Sunday, July 28, 2013

America's Next Colonies - The Truth Seeker



This video confirms Democracy and Class Struggle view of the Strategy of Tension of US Imperialism operating on both sides of the street has indicated in US Army Manual 2010.

US Army Document mentioned in video here

http://nsnbc.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/special-forces-uw-tc-18-01.pdf

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/greece-alexistsipras-speaks-out-about.html



Demonstration against Vedanta at their AGM - 1st August - 2 pm at London Marriot Hotel




Join us for our major annual demonstration at Vedanta's AGM.
 
1st August, 2pm. The London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square, W1K 6JP.
 

We will bring the defiant energy of the Dongria Kond tribe to London, as they fight the final stages of their 10 years battle for survival against Vedanta's planned mega mine.


Parallel demonstrations are already planned in Odisha and Delhi in India on this international day of action.


Bring drums, placards, banners and lots of energy!


 
 
For more information see our website


JOIN OUR GRASSROOTS SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT TO STOP THIS KILLER CORPORATE!

Vedanta Resources is a FTSE 100 British-Indian mining company guilty of thousands of deaths, environmental devastation, anti union action, corruption and disdain for life on earth. They have become one of the most hated and contentious companies in the world.


In Odisha, India they are trying to mine a mountain inhabited by an ancient tribe – the Dongria Kond – who have successfully fought them off for more than 10 years. Their fight is in its final stages, and we need to mobilise all our energy to ensure Vedanta is kicked out of the Niyamgiri mountains forever. 

Vedanta is now diversifying into oil and gas, and expanding into Africa, Sri Lanka and possibly even the Arctic. They currently operate in Zambia, South Africa, Liberia, Namibia, Australia, Sri Lanka, and across India.
 

Coverage of last year's AGM demo in the Guardian newspaper
 
Since last year’s AGM Vedanta are guilty of a major toxic gas leak affecting thousands of people at their Sterlite subsidiary copper smelter in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu. At their Jharsuguda Aluminium complex they released fly ash over farmland polluting rivers and villages. In Zambia they tried to fire 2000 workers from their Konkola Copper mines and smelter before being stopped by the Zambian Government. One Zambian employee was shot dead at the plant.


At Niyamgiri, Odisha, Vedanta with it’s cronies in the Odisha state government are trying to force their mega bauxite mine through at any cost. They are using police harassment, manipulation, threats and distortion of the legal system to prevent the Dongria Kond from voting against the project in the coming weeks. Forces have even opened fire on women and children threatening them not to oppose the mine.


 But the Dongria are stronger than ever and prepared to fight tooth and nail to save their mountain in these final stages.

Vedanta are supported by the British government, as well as our banks, pension funds and financial institutions. Vedanta is 64.9% owned by CEO Anil Agarwal and his family via various tax havens. Top shareholders include Standard Life, Blackrock inc. and JP Morgan – the same financiers of South African miner Lonmin who shot and killed 34 protesting mine workers in August 2012.

 
Foil Vedanta is a solidarity movement working directly with those affected by Vedanta in India and elsewhere. We are currently trying to get Vedanta de-listed from the London Stock Exchange.


Please join activists who will be rallying in Odisha, Goa and Delhi on 1st August as part of an international day of action to stop this killer corporate and it’s supporters.


We will be rallying outside Vedanta’s Annual General Meeting in solidarity with the Dongria Kond tribe of Odisha.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Aquino employing Marcosian tactics to quell dissent -- CPP



The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemned the Aquino regime and its police forces for brutally attacking demonstrators to prevent them from marching towards the Batasang Pambansa where Benigno Aquino III was set to deliver his state of the nation address at the opening of the Philippine congress.

At least 20,000 workers, peasants, students, urban poor, women and other sectors marched in the streets leading to the Batasan building in order to voice out their grievances and air their demands for jobs, higher wages, land reform, higher social spending, a stop to privatization schemes, an end to spiraling prices of oil and basic commodities and a stop to corruption under the Aquino regime.

"The CPP denounces the Aquino regime for employing Marcosian tactics of suppression against the people's democratic rights in the vain attempt to prevent them from effectively voicing out their demands," said the CPP. "

The Aquino regime carried out a series of measures to stop the demonstrations, including the denial of a 'permit' to hold a demonstration at the Batasang Pambansa, setting up police and military checkpoints in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Bulacan and other nearby provinces where participants where held at bay and prevented from proceeding to Quezon City, setting up road blocks and barriers at the highway leading to the Batasang Pambansa and the deployment of at least 5,000 police personnel to block the roads and prevent marchers from advancing."

Scores of demonstrators were injured when truncheon-wielding policemen mercilessly swung at demonstrators who where trying to bypass the police barricades. At least 40 rallyists, including students, the elderly, women and workers were reported to have been hospitalized or provided emergency medical treatment. "

Aquino is acting more and more like the old dictator Marcos and all succeeding oppressive regimes in employing the full force of the police and military to prevent organizations of the toiling masses to demonstrate in the streets," pointed out the CPP.

"The CPP denounces Aquino's media officials, spinmeisters and yellow media managers for disparaging the anti-Aquino mass demonstrations by highlighting and blaming the rallies for the traffic jam (actually caused by the police roadblocks and barricades) in order to draw attention away from the fact that the people's basic right to assemble and demonstrate were being violated openly and with impunity." "

It is unfortunate that some news reporters made such a big fuss of the fact that some demonstrators threw a few water bottles and a rock or two at the police, but did not seem to mind that hundreds of truncheon-wielding policemen were swinging left and right at the bare heads of demonstrators or that demonstrators who were picked up by the police were being mandhandled and treated like criminals."

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

"The Babies We Don't Care About Today," Laurie Penny on Democracy Now !



British journalist Laurie Penny, a critic of the royal baby hoopla whose latest article, "The Babies We Don't Care About Today," was published in the New Statesman.

 "We can estimate that at least 700 babies were born into poverty on the day that the 'Royal Baby' was born," Penny says. "

And at the moment, the British government is taking measures to make life harder for those children, particularly the children of single parents and teenage, single mothers.

 I want to live in a country where all babies matter and where all families matter."

Monday, July 22, 2013

Elephant in the Room : Afghanistan Drugs and Pakistan



(NaturalNews) Afghanistan is, by far, the largest grower and exporter of opium in the world today, cultivating a 92 per cent market share of the global opium trade. But what may shock many is the fact that the US military has been specifically tasked with guarding Afghan poppy fields, from which opium is derived, in order to protect this multibillion dollar industry that enriches Wall Street, the CIA, MI6, and various other groups that profit big time from this illicit drug trade scheme.

Prior to the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Afghanistan was hardly even a world player in growing poppy, which is used to produce both illegal heroin and pharmaceutical-grade morphine.

In fact, the Taliban had been actively destroying poppy fields as part of an effort to rid the country of this harmful plant, as was reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on February 16, 2001, in a piece entitled Nation's opium production virtually wiped out (http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=gL9scSG3K_gC&dat=20010216&print...).

But after 9/11, the US military-industrial complex quickly invaded Afghanistan and began facilitating the reinstatement of the country's poppy industry. According to the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP), opium cultivation increased by 657 percent in 2002 after the US military invaded the country under the direction of then-President George W. Bush (http://www.infowars.com/fox-news-makes-excuse-for-cias-afghan-opium-c...).

 

CIA responsible for reinstating opium industry in Afghanistan after 9/11




More recently, The New York Times (NYT) reported that the brother of current Afghan President Hamid Karzai had actually been on the payroll of the CIA for at least eight years prior to this information going public in 2009.

Ahmed Wali Karzai was a crucial player in reinstating the country's opium drug trade, known as Golden Crescent, and the CIA had been financing the endeavor behind the scenes (http://www.infowars.com/ny-times-afghan-opium-kingpin-on-cia-payroll/).

"The Golden Crescent drug trade, launched by the CIA in the early 1980s, continues to be protected by US intelligence, in liaison with NATO occupation forces and the British
military," wrote Prof. Michel Chossudovsky in a 2007 report, before it was revealed that Ahmed Wali Karzai was on the CIA payroll. "The proceeds of this lucrative multibillion dollar contraband are deposited in Western banks.

Almost the totality of revenues accrue to corporate interests and criminal syndicates outside  Afghanistan" (http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Afghanistan/US_Forces_Narcotics_Tra...).

But the mainstream media has been peddling a different story to the American public. FOX News, for instance, aired a propaganda piece back in 2010 claiming that military personnel are having to protect the Afghan poppy fields, rather than destroy them, in order to keep the locals happy and to avoid a potential "security risk" -- and FOX News reporter Geraldo Rivera can be heard blatantly lying about poppy farmers being financially supported by the Taliban, rather than the CIA and other foreign interests.

You can watch that clip here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj-b3pB6M7s

So while tens of thousands of people continue to be harmed or killed every year by overdoses from drugs originating from this illicit opium trade, and while cultivation of innocuous crops like marijuana and hemp remains illegal in the US, the American military is actively guarding the very poppy fields in Afghanistan that fuel the global drug trade. Something is terribly wrong with this picture.


Learn more:
http://www.naturalnews.com/034289_Afghanistan_opium_trade.html#ixzz2ZoFZDHlH



AFGHANISTAN - MARCH TO FREEDOM - VIDEO MADE TO CELEBRATE
88 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE FROM BRITAIN IN 1919




TO STUDY THE SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN READ         

SHOLA  JAWID 

http://www.sholajawid.org/update/index_english.html

Trans Pacific Partnership : TPP Wraps Up Another Round: What Does This Mean for You?




Democracy and Class Struggle has been pointing out the dangers of TPP for some time - if you have not heard of it - it is time you became aware of TPP.

Lori Wallach: TPP agreement cuts banks loose, undermines Buy America, hurts food safety and environmental safety, but it's still being put on the fast-track by Obama.

See Also:
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/japanese-movement-against-trans-pacific.html

http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/everyone-but-china-trans-pacific.html

The Filipino People's Struggle for National and Social Liberation by Luis G. Jalandoni

 
picture  Luis J Jaladoni
 
Contribution to the International Conference on Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines



Quezon City, Philippines
19-21 July 2013


By LUIS G. JALANDONI
Chairperson, NDFP Negotiating Panel

26 December 1968 marked the historic event whereby the Filipino people acquired a proletarian revolutionary leadership with the re-establishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Guided by Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Thought, the CPP declared its program for the people's democratic revolution through protracted people's war. Three months later, it founded the New People's Army (NPA) and in 1973 the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

The re-establishment of the CPP was the culmination of an accumulated revolutionary tradition of the Filipino people. They launched more than 200 revolts against Spanish colonialism. Then, led by Andres Bonifacio, they waged the armed struggle for independence against Spain. When US imperialism invaded the country in 1898, they fought against the US war of aggression from 1899 to1913. More than 20% of the population then, that is, 1.5 million Filipinos died in that war of resistance.

The tradition of resisting foreign exploiters and oppressors continued during US colonial rule, also against the Japanese invasion and occupation from 1942 to 1945, and has continued since 1946 against US neocolonial rule and the local exploiting classes of landlords and big compradors. The revolutionary movement is aimed at realizing the national and social liberation of the people.

The revolutionary forces survived the massive attacks of the US-backed Marcos dictatorship from the early 1970s up to 1986. They grew through valiant struggle. They built mass organizations and organs of political power. By 1980, they had established 29 guerrilla fronts throughout the country.
 
In February 1986, the dictator Marcos was overthrown by a people's uprising. Through dint of hard struggle, the revolutionary movement established its presence throughout the country in urban and rural areas with a mass base running into millions and an armed force operating nationwide under the guidance of a central political authority that functions within the framework of the Guide for Establishing the People’s Democratic Government.

Permanent Peoples' Tribunal Sessions on the Philippines 

In 1980, revolutionary organizations in the Philippines and abroad organized the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal (PPT) Session on the Philippines in Antwerp, Belgium. The 10-member international jury, headed by Nobel laureate, US Professor George Wald, declared the NDFP “legitimate representative of the Filipino people”. While judging Marcos guilty of crimes against the people and unfit to govern, the jury declared that the armed struggle of the Filipino people enjoyed the status of belligerency and deserved the support of the international community.

A Second PPT Session on the Philippines was held in The Netherlands in March 2007. The jury headed by Prof. Francois Houtart condemned the US backed-Arroyo regime for crimes against humanity and numerous crimes against the people. Human rights and peace organizations in the Philippines provided compelling evidence based on meticulous research and testimonies of courageous victims of human rights violations.

The Second Great Rectification Movement

The revolutionary forces of the NDFP also survived major internal errors committed by elements among their leadership, many of whom became renegades. The Communist Party of the Philippines launched the Second Great Rectification Movement (SGRM) in July 1992. Its aim was to identify, repudiate and rectify the major errors of subjectivism and opportunism, especially what caused the most damage, namely, insurrectionism, prematurely building big NPA formations and, upon failure of the incorrect line, carrying out an anti-informer hysteria.

The rectification movement was an educational campaign. It was embraced by the masses and the broad membership of the revolutionary movement. It was completed in 1998 and reinvigorated the revolutionary movement. It was reminiscent of the success of t he First Great Rectification Movement from 1965 to 1971, which gave birth to the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People's Army and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines as a consequence of criticizing and repudiating the major errors of the old communist party and the old people's liberation army.
 
After the success of the SGRM, the revolutionary movement has been able to consolidate and expand. It is now rooted in 70 provinces, out of a total 81 provinces. It has built mass organizations of workers, peasants, women and youth, children, indigenous people, urban poor and fisherfolk. The NPA is now operating in more than 110 guerrilla fronts wherein organs of political power form the backbone of the people's democratic government.

Program of Genuine Land Reform

The people's democratic government carries out programs of genuine land reform, health, education and literacy and culture.

With 75% of the 100 million population consisting of the exploited and oppressed peasantry, the program for agrarian revolution is the main content of the revolutionary program. It responds to the basic aspirations of the peasantry.

The revolutionary movement's minimum land reform program consisting of lowering land rent, elimination of usury, and raising of farmworkers' wages is carried out widely. There are also campaigns to increase agricultural production through mutual aid teams in planting, harvesting and distribution of produce, in developing irrigation, vegetable farming, poultry and husbandry. The program is benefiting millions of the rural population.

The maximum program of confiscation of land and free distribution to tillers is carried out where feasible in certain areas where the revolutionary movement is sufficiently strong. The vision for the future, upon nationwide victory, is the free distribution of land to the peasantry with the provision of support services like irrigation, farm to market roads, assistance for mechanization and building of cooperatives and collectivization towards greater productivity for the benefit of the peasantry and the entire population. Nationwide implementation of land reform will be coupled with national industrialization to lift the backward agrarian economy to a developed and prosperous one.

Educational and Health Programs

Revolutionary education on the history of the Filipino people and their culture is widely carried out. So are programs of literacy and numeracy which are enthusiastically welcomed by the masses. Revolutionary schools have been set up benefiting many thousands of peasants and national minorities, especially children and youth. Educational materials and works of art and literature have arisen from the revolutionary struggle. The revolutionary movement has promoted the use of Pilipino as the national language, and regional languages among the people.

Health programs popularize the use of acupuncture, herbal and traditional medicines culled from the age-old practices of the masses. Western medicine is also utilized. These programs respond to vital health needs of the people. Health campaigns like proper sanitation, building outhouses, anti-malaria and people's health clinics have been successful. Health professionals have been encouraged to serve the people in the countryside and in the urban slum areas. They have also trained paramedics to provide first aid and treatment for common illnesses.

Special Office for the Protection of Children

In April 2012, the NDFP National Council set up its Special Office for the Protection of Children (SOPC). It proclaimed a comprehensive program for the protection of rights and welfare of children. A committee has been appointed to carry out and monitor the implementation of the program all over the country. The NDFP has frustrated the repeated attempts of the imperialists and local reactionaries to misrepresent its policy regarding children.

In a statement on July 1, 2013, the SOPC Head, Coni K. Ledesma declared the reports of the UN Office of the Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict on the so-called recruitment and use of children by the NPA as “false, biased and baseless”.

Revolutionary Justice System

The revolutionary movement has a justice system far superior to the corrupt anti-people justice system of the reactionary government. It has won the support not only of legal experts in the Philippines, but also international lawyers. In November 2012, the International Legal Advisory Team (ILAT), was set up to advice the NDFP on international legal matters. It is composed of more than a dozen experts in international law from different parts of the world.

There is a growing number of cases wherein the victims of human rights violations by the regime approach the revolutionary forces to obtain justice. Recently, a teenager was a victim of gang rape by three soldiers of the reactionary army, filed her case before the justice system of the revolutionary forces. She had been denied justice by the soldiers' officers. Furthermore, she and her family were subjected to threats. Hence, she, her family and supportive organizations filed the criminal case of rape against the soldiers before the people's court.

Peace Negotiations

The NDFP has forged twelve bilateral peace agreements with the reactionary government with the aim of addressing the roots of the armed conflict. These agreements, in particular, The Hague Joint Declaration, the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) are of the highest standard and widely appreciated by peace advocates in the country and abroad. In 2004, the Joint Secretariat (JS) of the Joint Monitoring Committee under the CARHRIHL was set up. It holds office in Metro Manila, with both Parties represented in the JS. It is supported by the Royal Norwegian Government, the Third Party Facilitator in the peace negotiations between the Manila government and the NDFP.

The aim of the NDFP in peace negotiations is to address the roots of the armed conflict through fundamental economic, social and political reforms. But the Manila government only wishes to impose capitulation and indefinite ceasefires. Despite the widespread calls of peace advocates, the Aquino government has paralyzed the peace talks after failing to impose its unjust wishes on the NDFP..

Nevertheless, the NDFP Negotiating Panel has declared its openness to continue peace talks. It demands respect for and compliance with The Hague Joint Declaration, the JASIG (1995), the CARHRiHL (1998) and other bilateral agreements. Therefore, it demands the release of political prisoners in accordance with the CARHRIHL and the NDFP Consultants arrested and detained in violation of the JASIG. It also calls for the independent investigation of the killing and disappearance of NDFP Consultants, family and staff

The NDFP also welcomes the positive actions and recommendations of peace and human rights advocates for the resumption of the peace talks.

Overseas Filipinos

The NDFP firmly supports the just struggles of the millions of overseas Filipinos. Their struggles for their rights and welfare, to organize themselves, to work and be treated fairly, not to be subjected to racism and xenophobia, to understand well the roots of their migration, and to return to their home country and serve the nation. These deserve support and solidarity. The NDFP is firm in upholding their right to voluntarily return to the Philippines and contribute their skills and talents in land reform and national industrialization, in building a free, prosperous, democratic and peaceful Philippines.

International Solidarity

The revolutionary Filipino people have won the international solidarity and support of revolutionary, anti-imperialist and progressive organizations and individuals from different parts of the world. They are also contributing their solidarity to the just causes of other peoples' struggles in the spirit of proletarian internationalism and anti-imperialist solidarity.

From strategic defensive to strategic stalemate of people's war

The revolutionary forces led by the CPP are intensifying their revolutionary armed struggle. They aim to advance in the coming few years from the strategic defensive to the strategic stalemate of people's war. The US-directed reactionary government is hell-bent on seeking the destruction of the revolution for the benefit of US imperialism and the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords. Thus, the Filipino people and their revolutionary forces are justified to persevere in the revolutionary struggle.

In celebrating the glorious victories and achievements of the Filipino people over the last 44 years of revolutionary struggle, we must render honor to the many martyrs and heroes who have sacrificed their lives for the people's struggle for national and social liberation and for a just and lasting peace. The revolutionary masses must be honored. As the great Chinese revolutionary, Mao Zedong, declared: “The masses, and the masses alone are the makers of history!”

But there are some individual revolutionary heroes and martyrs, we wish to especially honor today: Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal, NPA Commander and CPP Spokesperson, Antonio “Manong” Zumel, journalist, first Chairperson of the NDFP, and Atty. Romeo T. Capulong, the Chief Legal Counsel of the NDFP.

No escape from Caste Prejudice even in UK by Anahita Mukherji




LONDON: If you happen to be of Dalit origin, or from the so-called lower castes, migrating out of India may not help you escape discrimination. India's infamous caste system has reared its ugly head in the United Kingdom.

School children from the lower castes have been taunted with casteist slurs like "bhangi" and "chamar" from other Indian school children of a higher caste. Many Indians in the work place say they have faced a great deal of harassment from other Indians on grounds of caste.
 
This has resulted in widespread protests across England. Human rights activists and Dalit organizations in the UK are campaigning for the enforcement of a clause in UK Equality Act that mentions the Indian caste system.

One of the worst instances of discrimination took place in central England, in a city called Coventry. "An elderly Dalit lady was receiving home care from the city council, who would send a council worker to her house to bathe her. One of the council workers happened to be an Indian of a higher caste. When she discovered the lady was Dalit, she refused to give her a bath," says Lekh Pall, an activist with the Anti-discrimination Alliance.

Harbans Lal Bali, a retired employee of UK's Royal Mail, who lives in the suburbs of London, recalls the harassment he faced at the Post Office when he was temporarily promoted to the post of supervisor. "I got to know that some of the people under me, who were Indians of a higher caste, complained to the management about my promotion. They said that they were not used to taking orders from people of my caste," he says.

There has also been an instance where an Indian of a lower caste was in a relationship with another Indian from a higher caste in the same office. Both were asked to leave their jobs by their employer, who was an upper caste Indian.

Lekh Pall was amongst those who campaigned for the inclusion of caste under the Equality Act 2010, as a form of racial discrimination. "We presented the House of Lords with a great deal of evidence when the Bill was being passed. They made an amendment to the Bill and included caste as an aspect of race. When the Bill was sent to the House of Commons, ministers were in favour of conducting their own study on the subject before including it in the law," he adds.

The UK government commissioned a nation wide study on the issue and came out with a report showing that there was "evidence suggesting caste discrimination" in the UK with regards to "work (bullying, recruitment, promotion, task allocation), provision of services and education (pupil on pupil bullying)". Though the Equality Act does mention caste, Dalit organizations say they are upset that this clause has yet to be enforced.

More than 12,000 prisoners in California have entered their fifth day of a hunger strike in a push to end long-term solitary confinement, which they call a form of "indefinite state-sanctioned torture."


                 
More than 12,000 prisoners in California have entered their fifth day of a hunger strike in a push to end long-term solitary confinement, which they call a form of "indefinite state-sanctioned torture." Other demands include ending harsh group punishment, redefining gang activity, improving food quality, and increasing access to healthcare and education services. In addition to refusing meals, more than a thousand prisoners are also missing classes and prison work programs. This is the third large-scale hunger strike in the past two years. The current fast began at Pelican Bay State Prison and has now spread to two-thirds of the state’s 33 prisons. Corrections officials have reportedly responded by threatening to search prisoners’ cells, subject them to mental health evaluations, and deny them access to visitors and mail. "While the solitary confinement is at the core of it, it’s kind of about a lot of other issues," says Shane Bauer, a reporter who investigated the use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons for Mother Jones magazine last year. "It’s become a much more widespread hunger strike. Each prison has its own demands. There are demands you see for rise in wages, from 13 cents an hour to $1 an hour, demand for the return of educational classes, and really the demands for the return of a lot of services that have been cut in recent years." Bauer began investigating solitary confinement in the United States shortly after being released from 26 months in an Iranian prison.

Detained NDFP Consultant Ramon Patriarca goes on hunger strike

 NDFP peace consultant protests Aquino regime's failure to advance peace talks

 
The Negotiating Panel of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines today expressed firm support for the 12-day hunger strike of NDFP Consultant Ramon Patriarca. Detained at Camp Lapu-lapu in Cebu City, Patriarca started his hunger strike on 11 July to end on 22 July when President Aquino will give his State of the Nation Address (SONA).

In a statement released to the media, Patriarca condemned President Aquino for failing to respect binding peace agreements forged by the government of the Republic of the Philippines (GPH) with the NDFP. He criticized Aquino for not respecting the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), and instead abducting, torturing and detaining NDFP personnel involved with the peace negotiations.

Patriarca also criticized the GPH president for refusing to release political prisoners in accordance with the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). He slammed the Aquino administration for causing the number of political prisoners to increase beyond 400.

In his statement on his hunger strike, Patriarca underlined the “miserable failure” of Aquino to advance the peace talks with the NDFP.

Top officials of the Aquino government have publicly declared the termination of the peace talks, seemingly not aware of provisions in the JASIG stipulating that a written notice of termination must be given first to the other Party.

Patriarca explained that despite repeated demands by various peace advocates for the resumption of peace talks, the Aquino regime has embarked on escalated militarization in accordance with the US-designed Oplan Bayanihan counter-insurgency program. Oplan Bayanihan is a militarist scheme based on the triad strategy of combat, intelligence and civil-military operations.

Luis G. Jalandoni, Chairperson of the NDFP Negotiating Panel, extended solidarity with Patriarca's hunger strike. “His courageous militant action underlines the increasing opposition of the Filipino people against the Aquno regime, in the face of repeated oil price hikes, ever increasing prices of basic commodities, costs of water, electricity, transportation, and other services.”
 
REFERENCE:
Roselle Valerio
Information Officer
NDFP International Information Office
email: ndf@casema.nl | info@ndfp.net
tel: +31 30 2310431

India : ‘After falling in love, I saw the reality of caste’: E. Ilavarasan

ilavarasan_divya-350_070513040519

 

Dalit youth E. ILAVARASAN, whose marriage to a Vanniyar girl had resulted in caste violence in Tamil Nadu last year, was found dead on a railway track .


Given below is an interview Ilavarasan gave to KAVIN MALAR and was published in the Tamil edition of India Today magazine.


This translation is by PRAKASH VENKATESAN.



Did you realise you were going to be in the headlines in TN when you got married?
 
No. Certainly not. I thought ours would be just like any other marriage. Divya thought so too. We thought they (Divya’s parents) would be angry initially but can be eventually reconciled. We simply did not expect these things would happen. I now can really understand the horrendous nature of caste and the heinous things it is capable of after falling in love.
 
Why do you think Divya is suddenly saying now that she wants to go with her mother?
 
Someone is operating behind the scenes. They have threatened that her mother’s life and mine would be in danger if Divya does not return back. Probably that is why she has taken such a decision. She can’t live without me. She won’t be able to take this three weeks separation. She used to tell me often that she can’t live without me even for an hour. The plan to separate us was plotted in PMK’s head office. Now they have executed it.
 
Did you and Divya had any problems after your marriage?
 
No. We were happy. Though we were running from place to place in fear, we were quite happy to be together.
 
When did the marriage happen?
 
I was on my way to Trichy for a football match. When I was in Omalur, I got a call from Divya saying that people in her house are trying to get her married to someone else. She asked me to take her with me. We went to Andhra Pradesh and got married there.
 
How is the relationship between you and Divya’s parents?
 
Ilavarasan found dead on railway tracks yesterday.Photo by N Bashkaran / The Hindu
Ilavarasan found dead on railway tracks yesterday.Photo by N Bashkaran / The Hindu
 
Divya’s father was a good person. He was indifferent to caste. We still don’t believe he committed suicide because of our marriage. Divya’s mother, she was not that opposing either. After our marriage her brothers are not talking to her. But people around her are instigating her. They knew that I was going to get an appointment order to join the police force and filed a case against me and deliberately made efforts against it to get the order cancelled. These were not done by her mother. She is being compelled by people of her caste to do these deeds
 
How did you feel when three Dalit villages were burnt in Dharmapuri?
 
Guilty. We even thought about committing suicide. Not even in our dreams we thought her father would commit suicide. She was deeply affected by her father’s death. She cried a lot.
 
We can not forget that November 7th. People from her side said they want to meet Divya and take her back with them. I told them it is certainly possible to talk. In November 7th, a meeting was arranged between both the sides in Thoppur. Her father was not present there. Divya’s mother asked her to return back but Divya firmly refused. Half an hour after the meeting we got the news of her father’s suicide and villages being burnt. We saw it in TV. The caste in which I was born into is their problem. People who are capable of doing these deeds can go to any extent.
 
What are you going to do to get Divya back?
 
I will keep on fighting. Authorities know who burnt three villages. But they have not taken any action. They have to. They have to publicly announce where Divya is. They have to investigate and publicly announce about the people who are directly and indirectly trying to separate us. The decision to be separated would not have been from her heart. I want to talk with Divya first. After that, am quite certain everything would be okay.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Ganti Prasadam - His Legacy Cannot Be Erased by N Venugopal




Assassinated by the enemies of the people on July 4 in Nellore, Ganti Prasadam’s legacy, which has taken root in the political culture of the Maoist movement in Andhra Pradesh, will grow and bear fruit.

N Venugopal (venugopalraon@yahoo.com) is the editor of Veekshanam, a Telugu monthly journal of political economy and society.
 
With the ghastly assassination of Ganti Prasadam, a popular Maoist ideologue, trade unionist, writer and public speaker, on July 4 in Nellore, the state seems to have thought it has succeeded in intimidating those who question its brutalities. The horrifying murder might have been planned as a threat to all those involved in public activity through democratic forums.

However, on his death bed – with two surgeries to remove the three bullets that had pierced his abdomen and spinal cord, and to treat the deep wound on his neck, the result of being hacked with a coconut knife – Prasadam said that the assassins may be able to kill him but his spirit would not die. Thus the assassins and those behind them failed; within a few hours of their dastardly act, the fact that Prasadam’s persistent spirit lived on in the movement was proved in the massive and spirited funeral procession a day later at Bobbili town, 750 kms away from the place of assassination.

Ganti Prasadam’s life stands as an example of human diversity and versatility, and his death, of the state’s violence and viciousness. For more than 45 years of the 64 years of his life, he worked both in legal, open, democratic as well as clandestine organisations. He was implicated in more than a dozen cases (in most of which he was acquitted) and spent about three years in various jails. Beginning his political life as a trade union organiser in Bobbili town in Srikakulam (currently in Vizianagaram) district in 1972, his activities extended to almost all social spheres and spread across the state – among students, youth, writers, workers, relatives and friends of martyrs, and in the party, the underground alternative press and the democratic rights movement, as also among political prisoners. At the time of his death, he was honorary president of the Amarula Bandhu Mitrula Sangham (ABMS, the Association of Relatives and Friends of Martyrs), Andhra Pradesh, all-India vice president of the Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF) and executive member of the Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP).

Born into a middle-class Brahmin family of Chakarapalle in Balijapet mandal in 1949, Prasadam had his education in Bobbili. At a young and impressionable age at the time of Srikakulam struggle, he came under its influence as he finished his graduation in 1970. The town was one of the first industrial centres in the region with thousands of workers in sugar and jute mills and vibrant trading activity. By 1972 Prasadam became an important activist in the town and founded the Kalasi Sangham (porters’ union).

On the Revolutionary Road

Prasadam’s entry into trade union politics synchronised with the reorganisation of Naxalite forces in the state in the aftermath of heavy losses in Srikakulam. Viplava Rachayitala Sangham (Virasam, the Revolutionary Writers’ Association), formed in 1970, and Jana Natya Mandali, formed in 1972, were keeping the torch of Naxalbari politics aflame and naturally Prasadam became active in both these organisations. His mentor, Mamidi Appalasuri was a follower of Charu Mazumdar and was an elected member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) [CPI (ML)] in 1970. However, the party split after the death of Charu Majumdar, and Appalasuri, along with Kondapalli Seetaramaiah (KS) continued the legacy of the CPI (ML) even though contacts with other states got cut off. By 1974 the contacts with other states were revived and the Central Organising Committee (COC) was formed and Prasadam continued to work in his trade union and in Virasam and JNM under this party’s guidance.

After a couple of arrests and attacks from police and mill owners, Prasadam had to go underground during the Emergency. He was arrested in 1977. By the time he was released, differences were building up between KS and Applasuri finally culminating in the latter remaining in COC and the former setting up the CPI (ML) AP State Committee, which became the CPI (ML) (People’s War) in 1980. Prasadam continued to be with Appalasuri as the latter merged his party with the CPI (ML) Party Unity in 1982. During this time, Prasadam became a popular trade union leader in Bobbili and formed at least 30 workers’ unions in various fields, including among hotel workers, cinema theatre workers, mill workers and khalasis, in the town, and founded a coordination committee of all these unions. With the death of Appalasuri in 1997 and the merger of CPI (ML) Party Unity with the CPI (ML) (People’s War) in 1998, Prasadam became part of People’s War and went underground once again. In the meanwhile, Prasadam’s younger brother Ganti Subrahmanyam (Rajanna, Ramesh) who was with People’s War was killed in a fake encounter in Kopardang in Rayagada district of Odisha in August 1998. Becoming a member of the AP State Committee of People’s War, Prasadam took charge of the party press, particularly Kranti, the State Committee’s monthly organ and continued in that position even after the CPI (ML) (People’s War) became CPI (Maoist), till he was arrested in May 2005.

The CPI (ML) (People’s War) was a banned party then and the ban was relaxed in July 2004 as it was invited for talks by the state government. The first round of talks were held in October 2004 and the second round, scheduled to be held in November of that year, could not take place as the state government went back on its ceasefire agreement and began repression and fake encounters. Finally in January 2005, the party announced that it was also moving away from the ceasefire. In that context, the party gave the responsibility of assessing the existing situation to Prasadam and he in turn wanted to have feedback from various sources sympathetic to the movement.

Since the state had begun heavy repression by that time, he wanted to meet his sources outside Andhra Pradesh and asked a team of four members of Virasam to come to Aurangabad to brief him about the obtaining situation. He met the team at Maharashtra Tourism Guest House in Aurangabad for a three-day conversation and at the end of the second day itself police swooped on them. All of them were blindfolded, tortured and kept in illegal custody for three days before being produced in a court in Nizamabad, charging them in what became the Aurangabad Conspiracy Case. In fact, the party was not banned then and there was nothing illegal or conspiratorial in the meeting. While he was in jail in this case, which was finally struck down in 2010, he was implicated in half a dozen other cases, including an attack on a police station and a failed attempt on a Superintendent of Police, in both of which he was acquitted later.

In the Open Front

While the trials were going on, he came out on bail in late 2006 and since then he had been working openly. He joined the ABMS and became its president. In that position he was always rushing to the spots of fake encounters, exposing the real, cold-blooded nature of the killings, consoling the family members of the deceased, and organising memorial meetings. Thus, he and the other members of the ABMS became a constant threat to the police. As he held the position of the party spokesperson before his arrest, all the mass organisations were also looking up to him for his advice and guidance in their activities. The police could not tolerate this and he was implicated in more cases so as to hamper his movements and engage him more in attending to court matters. To further restrict his movements, the police tried to keep him behind bars in fresh cases.

When a group of people, including Sireesha, the partner of Ramakrishna, Central Committee member of the CPI (Maoist) and one of the chief representatives of the party at the 2004 talks, were intercepted while going into the Odisha forests near Simliguda in Koraput district on 13 October 2010, Prasadam was accused of sending them there and he was implicated in the case under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). When he was in jail, the Malkangiri collector Vineel Krishna was held hostage by the Maoist guerrillas, and during the process of negotiations, Prasadam was named as a probable candidate for continuing the talks. G Haragopal and Dandapani Mohanty, interlocutors at that time, went to meet Prasadam at Bhubaneswar jail. Haragopal recollected that Prasadam was so considerate and humane that even as one of the CPI (Maoist)’s demands was his release, he declined to come out and instead asked for the release of hundreds of tribal persons implicated in false cases.

He came out on bail after a couple of months and not only revived his work in the ABMS, but also began working in the RDF and the CRPP. He became one of the two vice presidents of the RDF at its national conference held in April 2012 in Hyderabad and within a short time the government of Andhra Pradesh imposed a ban on the organisation. He was also active in the CRPP and, in that capacity, contacted and provided for the requirements of political prisoners in almost all the jails in Andhra Pradesh.

A Committed Political Life

Prasadam was also an accomplished writer and cultural activist, beginning his career with poetry and songs and moving into theoretical and polemical writing. He penned a number of essays in Kranti without a by-line and in several other Telugu journals under his own name and various pseudonyms. In the last eight years of his public life, except for a little more than two years in jail, he gave most of his time to mass activity, writing, inspiring and organising people, mobilising people into purposeful activity, addressing meetings, sitting in protests and demonstrations, supervising post-mortems and taking over the dead bodies of those killed in encounters to hand them over them to their families, and organising humane and respectful funerals of all those martyrs, etc.

Indeed, the last three days of his life would explain what kind of life he led. On July 2 he spent hours with railway workers discussing intricate points about the forthcoming negotiations with their management and took a bus to Guntur to address a memorial meeting the next day. On July 3, it was a meeting to pay homage to a senior respected writer who spent at least ten years underground as part of the CPI (ML) (People’s War)’s press team after his retirement as a teacher. After this meeting, he travelled to Nellore where the relatives and friends of those who were martyred in a fake encounter that took place twenty years ago hold a commemorative meeting every year on the same day. Since it was also the formation day of Virasam, the revolutionary writers’ association also holds a seminar on related topics there every year. Prasadam addressed the seminar in the forenoon session and went to see the sister of a martyr who was in a hospital and almost in her last days. He was to come back to participate in the afternoon session, but while he was coming out of the hospital and walked a few yards, an assailant fired at him. To make sure he was dead, another assailant snatched a knife from a nearby coconut cart and hacked him on the neck. He was immediately rushed to the hospital and in two consecutive surgeries three bullets were removed from his body. All through he was alert and conscious, and spoke to the attending doctors.

Given this uninterrupted track record in public activity and steadfast commitment to revolutionary politics, it is but natural that he earned the wrath of the powers that be, particularly the police in Andhra Pradesh. Indeed, the track record of Andhra Pradesh police in eliminating radical voices in public life through extra-judicial methods is quite notorious. They have their own invention of “encounter” killings to “bump off” (these are the exact words used by the then home minister while ordering one of the early killings in 1969) armed cadre after catching them unarmed. For dealing with public personalities who are seen as thorns in their beds to be removed, the police have evolved another method of using hired brute forces without soiling their own hands. The list of public personalities killed in this manner is very long: Gopi Rajanna, Narra Prabhakar Reddy, and T Purushottham, all advocates, A Ramanatham and A Narayana, highly respected doctors, Japa Lakshma Reddy and Kalinga Rao, both farmers and mass organisers, Azam Ali and Kanakachary, teachers, Belli Lalitha and Ilaiah, singers, and Muneppa and Mannem Prasad, dalit activists. One can add dozens of attempts and threats to this list.

While the earliest of these murders took place in 1984 and the latest in 2005, it would be interesting to note that in all these cases, there was no investigation, no trial and no punishment of the culprits. Most of these murders were claimed by one or the other paper-organisation floated for the purpose and the police neither investigated nor publicised who were behind these organisations. It was everybody’s guess that the police bigwigs were the mentors, godfathers and protectors of these mercenaries. Keeping this history in mind, almost everybody pointed at the police for Prasadam’s murder even though a fake organisation staked claim. Strangely, this time around, the AP Police Officers’ Association came out with a statement denying their role, which ended with an open threat.

Prasadam bequeathed his legacy in a number of long-lasting tangible effects – his writings, public speeches, a sturdy organisation, and exemplary human relations. “Save me, I want to live to see the revolution” and “It seems I am going to die, but it will be the death of a single person, not of his spirit” – these were some of the precious sentences he uttered on his death bed. The unmistakable hand of the murderous state will not be able to erase this legacy.

SOURCE: Economic and Political Weekly

Friday, July 5, 2013

Restricted Service unitil 15th July 2013

We will be offering a restricted service until 15th July 2013 because of technical problems

The Indian Press mouthpiece of India State : They Praise a Renegade while they kill a Revolutionary

How Nepali Maoists chose democracy

Prashant Jha, The Hindu
Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’. Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma
 
Democracy and Class Struggle contrasts the killing of Ganti Prasadam with the praise for Prachanda in the Indian media, nothing can be more stark.
 
The recent Prachanda condolences for Salwa Judam founder we thought was the bottom of the pit from Prachanda, but he always exceeds himself, This time in praise of the Indian Comprador State saying about India "Our relations must be the best example of bilateral ties in the rest of the world.”
 


Prachanda talks of how his party made fundamental changes to its ideology
 
In August 2010, at the nadir of relations between India and Nepali Maoists, the former Foreign Secretary, Shyam Saran, went to Kathmandu as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s special envoy.

With the Maoists blaming India for blocking their ascent to power, Mr. Saran conveyed a clear message to Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’: “You can either be a revolutionary force with a coercive apparatus or a civilian party abiding by the discipline of multiparty democracy. Make a choice.”
 
Almost three years later, Mr. Prachanda — at a function chaired by his ‘old friend’ Mr. Saran in the Indian capital on Monday evening — declared that the party had made a choice in favour of ‘democracy’ and ‘progressive nationalism.’
 
The Maoist leader announced that his party, through a national congress in the southern town of Hetauda in February, made three fundamental changes to its ideology.
 
“One, we have accepted peaceful transition, peaceful multiparty democratic politics.” Mr. Prachanda referred to the integration and rehabilitation of the ‘Maoist armed cadres’ as proof, and pointed out, “My party has also given up its ruling mandate, to form a government led by the Chief Justice, to hold elections in a free, fair, and acceptable manner.”
 
The second shift was the ‘focus on economic prosperity and development’ as a party strategy. He thanked India for being Nepal’s biggest development partner, sought investment in a range of sectors, and said, “Economic development is essential for political stability, and a prosperous and developed Nepal will help address the security concerns of our neighbours.”
 
He also floated the idea of ‘trilateral cooperation’ between China, India and Nepal in hydropower and for the development of Lumbini. Mr. Prachanda was quick to add this was a ‘long-term vision,’ not meant to ‘undermine or replace’ bilateral relations between the countries.
 
And three, in a reference to apprehensions about the sporadic ‘anti-Indian’ rhetoric emanating from the Maoist leadership and its broader strategic vision, Mr. Prachanda said, “For the first time, we have criticised narrow nationalism, feudal nationalism and adopted progressive nationalism. We want good relations with India. Our relations must be the best example of bilateral ties in the rest of the world.” He added that on his visit to Beijing last week, where he met President Xi Jinping, the Chinese leadership too encouraged them to have good ties with India.
 
This, Mr. Prachanda said, was where they differed with the “dogmatic and sectarian” view of extremist colleagues like Mohan Vaidya ‘Kiran’, who have split and continue to criticise Indian ‘expansionism’.
 
So why did he not make the choice earlier? In a meeting with National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon on Monday morning, Mr. Prachanda said that had he acted earlier, the “engine would have moved, but the bogies would have got left behind.”
 
“It took time because we were attempting something unique, and needed to get our cadre and machinery along. But now, the choice is made,” he told The Hindu.


Prachanda makes it appear that the turnabout was a political version of a religious experience, but the "born-again bourgeois" actually prepared this reversal and capitulation and betrayal over many years. 

Still, his sugary description of the lure is a near-textbook example of the peaceful road to integration into the bourgeois/feudal state machine and capitulation to India and China and the Western imperialist powers.

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