressed masses a chance of working out their own agenda; otherwise they too become instruments utilized by capital to subjugate the people to their destructive agenda.
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APPENDIX - REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE
Recovery of the regenerative ability of nature is the type of agriculture that we see in a natural forest or in an agro forest grown analogous to a forest. Thus, it is also referred to as analogous forestry.
The natural growth process of a tree or a plant is entirely dependent on nature’s free contribution. It absorbs sunlight free, carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and water from rain. There is a completely natural cycle where food is produced in the leaves, enough to feed not only the plant, but other plants, animals and human beings as well. Plants grow and give flowers and fruits to feed others. Then they grow old and decay to become part of a bigger process. Decaying leaves, branches and also animals, including their dung, fall to the ground and decay, a process carried out by millions and billions of micro organisms, earthworms and other tiny animals. Top soil is a medium that can sustain these microorganisms, but not if it is eroded either by wind or rain. Microbial activity can also be destroyed by unnecessary ploughing and cleaning of top soil, addition of poisonous external inputs such as weed-killers, pesticides or chemical fertilizer.
We need diversity to ensure ecological sustainability and regeneration. Insect and plant diversity provides natural balance, natural fertility and natural pest control. By growing plants and trees that grow into different canopies it is possible to maximize the absorption of sunlight that is converted into food and energy. The process of decay and prevention of soil erosion is necessary to protect the microbial activity that enhances soil fertility and ability of soil to absorb and retain more water, which will enhance the water availability and growth of plants. It reduces drought losses and provides more water in soil and in nature for drinking, for irrigation and other purposes.
The recycling of organic matter ensures diversity. It is known that animal dung and urine promote microbial activity. Therefore, we need to combine animals with plants in a proper approach to ecological agriculture. It has also been found that the indigenous varieties of animals, cows etc. give much better results. We should use indigenous seeds since they are much more adapted to local conditions whereas high yielding varieties require external fertilizer and thus capital.
This example of ecological agriculture or nature farming shows what we mean by regenerative agriculture. It illustrates what we mean when we say that human activity should be something that recovers and restores the ability of nature to regenerate it.
Experiences in such ecological farming have shown that the overall productivity of land can be equal to, or even much bigger than the type of artificial external input dependent agriculture.
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It was revealed at the World Summit on Food Security held in Rome
The food situation of the world’s poor is expected to become worse more rapidly due to other factors such as greater interest in bio fuels and animal feed production than in production of food for the hungry; more rural to urban migration, which is expected to reach a proportion of 70:30 changing from the present proportion of 50:50; climate change affecting food production processes adversely etc. In spite of these alarming signals the efforts made by the FAO to convene a World Summit on Food Security to get the world leaders to make commitments that were seen as necessary to meet this food crisis by 2050 ended up in very little success. Out of the G-8 country Heads, only the Italian Prime Minister attended and no commitments were made.
This again proves that the design and agenda of global capital is not to feed the hungry, but to keep increasing profit accumulation.
[2] This was a landmark study that revealed the mistakes that had been made in agricultural development worldwide and giving the directions that future agriculture should take. Commissioned world bodies such as the WB, UN FAO, and many other lead agencies, the study was done by a group of 400 eminent scientists in many countries for over four years.
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