Artists, academicians come in support of worker-farmer rally – The Hindu BusinessLine

As about three lakh peasants and workers — including about 10,000 farmers from Maharashtra who were part of the long march from Nasik to Mumbai — plan to participate in a rally against the Narendra Modi government here on September 5, artists, academicians and intellectuals have come in support of them and demanded the Centre to accept their demands.

Economist Prabhat Patnaik told reporters here on Wednesday that it is easy for the governments to address the issues with the available resources but they have to move away from the “prescription of neo-liberalism” to help peasants and workers. The rally by CPI(M)’s frontal organisations — All India Kisan Sabha, CITU and All India Agriculture Workers’ Union — is to press a 15-point charter of demands. Their main demands include measures to curb price rise and establishment of a universal Public Distribution System. The organisations also want a ban on forward trading in essential commodities.

They also want the Centre to implement concrete measures for generation of “decent employment” and declare minimum wage of not less than ₹18,000 per month for all workers.

Patnaik said the alliance of workers and peasants will defeat communalism. “An alliance of all these classes who are the joint victims of neo-liberalism is the primary instrument for overcoming the neo-liberal order. It is also, therefore, the primary instrument for overcoming the conjuncture which sustains the forces of communal authoritarianism that currently rule the country. This alliance is the means for the ultimate defeat of this sinister trend,” he claimed.

“There is a huge agrarian crisis in the country. More than 3 lakh peasants have committed suicide in the last decade. This crisis is driving lot of distressed peasants to the towns in search of jobs. There are no jobs in towns. They join the enormous mass of unemployed, under-employed and casual employees who are also facing cuts in wages. The economic destinies of peasants and workers have got closely linked under neo-liberalism,” Patnaik added.