Resensi Buku: PEOPLE MOVEMENTS IN THIRD WORLD

Resensi Buku (Book Review), dimuat di Jakarta Post:

Gerakan-Gerakan Rakyat Dunia Ketiga (People Movements in Third World)
Noer Fauzi (Editor)
Resist Book, Yogyakarta, September 2005
Xvi + 304

Oleh: Nurani Soyomukti

The resistant movement toward globalization will be come the interesting phenomenon to study by any disciplins today. The effort of global capitalist to force neo-liberal system in third world is also facing any protests in all over the world. It is clearly understood that such protests stimulate by the unjust outcomes of third world weakness vis a vis the international institution like WTO (World Trade Organization).In the middle of this month, we have also witnessed big number of people gathering in Hongkong to mark the history that the international people power will never stop along with the international oppression of global capitalist. Most of them are peasants from any country like Korea, Thailand, Indonesia. Philipine, India, and so on. The WTO’s policy has been considered benefecial for “rich” countries as well as they winning the trade war on the agricultural products aginsts the weak poor countries. The people were committed to be in Hong Kong for peace protest WTO ministerial meeting that will only make them more suffer and loose our food sovereignty. For examples, the impact of WTO to the Thailand farmers even worse, the production cost is very high and make them tight up by the debt and many farmers committed suicide since they cannot pay the debt. In Indonesia, many children suffer from malnutrition most of them come from the peasant families who live in poverty. Agriculture products have to sale with the very low price and do not cover the production cost. Young peoples are no longer interest to be farmer, in Japan number of young farmer is decreasing and will make Japanese agriculture disappear make Japan totally depend on food import. While the peasant fight to protect our farming land, the peasant rights violation face by the peasants in Philippine, intimidate, torture, disappearance, and even murder of the peasant. The violation faces by the peasant make the woman peasant responsible for the family and the farming land. The consequences of international unjustice, the movements has been organized by any activists with any perspectives of ideology, tactics and strategies, programs, and even the way how they survive with poor recourses (organizer and funding). When the elites ang governments in the third world speak nothing to the driver of globalization, the people such peasants feel that they have to empowering themselves by political movement.Highlighting the real dinamics of people movements in the third world is the goal of Noer Fauzi when he edited some articles which gathered in a book entittled “Gerakan-Gerakan Rakyat Dunia Ketiga” or People Movements in the Third World.He try to delivers his some observers view in describing different movements of people in defferent countries. Any profiles of peoples movements with their own characteristics from third countries intended to enrich our perspectives in looking the movement. Every (people) movements and organization has its own history. The way they response the oppressing globalization show their weakness and strongnees described by this book. But this book focus on the movements of local people in rural areas that marginalized by (capitalistic) development.But is is clear that the ideas expressed by authors related to the fact that local politics in rural third world is persistently influenced by the actors of both national and global proccess which suffers the poor. It is underlined that not all local people follow the policy toward both local and national government in their country as oftenly come from global capitalist preassure when they want to find real economic activity or expanse the marketplaces. Some the rural people react and even, in most cases showed by this book, organize profound resistance.This book is so interesting as comprising selected writing from observers with sharp views in analysing each movement. The editor select them in order to gain details, context, anatomy, and the dinamic of such movements. To fulfill that goal, it was selected 9 contemporary people movements representing Asia, Latin America, and Africa as third world countries. The movements are: “Movimento Dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST)” or Movement of Rural Landless Workers in Brazil; “Ejercito Zapatista de Liberacion Nacional” (EZLN) or Zapatista National Liberation Army in Mexico; “Föderation der indigenen Organisationen des Napo” (FOIN) or Federation of Napo Indigenous People Organization in Ecuador; Landless People's Movement (LPM) in South Africa; Land Occupation Movements in Zimbabwe; Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) or ‘Save Narmada’ Movement in India; The Assembly of the Poor (AOP) in Thailand; “Pambansang Ugnayan ng mga Nagsasariling Lokal na Samahang Mamamayan sa Kanayunan” (UNORKA) atau National Coordinator of Autonomous Rural and Local People Organtization in Philipine; Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN) or Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago in Indonesia.The effort to contest some organizations of people movements extremely suppoted by clear and deep illustration of each organization. The dinamics of movements that is presented chronologically delivers description about the historical basic of such different sircumstance in today reaction of globalization. The complete situation of people resistance covered by this book offers reader so may perspectives of ideology, strategy-tactic, and programs. Further, readers can learn any challenges faced by movements and how to solve them when resistance as still the idealistic choice for activist.***