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EDITORIAL

While in our part of the world professionals of the presidential elections are being promoted “people”, the Asian civic vitality might well appear rather exotic. And yet through their public and personal commitment, Pakistani women and Indonesian peasants are poking their noses into what clearly is everyone’s business. Indeed their voices strongly remind us that asserting one’s dignity and human rights, as well as building democratic spaces undoubtedly concerns each and every one country of the world.


Each and every one country of the world, naturally includes to-day’s France which would be all the richer for preventing these beautiful flowers called liberty, equality and brotherhood, from withering on the front of its town halls. Indeed these values are only worth anything if actually experimented, lived, publicly carried about by all, a party to a citizen political culture, debated, shared and put into practise. Such is what English-speaking Asia calls “people’s politics”, a deeply democratic notion and not a superficially mediatic one, thus opening the way to a resolutely and radically “popular” political education.


Demagogic utopia? The waves broadcast in this issue of Résonances, show us on the contrary, how capable these values are of generating citizen political practices, efficient and deeply rooted in reality, sunk into the populations’ everyday life, tuned in to the sufferings and hopes of the most impoverished. Miles and miles away, then, from those braggarts of the polls!!!



Frères des Hommes

PARTICIPATING [citizen involvement]

The Indonesian trade-unions, actors of the agrarian reform
Following the violent repressions of which the peasants of Tanek Awu, village of the Nusa Tenggara province in the west part of Indonesia, were victims once again on 21st of June, the Consortium for agrarian reform, (KPA), one of the most important trade-unions in Indonesia, organized on the 22nd and 23rd of July a group of resistance.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  read this article

DEMONSTRATING [public activism]

Pakistani women: their fight for equality between men and women in the eyes of the law
On July 9th in Pakistan over 300 people, including a majority of women, demonstrated in front of the Karachi press club - one of the high places of resistance - against the discriminations suffered by Pakistani women.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  read this article

TRAINING [knowledge for action]

Philippines: peasants and authorities, together in the face of natural risks
Like every year between June and November in the Philippines, this is the peak of the monsoon season in Candaba, municipality of the Pampanga province on the island of Luzon. This period marked by flooding and typhoons leads to the destruction of harvests and the deterioration of life conditions.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  read this article

COOPERATING [sharing resources]

Indian associations rally for the guarantee of employment
Today, in some rural areas of India, labourers work only 100 to 120 days a year. Thanks to the massive intervention and mobilisation of NGOs, trade unions and popular movements, they have been granted the right to work 100 additional days per year.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  read this article

INFORMING [exchanging ideas]

Nepal’s isolated villages embrace multimedia technology
On 6th June in the Community Multimedia Centre (CMC) of Tansen in the district of Palpa in Western Nepal, we are attending the first broadcasting of I too have a story, on the local cable channel of the CMC.
During a two-hour program, several “short-reports”, set up by volunteers participating in training on digital skills and computer technologies, are broadcast on the air.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  read this article

TESTIMONY [culture and solidarity]

India: peasants without lands but not without culture
The tune “Jai Jagat, Jai Jagat - Jai Jagat Pukaare Jaa - Sir Aman Pe Vaare Ja - Sab Ke Hit Ke Vaste - Apna Sukh Bisaare Ja ” resonates in the streets of the small villages of Tamil Nadu in India. As usual, the “jai jagat”, a popular song, accompanies the militants of Ekta Parishad, a gandhian movement of landless peasants, in their padyatra (march), giving them courage and energy for their struggle.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  read this article

PORTRAIT [a meeting with ...]

Shaista Bukhari: a Pakistani feminist
Shaista Bukhari, where do you come from? Which are your roots?
I grew up in a village, Kot Noor Shah, near Multan in the district of Lodhran. My father belonged to a rural area whereas my mother was from urban vicinity. My father worked for the department of forestry of the Government. I was brought up in a rustic environment so naturally my sympathies were with farmers and labourers.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  read this article