Responding to threats with collective action
Fishermen of the Sindh province, in Southern Pakistan, have seen their survival threatened by increasingly unfavourable political initiatives. Under the guise of supposed development programmes, the authorities have inflicted serious hardships on the fishermen. Projects such as the building of luxurious coastal towns, notably Diamond Bar Island City on the twin islands Dingi and Bhundar, or the construction of dams on the Indus River, which drains the surrounding region, threatening directly the lives of fishermen and destroying mangrove swamps, which are natural protections against tsunamis and soil erosion. Fishermen who attempt to resist are the objects of increased aggression. Some of them testified during the seminar to the injustices they suffered while fishing, their only means of subsistance : being forbidden to fish in numerous areas, jetties being destroyed, equipment stolen. A woman from the Jamshoro district told of how her husband was killed by the local ‘sea lords’. Her community, on top of this, had had to suffer while boats were stolen and fishermen attacked by rich landowners. Since then, no fisherman has dared to return and fish, scared of being of brutally beaten or even losing their lives.
| The fishermen present themselves as defenders of rights, and propose democratic solutions. |
A short time before the seminar, 400 people protested against the atrocities committed by the Defence Housing Authority (DHA [2]) which, claiming military powers, forbids fishermen from working in the jetty between Gizri and Karachi. As well as using every sort of violence, including the burning of boats, the DHA has forcibly displaced thousands of local fishermen while acquiring, for a trivial sum, virtually all the land on which these people have lived for generations. The DHA has, furthermore, violated a previous agreement reached with the fishermen allowing them to fish between 6am and 6pm.
Re-affirming democratic values in a charter of fishermen’s rights
PFF activists believe that, in the face of these injustices, it is democratic values that will be able to guarantee good governance and respect for the fundamental human rights of fishermen and all Pakistani citizens. Encouraged by these convictions, the participants unanimously adopted, as a conclusion of the seminar, a charter of demands [3] which urges the government to act immediately to put a stop to the violence inflicted on fisherman. Amongst other demands there is one to free fishermen detained for many years in Indian and Pakistani prisons under the pretext of having smuggled goods across the border, and also another to apply labour laws guaranteeing social security and a minimum wage in the fishing sector. Participants were thus able to demonstrate their commitment to a fairer political and economic system by demanding of the government representatives that the fishermen have their means of existence returned to them, in order that they might live in dignity.
Also read: Résonances Asia N°24 - May 2008
