The 4-day intensive workshop was held last July 16-19, 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand and was attended by representatives of Roots for Equity, INDIES, Sahanivasa, and the Andra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruthidarula Union (APVVU). The workshop was jointly facilitated by APRN Chair Tony Tujan, Azra Talat Sayeed of Roots and Sonny Africa of IBON Foundation.

Participants developed topic and discussion outlines for six (6) modules that gave particular attention to the national contexts of Pakistan, India and Indonesia, which included the historical background, the state of the national economy, globalization, the implementation of globalization, impact on key sectors, and people’s resistance and alternatives.

These discussion outlines will be developed into full modules that will then be tested and used to strengthen the education and training work in the said countries.

The planning workshop focused on six different topics: rural women, urban women, migration, services, war and trafficking.

• Rural Women

There will be three (3) coordinated researches in 2008 which will tackle issues of rural women. The first will be a documentation of women’s struggles and resistance, and assertion of food sovereignty. The second will be about internal migration and forced external migration which will look at the socio-economic, political and cultural impacts on the struggle for land, peasants’ rights, integration programs, etc. This research will start this September 2007 and the final sharing of results will be during the International Migrants Assembly (IMA) in May 2008. The last research will be about barriers to women’s access and control over land, territories and productive resources. This research will start in March 2008 as a workshop in the Asian Rural Women’s conference.

• Urban Women

A research on enterprise-based contractual labor, flexible labor with formal contract will be made and this will be published in August 2008. The concept paper on the research will be done by Azra Talat Sayeed. A coalition on contract labor will be created and will hold one regional meeting. Ramon Bultron will bring up the subject of forming the coalition with the Jobs & Justice Network.

• Migration

There will be two major researches done under the topic of migration. The first will be about the different levels of resistance initiated by women and male migrants and their families, in both receiving and sending countries. The policy paper will be written by APMM. The second will be a migration policy paper on bilaterals and import/export policy. The concept paper will be drafted by Migrante and APWLD. This coordinated research will be started in 2009.

• Services

The Center for Women’s Resources will prepare the concept paper for the conduct of a country level gender based study which will commence by April 2008. There are also plans to have a regional campaign video through YouTube against privatization. There will also be training and sharing of best practices of women’s struggles on public service issues in a capacity building seminar in the last quarter of 2009.

• War

There will be a coordinated study on the impact of the ‘war on terror’ on women to include analysis of laws/policies. This will be a coordinated collection of primary data on women who are directly impacted by the WOT in Pakistan, Philippines, Bangladesh and Malaysia. Country specific papers will be submitted and will be used to produce a synthesis paper at the Third International Assembly (TIA) of the International League of Peoples Struggle. This may later be developed into a book that may be launched in the 2009 APRN conference.

• Trafficking

There will be a gender based baseline survey of each country in 2007-2008. The Center for Women’s Resources will come out with guide questions and will collate all the surveys to be presented in the IMA. For the next two years, there will be interventions simultaneously through education and information campaigns.

Based on the evaluations from the pre-test workshop participants, the RTW module will be revised in time for the South Asia RTW capacity building workshop in Bangkok this October 26, 2007.

On July 13, the Water for the People Network (WPN) Steering Group had a meeting and agreed on the following:

• to establish a portal for each country within the WPNA website www.w4pn.org wherein country-specific information on water issues and campaigns may be uploaded;
• to organize a South Asia RTW workshop in Bangkok on October 26th;
• to launch an IFI WATER WATCH which is the first monitoring body of water projects funded by (although not limited to) IFIs in Asia; and
• to conduct researches on People's Alternative Water Resource Management (PAWRM) systems which will be published and presented during a half-day workshop in Bangkok in October.

Under the WSF’s theme “People’s Struggles, People’s Alternatives”, APRN and 14 other organizations held a three-day event for food producers and consumers in Africa and Asia with the goal of intensifying the campaign on the right to the control and access to food and food production resources towards genuine food sovereignty.

The event commenced with a series of talks on food sovereignty and followed by speak outs, seminars and multiple parallel workshops. A peaceful march to demand food sovereignty was also organized and joined by more than 300 hundred participants.

Other organizers of the event were PCFS, PAN AP, KENDREN, APC, FTB Asia, CAWI, PELUM Kenya, PELUM Uganda, KESSFF, SACDEP Kenya, KOFA, KIOF, NECOFA and TPA WU.

Almost 130 international and local participants gathered for APRN’s Conference on Jobs and Justice, also said to be the people’s alternative to the 4th Asean Business and Investment Summit. More international participants could have attended were it not for the government blacklist. As part of the so-called beefed up security measures for the ASEAN, foreigners with records of participating in activities critical of governments were not allowed to enter the country, including US Atty. Brian Campbell who had not gotten past airport security.

The said two-day conference, held at the St. Theresa’s College Auditorium in Cebu City, became the venue of information exchange among labor advocates on the current trends in neo-liberal market restructuring in the various global regions and led to the creation of an Asian labor network. Co-organizers of the conference were the APWSL, ARENA New Zealand, APMM and hosted by EILER. Press conferences and a noise barrage were also held.

The Jobs Justice conference was followed by the International Conference on US Militarism and War on Terror in the Asia-Pacific. Also held in Cebu City from December 9-10 and attended by over 200 participants, the conference was proof of the people’s unity and strength against the US’ intensifying militarism in the region. The conference led to the creation of an anti-US bases network in East Asia and Oceania.

The conference was co-organized by ILPS, APMM, ASA, ARENA NZ and Peace for Life.

The APRN organized two workshops at the Foro Internacional en Defensa del Agua; on “People’s Struggles vs. Water Privatization” and on “Promoting People’s Governance over Water Resources and Services”, which were held on March 19, 2006. The workshops were merged as one discussion group, with the first half devoted to people’s struggles and the second half on people’s governance. The main discussants were: Mr. Hamong Santono from Indonesia’s People’s Coalition for the Rights to Water (KruHa), Mr. Prabin Man Singh from the Water and Energy Users’ Federation-Nepal, Mr. Arnold Padilla (Water for the People Network-Philippines), and Mr. Antonio Tujan Jr. There were also testimonies from Mr. Arvind of Delhi’s Campaign on Right to Water, and Ms. Ruth Caplan, the Chair of the Sierra Club Corporate Accountability Committee & Water Privatization Task Force. Two recent video productions by IBON on dams and water services were shown, which, aside from the power point presentations prepared by the resource persons, gave a multi-media feel to the workshop. Simultaneous translation provided by COMDA helped a lot in bridging language differences and encouraged non-English speaking participants to speak up, enriching the discussions even more.

Considering that there were a number of workshops being held simultaneously, the workshop had a good attendance of sixty participants with a balanced representation of nationalities. Feedback from the participants was very positive, with a number of them commenting that the workshop was among the best they have attended at the alternative forum. Materials were distributed, including books, video CDs and headbands were also handed out to the participants.

Aside from the workshops, participation at the alternative forum also included joining the March 16 demonstration at the opening of the World Water Forum, with streamers displayed and headbands given out to those who joined the march, and the March 19 protest action held inside the Banamex Centre –site of the WWF, where a statement condemning water privatization and the pro-privatization WWF was read. This was preceded by a noise barrage where empty bottles of water filled with coins were used to deliver the message that water is a fundamental human right, and should not be commodified.

The APRN & Water for the People network participated in a Speak Out against Suez organized by the Food and Water Watch on March 15th.  The Speak Out was part of the Latin American Tribunal, and APRN Chair  Tony Tujan was the lone Asian asked to speak  about the region’s own experience with Suez and water privatization. More than 70 attended this activity and the Asian testimony made a good impact in the predominantly Spanish-speaking audience.

Press Conference and Speak Out on Trade and Human Rights

To commemorate the 57th anniversary of the International Declaration of Human Rights, the APRN, together with Rights and Democracy and the International Federation for Human Rights, organized a Press Conference on December 10th to sound off the APRN activities for the PAW, as well as to challenge the WTO and HK officials to observe, promote and protect human rights. Later in the day, it successfully held a Speak-Out on Trade and Human Rights last December 10th.  The Speak-Out was held at the Jesus is Lord Church in Wanchai, Hong Kong and was attended by more than 150 delegates and guests from different parts of the world.

Ms. Jane Kelsey of the APRN’s Board of Conveners opened the program and explained the objectives of the activity. Ms. Cynthia Gabriel of FIDH shared her views on how WTO violates human rights. Meanwhile, APRN Chairperson Tony Tujan expounded on the impacts of a decade of the WTO on the exploited peoples of the world. 

Mr. Palash Baral talked about the situation of the Bangladeshi artisans, while Mr. Biplap Halim and Ms. G. Urantsooj presented the plight of peasants and herders in India and Mongolia.  Dr. Azra Talat Sayeed of Pakistan, Ms. Emily Cahilog of the Philippines and Ms. Revathi of India spoke on the especially difficult situation of women in the rural and urban areas.  Meanwhile, Ms. Fathima Akther from India focused her discussion on the issues of Dalits while Ms. Virgie Bandao talked about the issues confronting the indigenous groups in the Philippines. Fr. Thomas Kocherry shared on the situation of the fisherfolks of Sri Lanka.

The youth sector was represented by Mr. Rey Asis of the Asian Students Association, as Ms. Eni Adi from the Association of Indonesian Migrants (ATKI) and a representative of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) shared their views on how neo-liberal globalization aggravates the condition of workers.  Meanwhile, Ms. Moana Maniapoto a cultural activist from Aeoteroa expounded on how the WTO and the neo-liberal globalization steals indigenous culture as it aggressively tries to impose a hegemonic and commercialized culture.

Various performances from grassroots cultural groups from the Philippines, India, Indonesia and Thailand creatively conveyed the impacts of neo-liberal globalization among the peoples of the world.

The Speak-Out ended with a reading of the APRN statement on WTO read by the Mr. Ramon Bultron, Managing Director of Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM).

Book Launch

The APRN successfully launched the book “Intensifying Working Women’s Burden: The Impact of WTO on Women Labor in Asia” last December 17th at Victoria Park in Hong Kong.  The book is the product of the coordinated research conducted by APRN members last year.  The launching was attended by Ms. Anna Paskal of Interpares and Ms. Carole Samdup of Rights and Democracy, organizations that have supported the APRN over the years.

A short program was held, where representatives from ROOTS, APMM, and the Center for Women’s Resources talked about their researches.

The input was followed by an open discussion on areas that may be explored by the APRN in the future. Among the many suggestions were those of translating the book to other languages, as well as embarking on new areas of research related to the women migrants and their children. 

Marches and other street actions

For the first time, the APRN had a very visible organizational participation in direct political actions including HKPA-organized central rallies during the Opening and Closing of the WTO Ministerial Meet.

The APRN issued 3 statements during the PAW and prominently displayed pennants and streamers during the marches. APRN leaders were also constantly interviewed by both local and international media during these street actions. APRN leaders also served as main speakers during the protest actions held at Victoria Park, and at the Designated Protest Areas (DPAs).

Inside events

Events, press conferences and interviews were facilitated by the APRN in coordination with other networks actively engaged in the “inside strategy”. APRN leaders who had NGO accreditation to the official Ministerial Meet were quick to make themselves available for media briefings and interviews especially on issues and concerns that were the highlights for the day.

There were also efforts by the APRN leaders to challenge their own government negotiators, WTO officials and the media.

BOC Meeting Held

The APRN BoC convened last December 12, 2005 at the Duke of Windsor Conference Hall to discuss the network’s activities and plans during the Hong Kong People’s Action week as well as to address other immediate concerns. 

APRN Chairperson Tony Tujan presided over the meeting, which covered the following agenda:

1. Status report from the Secretariat;
2. Other activities pertaining to the PAW;
3. Activities for 2006 and;
4. Appointment of a new General Secretary of APRN.

Mr. Marlou Abaja, the network’s current General Secretary gave an update from the Secretariat for the second half of 2005. Mr. Tony Tujan later announced that Mr. Abaja was being redesignated by IBON Foundation and proposed that Ms. Tetet Lauron be appointed as the new General Secretary of APRN.  The Board accepted the proposal and has designated Ms. Lauron as the network’s General Secretary.

Forty five peasants traveled a hundred miles from Karachi to take part in the workshop that focused on controversial issues in the WTO, specifically on the Agreement on Agriculture, NAMA and GATS. 

Mr. Gilbert Sape of PCFS shared their experiences and lessons from last year’s People’s Caravan as he encouraged the workshop participants to pursue the same initiative in Pakistan.  He also discussed PCFS’s plans and programs towards the Hong Kong Ministerial in December 2005.  Meanwhile, Mr. Prem Dangal of ANPA bared how the WTO and globalization wrecked the livelihood of Nepalese farmers.  Speaking in his native language, Prem called upon Pakistani farmers to unite with other farmers in the struggle against neo-liberal globalization.

Ms. Supanee Taneewut of foundation of Reclaiming Rural Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Action (RRAFA) of Thailand shared their farmers’ own experiences under WTO and globalization.  She called for an even greater unity among farmers around the world to oppose neo-liberal globalization and agriculture liberalization, especially since the struggle of Pakistani farmers is related to that of Thai farmers and other farmers of the world. APRN Secretary General Marlou Abaja, meanwhile, talked about the situation of Philippine farmers under a liberalized agriculture as he narrated the experiences of Philippine coffee farmers, the sugar workers of Hacienda Luisita in Taclac and the agricultural workers in the pineapple plantations in Mindanao.

The workshop ended with solidarity messages and cultural presentations from the farmers.  According to Roots for Equity Executive Director Dr. Azra Talat Sayeed, “these farmers never go outside of their villages; it is their first time, specially the women.  It is a good experience for them and for us as well, and we will do our best to sustain this kind of initiative”. 

After the Peasant Workshop, the APRN, PCFS and Roots for Equity joined the People’s Forum organized by WTO Watch Group, Oxfam and Action Aid where they discussed and registered pro-people positions on the issues and the WTO.

“Our program made a difference. (Without our program), this People’s Forum is useless because it advocates reformist ideas about the WTO (which are) typical of Oxfam/Action Aid positions”, the PCFS’ Gilbert Sape commented. ##

The training, hosted by the Institute for Motivating Self-Employment (IMSE), was attended by organizations from Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India. 

The first day’s session was devoted to the module on Food Sovereignty, and was chaired by Mr. Prem Dangal of ANPA and Mr. Yoga Mithran of ERAC-Malaysia.  Dr. Ujjaini Halim delved on the problems of hunger, poverty and malnutrition. Mr. Marlou Abaja expounded on the roots of the problems and how these are intensified by imperialist globalization. Workshops on particular country/state social issues and analyses were also held during the day.

Day 2 focused on the concepts of food sovereignty.  Tony Tujan of APRN elaborated on “Food sovereignty as a rights-based policy on food and agriculture” while Dr. Ujjaini Halim expounded on the topic “Food as human right”.  A workshop on country experiences and issues regarding agrarian reform, food production, food distribution and other policy issues, providing the participants the venue to assess their country/states policies as regards food program. The day’s sessions were chaired by Mr. Saiful Huq from Bangladesh and Mr. Oswald Quintal of India.

The third day was facilitated by Gilbert Sape where he discussed the module on “Advocacy Campaigning for Food Sovereignty”.  Mr. Sape talked about how to effectively campaign for food sovereignty advocacy, and shared stories of successful campaigns on food sovereignty.  There was also a workshop on campaign planning where the participants made a campaign plan on food sovereignty. ##

Prior to the conference, the delegates had an exposure to two local peasant communities where they had an opportunity to interact with Filipino farmers. The first was a community in a hacienda owned by an agro-corporation, while the other was also in a hacienda owned by a local landlord. 

Mr. Biplap Halim, Executive Director of Institute for Motivating Self-Employment (IMSE) and APRN Board of Convenor observes that “the situations in these communities differ from one another.  The residents in the first community we visited are afraid to support the fight of the 24 peasants who were retrenched because they fear losing their livelihood, while the next one is more organized - they were able to acquire farm land through struggle and they are now planting it with food crops for all the members of the community.  But generally, these communities both face the same enemy - the enemy that the peasants of the world are facing.”

A cultural solidarity night where local cultural workers performed alongside the foreign delegates capped the day-long exposure.

The research conference started on October 17th.  Mr. Marlou Abaja welcomed the participants to the conference, while Mr. Gilbert Sape of PAN AP provided the conference orientation, and Ms. Cynthia Deduro of the Sugar Workers Solidarity Network provided a brief situationer of the area.

Dr. Azra Talat Sayeed gave an input on “Agrarian reform issues and trends in Asia” while Mr. Biplap Halim talked on “Food sovereignty and the demand for genuine agrarian reform.”  These were soon followed with Mr. Gilbert Sape’s discussion on “Challenges by neo-liberal restructuring and TNC control in agriculture”, Mr. Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) sharing on “Responses of the people’s movement”. The last session for the day was on “Corporatist and market oriented land reform”, and facilitated by IBON Foundation’s Ms. Jennifer Malonzo and Mr. Carl Ombion of the Center for Investigative Researches and Media Services (CIRMS).

The next day was allotted for workshops where the delegates had an opportunity to share their respective country issues concerning agrarian reform.  They identified major issues that needed to be dealt with immediately, as well as possible research areas that the conference needed to address.

Ms. Rosario Bella Guzman of IBON Foundation gave an input on research design and methodology, where she shared ideas on how the delegates may develop their own research designs.

“The conference was a very good one because we were we able to come up with a research design that everyone was committed to pursue. We are very optimistic that we will meet the October 2006 completion target”, commented Gilbert Sape.

The delegates left Negros on the morning of October 19th to attend another meeting sponsored by the Asian Peasant Coalition at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City, Philippines. ##

According to APRN Chairperson Antonio Tujan, Jr., “this Policy-Research Conference on Trade seeks to address the issue of trade liberalization in its full complexities, and (is) not just limited to the intricacies of the WTO negotiations. Understanding the inter-linkages of trade with other issues such as the Millennium Development Goals, ODA, bilaterals, the relationship of domestic trade and international trade, the concept and implementation of trade finance coherence and the geopolitics of trade and economic integration are significant points of discussion in this conference.”

Aside from Mr. Tujan, among the international resource persons who spoke regarding concerns on trade and globalization were Mr. Aldo Caliari of the Center of Concerns based in New York, USA, Mr. Riaz Tayob of SEATINI-South Africa, Mr. Goh Chien Yen of Third World Network, Mr. Sonny Africa and Ms. Rosario Bella Guzman of IBON Foundation.  

The Hong Kong People’s Alliance (HKPA) said that as preparations for the parallel activity are being laid out, the APRN conference is a big help in showing the world that Hong Kong people and the peoples of the world are opposed to the WTO.  HKPA is a network of grass-root organizations which include trade unions, community labor groups and organizations that represent migrant workers, students, women, church, human rights, research organizations and regional organizations that are based locally in Hong Kong.

A press conference was held on July 12th were the APRN Conference Statement was presented.  Several newspapers and wire outlets were represented at the media briefing. 

(Conference papers and workshop results are being finalized. These will soon be available for downloading.)

Delegates to the Policy-Research Conference on Trade organized by the Asia Pacific Research Network have pledged to engage in research-education and information campaigns, mass mobilizations, advocacy, and cultural presentations to denounce corporate-led globalization and the WTO. 

Recognizing the need for mass education on the WTO and its components, APRN members agreed to conduct comprehensive education and information drives in their areas.  Others suggested conducting coordinated activities and researches on issues of the WTO, as other members committed to organize forums and symposiums. Still a good number of organizations are gearing up for mass protests and street actions as part of the build-up activities for the MC6. 

APRN’s parallel activity for December MC6 will be the “Speak Out” program on human rights and trade.  The program will focus on an assessment of WTO’s 10 years of existence and how it devastated the lives and livelihoods particularly of the grassroots sectors.  Speakers from different peasants, workers, and women’s organizations will share their experiences and struggles against the WTO and globalization. The “Speak Out” is set on December 10th, to coincide with the 57th anniversary of the International Declaration of Human Rights. 

The Hong Kong People’s Alliance (HKPA) is in-charge of the program and preparations for the series of parallel activities to be launched by various cause-oriented groups against the WTO Ministerial Meeting from December 10-18, 2005.##

The meeting denounces the increasingly desperate efforts of the World Trade Organization to extend the reach of neoliberal globalization through the Doha Round of negotiations.

Panicked by the risk of yet another failed WTO ministerial meeting, the global powers, led by the US and EU, have intensified their drive to secure a favorable agenda for trade in goods, agriculture and services in advance of the 6th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Hong Kong in December.

The current stalemate that is affecting all elements of the Doha Round of negotiations demonstrates the growing crisis facing the WTO. The major powers who are driving the WTO have called for an exclusive, invitation-only mini-ministerial meeting, in Dalian, China this week, in their latest arm-twisting attempt to force concessions from the more intransigent countries.

In agriculture, the rich countries will continue to defend rules that protect their subsidized agribusinesses and domestic lobbies at the expense of developing countries’ agricultural producers, especially commodity producers such as cotton growers, and net food importing countries, further endangering food sovereignty and condemning millions of people to lives of despair and misery.

In manufacturing, the major powers are pushing unbalanced formulas for tariff cuts on non-agricultural goods, including natural resources, which will impact unevenly on local enterprises, jobs and environment in poorer countries.

Many countries, especially in the South, have refused to unlock more of their services to transnational companies and sign away their authority to regulate those services. In Dalian, the EU and US are demanding that all governments submit a minimum number of their services to WTO rules.

We condemn these efforts to expand the unjust and unsustainable neoliberal agenda through the WTO. We are also gravely concerned at the expansion of bilateral and regional ‘free trade’ agreements throughout the region, and around the world, as a way to ratchet up a process that is paralyzed at the multilateral level.

These so-called ‘trade’ agreements act as camouflage for a comprehensive assault on socially progressive economic, social, environmental and labor policies. That assault is given coherence through iniquitous debt conditionalities that are dictated by the IMF, World Bank and regional financial institutions and through convergence of neoliberal ideology and policy across trade, aid and finance.

Our research, and the work of many others for many years, have shown how this neoliberal agenda forces countries into economic crisis, provokes politico-economic conflicts and a destructive competition amongst economic powers that impacts most severely on poor countries.

The people of the region are trapped in the wake of this neoliberal onslaught. This threatens people’s lives and livelihoods, creates misery from job losses and bankruptcy for small and medium enterprises, endangers food sovereignty and biodiversity and fosters the gross exploitation of migrant and domestic workers, indigenous peoples and subsistence communities.

This APRN Policy-Research Conference on Trade has resolved to intensify our research, education, information and action campaigns to expose these impacts and advocate genuine people-centered alternatives.

As part of that commitment and in solidarity with the Hong Kong People’s Alliance, APRN members will return to Hong Kong in December to take part in activities that oppose the neoliberal agenda of the WTO Ministerial Meeting, beginning with a Human Rights Speak Out on 10 December 2005. We also join in the call from the HKPA for cooperation from the government of Hong Kong, SAR China including the immediate allocation of a venue for their activities in December.

July 13,2005
Hong Kong, SAR

With the theme “Bandung in the 21^st Century:  Continuing the struggle for Independence, Peace against Imperialist War and Globalization”, the conference was attended by delegates from 40 organizations from 14 countries in Asia and Africa.  They also include over 50 participants from peasant groups all over Indonesia.

“This conference is a significant effort as we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the Bandung Declaration where people representing half of the world population gathered here in April 18-22, 1955 and called for an indigenous and self-reliant development in Africa and Asia based on cultural and economic cooperation and solidarity” APRN’s chairman of the Board of Conveners Tony Tujan said.

The 1955 Bandung Conference was regarded as the people’s response against fascism and war.  Coming out of World War II, many newly independent countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East celebrated their victorious struggle, but at the same time were concerned with the growing Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Their stance of neutrality while calling for an end to the arms race and atomic weapons, genuine independence and peace especially in the face of the occupation of Palestine or apartheid in South Africa was disconcerting for the United States which called on the so-called free world to join the fight against communism.

ILPS’s chairman Prof. Jose Maria Sison gave the opening message to the conference. He stressed that “people’s movement of today should be guided by the Spirit of Bandung in striving to arouse, organize and mobilize the broad masses of the people against the evil forces of imperialism and reaction. We must fight for national and social liberation, development and social justice, human rights, unjust war and militarism, the rights of all the oppressed and exploited and the aspirations for a just peace and all-round social progress”.

The conference included main inputs and discussions on particular trends and issues of their countries on three main areas: These are: 1) development and economic globalization; 2) independence and the dominance of the US as global superpower with an agenda of global security; and, 3) independence and the “war on terror”. 

Speakers including Michel Chossudovsky, Fidel Agcaoili, Chandrakant Patel, James Goodman, Radha d’ Souza, John Jones and others from different organizations imparted their researches and inputs on various topics on war and globalization. 

Bandung-based peasant organization Aliansi Gerakan Reforma Agraria (AGRA), Consortium on Agrarian Reform (KPA)  and the Jakarta-based Institute for Global Justice (IGJ) hosted the conference.

Unities of the APRN Bandung Conference

The APRN Bandung conference vowed to forge stronger unities among development activists in Asia and Africa against the imminent effects of the wars brought by globalization on peoples and societies.  Delegates have agreed to:

1. Resist increasing militarism in the region;
2. Oppose exploitative international economic policies;
3. Commit themselves to the democratization of the international organizations;
4. Ensure democratic rights of peoples within the countries of the region, including the right to determine their economic, political and cultural (futures) aspirations;
5. To renew the pledge to defend the right of self-determination of peoples against imperialist powers.

Said commitments were included in the conference statement which was widely distributed during the official Afro-Asian Summit.  The APRN secretariat are preparing the conference proceeding and it will be available soon.

My poem is not a weapon of mass destruction
that turns you into ash in a blink

My poem is a clot of cholesterol that sneaks
as stroke in your brain with every bite
af the flesh of native chicken
that you masticate

My poem is a virus that spreads through
fiber optic networks to wipe out
your god, yes, the balance of
your fat bank accounts

My poem is not a weapon
It is the fruit of your greed

English translation by Hasyim Wahid from the Indonesian original of his poem “Puisiku bukanlah/adalah,” written especially for the “Conference on Bandung in the 21st Century: Continuing the Struggle for Independence and Peace Against Imperialist War and Globalization,” held in Bandung, Indonesia on 12-15 April, 2005.

Among the current work of APRN includes the coordinated researches on women labor, workshop-seminar on food sovereignty at the World Social Forum in Mumbai on January 2004, the campaign on the 50th year anniversary of Japanese ODA, and the possibility of hosting the Our World is Not for Sale Coalition's meeting in February 2003. The meeting also discussed the various proposals for the theme of the 2004 conference. Four possible themes were proposed: regionalism, agri-trade and food sovereignty, Japanese ODA, and governance. After much discussion, the meeting agreed on the theme relating to agriculture and food sovereignty for next year's conference to be hosted by UBINIG in Bangladesh.

It was the very first APRN conference held outside the Asia-Pacific region. The conference venue was supposed to be held in Bangladesh following the decision of the Guangzhou General Council meeting in November 2002 with UBINIG as the local co-host. The choice of Beirut was just an alternative venue thus, when it was clear that UBINIG cannot host the conference, Beirut was immediately consider with Bisan Research Center for Development vouching the feasibility of holding the conference in the Middle Eastern city with the nod of the Arab NGO Network for Development (an applying member to the APRN) to act as local hosts.

One of the highlights of the business meeting following the 4^th APRN Annual Conference was the election of the new Board of Convenors. Of the six nominees, the 23 voting members elected the following:

Mr. Antonio Tujan, Jr. representing Ibon Foundation based in Manila, Philippines garnered 23 votes. Ms. Sarojeni V. Rengam from the Pesticides Action Network-Asia Pacific (PAN-AP) based in Penang, Malaysia got 22 votes. Ms. Inoue Reiko hailing from the Pacific-Asia Resource Center (PARC) based in Tokyo, Japan took 20 votes. Mr. Kavaljit Singh belonging to the Public Interest Research Centre (PIRC) based in Delhi, India and Mr. Aziz Choudry from GATT-Watchdog based in New Zealand both got 19 votes.

Immediately following the election, the new Board through the internet chose Mr. Antonio Tujan, Jr. of Ibon Foundation, Philippines as the Board Chairperson. For the Vice-Chairperson, the Board decided to split the term of office for two members. Mr. Kavaljit Singh of PIRC, India shall serve in year 2003 and Ms. Sarojeni Rengam of PAN-AP, Malaysia in 2004.

The Board shall occupy the position for a new term of two years following the amendment of the APRN By-Laws approved during the same General Assembly which changed the regular APRN General Assembly from annual to biannual.

Through inputs and discussions with keynote speakers and panelists from the Chinese academe and invited guests, the participants learned and further understood the development trends in China before and after its entry into the WTO. The conference saw that WTO rules and agreements applied in China had more adverse impacts than benefits to non-commercial farmers, industrial workers, local entrepreneurs and the local finance and banking system. There was consensus that the development realities in China further reaffirm and justify the imperative to broaden and advance the peoples’ opposition to the unfair trade regime imposed by the WTO on developing countries.

The second part of the conference expanded the sharing and exchanges on the impacts of WTO agreements at the country and regional levels focusing on agriculture, labour, finance and investments, legal reforms, women and environment.

To help the conference consolidate and transform its critical opposition to the WTO rules and agreements into concrete actions, an input-discussion on campaign strategies was undertaken. It was pursued, especially in the light of the aggressive push of developed countries to discuss new issues in the coming WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico.

On the basis of collaborating analysis, the conference came up with projects and activity proposals that were forwarded for APRN consideration. Among others were –

1. For APRN to initiate a broad Asian coordination towards the Cancun meeting;
2. Create list serve where people can hook into for information regarding WTO;
3. Create a resource center where people can access materials and dossiers of issues surrounding the WTO;
4. Bring down WTO discussions in countries needing such information; and,
5. Initiate researches in collaboration with APRN and non-APRN members.

Further training and information discussions on the WTO in China and Central Asia have been planned for year 2003.#

The workshop training themed “WTO, TRIPS and the Struggle for Food Security,” aimed to develop the capacity of selected South Asian NGOs in the conduct of research, advocacy communication and related activities. It also aimed to develop networking of Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN) member NGOs in South Asia with other NGOs working in various South Asian countries.

The event was a combination of inputs and insights from the participants. The first day was devoted to inputs and conceptual discussions on the WTO, TRIPS and Food Security. The second day was dedicated to small group workshops. The third day was designed for actual skills training, formulation of strategy and future planning.

The event produced statements from the workshop groups and these statements were presented to a press briefing held in Dhaka on the fourth day. This press briefing also included participation from the Bangladesh Minister of Agriculture.

The workshop training in advocacy is part of the series of skills training conducted by APRN in relation to advocacy on the WTO. The same training was held in Malaysia in 2000 and in Indonesia in February 2001. This training is a continuation of the series and was meant to provide opportunity for greater participation of South Asians.

The event was jointly organized by the APRN, South Asian Network on Food, Ecology and Culture (SANFEC) and IBON Foundation and hosted by UBINIG. IBON and UBINIG are members of the APRN.

The conference aims to discuss the general issues regarding China’s accession to the WTO and to know the impact of its entry to the WTO and to the rest of the world. It also hopes to discuss the implications of the accession on various sectors like agriculture, services, and labor.

The conference will feature keynote plenary presentation, panel discussion and workshops.

Martin Khor of the Third World Network in Malaysia and Mr. Xiaobing Tang of UNCTAD will keynote the conference. Khor will provide the overall presentation on WTO while Tang will talk on the challenges of China’s entry to the WTO.

A panel discussion on the implications on macroeconomics and on the Asia-Pacific political economy is also in the agenda of the conference. Some of the invited speakers are Mr. Deqiang Han from Beijing University and Mr. Manoranjan Mohanty from University of Delhi. A line-up of other Chinese speakers in the panel will be announced soon.

A series of workshops on impact and future cooperation regarding China and WTO have been identified. These include workers on agriculture, labor, financial sector, foreign investment, legal reform and women. APRN members and local Chinese organizations will host the workshops.

The conference expects to gather 100 participants from local organizations in China, APRN members from 14 countries in Asia-Pacific as well as groups from other global regions.

The conference is jointly organized by the APRN Secretariat, Asia Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC), Documentation Actions Groups in Asia (DAGA), Asia-Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM), Guangzhou Workers Exchange Center and the Hongkong Social Security Society.

The training aimed to familiarize the participants with basic concepts of participatory research; provide skills in research design and methods of policy research; provide framework guidance on policy analysis; and familiarize on process of effective practical application of policy research.

Participants of the training were field researchers who have been conducting research studies on the impact of liberalization on Thai agriculture. They were hoping to translate their researches into popular advocacy campaigns for grassroots and policy papers for lobbying government institutions.

The training covered different aspects of policy research, which include concepts of people’s advocacy policy research, process and design, analysis and report, and application of research results in people’s advocacy campaigns. IBON provided the training.

The training was jointly organized by APRN, RRFA and SDF. RRFA and SDF are under the umbrella of Thai NGO Coordinating Committee on Development (NGO-COD), which is a member of the Asia-Pacific Research Network (APRN).

Well known resource persons who have been involved in TNC campaigns were invited to share their experiences. These were Sharon Beder of Wollongong University, Doug Cameron from the Australian Manufacturers Workers Union and Moses Havini from the Bougainville Freedom Movement

The forum focused on the struggle of Australian and Pacific activists in confronting TNCs such Australian-owned mining companies. Speakers also shared their insights on the effectiveness of strategies that Australian activists use in contesting TNCs.

The forum was organised by Aidwatch Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Mineral Policy Institute, APHEDA Union Aid Abroad, Friends of the Earth-Australia, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, and Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.

The conference aimed to compare experiences among APRN members and other groups in their struggle against TNCs, build common and coordinated research agendas and to develop strategies in dealing with TNCs. The conference features inputs, workshops and presentation of case studies in contesting TNCs.

Jane Kelsey from University of Auckland in New Zealand opened the conference. In her keynote paper "Economic and Political Power of Corporations in the Era of Globalisation," she outlined the overwhelming economic and political power of TNCs and the linkages between them, their parent states and the international institutions.

Kavaljit Singh of the Public Interest Research Group in India gave the second keynote presentation. In his paper "Corporate Power and Corporate Profit", he shared the researches done by his organisation on how TNCs amass profit through transfer pricing.

Rick Fowler of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union in Australia opened the second day. Fowler in his talk on "Challenges in Defining Strategies for Advocacy and Protests" shared practical and specific strategies his union are using in contesting TNCs.

Tony Tujan of the APRN in his speech provided a full approach on strategies in contesting TNCs. He stressed the need for organisations to depart from their parochial issues as the global problems brought by globalisation have multi-sectoral impacts.

Case studies in contesting TNCs were presented on the third day of the conference. Kelly Dent from the Transnational Information Exchange-Asia in Sri Lanka spoke about their experiences in campaigning against sweatshop factories in Sri Lanka that manufactured famous brand labels. Stephen Frost of the Asia Monitor Resource Centre in Hong Kong shared their campaigns against toy companies in China that violate workers' rights.

Meanwhile, Sarojeni Rengam of Pesticide Action Network based in Malaysia spoke about their global campaign against agribusiness companies that produce hazardous pesticides, genetically modified seeds and foods. Moses Havini of the Bougainville Provisional Government discussed how the indigenous people of Bougainville, a small island in the Pacific, fought against mining companies that exploit the island and how this led to their autonomy.

Several workshops were conducted in between plenary inputs and case studies presentations. Sectoral impacts of TNCs were the first theme of the workshop. These include impacts on Agribusiness, Labour, Infrastructure and Mega-projects, Consumers, Environment, the Pacific, and Indigenous People.

The second day focused on power and influences of TNCs. There were seven workshops, which include Women and TNCs, TNCs and Trade, TNCs and the State, TNCs and Finance, Lobbying and Public Relations of TNCs, and Militarisation.

The workshops in day three focused on Strategies in Contesting TNCs. There were six workshops, which include Regulation and Self-regulation, Alternatives to TNCs, Solidarity Against TNCs, Targeting the State, Contesting TNCs Finances, and Labor Movements.

The results of the workshops were gathered and sorted by the Secretariat into research agenda, training and others (e.g. information sharing, etc). These were presented to the APRN members in a separate Business Meeting the day after the conference.

The conference was organised by the APRN Secretariat and the Australian organizing committee composed of AidWatch, Public Interest Advocacy Centre, Mineral Policy Institute, APHEDA Union Aid Abroad, Friends of the Earth-Australia, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, and Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.

For conference proceedings, please contact the APRN Secretariat.

The demonstrators, mostly participants of the Asia Pacific Research Network conference and local activists in Sydney trooped to the WB office demanding justice for the murdered students. Armed with colourful banners condemning WB globalisation policies being imposed on PNG and other Third World countries, the rallyists called for vigilance among activists on the damaging impact of WB projects to local communities.

The workshop was attended by 24 participants from 12 countries in Asia including peasant groups and NGO support groups from Bangladesh, India, Korea, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal and Thailand. Aside from the Asians, there were also representatives from the La Via Campesina from Spain and Latin America including Chile and Nicaragua.

The workshop provided a chance for the different networks to come together to discuss various issues that affect peasants and agriculture. The Conference discussed the reality that the outlook in agriculture was alarming as well as negative.

The Penang meeting was organized to bring together the peasant leaders and like-minded NGOs to make the concerns of agriculture prominent, and to develop the particular advocacy strategy to take WTO out of agriculture.

The first days featured presentations and discussions on the other WTO Agreements related to agriculture, as well as sharing on the impacts of the AoA on peasant/farmer production, negative impacts and related issues from India, Indonesia, Nepal, and Thailand.

The second day featured a session to contextualize the AoA and the peasant struggle, and a session looking at the impact of AoA on Third World agrarian systems and economies. This was accompanied by more sharing on impacts on peasant/farmer production and livelihoods in Bangladesh, the Philippines, South and Central America—with a special focus on impacts and implications on rural women. These were followed by special inputs and discussions on the workshop theme, and “Why WTO out of Agriculture” as a position to be taken up; the strategic line and implications of such a position were also discussed. The day ended with discussions on upcoming events in Rome (World Food Summit + 5), in Qatar (The WTO Ministerial), and other future campaigns that groups might work on together.

The final day was abuzz with small group breakout sessions, discussions and planning on options for campaign strategies, and tactics for advocacy; followed by more intensive planning and implementation of these plans at international, regional and national levels. The final session for the day clarified and synthesized these plans, and it was topped with the presentation and finalization of the workshop Statement, mooted as one of the main outcomes of what all participants agreed what was an energetic, intense and worthwhile workshop.

APRN members who attended the meeting were IBON, PANAP, NGO-COD and NESSFE.

According to Antonio Tujan of the Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN), one of the organizers of the conference, "The so-called Japanese aid to Asian countries only serves as a river to impose Japan's conditionalities to recipient countries." He cited as an example the Power Restructuring Program loan given to the Philippines, which required the privatization of the government-run NAPOCOR.

In his paper, Tujan said that the most recent controversial conditionality of aid is the structural adjustment requisites that ensure the implementation of neoliberal policies in Asia. These policies, he added, are only beneficial to investors from Japan and other donor countries and not to the recipient nations.

While aid clearly do not foster economic progress in Asian countries, Andrew Nette of ACFOA, one of the conference presentors, added that conditionalities attached to it undermine national policies, constitutional laws and the need for people's consultation in recipient countries.

The Japanese ODA conference, held on July 18-20 in Manila, was attended by 25 individuals from 21 organizations in 13 Asian countries. The international network Reality of Aid, which monitors the impact of aid around the world, asked the assistance of the APRN last year to organize an Asian conference. Among the presentors were APRN members IBON Foundation, Third World Network, NGO-COD, UBINIG, INFID and APMMF.

By the end of the conference, participants planned a series of build-up campaigns that call for an end to Japanese ODA in Asia. The campaign will culminate in an international conference in Japan in 2003, the 50th anniversary of Japanese ODA.

According to the APRN. the papers presented in the conference would be published in two books, one on Japanese ODA and the other, on aid conditionality.

The objectives of the training were to strengthen global perspectives and analysis on the WTO issues; provide training on basic knowledge on advocacy skills; develop strategies for resistance and struggle; and strengthen solidarity and collaboration.

The training featured inputs on contextualizing advocacy and analyzing the problem wherein participants were able to concretely identify the social issues brought by WTO-AoA. The second part of the training focused on different advocacy skills including Lobbying and Campaigning, Information and Media Advocacy, Alliance and Networking and Mass Action and Struggles.

Participants came from various advocacy NGOs and People’s Organizations from India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. Majority of the participants were from South Asia. APRN members who attended were TIE-Asia, ERAC, PANAP, NGO-COD and incoming member INHURED from Nepal.

SRED, which co-hosted the training is a local group involved in the struggle of the Dalits and other issues that affect the marginalized people in India.

Globalisation is the reason for the worsening of global hunger. It has devastated the livelihoods and lives of millions of peasants, agricultural and other rural workers, indigenous peoples and Dalits, fisherfolk, small farmers and particularly rural women and children as a result of policies of trade and financial liberalization, deregulation and privatization.

The World Trade Organization is mainly to blame for this catastrophe as its policies promote the business interests of transnational corporations. It has opened agricultural markets to the importation of apparently cheap, but unhealthy food. But this is resulting in the dependency and domination by food and agrichemical TNCs resulting in the displacement of domestic food and agricultural sectors.

Such dumping of cheap, subsidized food and agricultural products have led to massive bankruptcy especially for the small peasant farmers, fisherfolk and indigenous peoples, besides threatening the health of poor consumers. This has led to the acceleration of massive landlessness, indebtedness, destitution and migration, besides the increase in displacement, trafficking and violence against women.

Under the stewardship of the governments of the G8 countries, the globalisation process has only benefited Transnational Corporations and the elites of our countries who have been increasingly taking control of the natural resources and land from the toiling peasants. Agriculture is increasingly being corporatised resulting in greater destruction to the environment, to the health of peasants and consumers. This also promotes monopoly control of our food production and distribution.

It is opportune that the 4th Ministerial meeting of the WTO will be held in Doha, Qatar immediately after the WFS+5. We, 28 representatives from peasants organisations, CSOs and NGOs from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Japan, Korea, Chile, Nicaragua and Spain meeting in Penang, Malaysia on 24-26 July 2001 at a strategy meeting organized by PAN-AP, IBON Foundation and La Via Campesina resolve to join hands with fellow peasants and activists from all over the world to raise the demands “End world hunger! WTO out of agriculture!” at the WFS+5 and at Doha.

The World Food Summit + 5 must take cognizance of the role of the WTO and the transnational corporations in the globalisation of hunger and poverty. On the other hand, the World Leaders meeting in Doha must take cognizance of the urgent issues of hunger and agricultural crisis taken up in Rome and accept that the WTO’s policies are mainly to blame.

We resolve to raise our demands “End world hunger! WTO out of agriculture!” in all the preliminary meetings and activities, especially the meetings, demonstrations, caravans and no-food festivals to observe World Food Day on 16 October 2001. We will make this demand reverberate during the World Food Summit +5 and throughout the world mainly through demonstrations in Rome on the 4th and 9th of November and simultaneous with mass actions in each of our countries.

We call on our governments as they prepare for the WFS+5 to take steps to call for a World Convention on Food Sovereignty and Trade. In the light of increasing global hunger, sufficient healthy food for all can only be assured through food sovereignty where everyone, especially the peasants and other small farmers, shall have control over resources for sustainable agriculture as the foundation for food self-sufficiency in each of our countries. Such convention shall negotiate a new treaty that shall subsume food and agriculture trade to the realization of food sovereignty for all, and rescind all WTO agreements related to agriculture.

Gita Pertiwi, an Indonesian NGO working on sustainable environmental development co-organized the three-day workshop with APRN. Members of the APRN Board of Convenors provided the inputs, which include discussion on the historical development of the WTO and the intricacies of different agreements including TRIPS, GATS and AoA.

Bonnie Setiawan of International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), an APRN member organization, presented to the workshop the preliminary result of the APRN funded research on the impact of the WTO AoA and TRIPS on Indonesian agriculture. He argued that Indonesian farmers have no capacity to compete with Northern farmers who produce cheap agriculture products that are flooding into the local market. Northern farmers receive export subsidy from their governments while Indonesian farmers have never had export subsidy.

Those who provided the inputs include BOC members Tony Tujan of IBON, T. Rajamoorthy of Third World Network and Mika Iba of NESSFE. James Goodman of Aidwatch, an APRN member from Australia was also invited to speak.

Carrying the theme, Citizen’s on the Move for Land and Food Without Poisons”, the People’s Caravan traveled over 2500 kilometers through Tamil Nadu, India from November 13-18, Bangladesh from November 17-24 and within Manila, the Philippines from November 25-30. The caravan called for an end to the devastating effects from the globalisation of agriculture and instead advocated genuine agrarian reform, food security, social justice and land and food without poisons.

Over 10 000 people—local farmers, agricultural workers, fisherfolk, students, scientists, teachers, the media, government officials, policy makers, and anti-pesticide and anti-genetic engineering advocates—participated in lively discussion at public meetings, press conferences and educational ‘teach-ins’ at bus stops, in rice fields, in villages and towns. Food festivals, seed exchanges, songs and street theatre celebrated our local initiatives towards more sustainable, healthy agriculture.

The People Challenge Globalisation

The People’s Caravan brought the Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific (PAN AP) together with partner groups in facilitating grassroots action across Asia—giving millions of people a voice to express their resistance to globalisation and its devastating effects.

The caravan was organised by PAN AP; Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED) and Tamil Nadu Women’s Forum (TNWF), India; UBINIG (Policy Research Centre for Development Alternatives) and Nayakrishi Andolon (New Agriculture Movement), Bangladesh; and Kilusang Magbubukid Ng Pilipinas (KMP – Peasant Movement of the Philippines); in collaboration with SHISUK, Bangladesh; CIKS and PREPARE, India; Gita Pertiwi, Indonesia; NESSFE Japan; CACPK, Korea; IBON Foundation Inc.; and Food First, U.S.A.

By coming together, through intercultural exchange, the People’s Caravan was about understanding: Who are those driving and benefiting by promoting the industrial agricultural system? What are their strategies? It was about resistance: How can we resist them and take actions to strengthen this resistance in our own lives and within our own communities? It was about solidarity: How do we translate these actions into creating solidarity with people in other communities, regions and countries and unite towards a common vision that will strengthen our local struggles. It was also about hope, about celebrating our local/ traditional food diversity and knowledge. And finally, and most importantly, it was about reclaiming the right to land, the right to decent livelihoods and the right to safe food for all.

For Rafael Mariano, chairperson of KMP, the caravan brought together farmers from many different countries, from the South and the North, to discuss and compare the effects and challenges of globalisation on their lives.

Individuals shared their experiences on the transition of traditional farming practices to export oriented crop production and what this has meant for them, for their families and their communities—increasing landlessness; hazardous pesticide use; and the potential onslaught of unsafe, unproven experimental genetic engineering technologies.

“Farmers view these … developments with great concern because this threatens food safety, security, health, and livelihoods,” said Sarojeni Rengam, Executive Director of PAN AP.

Rengam said the input on the impacts of globalisation on small farmers in the North from Anuradha Mittal, Co-director of Food First U.S.A. on tour with the caravan in Indian and Canadian farmer, Percy Schmeiser, on tour with the caravan in Bangladesh, provided important lessons for Southern farmers.

In Solo, Indonesia, the seminar—“Strengthening Farmers and Systems of Sustainable Agriculture in the Free Market Era in Indonesia”—informed participants of the agricultural policy of the Indonesian government within the context of globalisation and trade liberalisation.

The impacts of globalisation on agriculture were also the highlight of activities in Korea. Simultaneous demonstrations were held in 171 towns and cities and the leaders of 21 national farmer organisations went on a hunger strike in protest of the unjust, unfair and distorted trading system pushed by the WTO in concert with governments, corporations and multilateral organisations.

The Reality of the Landless

Speaking in Bangladesh on land conversion and the erosion of food security Santi Gangadharan, a pesticide activist with TNWF, said: “As we travel this country we are very happy to find the fields so full of paddy. In our country most of the farmers have been forced to grow cash crops instead of food crops due to the process of globalisation and liberalisation and because the government wants more export earnings. Now there is no paddy. The fields have been converted into flower gardens for export. Due to globalisation many people in the villages have been forced to leave. They have left their traditional homes, entered urban areas and many of them are without even food.”

For the poor farmers of Asia landlessness is on the rise. Local landlords and foreign transnational corporations (TNCs) increasingly grab lands to promote export crop production.

So severe is the crisis in the Philippines that the number one mandate for KMP is the struggle for genuine agrarian reform that provides land to landless small farmers and peasants with sufficient support for sustainable rural livelihoods, economies and futures independent of TNCs.

Mariano is critical of the Filipino government’s commitment to the WTO in promoting the World Bank‘s imposition of market assisted land reform, or private sector land reform. This involves joint venture schemes that allow landlords and foreign capitalists to appropriate land.

In fact while the minority of the rich are getting richer an overwhelmingly large proportion of the poor in developing countries are socio-economically worse off then they have ever been. For example, as reported in the 2000 paper by Apo Leong with the Asia Monitor Resource Center, the assets of the 200 richest people are greater than the combined income of the more than 2 billion people.

Sustainable Agriculture

The legacy of the Green Revolution, promoting HYVs and intensive chemical farm inputs like pesticides, has poisoned our food, ravaged our land and left millions of small farmers landless or near landless and hungry. The advent of the ‘Gene Revolution’ will only intensify this trend as the control of our food supply shifts increasingly into the hands of a few large corporations.

The People’s Caravan, while highlighting these issues, was also about hope. It was about celebrating our local initiatives towards more sustainable healthy agriculture that is in the hands of the people, that is for the people, that can really feed our people and free them from dependence on hazardous pesticides and other dangerous agricultural inputs and technologies.

Ganapathi, a sustainable agriculture practitioner from the village of Pudukottai, India, uses an integrated system of crops and animals in his farm to control pests and fertilise his soils. He said: "I use the holistic concept of food production and let nature take care of my farm. I let nature do my work and I do not use pesticides and chemical fertilisers."

The father of sustainable agriculture in Tamil Nadu, India, Mr. Namalvar also stated: " We have already done what has been said to be impossible, to grow food without poisons. We have moved away from hazardous pesticides and fertilisers and made use of available resources to grow our food. I am confident that the whole of Tamil Nadu can produce crops sustainably and profitably. Our aim is to make the villages pesticide free by the end of 2001."

In Elliotganj, Comilla, Bangladesh, a public meeting held within the Pankowri fishing community—a model of sustainable agriculture integrating fish rearing and rice farming—showed communities can resist globalisation by harnessing their own resources.

As Sakiul Millat Morshed, Executive Director of SHISUK (Shikkha Shastha Unnayan Karzakram), organisers of the event, explains: "The strategy … keeps the people out of the 'TNC dependent mentality' and keeps them out of debt. The project has resulted in reduced pesticide use, and a reduction in fertilser use that has resulted in an increase in the natural fertility of the land. This farming system can help implement integrated pest management (IPM)."

While in Bangladesh the People’s Caravan also visited numerous Nayakrishi Andolon farms and villages—a farmer led movement of sustainable agriculture spreading throughout the country representing over 50 000 farming families.

We Come in Solidarity

In Trichy, India, Tony Tujan, executive editor of IBON Foundation, said: “As sustainable agriculture practitioners, we have shown the world that we can grow food without poisons. We must all come together to challenge industrialised agriculture and agrochemical TNCs."

The culmination of the People’s Caravan in the Philippines coincided with the growing People’s Movement protesting their disillusionment and dissatisfaction with the Estrada administration.

On November 30 in front of over 50 000 people, Veerapon Sopa, Advisor to the Assembly of the Poor, Thailand, and Rengam gave impassioned speeches to the crowd gathered in support of the resignation of Estrada.

Rengam said: “We come in solidarity, in support of your struggles against pesticide poisoning, against the release of genetically engineered organisms and crops. Marginalised communities all over the world are fighting back against the ruthless tactics of transnational corporations who want to control our food production, who want to control our livelihoods, who want to control you. Resist these forces, stand up to them, come together and fight for land and food without poisons!”

At the conference in Jakarta in August last year, APRN had received proposals from members and non-members for coordinated activities including research and training.  The long list of proposals had been circulated to the members for comments and this resulted to rationalized plans for implementation.

The BOC approved the following activities for the year 2001, including tentative venue and date.

• Workshop on the WTO, Indonesia, February
• Conference on Japanese ODA and Aid Conditionalities, Bangkok or Manila, May
• Workshop on the Impact of WTO on Rural Women with advocacy component, India, June
• WTO-AoA Strategy workshop, Bangkok, July
• Training on Communication for Advocacy for South Asians, Bangladesh, August
• 3^rd Annual APRN Conference, Sydney, September 26-29

Under the APRN’s small research grant program, the BOC approved research proposals of four APRN members.  These researches include The Neo-liberal Agenda and the Pacific (with focus on TNCs) proposed by Gatt-Watchdog (New Zealand);  Research on Foreign Investments in Laos: Human, Social and Environmental Impact, proposed by Documentation for Action Groups in Asia, Hongkong; Impact of Trade Liberalization on Small Farmers and Rural Communities (With case studies of four cash crops-- rice, maize, longan and onion), proposed by Thai NGO Coordinating Committee (NGO-COD), Thailand; and Human Resource Management Practices in Export Zone TNCs Hiring Policies, proposed by Ecumenical Institute for Labor Research and Education (EILER), Philippines.

The BOC officers who attended the meeting were Tony Tujan on IBON, Mika Iba of NESSFE, Kavaljit Singh of PIRG, T. Rajamoorthy of TWN and Gilbert Sape of IBON. The BOC also invited James Goodman of Aidwatch and heads the preparatory committee of the Sydney conference in September.

One very important development that we have to watch closely is the emergence of privilege classes in the Islands for it is certain that the fates of the Island communities are being decided by the ways in which these groups act, first in relation to their own underprivileged people and, second, in relation to their important connections with each other and with similar groups elsewhere...The privilege have high aspirations because they can generally get what they want through their ability to plug into the wider economy and by strictly regulating the access to the same resources by the others. The underprivileged are poor because of their inability to tap the regional resources and are therefore left to make the best out of what is available in their immediate physical surroundings…It is the privileged who decided the needs of their communities and the directions of developments and whose rising aspirations and affluence entail the worsening condition.

The Rabuka government was seen, at least from the perspective of the workers and ordinary members of the public as against their interest and concerns. The economy remained relatively static and erratic with no real signs of growth. It reduced the costs of doing business; reviewed labour laws, proposed to abolish the wage guideline and to peg wages according to productivity, and to reduce company taxes (Chand 2001:168-169)

When the Labour-led Coalition government came to power in May 1999, they had a ‘people centered’ approach to development. They brought hope to many people. In late 1999, the Labour-led Coalition announced its 2000 national budget. There were huge allocations made to social service sector; notably education, social welfare, poverty alleviation, healthcare and micro-enterprise initiatives for those who want to start their own business. It also proposed and implemented the removal of Value Added Tax on some basic food items, reduced housing rates, electricity and water rates. These were huge gains for many ordinary people, low-income earners and the poor in particular. They reversed the privatization of the Airports Fiji Ltd, though they did not fully implement the reversal policy.

However, there were mixed reactions from the private sector. On the one hand, the small local businesses were generally pleased with the policy framework for improving their business performances, based in the incentives and concessions made in the 2000 national budget. On the other hand, big local and international corporations were generally not pleased. The Labour-led Coalition proposed to review the tax system to allow for the introduction of capital gains tax and increased company tax, to review certain companies’ monopolies on the power and communications sectors, and to introduce a national wage based on both productivity and cost of living adjustment.

These were major budgetary policies that underpinned its 2000 national budget. However, they became controversial and highly debated at the national level soon after the government announced its 2000 budget. These budgetary policies were indicative of the vast differences of views on how the economy should be run or regulated. In general, the private sector favoured the more free trade market policies, while the then government favoured some regulation on issues of ‘free trade’ and ‘pen market’. The review of the rice quota for import/export was an example of the threat to the private sector. It sets the trend on the Labour-led Coalition government’s future economic policies and work relationships with the private sector. In other words, one could expect a lot more government participation in economic and trade matters unlike the previous SVT government.

But whatever the merits of government’s intention or the benefits of its reversal policy, the exercise became racially controversial which added to the already growing suspicion among the indigenous Fijians of government’s sincerity on its election promises to act on their concerns. The media organizations, Fiji TV One and the Fiji Times Limited in particular played a crucial role in fuelling suspicion between the government and the indigenous people. The reversal of some of the privatisation deals meant that those who had lost their jobs had the possibility of regaining them. However, this became a racial issue at the level of the unions where there were claims that the reinstatement process was racially biased and did not follow proper procedures.

The Labour-led Coalition government also set up a Commission on Inquiry to look into the tendering process of the privatisation deals and to investigate corruption practices within the civil service, tax evasion practices of prominent indigenous Fijian and Indo-Fijian business persons, the tendering process for the Mahogany and Y2K deals where it was alleged that thousand of dollars changed hands between big companies and prominent indigenous Fijians. The Commission was also responsible for putting together a code of ethics for the Judiciary and the office of the President. Their inclusion in the proposed code of ethics had strong reactions from the indigenous Fijians and members of the legal fraternity and the Judiciary.

This reversal trend and the setting up of a Commission of Inquiry rang alarm bells in the private sector circles and among the indigenous people as some prominent indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians business persons were reported linked with and who were presumed to be involved in the appropriate conduct of the tendering processes. While commentators debated the feasibility of these trends, politically, they became racially explosive issues. Moreover, because of the common belief among indigenous Fijians that high Chiefs cannot be put under the scrutiny of the public, it was considered highly inappropriate for the Labour-led Coalition government to include the office of the President in the proposed code of ethics. Over the ensuing months, these issues became very racially controversial. These economic factors, while not the only ones, led to the coup in May 2000, which saw the toppling of the Labour-led Coalition government from power.

References:

• Chand, G., (2000): Labour market Deregulation in Fiji, in Confronting Fiji Futures,

   

• Akram-Lodhi (ed.) Australia: Asia Pacific Press, Australia National University.

• Hau’ofa, E. (1987): The New South Pacific Society: Integration and Independence in

   

• Class and Culture in the South Pacific ed. A. Hopper.

• Sepchri, A., and Akram-Lodhi, A.H. (2000): Fiji’s economy: the challenge of the future, in Confronting Fiji Futures: Akram-Lodhi (ed.) Australia: Asia Pacific Press, Australia National University

“For many years, it was impossible to imagine that Indonesia could officially host such an international meeting,” Ms. Binny Buchori the Secretarty General of International NGO forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), one of the co-organizers of the conference, said in her welcome speech. She was referring to the dark years of Soeharto dictatorship where such meeting would be a subject to suspicion by the Indonesian authority.

Perfect venue

It was indeed appropriate to hold the conference, which aimed to highlight the issues of debt and poverty in Indonesia. Like many underdeveloped countries in Asia, the impact of financing development is very clear in Indonesia. It has an outstanding foreign debt of US$140 billion and its debt service ratio has reached around 50% of its national spending.

“We find it an irony, that while development is meant to attack poverty, it has resulted in creating more poverty,” Buchori said. She stressed that there is a pressing need for Indonesia to critically question its approach to poverty and promote development.

In a keynote address by the Chief of Logistic State Agency (BULOG), Mr. Rizal Ramli said that the big chunk of Indonesia’s debt went to big corporations which were in a better position to borrow money from the banks. Citing the experience of Indonesia during the financial crisis that hit the region in 1997, these big corporations folded up and left the banking system almost bankrupt due to unpaid loans. To rehabilitate the financial system, the government had to infuse US$80 billion using borrowed money from foreign institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Market-led globalization

“Market led globalization is here to stay,” said Ms. Anh-Nga Tran Nguyen of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in her keynote address to the conference. She said that rapid liberalization and globalization resulted in the Asian financial crisis in the region.

With globalization, the international financial system has become private-sector driven. To illustrate this, she said that in 1998, 84% of the resource flows to developing countries came from the private as compared to only 44% in 1990. While private flows increased, the volume of official flows stagnated or declined. It is notable that of the private flows, foreign direct investment (FDI) is the biggest, followed by foreign portfolio investment (FPI).

“The acceleration of globalization in the 90s has brought more riches to the world economy but also more inequality,” Nguyen observed. The biggest challenge of the 21st Century should be a significant reduction of poverty and inequality among nations, she added. She said that globalization has reduced the policy autonomy of the weaker countries. Government should be stronger and more skillful in putting in place appropriate institutional policy framework and channel capital flows towards productive uses, she suggested.

Nguyen has recognized that NGOs represent a force with which the world has to count. The failure of (the WTO) Seattle meeting is a testimony of the rising influence of NGOs, she concluded.

Research and the struggle against globalization

“The massive protests that hounded the WTO meeting in Seattle is a historic achievement,” said Antonio Tujan Jr., one of the conference convenors, in his introduction to the APRN conference. “It brings into focus many important developments in the global people’s movements that are significant for us NGOs involved in research and advocacy,” Tujan explained.

One of the developments he said was the evolution of a globally coordinated movement capable of launching internationally coordinated mass actions against neoliberal globalization. Tujan stressed that this lies in its foundation in the strong national campaigns and movements in various countries. Militant protest is a key feature that spelled victory against the MAI and at Seattle, he said.

Tujan recognized that another key development that spelled victory is the development of research as a key weapon of civil society and people’s movements in breaking down complicated economic issues into popular form for quick and broad dissemination. “Research has come of age as an important tool for politicalization of economics and for effective development of popular action” he pointed out.

APRN is a product of this new development, Tujan stressed. He said the network is an affirmation of its powerful role and value for achieving democratic participation and real development for the people. The APRN “was an effort to develop and strengthen transnational solidarity and the grassroots movements in various countries”.

APRN on its first research conference in Manila in July 1999 had the theme of trade liberalization and involved extensive discussion on various issues on the WTO. He said that the conference became an important part of the process of preparing for the WTO debates and actions in Seattle, among others.

Development Financing

As a result of the Asian financial crisis and with the campaign of the Jubilee campaign for Third World debt cancellation, the issue of debt, development financing and financial liberalization became contentious issues, Tujan explained.

He said that the financial crisis is the cumulative effects of economic crisis and financial liberalization sharpened the focus of critique and protest on the neoliberal policies of the IMF and the World Bank enunciated in the so-called Washington consensus.

As people’s researchers, we need to give flesh to the issues of debt and aid through our research and simplify these issues for our people, Tujan said. Most importantly, he stressed that there is a need to explain the problem of development financing within the context of the lopsided global financial system dominated by global banking system and financial monopolies.

Tujan said the theme of Poverty and Financing Development was chosen to highlight the issues on debt and poverty and to add to the effort to create public awareness, identify issues for advocacy, topics of research and point out possible coordinated activities.

Conference proper

The panel of speakers on poverty laid down the different faces of crisis in Asia. In the afternoon of the first day, Dr. Michael Chai spoke on “Poverty and Finance”, he pointed out the weaknesses of Financing for Development. Raja Mohan of Education Research Assistance for Consumer (ERAC) discussed poverty in Malaysia with his presentation “Rural Poverty and Agriculture in Malaysia”.

Micro-credit is not the solution to poverty, stressed Farida Akhter of UBINIG in her presentation entitled “Micro-Credit: The Development Devastation for the Poor.” She said that micro-credit can be seen as the latest development disaster through feminization of indebtedness. Poverty results in migration, explained Ramon Bultron of the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrant Filipinos based in Hongkong. In his paper entitled “Poverty, Migration and Micro Finance”, he outlined the labor export policy of the Philippine government.

Overseas Development Assistance was the focus of another panel in the afternoon. From a trade unionist’s view point, Joei Warnock of Canada Asia Pacific Resource Network (CAPRN) illustrated Canada’s ODA and it’s “tied aid” or aid given only under certain conditions. “Japan ODA: Aid or Loan?” a paper presented by Hisashi Nakamura of Asia Pacific Resource Center (PARC) spelled out the characteristics of Japan ODA and recommended economic cooperation method and directions for improvement.

Greenfield investment is a key component of corporate globalization, argued James Goodman of Australia in his paper entitled “Export Credit Agencies and ‘Greenfield’ Investment”. He explained how corporations promote neo-liberal policies and take advantage of weak nations.

The second day of the conference tackled financial crisis and the liberalization of the financial system.

T. Rajamoorthy of the Third World Network (TWN) spoke about “Financial Crisis and Capital Controls: The Malaysian Experience”. In his presentation, he outlined the financial policies that Malaysia implemented to shield its economy in the era of unregulated capital flows.

Korea was hardly hit by the Asian financial crisis as stated by Serapina Cha MI-Kyung of the Korean House of International Solidarity (KHIS). Serapina assessed the factors that triggered the crisis in Korea and pointed out the weaknesses of government in dealing with such disaster.

While Malaysia may have the strongest currency in the region, the opposite is happening in Indonesia. In his presentation on “Financial Crisis and Indonesian Debt”, Sugeng Bahagijo of INFID narrated how the financial crisis in 1997 pulled down the value of the Indonesian Rupiah.

International creditors such as the IMF infused money to troubled economy so they could pay back their debts. This was discussed by Rosario Bella Guzman of IBON Foundation in her paper on “Financing Debt”. Creditors imposed neo-liberal policies such as financial deregulation and this led to speculative investments and foreign indebtedness.

Guzman’s presentation was contextualized by Dr. Edberto Villegas in his paper entitled “Liberalization of Financial System: The Philippine Case”. Villegas traced the history of economic reforms that Philippine government as imposed by the IMF and World Bank.

Kavaljit Singh of Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) of India discussed the “Global Financial Architecture: Challenges and Alternatives”. He argued that a new international financial architecture should be put in place and he enumerated the steps, including capital controls, toward this objective.

The last day of the conference focused on the burning issues around the WTO. Cecilia Oh of TWN provided an “Overview of the Current Situation of the WTO” and the context of processes in the negotiations. She said the victory of the Seattle Ministerial Meeting was not a victory over neo-liberal paradigm. However, she said the event gave people time to re-examine the globalization being promoted by the WTO.

Mika Iba of NESSFE of Japan discussed “SPS, CODEX and AoA” under the WTO. She said the stringent international standard set by the WTO on food and other consumer products will only be beneficial to developed countries.

Biswajit Dhar of Research and Information System for the Non-Aligned and other Developing Countries (RISNODEC) based in India outlined the important “Issues Related to Current Agreement on Agriculture Review”. Dhar’s presentation focused on important issues in lieu of the upcoming review such as fundamental imbalance in the structure of the AoA, the implementation of the commitments by developed countries and the ineffective articulation of the vital needs of the developing countries.

The major flaws of the AoA were contextualized by Antonio Tujan’s presentation on the “Impact of WTO Agreement on Agriculture in the Philippines”. Tujan of IBON enumerated the massive impact of the agreement to the lived of peasants and farmers in the Philippines. These include displacement of livelihood due to crop and land use conversions.

The impact of globalization on labor was discussed by Dr. Asad Sayeed of Pakistan Institute of Labour Education Research (PILER) and Apo Leung of Asia Monitor Resource Center (AMRC) based in Hongkong.

Leung explained in his paper “From Security to Uncertainty-Labour and Welfare Reform in PRC” that since the development of market economy which began in 1978, welfare protection for Chinese people has been in steady decline. The economic reforms brought about by liberalization as a result of China’s entry to the WTO has resulted massive poverty and widespread displacement among the workers.

Workshop Resolutions

The inputs through panel of discussants on various issues were followed by workshops in the afternoon. The workshop aimed to flesh out the discussion in the plenary. Most importantly, it hoped to determine new issues and trends and point out areas for research and possible cooperation.

Workshops were facilitated by various organizations. These include workshop on Asia Monetary Fund (AMF) and Asian Development Bank, ODA Monitoring, Poverty Measures. Workshops on Debt Relief and Ending Debt took place on the second day. Workshop on AoA, Labor and Researching WTO happened on the last day of the conference.

These workshops results will be discussed and decided by the APRN members for possible cooperation.

]]> Sat, 30 Sep 2000 11:00:00 +0100 http://www.aprnet.org/index.php?a=show&t=newsletters&i=2 APRN members approved the bylaws of the network in a business meeting on August 24 in Jakarta, Indonesia. The business meeting aimed to discuss organizational matters of the network. The meeting which was attended by 20 out of 23 member organizations, deliberated and approved the seven-page bylaws without revision.

In its articles of incorporation, the bylaws affirms among other things, that APRN shall develop common strategies in research-information work through sharing of experiences and raise general level of capacities in research. Also, it will develop capacity and common research platform to support social movements in their respective countries in the emerging global issues.

As stated in the bylaws, APRN members at the meeting elected the five members of the Board of Convenors (BOC). Those who were elected were Antonio Tujan of IBON Foundation (Philippines), Kavaljit Singh of Public Interest Research Group (India), Mika Iba of Network for Safe and Secure Food and Environment (Japan), T. Rajamoorthy of Third World Network (Malaysia) and Kelly Dent of TIE-Asia (Sri Lanka).

The BOC who will have a two-year term shall be responsible for the day to day operations of the network with the assistance of the Secretariat.

In the same meeting, APRN members also approved the application for membership of four research organizations in the Asia-Pacific. These were Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (Philippines) Gatt-Watchdog (New Zealand), Fiji Council of Churches-Reserch Group (Fiji) and Thai NGO-COD (Thailand).

APRN members agreed that the next conference would be held in Sydney, Australia in 2001 with globalization and transnational corporations (TNCs) as its theme. Aid/Watch, an APRN member organization based in Sydney, will host the conference.

Antonio Tujan Jr. of IBON was elected as chairperson and Mika Iba of NESSFE as vice-chairperson. Gilbert Sape of IBON Foundation Inc. (Philippines) was appointed as General Secretary. The other members of the BOC are Kelly Dent TIE-Asia (Sri Lanka), T. Rajamoorthy of TWN (Malaysia), and Kavaljit Singh of PIRG (India)

Tujan is currently the Executive Editor of IBON and had been instrumental in the formation of the APRN. Iba is the Executive Director of NESSFE and a leading activist in Japan. She had been part of the group that led to the establishment of the APRN.

Under the approved bylaws, the BOC shall be composed of five officers whom, the APRN members had elected in a secret balloting at the business meeting held on August 24. The General Secretary is an appointed position. All officers shall serve for two years.

The training featured inputs on maintaining a databank for research and advocacy needs as well as workshop on thesaurus building. The course is for NGOs which are maintaining or about to start a databank.

It was the second international training that APRN organized. The first was held in Manila in 1999 which was attended by APRN members and non-members.

The workshop was facilitated by Rosario Bella Guzman, Executive Director of IBON Foundation Inc. IBON is a research-education institution which maintains a databank.