Kerala Swatantra Matsyathozhilali Federation (KSMTF)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

The Kerala Swatantra Matsyathozhilali Federation (KSMTF, or the Kerala Independent Fishworkers Federation) is a trade union of small-scale artisanal fishers of the state of Kerala in South India. Small-scale fishworkers had been left out of the political mainstream in the politically charged Kerala province (Kerala elected the firs tCommunist Government in the world in 1957), as both the Left and the Right presupposed that they would only vote under the influence of the Catholic Church.

The KSMTF was responsible for the political awakening of the small-scale fishing community in the early 80s, when they had to struggle to preserve their livelihoods against the coastal trawlers who fleet had rapidly expanded to unsustainable levels. Led by the Liberation Theology-inspired radical clergy, KSMTF took the fight to a political level, leading to far-reaching changes in governance (including a closed season for trawlers since 1988).


External links
KSMTF's own site
Alakal, the newsletter of KSMTF

This article is uncategorized.

Please help improve this article by adding it to one or more categories, so it may be associated with related articles (how?). Please remove this tag after categorizing, but not before.
This page has been tagged since February 2007.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../k/e/r/Kerala_Swatantra_Matsyathozhilali_Federation_%28KSMTF%29_534f.html"