#Farmers protest Delhi

[todayworldnews2k21]

Farmers Resume 'Delhi Chalo' March On Foot Amid High Security At Shambhu Border

Farmers’ Delhi Chalo March: A group of 101 farmers resumed their foot march to Delhi at 12 noon from the Shambhu border point between Punjab and Haryana amid high security. The farmers are marching to the national capital on foot to press their various demands, including a legal guarantee for Minimum Support Price (MSP).  #WATCH | Farmers begin their “Dilli Chalo’ march from the Haryana-Punjab…

[news-trust-india]

Farmers Protest : संसद कूच के लिए अड़े किसान,दिल्ली बॉर्डर पर सुरक्षाबलों की भारी तैनात

नोएडा। Farmers Protest  अपनी विभिन्न मांगों को लेकर उत्तर प्रदेश के किसान सोमवार को दिल्ली कूच कर चुके हैं। इस कारण दिल्ली बॉर्डर पर सुरक्षाबलों की भारी तैनाती की गई है। इन किसानों के कूच करने के कारण डीएनडी फ्लाईवे पर भारी ट्रैफिक जाम लग गया है। इसके अलावा, चिल्ला बॉर्डर पर भी यातायात बाधित हुई है। City Forest : सीएम पुष्कर सिंह धामी ने हल्द्वानी में सिटी फॉरेस्ट का किया लोकार्पण किसानों के…

[jobaaj]

In case you missed it, here’s what you need to know: Farmers are protesting Again!! But why? In 2020, farmers protested against 3 controversial laws dubbed ‘anti-farmer’ while demanding a Minimum Support Price (MSP). The protest came to an end in 2021 when the three laws were annulled by the government but no guaranteed MSP was introduced.

Thousands of farmers, representing over 200 Unions, are marching to Delhi once again to get their demands fulfilled. Some of these demands are:- An MSP that is 50% higher than the cost of crop production. compensation for the farmers who lost their lives in the protests decommissioning the cases against the farmers who took part in the protests

Pensions for farmers. Debt waivers. Fulfillment of promises made in 2021. But there is something amiss. Why are the farmers protesting when elections are so close and Lok Sabha has almost been dissolved? Wouldn’t it be better to do so when the new government is formed? In 2021, governmental authorities claimed that Khalistani elements had infiltrated the protests. Are separatists provoking an anti-India movement when elections are right around the corner? Is this a farmers’ protest or a political move against the BJP?? Follow Jobaaj Stories (the media arm of Jobaaj.com Group) for more.

[bhaskarlive]

Farmers to resume ‘Delhi Chalo’ march on Dec 14

Farmers, mainly from Punjab, would resume their ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest foot march on December 14 over non-fulfilment of long-pending demands and gave a call for mass gathering at the two interstate borders along Haryana on Friday to express solidarity over completing 10 months of the protest.

Source: bhaskarlive.in

[samacharapp]

Farmers' Protests In Delhi Today Demanding MSP Guarantee, Other Key Reforms; Major Traffic Curbs In Place

Farmers, under the banners of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (a non-political organisation) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM), have been protesting at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13, after their attempt to march to Delhi was blocked by security forces.

From December 6 onwards, more farmers are expected to join the protest, with the march taking place daily from 9 am to 5 pm. The protesting farmers will spend the night on the road.

Farmers' Demands

Speaking to the media on Sunday, Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM) leader Sarwan Singh Pandher highlighted that the farmers have been protesting at Shambhu and Khanauri for 293 days. He criticised the BJP-led government for not engaging in any talks with the farmers since February 18. Pandher accused the Centre of avoiding dialogue and reiterated that the farmers are rejecting contract farming, instead demanding a legal guarantee for the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of crops.

A three-member panel of Union ministers - Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal, and Nityanand Rai - had met with farmer representatives on February 18, but the farmers rejected the Centre's proposal to purchase pulses, maize, and cotton at the MSP for five years. In addition to the legal guarantee on MSP, the protesters are demanding a farm loan waiver, pensions for farmers and farm labourers, no increase in electricity tariffs, the withdrawal of police cases, "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence, the reinstatement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and compensation for the families of farmers who died during the previous agitation in 2020-21. Guramneet Singh Mangat, another farmer leader, mentioned that when the first group of farmers begins its march towards Delhi on December 6, other farmer bodies from Kerala, Uttarakhand, and Tamil Nadu will also organise marches towards their respective state assemblies.

News is originally taken from: https://bit.ly/4geqMPw

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[brightattire]

Farmer Protest: इन मांगों के साथ फिर बातचीत के लिए टेबल पर बैठेंगे किसान

किसान आंदोलन को लेकर आज अहम बातचीत होने वाली है जिसपर सब���ी नजर बनी हुई है. इस बी���, पंजाब किसान मजदूर संघर्ष कमेटी के महासचिव सरवन सिंह पंढ़ेर ने कहा है कि हम पूरी तरह सकारात्मक मइंड के साथ हैं. बैठक से हमें काफी उम्मीद है. हमें पूरा विश्वास है कि बैठक से कोई पॉजिटिव चीज ही निकलकर सामने आएगी. 

[sportyvaibhav]

Why Farmers Roar: Breaking Down the Delhi Chalo Protest 2024😱

In the heart of India, where the fields stretch endlessly, a powerful roar echoes across the land. The Delhi Chalo Protest of 2024 has become a rallying cry, echoing the concerns and aspirations of the farmers who till the soil. As we delve into the depths of this movement, it is crucial to understand the factors that have led to this powerful expression of dissent. The Root Cause :- The root…

[schemes-from-karnataka-schemes]

https://aadaya.com/2024/02/13/farmers-protest-in-delhi/

[timetravellingkitty]

Indian resistance is so fucking funny cause we're such an unserious people. Never stop

[todayworldnews2k21]

Farmers begin 'Delhi chalo' march, demand MSP law, justice for Lakhimpur victims

Farmers, led by Kisan leaders Sarwan Singh Pandher and Jagjit Singh Dallewal, began a foot march towards the national capital on Thursday as part of their ongoing ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest. Around 100 farmers started the march from the Shambhu border. Explaining the decision, Pandher said, “We have been sitting here for the past eight months. In response to accusations that our tractors are modified,…

[workersolidarity]

(subtitles are autogenerated and are not particularly accurate)

🇮🇳 🚜 🚨

MASSIVE FARMER'S PROTESTS OUTSIDE INDIAN CAPITAL AND ACROSS THE NORTH OF THE COUNTRY

📹 Massive protests are confronted with teargas, armed police with rubber bullets and drones as thousands of farmers, mostly in India's northern Punjab region, protest on Tuesday demanding a Minimum Support Price or MSP for all crops to raise farmer's income.

Dozens of Farmer's unions participated in the strikes, calling for a "Delhi Chalo" or March to Delhi.

Police in and around the capital have erected barriers on highways surrounding New Delhi, and have begun firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the approaching farmers.

Tractors, along with thousands of farm hands, are seen in footage nearing the outskirts of New Delhi, in the northern Haryana state, being confronted by officers with gas and smoke bombs, including some dropped from buzzing drones overhead.

Authorities have shut down Internet services in some areas where protestors approach, and have erected concrete roadblocks and barriers, while local officials have banned public gatherings and are deploying extra security personnel.

Officials in New Delhi emphasized that sufficient police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed to all entry points to the city.

Farmers are demanding dozens of changes, including a new MSP or floor price for crops to increase and guarantee farmer income, as well as a full debit waiver, according to local union officials.

Political officials in New Delhi say they're open to talks, with Agriculture Minister, Arjun Munda telling reporters on Tuesday that the Federal government already is "bound to protect the interest of farmers."

"Farmers also need to understand that inconvenience shouldn’t be caused to the public,” Minister Munda said, adding the government was always ready for negotiations with the Farmer's unions.

“We are ready to do everything possible to find a solution to this issue,” he said.

#source

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[metamatar]

(btw NYT's anti china hysteria is getting journalists in india arrested)

In August 2023, The New York Times published a story “A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a U.S. Tech Mogul”. The story investigated whether Chinese funding was being funnelled to advocacy and media organisations across the world to defend the internal authoritarianism of the Chinese state. One of the countries included was India, with a fleeting reference to an Indian digital news organisation NewsClick, which the report said “sprinkled its coverage with Chinese government talking points”.

The report did not suggest that the organisation had committed any crime – let alone sedition or terrorism against the Indian state. But on October 3, the police in Delhi swooped down on the homes of 46 people connected to NewsClick – journalists, staffers, contributors, including academics, historians, satirists – seizing their phones and laptops, subjecting them to hours of questioning, largely about their coverage of protests by farmers and by Muslim women. NewsClick’s founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purakayastha and the head of the human resources department Amit Chakraborty were arrested under the draconian anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

When asked about the police action, anonymous government officials invoked the New York Times article. Indian TV channels – nearly all of which are propaganda channels for the Modi regime – used the NYT story to frame the issue as a question of whether “press freedom” should be respected at the cost of “national sovereignty”.

[...] The NYT story has become a pretext to escalate an ongoing campaign to persecute and imprison some of India’s most courageous journalists, academics and activists on baseless charges of abetting “Maoist terrorism”. [...] NYT’s failure to separate specific issues of financial impropriety, propaganda, and political opinion from each other, I feared, would endanger the courageous work of journalists associated with NewsClick: for example, investigations into the financial scandals involving Gautam Adani, the tycoon who is known to be a close associate of the Indian Prime Minister. [...] The story had mentioned several media platforms (a YouTube channel in the US for instance) without identifying these by name, but had chosen to name NewsClick. It had cherry-picked an inoffensive and rather lame line from a NewsClick video and presented this as evidence of pro-China propaganda: “China’s history continues to inspire the working classes.” I pointed out that this is a simple statement of opinion, and cannot be construed as Chinese government propaganda.

Left-wing softness on China or Russia might harm Uyghurs or Ukrainians, and the political health of the Left itself, but this was hardly a problem for the Modi regime.

[beardedmrbean]

Dozens of Indian farmers marched toward the capital New Delhi on Friday demanding better crop prices, only to be faced by security tear gas and pepper spray.

Farmers had been camped outside the northwestern state of Punjab, considered a breadbasket for India, since February, when police halted their march.

What do we know about the protest?

Dozens of farmers revived their "March to Delhi" campaign, marching on Friday from Punjab along a key highway to Delhi. Protesters held blue and yellow flags.

Police set up heavy barricades of concrete blocks and lines of razor wire some 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Delhi to stop the march in its tracks.

Some of the nearly 100 protesting farmers were able to break through part of the blockade before the police confronted them with teargas and pepper spray.

Indian authorities also suspended mobile internet services along the route of the procession and until December 9, under the pretext of stopping "the spread of misinformation and rumors."

What do the farmers want?

Ahead of the march, farmers' leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said that the protesters would advance as far as security forces allowed.

"We will be only around 100 people so it is not like we can break police barricades," the Reuters news agency quoted Pandher as saying.

Apart from better pay for their crops, the farmers are demanding legal guarantees of more state support for crops and a debt waiver, as well as increased compensation for land acquired by the government several years ago.

"In February, we held four rounds of talks with the government but since then there have been no further discussions on our demands," Pandher told reporters. "We want the government to let us exercise our democratic right to protest."

Farmers in India have a level of political leverage due to their numbers, where more than half of the population of some 1.4 billion depend on agriculture for their livelihood.

In 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government was forced to repeal some farm laws following a year-long farmers protest outside Delhi.

[bhaskarlive]

101 protesting farmers will start Delhi Chalo march on foot today, to enter Haryana

Tens of thousands of protesting farmers, mainly from Punjab, gathered at two interstate borders of Haryana in support of ‘Delhi Chalo’ protest march by a delegation of 101 farmers that will start around 1 p.m. on Friday, for their long-pending demands including legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP) for crops and loan waiver.

Source: bhaskarlive.in

[dailyanarchistposts]

India witnessed the rise of two large protest movements in last 2 years which saw millions taking to streets against the oppressive laws passed by the government. These were the Anti-CAA protests against the discriminative Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and the farmers protests against the 3 pro-corporate farm laws. During the Anti-CAA protests, the loudest voices of dissent have been the women, from housewives to grandmothers, lawyers to students, women across India have been at the forefront of this struggle. This female-driven political awakening has been most jubilantly epitomized by the sit-in protest at Shaheen Bagh, drawing a cross-generational, largely female crowd never seen in India before [1]. Then came the farmer protests, where millions of farmers took to streets to fight the anti-farmer legislation that was passed in the Indian parliament and to highlight the issues of agrarian crisis which has been growing in India for the last few decades. In these protests, there is an unprecedented solidarity being displayed in the daily rallies that draw out thousands of people all over Indian cities. There are no visible leaders calling out to people to protest in one mode or another, yet the country has found a way to speak truth to power [2].

The Shaheen Bagh protest was led mostly by Muslim women, in response to the passage of the discriminative and unconstitutional CAA passed by Parliament of India and the police attack on students of Jamia Millia Islamia University. Protesters agitated not only against the citizenship issues of the CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR), but also against economic crisis, rising inequality, police brutality, unemployment, poverty and for women’s safety. The protesters also supported farmer unions, unions opposing the government’s anti-labour policies and protested against attacks on academic institutions. The protest started with 10–15 local women, mostly hijab wearing Muslim housewives, but within days drew crowds of up to a hundred thousand, making it one of the longest sit-in protests of this magnitude in modern India. The Shaheen Bagh protest also inspired similar style protests across the country, such as those in Gaya, Kolkata, Prayagraj, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. The protesters at Shaheen Bagh, since 14 December 2019, continued their sit-in protest in New Delhi using non-violent resistance for 101 days until 24 March 2020 when it ended due to COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

Most of the women who came to Shaheen Bagh protest were first-time protesters, mostly homemakers, who were standing up to the government [3]. This was the first time they came out on a national issue which cut across religious lines. Some came with their newborns and children and some were grandparents. The women were center of protests and men supported them from the sidelines. They were creative and strategic. They governed their worlds quietly from the background and knew when a crisis needed them to cross invisible boundaries and step into the foreground. They emerged into the public space to collectively confront a looming crisis [2]. Armed with thick blankets, warm cups of tea and songs of resistance, these women have braved one of the coldest winters Delhi faced in the last 118 years [4]. These women were drivers of this protest, joining in irrespective of caste and religion, taking turns to sit-in at the site. They broke down the historically prevailing gender binary of patriarchy and took control. They also destroyed the popular imagination claiming Muslim women as powerless and lacking agency.

Shaheen Bagh in many ways typifies the protest movement that erupted across India as it was leaderless. No political party or organization could claim to be leading the protest. Instead, it was fueled primarily by these women who were residents of working-class neighborhoods of Shaheen Bagh. Since it was a leaderless protest, it could not be terminated by a few prominent organizers [5]. When they tried to “called off” the protest citing interference of political parties and security threats, the women of Shaheen Bagh rejected it and decided to continue the protests. The movement had no formal organizers and thrived on a roving group of volunteers and the local women’s tenacity alone. The lack of leaders also confused the police who are clueless on whom to approach to make these women vacate the site.

The protesters were supported and coordinated by a diverse group of more than hundred volunteers, including local residents, students and professionals. These volunteers organized themselves around different tasks such as setting up makeshift stages, shelters and bedding; providing food, water, medicine, and access to toilet facilities; installing CCTV cameras, bringing in electric heaters, outside speakers and collecting donations [6]. Donations includes mattresses, an assortment of tables that form the foundation of the stage and endless cups of steaming tea that provide warmth on cold winter days. Local residents formed informal groups which coordinated security, speakers, songs, and cultural programs that happened on these makeshift stages. People distributed tea, snacks, biryani, sweets and other eatables at the protest site. Some donated wood logs to keep the protesters warm. Collection drives for blankets and other essentials were organized through social media. A health camp was also set up beside the camped protesters which provided medicines for them. Doctors and nurses along with medical students from different medical institutes and hospitals voluntarily joined for the purpose [7]. A group of Sikh farmers from Punjab came and set up a langer (free community kitchen) in the area.

The space was decorated with art and installations [8]. Stairways leading to the closed shops in the vicinity of the protest circle were transformed into a public library and art centre by student volunteers from Jamia along with the young children of Shaheen Bagh. Protest art became the voice of resistance and dissent during the event, and the area was covered in murals, graffiti, posters and banners [9]. A reading area called “Read for Revolution” had been set up with hundreds of crowd-sourced books as well as writing materials [10]. A nearby bus stop was converted into the Fatima Sheikh-Savitribai Phule library, which provided material on the country’s constitution, revolution, racism, fascism, oppression and various social issues [11]. Public reading spaces were created for the cause of dissent and to amplify the idea of education amongst the protesters of Shaheen Bagh. Since a majority of women of Shaheen Bagh have stepped out of their homes for the first time, this was an attempt to bring these women closer so that they read and facilitate the social change they exemplify. Besides young children, senior citizens, working people, domestic workers and many from Shaheen Bagh and nearby areas were occupying the area, choosing books or picking up colors and chart paper, while some also come to donate their old books and stationery.

लड़ो पढ़ाई करने को, पढ़ो समाज बदलने को (Fight To Read, Read To Change)

The children who were present alongside parents also participated in the protest. Most of these children would visit school in the morning before joining their parents at the protest site, which became an art space for many children [12]. They would express their thoughts and join in the protest through storytelling, poetry, puppetry, singing and painting. Student volunteers engaged the local children in reading, painting and singing, and held informal reading lessons.

Speeches, lectures, rap and shayari poetry readings were held every day [13]. Activists, artists and social workers came and gave talks on various issues faced by Muslims, Dalits, Adivasis, the disabled, LGBTQ people, and all those who are oppressed. The stage is democratic and hosts poets and professors, housewives and elders, civil society groups and civic leaders, actors and celebrities and of course students – from Jamia, JNU to the local government schools. A large number of women participate in open-mics to express their thoughts, many speaking in public for the first time. The protestors read the Preamble of the Constitution which reminds them of their rights of Liberty, Equality and Justice. If the Shaheen Bagh stage had a bias, it is towards women and those, from academia and elsewhere, who can educate them not just on CAA-NRC-NPR, but also the freedom struggle, Ambedkar, Gandhi and the ideas that animate the preamble to the constitution [13]. The chants of “inquilab zindabad (long live the revolution!)”and “save the Constitution” filled the site. At night people would watch films and documentaries which were screened on the site, about refugee crisis, anti-fascist struggles and revolution. Musical and cultural events were also conducted in solidarity with anti-CAA protests. This occupy protest provided an example of how to create a community without government support by voluntary association and mutual aid, make decisions in a democratic way where everyone takes part and decentralize power by having no organizers or leaders who control everything. These elements of anarchist organizing is also visible in the farmers’ protest.

Small and marginal farmers with less than two hectares of land account for 86.2% of all farmers in India, but own just 47.3% of the crop area. A total of 2,96,438 farmers have committed suicide in India from 1995–2015 [14]. 28 people dependent on farming die by suicide in India every day [15]. India is already facing a huge agrarian crisis and the 3 new laws have opened up door for corporatization of agriculture by dismantling the Minimum Support Price (MSP) leaving the farmers at the mercy of the big capitalist businesses.

The farmers protest began with farmers unions holding local protests against the farmer bills mostly in Punjab. After two months of protests, farmers from Punjab and Haryana began a movement named Dilli Chalo (Go to Delhi), in which tens of thousands of farmers marched towards the nation’s capital [16]. The Indian government used police to attack the protesters using water cannons, batons, and tear gas to stop them from entering Delhi. On 26 November 2020, the largest general strike in the world with over 250 million people, took place in support of the farmers [17]. A crowd of 200,000 to 300,000 farmers converged at various border points on the way to Delhi. As protest, farmers blocked the highways surrounding Delhi by sitting on the roads [18]. Transport unions representing 14 million truck drivers also came out in support of the farmers. The farmers have told the Supreme court of India that they won’t listen to courts if asked to back off. They organized a tractor rally with over 200,000 tractors on the Republic day and stormed the historic Red Fort [19]. The government barricaded the capital roads with cemented nails and trenches to stop farmers and electricity, Internet, and water supply were cut off from the protest sites.

Scores of langars, i.e. free community kitchens have been set up by farmer’s organizations and NGOs to meet the food needs of the hundreds of thousands of farmers in the farmers-camps that have sprung up on the borders of Delhi [20]. The farmers came fully equipped to prepare mass meals in these community kitchens with supplies coming from their villages daily. Tractors and trucks with sacks of vegetables and flour as well as cans of oil and milk arrive daily from villages and towns where pooling resources for community meals is a way of life. These langars work round the clock and provide free food without distinction of caste, class, or religion. Supporters of the farm protest often bring almonds, apples, sweets, and packaged water. They even supplied a machine that rolls out a thousand “rotis” every hour. Social media is used to collect blankets and other essentials for these protests who are braving the harsh winter. Many protestors camp on the roadside in the cold Delhi winter and spending nights curled up in tractor trailers. Volunteers have set up solar-powered mobile charging points, laundry stalls with washing machines, medical stalls for medicines, arranged doctors and nurses, dental camps and brought foot massage chairs for elderly protesters [21].

A makeshift school has been set up at the camp, called “Sanjhi Sathh” (a common place) to recreate a village tradition of holding discussions on important issues. Children from underprivileged families who are unable to attend school due to financial issues and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic come to this tent. It has library, which displays biographies of Indian freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, revolutionary Che Guevara, and other books of various genres and newspapers in English, Hindi and Punjabi languages. Dozens of posters with slogans written on them cover every inch of the tarpaulin tents [22]. Farmers also installed CCTV cameras to keep a watch on the protest site and keep a record of what is happening and counter any narrative to discredit their protest. Farmers protest also saw participation of women coming out to protest in large numbers. Women farmers and agricultural workers were riding tractors from their villages and rallying to the protest sites, unfazed by the gruesome winter.

Just like Shaheen Bagh protest, this is a decentralized leaderless protest by hundreds of farmer unions. Even though the negotiations with the government are being attended by representatives of 32 farmer unions, they act as spoke persons who present the collective demand of all farmers. Whenever Government introduces a new proposal, the representatives come back to the unions where they sit together, discuss, debate and decide the future course of action together in a democratic way. Farmers are conducting Kisan Mahapanchayats (public meetings) which are attended by hundreds of thousands of people in villages around Delhi, UP, Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana to discuss strategies and ways to put pressure on the government. It was this decentralization that made the protest robust and overcome the condemnation around violence during Republic day Truck Rally. Even though many farm union leaders called for ending the protest, the farmers remained steadfast in their decision to not go back till the laws were repelled.

The sites of the two protests mentioned above can be compared to the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) that was set up in Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington by Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters during the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by Police [23]. CHAZ was a nascent commune, built through mutual aid where no police was allowed and almost everything was free.

CHAZ, Shaheen Bagh and Farmers’ protests were occupation protests where the protestors set up a community themselves and created an autonomous zone. If one was against racism and police brutality, others were against religious discrimination and agrarian crisis. The protests were mostly self-organized and without an official leadership. The sites were filled with protest art, paintings, film screenings and musical performances [24]. Just like the mutual aid cooperative in CHAZ, free food, water, snacks and other supplies were provided to everyone. Areas were set up for assemblies and to facilitate discourse [25].

CHAZ was a leaderless zone, where the occupants favored consensus decision-making in the form of a general assembly, with daily meetings and discussion [26]. They slept in tents, cars and surrounding buildings, relying on donations from local store owners and activists. They collected donations for the homeless and created community gardens [27]. Medical stations were established to provide basic health care.

Anarchism tries to create institutions of a new society “within the shell of the old,” to expose, subvert, and undermine structures of domination but always, while doing so, proceeding in a democratic fashion, a manner which itself demonstrates those structures are unnecessary [28]. Anarchists observe what people are already doing in their communities, and then tries to tease out the hidden symbolic, moral, or pragmatic logic that underlie their actions and tries to make sense of it in ways that they are not themselves completely aware of. They look at those who are creating viable alternatives, try to figure out what might be the larger implications of what they are already doing, and then offer those ideas back, not as prescriptions, but as contributions [28]. They understand that people are already forming self-organized communities when the state has failed them and we can learn a lot about direct action and mutual aid from these communities.

Direct democratic decision making, decentralization of power, solidarity, mutual aid and voluntary association are the core principles of anarchist organizing. Anarchists employ direct action, disrupting and protesting against unjust hierarchy, and self-managing their lives through the creation of counter-institutions such as communes and non-hierarchical collectives. Decision-making is handled in an anti-authoritarian way, with everyone having equal say in each decision. They participate in all discussions in order to build a rough consensus among members of the group without the need of a leader or a leading group. Anarchists organize themselves to occupy and reclaim public spaces where art, poetry and music are blended to display the anarchist ideals. Squatting is a way to regain public space from the capitalist market or an authoritarian state and also being an example of direct action. We can find elements of these in all these protests and that is the reason for their robustness and success. It bursts the myth that you need a centralized chain of command with small group of leaders on top who decide the strategies and a very large group of followers who blindly obey those decisions for the sustenance and success of large scale organizing. All these protests were leaderless protests where people themselves decided and came to a consensus on the course of action to be followed in a democratic way. When people decide to take decisions themselves and coordinate with each other in small communities by providing aid to each other, it creates the strongest form of democracy and solidarity.

The fact that these protests happened, with so many people collectively organizing and cooperating, for such a long duration, shows us that we can self-organize and create communities without external institutions and it can be civilized and more democratic than the autocratic bureaucracy and authoritarian governments which concentrate all power and oppress people. These protests were driven by mostly by uneducated women, poor farmers and people from other marginalized communities, who showed that they can create communities which are more moral and egalitarian, than those that exist in hierarchical societies with the affluent and highly educated. They showed that people who are oppressed and underprivileged can organize themselves into communities of mutual aid and direct democracy which eliminates a need for coercive hierarchical systems of governance which exist only to exploit them.

What these occupy protests show us is that we can form communities and collectively organize various forms of democratic decision making simultaneously providing everyone their basic needs. There protests show us models of community organizing in large scales comprising hundreds of thousands of people. Even though they are not perfect we can learn the ideas these protests emulate – of solidarity, mutual aid, direct democracy, decentralization of power and try to recreate these in our lives and communities.

References

[1]

H. E. Petersen and S. Azizur Rahman, “‘Modi is afraid’: women take lead in India’s citizenship protests,” The Guardian, 21 January 2020.

[2]

N. Badwar, “Speaking truth to power, in Shaheen Bagh and beyond,” Livemint, 17 January 2020.

[3]

B. Kuchay, “Shaheen Bagh protesters pledge to fight, seek rollback of CAA law,” Al Jazeera, 15 January 2020.

[4]

“Shaheen Bagh: The women occupying Delhi street against citizenship law — ‘I don’t want to die proving I am Indian’,” BBC, 4 January 2020.

[5]

K. Sarfaraz, “Shaheen Bagh protest organiser calls it off, can’t get people to vacate,” The Hindustan Times, 2 January 2020.

[6]

“The volunteers of Shaheen Bagh,” The Telegraph (Culcutta), 24 December 2019.

[7]

“Behind Shaheen Bagh’s Women, An Army of Students, Doctors & Locals,” The Quint, 14 January 2020.

[8]

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[9]

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[brightattire]

शंभू बॉर्डर पर फिर प्रदर्शन के लिए जुटे किसान, पुलिस ने छोड़े आंसू गैस के गोले

किसान बुधवार सुबह एक बार फिर अपना ‘दिल्ली चलो’ मार्च शुरू करने के लिए अंबाला के पास शंभू सीमा पर एकत्र हुए, जिसके चलते भीड़ को तितर-बितर करने के लिए हरियाणा पुलिस ने आंसू गैस के गोले दागे.