This year, the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) led the commemoration of the 10th Day of the Landless with the theme “Peasant rise for land! Intensify peasant struggle against imperialist plunder, war and militarism” The People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty, along with the PAN Asia Pacific and the Peasant Commission of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle co-organized the campaign and its activities leading to the global day of action on March 29 and Palestine Land Day on March 30.
This year’s DOTL campaign put the spotlight on massive grievances against the Global North, especially the imperialist US, from its brewing of wars and militarism to the expanding corporate and private capture of the world’s resources, such as land, water, and even data in the guise of climate action.
MARCH 29 GLOBAL ACTION
A total of 190 organizations from 52 countries joined DOTL 2025 online and on the ground. For the March 29 global day of action, 23 organizations from Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, the Philippines, Palestine, and Kenya organized local actions and activities to highlight their campaigns and mark the occasion.
Meanwhile, the DOTL 2025 joint statement of the same title as the theme was endorsed by over 250 mass organizations from 27 countries that “reaffirm their commitment to arousing, organizing and mobilizing their ranks and the broad peasant masses as a formidable force against imperialism.”
The virtual Global Landless Speakout culminated the campaign, with 199 participants from 28 countries. Speakers from Africa, Asia, and Latin America expressed the importance of the unwavering peasant struggle against imperialist plunder, war, and militarism. The Landless Voices: Land & Climate Change outcome was also presented.
Country mobilizations
Indonesia
- Aliansi Gerakan Reforma Agraria Nasional (AGRA) mobilized their community with calls to stop military deployment in every national strategic project in Indonesia, to assert the Peasants’ rights to resources, and to reclaim our food systems.
- ILPS Indonesia and AGRA Nasional organized a series of community discussions, namely;
- Their discussion “Understanding Agrarian Reform in Urban Areas: Building People’s Strategies to Survive the Threat of Eviction” to the urban areas, the immediate calls of the farmers and indigenous peoples who are widely affected by projects of both the government and private corporations. Their issues revolve around resource grabbing from small farmers and indigenous peoples, violent displacement and dispersal, political repression, and attacks on their democratic rights to organize and resist against projects that were decided upon without the community’s consent.
- At Mandalika, AGRA Nasional led a public forum with rural community participants to address key issues facing farmers and landless peasants, culminating in unified demands to end human rights violations, achieve social and economic freedom, formally recognize E Runut residents, provide social aid, protect political participation, and ban harmful pesticides.
- Read the statement of Sosialis Progresif Indonesia (Indonesian Progressive Socialists) calling for peasant land ownership.
Pakistan
- Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT) and Roots for Equity mobilized the peasants, agricultural workers, small herders and pastoralists, and rural women with the following calls: “Stand for peasant women’s rights”, “Junk WTO agreements”, “Defend our Land, Defend our Future”, and “Defeat Imperialsim.” They have also held press conferences reaffirming their commitment to the peasant struggle for food sovereignty, advocating for just and equitable distribution of land while ensuring the right to save and plant local and indigenous seeds, and rejecting corporate control in food and agriculture.
Thailand
- The Northern Peasant Federation, Community Assembly Network of People Living with Forests, and various ethnic groups set up a protest camp in front of Chiang Mai Provincial Hall, calling for the suspension of specific royal decrees related to natural resource conservation in wildlife sanctuaries until the laws can be amended. This was followed by the community of the Southern Peasant Federation of Thailand (SPFT) at Klongsai Patthana, Surat Thani province, a village with successful stories of resistance against land grabbing.
Sri Lanka
- NAFSO led organizations of small fisherfolk and rural youth in Sri Lanka for its Global Youth Exchange and Training Program this March 2025. Just like peasants and agricultural workers, small fisherfolk face destruction of their homes, livelihoods, and sites of political and cultural expression by imperialist forces.
Malaysia
- Tenaganita with Refugee Action for Change – ReAct, stood in solidarity with the peasants struggling for land in their statement “Land is Life: Stand Up and Speak Out for the Landless People.” Read the statement in full here.
Kenya
Philippines
Build up activities
DOTL Campaign Call
DOTL 2025 kicked off with a campaign call to inform members and network of the campaign theme and all the activities lined up for this year.
Zero In: Mindoro
The webinar highlighted the alarming state-sponsored bombings and militarization targeting rural and Indigenous communities in Mindoro, Philippines. These military operations are tied to land-grabbing efforts by foreign investors and corporations, often with the backing of local government units. Human rights organizations have reported cases of gender-based violence, unlawful arrests, and intimidation against those resisting the militarization. Rural and indigenous peoples in Mindoro called upon the international community to release statements of solidarity, provide support, and rally for a coordinated solidarity mission to deliver humanitarian aid and psychosocial support to affected communities in the province.
Landless voices: Land and Climate Change
PCFS and PANAP spearheaded another session of the Landless Voices for this year’s DOTL commemoration, primarily focusing on rural people’s land issues and struggles amid climate change. 43 organizations from 19 countries in Asia and Africa listened and shared about the various cases of land grabbing by development aggression projects such as megadams, ports, and extractives/mining. Some projects pose as “climate-friendly” solutions, with corporate-led “carbon projects” justified by claims of carbon capture to supposedly reduce planet-warming carbon dioxide. In many countries, these projects are publicly financed and incentivized, as pushed by international finance institutions like the IMF-WB.
Advancing PFS in Africa
The webinar brought together voices from the Africa region to expose how imperialist policies, land grabbing, and militarization threaten food sovereignty. Speakers highlighted Africa’s forced dependency on food imports despite its agricultural potential, the harmful impacts of IMF and World Bank interventions, and the promotion of industrial agriculture over agroecology. Discussions emphasized the need for revolutionary resistance, cooperative farming, agroecological practices, and international solidarity.
MARCH 30 PALESTINE LAND DAY
On this day, PCFS featured its members and network from Palestine who are working to promote people’s food sovereignty and are providing support to Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza amid the ongoing US-Israel genocidal war.
Here are some photos of the solidarity actions held last March 30, Palestine Land Day.
