Apologies Gabe. I thought you had posted the Obit. venantius On 5/3/14, Venantius J Pinto <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks Gabe. > > Wonder what our geniuses say about (Fr.) Thomas Kocherry being an > union leader et all. I mean those who arrogate unto themselves where a > priest belongs; as if they cannot have various natures as Being and > as a being. I believe he has great respect among the various fishing > communities of countries neighboring India, including great respect > among the Pakistani fishing community. > > Years ago we did a piece on him in SAMAR. I remember that one of our > Editorial collective members Anannya Bhattacharje interviewed him. > > Venantius > > > On 5/3/14, Goanet Obits <[email protected]> wrote: >> India's 'social movement legend' dies >> May 4, 2014 mattersindia.com >> >> Thiruvananthapuram: Father Thomas Kocherry, an activist >> priest who helped unite traditional fishermen globally, died >> of cardiac arrest on Saturday. He was 76. He had survived >> four heart attacks in the past. >> >> The death occurred at the Redemptorist House in >> Thiruvananthapuram, capital of Kerala state in southern >> India. The funeral is scheduled for Monday at the Holy Cross >> Church, Muttada, a suburb of Thiruvananthapuram. >> >> The tall, stocky, bald and clean-shaven priest >> helped found the Kerala Swatantra Matsyathozhilali >> (independent fish workers) Federation. He was a >> bitter critic of globalization in India. In 1999, >> he received the Sophie Prize, a Norwegian award for >> environment and development. >> >> A year earlier, the United Nations presented him the "Earth >> Trustee" Award for establishing the World Forum of Fishermen. >> >> Fr Kocherry had made a mark as a union leader, anti-nuclear >> activist and people's movement educator and became a "legend >> of social movement politics in India," says Richard Swift of >> the New Internationalist Magazine who closely followed the >> priest's activities spanning over four decades. >> >> Swift recalled that the priest remained an "inveterate >> optimist" despite getting scores of scars from many battles. >> He recalled Fr Kocherry's slogan, "Every fight, every >> movement, every reform is an optimism." >> >> After four heart attacks, innumerable fasts and 16 >> stints in jail, Fr Kocherry had shown no sign of >> slowing down. His last battle was against the >> controversial Koodankulam nuclear plant in Tamil >> Nadu. He supported the decision of two Catholic >> priests involved in the anti-nuclear movement, to >> fight the general election. >> >> "You cannot talk about social justice without talking about >> the environment," Swift quoted Fr Kocherry as saying. "There >> can be no shortcuts, no depleting of natural capital." When >> not campaigning, the priest traveled through southern India >> conducting seminars for young activists. >> >> The fifth of eleven children, Kocherry grew up in the >> Backwaters region of Kerala, where poor fisher folk used >> small boats to eke a living from the fresh waters that >> parallel the Indian Ocean. The two influences on his early >> adult life were the Church and the radical Left movement. >> >> He studied bachelor's degree at St Berchmans College >> Changanacherry and obtained law degree from the Law College, >> Thiruvananthapuram. He was ordained a priest in 1971. He >> began his priestly life in northern Indian states. >> >> He and three other Redemptorist priests made their living as >> part of the Shore Seine fishery, and helped organize health >> clinics and nurseries among the poor fishers systematically >> exploited by a series of wholesalers and merchants. >> >> He was the first to oppose the use of mechanized boats in >> fishing in India. >> >> In the late 1970s, Kerala fishers started to >> organize and assert their rights on a whole range >> of issues. They set up an organization called the >> Kerala Independent Fishworkers Federation. In 1981 >> Kocherry and fellow leader Joyachan Antony went on >> an 11-day fast in favor of a Monsoon Trawl Ban (the >> breeding season for many varieties of fish) in >> Kerala. Kocherry was arrested on trumped-up charges. >> >> By 1982 the fish workers' struggle had gone national, with >> Kocherry elected president of the National Fishworkers Forum. >> In the mid-1990s he led a nationwide campaign to stop the >> Indian government from opening up the country's fishing >> industry to large foreign trawlers. With 10 million Indians >> dependent on a sustainable fishery for their survival, the >> stakes were high. A militant campaign included marches, fasts >> and blocking of major fish ports around the country. >> >> The Indian government was forced to withdraw the legislation >> -- one of the first and most significant victories against >> corporate globalization. Fr Kocherry, who went on to help >> form the World Forum of Fisher People, understands the >> tensions of fighting for the rights of the fishing community >> in an era of declining global fish stocks. >> >> Although influenced by liberation theology and >> Marxist ideology, Fr Kocherry toward the end became >> very critical both of the Communist Party of India >> (Marxist) and the established Christian church. >> "They become institutionalized, create dogmas and >> rituals and statues of their gods, they become >> power mongering or give in to the power of money," >> he explained. >> >> For Fr Kocherry, the strength of a people's movement lies >> elsewhere. "It must be from the bottom up. The challenge is >> to create an evolving revolutionary structure that never >> becomes institutionalized or ossified by power," he used to >> assert. >> >> Friends used to joke that a megaphone was stuck in >> Fr Kocherry's throat for his voice rose out like >> rolling thunder. If he was loud, he was fast. He >> had no concept of full stops or punctuations, his >> words rushed forth resembling some never ending >> waterfall of sentences. He was heard on Sundays, >> cassock clad, when he stood bowed in front of his >> congregation and God. >> >> On other days he was a savior in another form, wearing a >> khadi dhoti and standing tall in front of politicians, >> police, unions, shipping companies or anyone who dared bother >> his beloved fisherfolk and ruined the oceans. Kocherry is by >> vocation a priest but his Bible and cassock were about where >> his similarity with most other priests ended, says M.G. >> Radhakrishnan in 'India Today'. >> >> He was president of the National Fishworkers Forum for eight >> years since 1982. Once, he travelled 3,000 km in two weeks to >> drum up support against a proposed Aqua Authority Bill that >> gave sanction to hundreds of aqua farms involved in >> industrial prawn culture. >> >> In 1997, he became the first Indian to be awarded the >> US$150,000 Pew Fellowship in Conservation and the Environment >> for his contribution for protecting marine life. >> >> If the 1980s go down as a crucial period in the history of >> the fishworkers movement, then Fr Kocherry is a symbol of >> that battle, Radhakrishn says. A man who understood that in >> all the talk of ecological disasters on land, the coastal >> belt -- where both human and marine life were dying -- had >> been ignored. >> >> In 1981, when he was assigned to Delhi and violent clashes >> erupted between two fishing villages of Anchuthengu, only he >> could boldly walk into the war zone and restore peace: his >> word was final for both groups. The police was not impressed. >> >> When Kocherry protested their brutal methods to control the >> warring fishermen, he was arrested and charged with >> attempting to murder a police official. The priest fasted. >> And the fishermen of Anchuthengu waited. "Days and nights in >> front of the police station for his release," recollects >> Mascerene, a local fisherman. >> >> Not all agitations went smoothly. In 1989, the >> NFF's long march from Delhi to Kanyakumari >> protesting against coastal pollution, assaults on >> the marine environment and the proposed atomic >> plant at Koodamkulam ended violently on the beaches >> of Kanniyakumari where eight fishworkers were >> killed in police firing. >> >> Kocherry fought on. When he couldn't argue in the courts, he >> used the old Indian weapon -- the fast. In 1995, his fast >> led to the inclusion of fishworkers in the Murari Committee >> which was formed to review the 1991 policy on joint venture >> fishing; in 1996, when the government again ignored a >> parliamentary committee's recommendation on cancellation of >> all licenses to foreign trawlers, he fasted until the United >> Front rescinded it. He, says Harekrishna Debnath, now NFF >> head, "personified the struggle of Indian fishworkers". >> >> Not everyone is as complimentary. By attempting to organize >> an unorganized sector, Fr Kocherry has enraged not just >> corporate marine exporters but the trade unions. CITU >> Secretary M.K. Panthe blasted the NFF as an organization >> thriving on foreign money. >> >> INTUC's Kerala boss V.P. Marakkar echoed that, saying: "The >> American fellowship is proof of NFF's foreign links." >> >> Fr Kocherry was unperturbed. >> >> ### >> >> http://mattersindia.com/indias-social-movement-legend-dies/ >> > > > -- > +++++++++++++ > Venantius J Pinto >
-- +++++++++++++ Venantius J Pinto
