[Peace-discuss] Fw: [socialistdiscussion] Another mass meeting of peasants in Pakistan

[John W.]

This is the kind of gathering that some fool in Washington would probably
decide to bomb with a drone, thinking that it was a gathering of Al Qaeda
operatives.


On Sun, Mar 29, 2009 at 2:11 PM, unionyes <unionyes at ameritech.net> wrote:

An eyewitness activist report from Pakistan.
>
> David J.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "farooq tariq " <
> farooqtariq at hotmail.com>
> To: "Socialist Discussion " <socialistdiscussion at yahoogroups.com>;
> "socialist pakistan " <socialist_pakistan_news at yahoogroups.com>;
> "resistence peoples " <PeoplesResistance at googlegroups.com>; "saape list "
> <saapenetwork at dgroups.org>; "peoples saarc " <peoplesaarc at yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2009 10:02 AM
> Subject: [socialistdiscussion] Another mass meeting of peasants in Pakistan
>
>
>  Dear all,
>>
>> Another mass meeting of peasants was organised in Lahore Benghali Military
>> Farms today on 29 March at Jallo Park. Over 700 attended the peasant
>> convention organised by Anjman Mozareen Punjab. This was the largest meeting
>> of peasants in the area for years.
>>
>> They demanded the ownership of the land they are cultivating for over 100
>> years. At present, the land is occupied by the Military Farms
>> administration.
>>
>> The peasants came to the convention raising red flags and slogans for
>> ownership. They came on their tractor and trolies. The convention was
>> addressed by the leaders of AMP, some of them came from other districts.
>> Also Labour Party Pakistan leaders spoke and expressed their solidarity and
>> total support for the ownership campaign.
>>
>> Mehr Abdul Sattar, general secretary AMP, Nadeem Ashraf of Renalkhurd,
>> Shabir Choudry of Depalpur AMP, Abdul Ghafar of Kulyana Military Estate,
>> Mian Ashraf and Mohammed Hanif of AMP Lahore and several other peasant
>> leaders addressed the gathering and declared that the campaign will continue
>> till it meet the success and peasants become the ownership of the land.
>>
>> Labour Party Pakistan women secretary Nazli Javed, Maqsood Mujahid member
>> LPP EC and myself spoke at the gathering and expressed their total support
>> for the campaign.
>>
>> This was the fourth large gathering of peasants during the last two
>> months. Earlier such peasant conventions were held at Renalkhurd, Depal Pur
>> and Kulyana Estate where over 10000 have already participated. They are
>> demanding from PPP government to fulfill their promise of granting land
>> ownership rights. Benazir Bhutto promised the peasants in writting that PPP
>> will hand over this state land to the peasants when it will come to power.
>>
>> Over 68000 acres of land in different districts of Punjab is been occupied
>> by Military Farms administration. The land is been main cultivated by
>> tenants who had been  promised by successive governments to give this land
>> to them but failed to implement it.
>>
>> AMP was the first peasant organisation to offer resistence to Musharaf
>> dictatorship when they tried to evacuate them by deception. The AMP launched
>> a movement unprecedented in Pakistan history during 2002, 2003. This led to
>> the arrests, false cases, killings and injuring of many during the
>> resistence. The women played an important role.
>>
>> The AMP has decided to re launch the movement of land ownership.
>>
>> On 17-18 April 2009, a two days peasant conference will take place in
>> Okara Military Farms. It is expected that over 20,000 will attend the mass
>> rally on 17 April.
>>
>> Today, I warned the Zardari government of another long march b y workers
>> and peasants if the demand for land ownership is not accepted till the end
>> of  April this year. I also asked the chief justice to take a sue motto
>> notice of the situation.
>>
>> We demanded from Nawaz Sharif that the land belong to Punjab government
>> and it must decide for land ownership of the tenants.
>>
>> A revolutionary wave is erupting among the Mozareen of Punjab at present.
>> It will lead to another round of mass resistence to the present government
>> on a class issue this time,
>>
>> Report by: Farooq Tariq
>
>
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