This year’s World Fisheries Day (WFD) will be celebrated by the World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP) around the theme of “Globalization and a Nuclear-free World”.
In a press release, Thomas Kocherry, Special Invitee to the WFFP, points to globalization as a free movement of capital designed to make profits for a few at the expense of the vast majority who do not have the basic needs in life.
Nuclear waste and nuclear energy production are closely connected with sea, fish and fisher people, and the entire sea is under threat of radiation from nuclear plants, the release notes.
In India, villagers in the fishing areas of Tuticorin are going on strike to protest against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant. There will be mass rallies and public meetings in Mumbai,West Bengal, Chennai, Trivandrum, Ernakulam, and many other places, the release says.
WFFP is a world body of trade unions working in 31 countries, fighting for the rights of small-scale fisher peoples. Its registered office is in Spain. It has two co-ordinators, Sherry Pictou from Canada, and Naseegh Jaffer from South Africa. The WFFP General Secretary, Mohammed Ali Shah, is from Pakistan, while the treasurer, Natalia Laino, is from Spain. WFFP was founded in New Delhi, India, on 21 November 1997, and its foundation day has since been celebrated as World Fisheries Day.