Indian fishers strike for jobs and
Eight million fishers and allied workers across "test" vessels under foreign ownership. The
India joined a one-day strike on Thursday, 18 strength of the movement increases the chances
January. Their immediate demand is the of a complete review of the Indian Government's cancellation of all licences issued to joint venture anti-worker, and anti-environment policy for fishing vessels, and any chartered, leased or the management of deep sea fishing.
THE STRIKE WAS CALLED BY THE NATIONAL Fisheries Action Committee Against Joint Ventures (NFACJV), a coalition of groups representing small-scale traditional fishers, medium sized trawler and mechanised boat operators and fish processors. The national trade union federations! also endorsed the strike. Port and dock workers belonging to these unions struck in support of the fishing workers. Strikers and fishers blockaded the harbours of Bombay, Kandla, Porbunder, Verawal, Jamnagar, Mangalore, Madras, Vishakapattinam, Paradeep, Gopalpur, Shankarpur and Diamond Harbour. No ships were allowed to pass during the blockade.
About 20,000 fisherpeople marched to the Governor's residence in Trivandrum, capital of the southern state of Kerala. About 15,000 fisher people picketted the Port Office of Paradeep. Similar numbers of fishers, port workers and their supporters staged "sit-ins' in Jantar Mantar, at the Governor's residences in Bangalore, the 20 International Viewpoint February 1996
(inland) capital of Karnataka state, and the
Government Secretariat in Hyderabad, capital of Andhra Pradesh state.
Most wholesale fish markets were closed, including Andheri in Bombay,
Diamond Harbour in West Bengal, Vasco and Panjim in Goa remained closed. Most processing plants also remained closed all.
In many parts, port and dock workers also supported the strike.
According to Thomas Kocherry of the
(non-affiliated)
National
Fishworkers
Forum (NFF),
"if the rulers have any faith in democracy they should respond to the united power of the fisher people in
India. If they don't cancel the licences, the fisher people will cancel the ruling class in the coming Lok
Sabha
[parliamentary]
elections".
India's 1991
Deep
Sea
Fishing policy throws open deep sea fishing in the country's waters for expoitation eg.
oil, fishing.to joint ventures between foreign and Indian industry, with foreign firms being allowed up to 51% equity. Incentives include easy financing, the supply of diesel at international rates (a fourth of the rates
Indian consumers pay), and reduced import duties on fishing vessels, machinery and parts. Some 194 licences for these completely export-oriented units had been issued by the end of 1995. Major benefactors are the Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan and Consolidated Sea Foods of the USA, who have signed agreements with Indian industrial houses like Mahindra and Mahindra and Tata Chemicals. EXPORT RATHER THAN LOCAL CONSUMPTION
The Deep Sea Fishing policy (DSF) is part of India's shift to an "outward looking", liberalised economy and is aimed at increasing export earnings. It is based on an estimation that only 2.2. million tonnes of fish are being harvested, from an estimated annual potential yield of 3.9 million tonnes. But most of the additional "exploitable" potential is assumed to be mainly in deeper waters (beyond 50 m depth), beyond the reach of Indian boats. Exploiting these fish resources, therefore, requires foreign vessels. The Government says that exports of these landings could increase foreign exchange earnings by up to US $ 500 million per year.
The NFACJV argues that Indian fish landings are not static at 2.2 million tonnes, but may soon reach the estimated annual potential yield. The present landings are almost entirely made by the 180,000 traditional and 34,000 mechanised indigenous craft, and these fishers are well poised, if the same incentives and facilities were offered to them, to venture into deeper waters. Increased export earnings would then accrue to Indian producers instead of to foreign firms. It also argues that, unlike temperate waters, India's tropical waters do not host concentrations of high value fish but rather a large variety of low value fish. This makes reliance solely on deep sea resources unviable, and will force the new, bigger ships to stay inshore, competing with smaller craft.
The new scheme could also lead to a speedy depletion of the fish. Factory ships can process the catch at sea and export it directly, with the Government having no control over actual amounts caught. "The
sustainable development.
gear and vessels which these joint ventures have deployed in India's economic zone have been banned in most of the West and
Japan," says Thomas Kocherryof the
NFACJV. "The industrial trawlers and huge purseseiers idling there have been pressed in to exploit
Indian waters. If these joint ventures become fully operational, they could replace the 8 million fishworkers of this country." Last summer a Soviet joint venture vessel landed some 2000 tonnes of perch and snapper in the West coast port of
Kochi. It would take one thousand hook and line fishers a whole year to catch the same of these amount species, very popular with local consumers.
Fish is a major source of protein for
300 million some
Indians, but Greenpeace estimates that over a third of the world's catch and most of the fish exports from the developing world are used to make animal feeds and fertilisers. Because joint venture units can export all their catch, domestic consumption is threatened. Prices could rise.
A STRANGE ALLIANCE
Artisan fishers and mechanised trawler operators, traditionally enemies, have come together under the NFACJV to deal with an enemy larger than both. Their two year long campaign has included a national strike on
February 4, 1994, a "Black" Day of local actions on July 20, 1994, another national strike on 23 and 24 November 1994, and a hunger strike by leaders in May 1995. They have won the support of all the MPs from coastal constituencies, who have raised the question in Parliament and called for a review of the policy. The largely unorganised workers in the fisheries have won the support of the organised trade unions.
International support for the Indian fishers has also been building up, with
Canadian fishworkers organisations like the New Brunswick based Maritime Fishermen's Union co-ordinating a massive letter writing campaign for the November 1994 strike. In October 1995, Thomas Kocherry, in Quebec City for the FAO anniversary convention, issued a declaration with representatives of several Canadian fishers organisations as well as those from other parts of the world, calling for a ban on the use of destructive technologies like trawling and for management of the fishery by the communities that depend on them for a livelihood.
The response of the Indian government so far has been disingenuous. It set up a review committee headed by P. Murari, the (now retired) bureaucrat who issued the first licences. This committee failed to include representatives of the fishers, and went back on commitments made at meetings not to issue new licences or renew those already issued. The Ministery has violated explicit promises in the Parliament. Both Tarun Gogoi (Ex-Minister of Food Processing Industries which gives out the licences) and present Minister K.P. Singh Deo continued issuing licences even after their promises in the Parliament.
The first, "Marrier" committee was boycotted across the country because it did not represent any genuine fishers. This led to the formation of a new committee, including Thomas Kocherry and three other representatives of various sectors of the fisheries. The various sub committees that travelled to different parts of the country to hear testimonies have all recommended a complete cancellation of licences and a review of the policy, but it is suspected that the Chair will not agree to make this recommendation, nor the Government to accept it. January 18 1996 represents the Indian fishers biggest effort yet to have their voices heard. * For more information contact: National Fisheries Action Committee against Joint Ventures 41/1771, Veekshanam Road, Kochi - 682018, India. Telephone 91-484-370617. Fax: 370914 Notes Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), affiliated to the Congress (I) Party, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) affiliated to the Communist Party of India (CPI), Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), affiliated to the CPI (Marxist), Bharat Mazdoor Sabha (BMS), affiliated to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) and the non-affiliated National Fishworkers Forum (NFF).
International Viewpoint n°274 21
Open letter to President Chandrika