Monthly e-newsletter from Focus on the Global South, India


Content summary:

Will 2008 be known as the year of global food crisis? This issue focuses on Food and Agriculture. An article by Afsar Jafri argues that the first priority of the Indian Government should be to strengthen the agriculture sector by increasing public investment, facilitating public control over inputs and the market and strictly regulating corporate investment in agriculture. In short he calls for a reversal of free market reforms in agriculture. S P Shukla discusses the implications of the latest WTO texts on agriculture and non-agricultural market access (NAMA) and urges the Indian government to play hardball. We carry 3 statements on the issue of food; First, by the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty, second, a statement on the WTO and its role in the food crisis and three, a strongly worded resolution from farmers groups in Delhi demanding that agriculture should be left out of the WTO.

Food and fuel are also expected to dominate deliberations in the Colombo Ministerial Meeting of the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) that will be held in August 2008. From July 18-20, people’s movements and NGOs will gather in Colombo, to discuss the contours of a Peoples SAARC. The Colombo call appeals to groups from across Asia to participate and offer a peoples perspective to a hitherto bureaucrat led process.

This issue also reproduces an important statement from Bolivian President Evo Morales on the European Unions’ move to expel undocumented immigrants.

Finally we have a comment on Barack Obama creating history by being the first African-American candidate to clinch a major party nomination for presidential elections in the USA this November.



Contents:

1.    NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS 
1.a. Peoples’ SAARC 2008 in Colombo

 

1.b. Six more Vidarbha  farmers suicides in last two days


2.    STATEMENTS/REPORTS
2.a. Civil Society statement on the World Food Emergency: International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty

 

2.b. Sign-on : The WTO’s Doha Round Will Not Solve the Global Food Crisis – OWINFS Agriculture Group

 

2.c. Agriculture should be left out of WTO: Resolution at Conference in Delhi: Organized by Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security & UNCTAD India

 

2.d. Report from Karachi on Prisoners, by Jatin Desai

 

2.e. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s Detention Should Be Added to the List of the SPDC’s Crimes Against Humanity: Burma Lawyers’ Council

 

2.f. STATEMENT: from Evo Morales, President of Bolivia on EU’s move to expel undocumented immigrants

3.    ARTICLES
3.a. Food Crisis Exposes Failings of India's Agricultural Reforms by Afsar Jafri

 

3.b. Denouement of Doha Round? By S P Shukla

 

3.c. Obama Wins the Nomination, but Can He Win It All? By Matthew Pruter