The committee for solidarity with land-reform peasants in Egypt's address to the international peasants' conference in Mali On behalf of the committee for solidarity with land-reform peasants in Egypt, I greet you and feel greatly honored to be here in Mali attending this great forum for peasant from all over the world. I would also like to thank Via Campensina, for making it possible for us to be with you today, and talk to you about our thoughts, ideas and struggles. When we were children, we were taught in History class, that Egypt was the "World's Breadbasket" ….Today Egypt import's more than 60 % of its food. Illiteracy, liver and kidney diseases, as well as poverty, sectarian strife, and insecurity prevail. We were always looking towards the future. Today, we talk only about the glories of the past; ancient Egypt and the Pyramids. The Egyptian peasant, though suffering from poverty, tyranny and corruption, has rebuilt his society repeatedly; and though he may, historically, have been among the first to farm the land and to settle in agrarian communities, he may will be among the last to actually own the land.Even after the 1952 Army- led Upheaval announced land reform decrees which partially confiscated feudal land, the state renegaded on its own decrees and evicted the peasants off land that they have been farming for decades…land, that most of these peasants, had fully paid for to the state, and long after the feudalists had been completely compensated for the confiscated land. In Egypt of 1952, the average plot of peasant land was around one hectare per capita. Today it does not exceed 0.4 hectare for the majority of small peasants. Due to the smallness of farmed land plots, and the fact that most small peasants still use traditional farming methods, multinationals in the Agri-business have hitherto been unable to fully penetrate into the Egyptian countryside economy. The solution has been: evicting small farmers from their land whether it be owned or leased via the land reform decree, to pave the way to large modern farms, as demanded by the Egyptian rural capitalists and global corporations, to completely control all aspects of agricultural production and inputs: seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, tractors, harvesters, incubators, poultry and cattle feed. This explains the very aggressive attack on land owned or hired by poor land reform peasants instigated by the living heirs of former big-land owners, and the state. Agriculture land has become a commodity, sold and bought, and used for other purposes than farming, like housing and real-estate speculation. More and more, land has lost its agricultural function and role in food production. Expenses for small peasants, growing grain and vegetables, have soared while the monopoly on marketing of their crops, further undermines their economical return from farming the land, forcing many small farmers to sell their land and get out of the sector completely.What economics can't achieve, then the police, supported by the heirs of former big landowners and the corrupt officials of the Land –Reform Association, will attempt to succeed with violence. Dear present: We all realize that food shortages in the world are not a result of not enough produced, for the world produces more than double its needs in food. But is a result of an unequal distribution among the world's peoples and within each people.Corporate agri-business has actively sought control and hegemony over agricultural production in the world, especially food production, by monopolizing, both, the supply of agricultural production requirements, and the marketing distribution and transportation of food. Thus promoting and integrating so- called modern agricultural methods and enterprises.The multinational giants in agri-business and food industry have pitted farmers from all over the world against each other, creating surplus production of cash crops in an already saturated market, bringing new non-traditional producers in the market, forcing governments to allow dumping of unwanted imports, encouraging third world countries to invest in export-based enterprises, making use of their dire need for foreign currency to pay off their longstanding debts. Promoting, through subsidies, non-sustainable agricultural products demanded by the ever far away world market and not local demand. Always promoting intensive one crop big farms , ever creating greater demand for their industrial output leaving to the farmer, in the North and South, only the risks of agriculture, and an ever growing alienation from his own labor and product. We, in the South, insist on playing a role in the global struggle for food sovereignty, side by side our comrades, the small farmers in the North, we want win together.We reject all divide and conquer attempts, pitting farmers in the North against farmers in the South and vice versa or instigating North-North conflict and South-South conflicts. We see this battle between the small farmers of the world and the multinational agro-industry as a river with 2 banks, the first representing the farmers of the North while the other represents the farmers of the South… For the farmers to win, we must guarantee that the water flows in the river’s bed at a suitable pace, moreover the river’s banks must be equal or nearly equal in height, otherwise one bank might hold back the water whilel the other is overrun by it and the river loses momentum and the land and people will drown. Giant corporations relay on the ignorance and lack of organization of Farmers in the South to play in undermining what farmer organizations in the North have achieved. It becomes imperative for a viable global farmers’ movement to concentrate immediate effort in boosting farmers in the South to fill this dangerous gap.To be more clear :1. the majority of peasants in many Southern countries have no unions nor associations to defend and protect their rights. In many cases, the law and in some cases the constitution of the country may prohibit or even crimi
nalize setting up of any collective or organization by peasants, in flagrant violation of international law and agreements for human and civil rights.2. The majority of existing farmer and worker organizations in the South are government controlled organizations, and the prices of most of cash crops are controlled by state monopolies and large retailers. The balance is tipped against the poorest of farmers. Seeking adequate strategies in confronting the  runaway train of neoliberal policies must take into account these  facts and find ways to shore up the revolutionary capacity in the South.3. The creation of struggle partnerships between Northern and Southern farmers and  a form of international cooperatives may in strengthen both. The north with scientific know-how and powerful organizations and cooperatives, the South with its still rich biodiversity and revolutionary potential. Dear present Can we, together formulate common struggle grounds such as:Blocking multinationals from privatizing irrigation water  and starting an international campaign against water privatization together with environmental organizationsCan we together with labor unions demand a 5 hour work day instead 8 to alleviate unemployment?Can we demand unification of work conditions and wages on a regional level;,  and also demand closing the wage gap between agricultural and industrial workers and even between different regions? All that leading towards theopening of the labor market globally based on unified wages, work conditions and working hours. Dear present For many years we have been a mere activist movement in a single region. Today however, we are a solidarity committee with farmers, concentrating  its attention since 2 years to land-reform farmers as they are currently the most vulnerable of Egyptian peasants.The committee has joined the peasants in their struggle against the state and the living heirs of former big landowners, aided by the state association that supervised, a half a century ago, the land reform decree, but now through corruption has turned into anti-peasant anti-land-reform organization.We attended Mediterranean peasant forum in Barcelona in 2006 and participated in the peasants conference in Sardinia in 2006.Today we are here with farmers from all over the world in Mali to gain experience and learn from you, and to share our experience with you.Our struggle till now has been mainly in resisting the government’s coup against agrarian reform and the agrarian rent law of 1974., and the government’s current plan together with ex-feudalist families depends upon the following:Confronting peasants individually or in small limited groups. Using loopholes in the law to swindle peasants and swindle techniques, and even falsifying court eviction orders, and helped by a rubber-stamp corrupt parlament to pass anti- peasant legislation. Exploiting peasant ignorance with the law and their rights and lack of organization to deprive them and withhold from them documents and deeds proving ownership of their land. The active pursuit of solidarity groups with peasant rights, with slander persecution and arrests as happened in Sarando Kamshish and Dekernis.We have sought as a committee to :1.obtain the solidarity of as many farmers as possible to their comrade farmers evicted or faced with eviction.2. To reveal the role played by the state the police the land reform association and even parliament in evicting peasants and in preventing them from obtaining ownership rights.3.helping farmers obtain deeds and proof of ownership and raising their awareness of their rights and the power of collective action and the necessity of independent organization.4.providing legal aid and volunteer lawyers5. unmasking the hand of big-business in killing of small farmers and depriving them from their farms, as well as the destruction of the small scale poultry and husbandry sector with scare –mongering myths like bird flu epidemic.6. The promotion of international solidarity with Egyptian farmers….which was very evident in Dikerness in 5 2006 and its effects were felt by the local farmers. There are 2 main directions for international solidarity to have effect on the current struggle over landPressure exerted on the government to stop its support to the ex-land masters of the feudal ageAnd the second helping farmers resist eviction and raising their morale, letting them know that they are not alone. On 21 May 2006 at the village dikernis, an army policemen comprising 1000 soldiers and officers, and led by 3 police generals attacked the land of7 farmers (totally 4 hectares)Isolated from the main village. No more than 150 farmers gathered to resist. In front of the gathered European press (Belgium Switzerland France) the farmers were beaten up women were assaulted and thrown in the waterway, foreign journalist were arrested, Egptian ones beaten up as well. But the internatio
nal solidarity which had contributed to this battle from the first moment helped gain the release of all detainees: The European journalists within hours the rst of the detainees after 3 days.Even armed with a court order the plans had failed thanks to farmer resistance, local and international solidarity had foiled the governments plans to prosecute the farmers Egyptian solidarity groups and the file was closed.Local rumors are spreading that the police plans a new attack on the village to evict 10 farmers from their home in the beginning of march.I urge the conference for solidarity with these peasants and to condemn their eviction and to pressure the government to stop evicting farmers from their lawful land Dear presentLet us all remember Mahatma Gandhi’s wise words The world is full of enough resources to feed every person his needs but not enough satisfy everyone’s greed. Thank You.  Basheer Sakr  Committee  e. mail : egyptianpeasantsolidarity@ gawab.com Web site:  tadamon.katib.org My e.mail: sakrbash@yahoo.com                    basher_sr @gawab.com