Bangladesh peasants organize for Climate Change

Bangladesh, 8 December 2010: Bangladesh Krishok Federation with it’s associate organization, Bangladesh Krishani Sabha organized a climate rally in the southern zone of the country as part of the program “1000s of Cancun” declared by LVC. Hundreds of landless peasants, both men and women victims of climate change gathered in front of the Town Hall of Barisal.

After the rally a procession paraded different streets of the city. Participants expressed their concerns by raising the question about the people who are responsible for their current and prospective vulnerabilities. They reaffirmed their own innocence and their right to justice. During the rally briefings on COP-16 were also delivered.

The people claimed that the current production system which contributes to the climate change should be changed radically for the interest of people and the planet. Thousands of people died in Bangladesh due to the cyclones Sidr in 2007 and Aila in 2009. Nothing can be compensated to equal their lives. History will not spare those who are to blame for this. The victims definitely deserve reparations for the damages to their livelihoods along with justice – allowing them their own way of life.

The protesters bitterly criticised the solutions that world leaders are mulling. They said that the solutions such as REDD, CDM, ago-fuel, GMO, etc  to climate change proposed so far are fake and ridiculous. Participants also stated that “Adaptation and Mitigation Measures” as well as REDD, CDM, ago-fuel, GMO, etc just sound good but their implications are tricky and lead to the continuation of green house gas emissions which need to be reduced under the legally binding framework agreement.

In the rally Badrul Alam as chief guest, who is also Central President of Bangladesh Krishok Federation underscored the need for peasant based solutions to the adverse impacts of climate change  and rejected the current market based solutions that would further risk mother earth. He asked for a new convention on the human rights of the climate proletariat evicted from their living grounds. He called the world leaders to stopping greenwashing with false solutions and to take genuine and effective steps to resolve the climate crisis created by the rich industrialised countries for their profit making game. He asked the official delegates in Cancun Climate Conference to take the declaration of  World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth held in Bolivia this year into consideration to find the way out of what they have done over the centuries. He defended the fact that the ‘small peasants and family farmers are cooling the world’. He added the people around the world could not be a buffer for the luxury of the richest. People all over the world should be united in order to protect their lives, livelihood and mother earth. He expressed his optimism that finally the victory would go with the people. In his concluding speech he also criticised the intervention of the World Bank which already has very bad social and environmental track record.