BY EVA CHENG

In the latest attack on a growing struggle by peasants for land rights in Punjab, police raided seven villages in the Khanewal district on June 8. Eight people were arrested. Many more would have been detained had it not been for the militant defence offered by hundreds of peasant women, who held a senior police officer captive for hours.

The authorities' attacks increased after a June 2 gathering of 6000 peasants defied a government crackdown that has resulted in three deaths and hundreds of arrests. A similar gathering in November attracted 10,000 participants with an impressive representation of more than 1000 women.

Women are playing a leading role in the struggle, aggressively repelling police with thapas, a wooden stick traditionally used by women to clean clothes at river or canal banks.

At issue is the military government's move to replace peasants' tenancy rights with an inferior “modern” contract. These contracts pay little regard to the peasants' families' long cultivation of the land, which began under British rule when the land involved was part of “military farms”.

Around 500,000 peasants are being organised by the Punjab Tenants Association. They are demanding ownership of 27,500 hectares. To campaign for their demands, peasant leaders contested recent local elections, winning several seats with massive majorities.

According to the Labour Party Pakistan (LPP), President Pervez Musharraf had agreed to the peasants' demands before the April 30 referendum on his presidency but has now reneged.

The peasants are appealing for international solidarity. Please email protest letters to: General Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan, at <CE@pak.gov.pk>. For more background on the struggle, visit <http://www.labourpakistan.org>. Pictured are Punjabi peasant women defending their land rights earlier this year. Photo courtesy of LPP.

From Green Left Weekly, June 26, 2002.
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