Monday, August 30, 2010
Whose Development Is It, Anyway ? by Kobad Ghandy
Now that the Government has finally struck down the Vedanta mining project in Orissa, senior Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy, presently under arrest inside Delhi’s Tihar jail, writes about how mining giants are making obscene amounts of money at the cost of the poor while even the State fails to make any gains
Picture : Kobad Ghandy
Our defeat was always implicit in the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by nourishing the prosperity of others—the empires and their native overseers. In the colonial and neo-colonial alchemy, gold changes into scrap metal and food into poison.
— Eduardo Galeano in Open Veins of Latin America
It is ironic — the richer the land the poorer its people: Eduardo Galeano, in his above mentioned book said: “The Indians (local inhabitants) have suffered, and continue to suffer, the curse of their own wealth; that is the drama of all Latin America”.
In India too, the richest states of Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh are amongst the poorest in the country. Of course, unlike two centuries back in Latin America they no longer exterminate the local population. They induce slow death through starvation, disease and lack of livelihood. Development for some has always been at the cost of ‘development’ for the many.
Tantalum, a necessary ingredient of computers, cell phones, ipods, and so on, is to a large extent, extracted cheaply from Congo which has one-fifth of the world’s deposits. But to extract that (together with gold and tin) MNCs have tied up with warring warlords which has taken a toll of 5.4 million lives since April 2007. Killings continue at the rate of 45,000 per month and Congo has become the world capital of rape, torture and mutilation.
Yes, computers are huge development, but for the people of Congo what does it all mean? Can the super profits of the mining companies and computer manufacturers be slightly reducd so that the people of Congo share in the wealth creation?
In India, too, the concept of development seems to be different for different people. For Ficci, the representative of big business interests, it is one thing and for the Supreme Court of India another.
Ficci, in a report released on 9 November 2009, said: “Just when India needs to ramp up its industrial machine to lock in growth and just when foreign companies are joining the party, the Naxalites are clashing with the mining and steel companies, essential for India’s long term success”.
The Supreme Court of India in a judgement dated 20 July 2010: “Why is the State’s perception and vision of development at such great odds with the people it purports to develop? And why are their rights so dispensable? Why do India’s GDP and Human Development Index present such vastly different pictures? With the GDP of $1.16 trillion (of 2008) the Indian economy is the twelfth largest and it is the second fastest growing economy in the world. But according to the Human Development Report 2009, the HDI for India is 0.612 which puts it at 134th place among 182 countries”.
And when we see the Bellary Reddys’ scam who are said to be earning through iron ore mining over Rs 15 crore per day (mostly illegal), the mining scams of Orissa (about Rs 3 lakh crore), the Madhu Koda scam (the Chief Minister earned about Rs 4,000 crore through mining contracts in just two years), one begins to really wonder whose ‘development’ all this mining really entails!!
And yet again, one wonders how much the country gains when we read (Indian Express, July 13) that 30 million tonnes of iron ore has been exported illegally. With royalty ranging from Rs 4 to Rs 27 per tonne of iron ore, the income to the state governments is a pittance. While the mine owners make anything from Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,500 per tonne in profits for every tonne of iron ore, the government gets a mere Rs 27 for best quality ore. Here again, is it the development of our country or that of the mine owner?
Besides with iron ore exports (legal) having increased six-fold in just eight years from Rs 358 crore in 2000-01 to Rs 21,725 crore in 2008-09, does the iron go to build our country or others?
Such are the disturbing questions which face us when we think of the development paradigm related to the mining projects of our country.
Let alone ‘development’, we find massive ecological destruction due to these mining projects. An estimated 164,000 hectares of forest land have been diverted for mining in India. The speed of forest destruction is increasing apace. During 1998-2005, 216 mining projects were granted forest clearance annually as against 19 per year in the 1980-97 period. Just iron ore mining used up 77 million tonnes of water in 2005-06—enough fort the annual daily needs of 3 million people. In addition mining of major minerals generated 1.84 billion tonnes of waste in 2005-06—most of which is not properly disposed.
In human terms too the number of those employed in mining is in fact coming down though production is going up. The formal mining sector employs just 5.6 lakh people. Between 1991 and 2004 the number of people employed in mining came down by 30 percent but the value of mineral production went up several times.
Picture : Kobad Ghandy
Our defeat was always implicit in the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by nourishing the prosperity of others—the empires and their native overseers. In the colonial and neo-colonial alchemy, gold changes into scrap metal and food into poison.
— Eduardo Galeano in Open Veins of Latin America
It is ironic — the richer the land the poorer its people: Eduardo Galeano, in his above mentioned book said: “The Indians (local inhabitants) have suffered, and continue to suffer, the curse of their own wealth; that is the drama of all Latin America”.
In India too, the richest states of Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh are amongst the poorest in the country. Of course, unlike two centuries back in Latin America they no longer exterminate the local population. They induce slow death through starvation, disease and lack of livelihood. Development for some has always been at the cost of ‘development’ for the many.
Tantalum, a necessary ingredient of computers, cell phones, ipods, and so on, is to a large extent, extracted cheaply from Congo which has one-fifth of the world’s deposits. But to extract that (together with gold and tin) MNCs have tied up with warring warlords which has taken a toll of 5.4 million lives since April 2007. Killings continue at the rate of 45,000 per month and Congo has become the world capital of rape, torture and mutilation.
Yes, computers are huge development, but for the people of Congo what does it all mean? Can the super profits of the mining companies and computer manufacturers be slightly reducd so that the people of Congo share in the wealth creation?
In India, too, the concept of development seems to be different for different people. For Ficci, the representative of big business interests, it is one thing and for the Supreme Court of India another.
Ficci, in a report released on 9 November 2009, said: “Just when India needs to ramp up its industrial machine to lock in growth and just when foreign companies are joining the party, the Naxalites are clashing with the mining and steel companies, essential for India’s long term success”.
The Supreme Court of India in a judgement dated 20 July 2010: “Why is the State’s perception and vision of development at such great odds with the people it purports to develop? And why are their rights so dispensable? Why do India’s GDP and Human Development Index present such vastly different pictures? With the GDP of $1.16 trillion (of 2008) the Indian economy is the twelfth largest and it is the second fastest growing economy in the world. But according to the Human Development Report 2009, the HDI for India is 0.612 which puts it at 134th place among 182 countries”.
And when we see the Bellary Reddys’ scam who are said to be earning through iron ore mining over Rs 15 crore per day (mostly illegal), the mining scams of Orissa (about Rs 3 lakh crore), the Madhu Koda scam (the Chief Minister earned about Rs 4,000 crore through mining contracts in just two years), one begins to really wonder whose ‘development’ all this mining really entails!!
And yet again, one wonders how much the country gains when we read (Indian Express, July 13) that 30 million tonnes of iron ore has been exported illegally. With royalty ranging from Rs 4 to Rs 27 per tonne of iron ore, the income to the state governments is a pittance. While the mine owners make anything from Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,500 per tonne in profits for every tonne of iron ore, the government gets a mere Rs 27 for best quality ore. Here again, is it the development of our country or that of the mine owner?
Besides with iron ore exports (legal) having increased six-fold in just eight years from Rs 358 crore in 2000-01 to Rs 21,725 crore in 2008-09, does the iron go to build our country or others?
Such are the disturbing questions which face us when we think of the development paradigm related to the mining projects of our country.
Let alone ‘development’, we find massive ecological destruction due to these mining projects. An estimated 164,000 hectares of forest land have been diverted for mining in India. The speed of forest destruction is increasing apace. During 1998-2005, 216 mining projects were granted forest clearance annually as against 19 per year in the 1980-97 period. Just iron ore mining used up 77 million tonnes of water in 2005-06—enough fort the annual daily needs of 3 million people. In addition mining of major minerals generated 1.84 billion tonnes of waste in 2005-06—most of which is not properly disposed.
In human terms too the number of those employed in mining is in fact coming down though production is going up. The formal mining sector employs just 5.6 lakh people. Between 1991 and 2004 the number of people employed in mining came down by 30 percent but the value of mineral production went up several times.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Mumia Abu Jamal speaking live to Brixton London from his death row cell
Please sign the petition to President Obama to save life of Mumia Abu-Jamal - this petition is approved by Mumia Abu-Jamal and his lawyer Robert Bryan.
http://www.mumialegal.org/
Please contact the UK campaign to Save Mumia Abu-Jamal and help us organise meetings and protests
free2mumia@googlemail.com
Read the Article by Emma Lewis on Save the life of Mumia Abu Jamal victim of racist capitalist justice.
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.com/2010/08/save-life-of-mumia-abu-jamal-victim-of.html
New UNMIN recommendations from Nepal Government expert panel serious blow to the Peace Process
The recommendation comes amid fierce Maoist opposition to changing UNMIN’s terms.
The advisory panel that includes bureaucrats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction (doesn’t include Maoist representatives) has suggested a mandate revision—to allow UNMIN to monitor only the Maoist army.
It said that in the changed political context, the Nepal Army should no longer be kept under the UN’s supervision.
“We have given our suggestions and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will now draft a letter that will be dispatched to the UN Security Council,” said Retired Lt. Gen. Balanada Sharma, a member of the advisory panel.
The panel has also suggested the government scrap other responsibilities given to UNMIN during its inception in 2007. The current UNMIN mandate includes management of arms and armed personnel of Nepal Army and the Maoists’ People’s Liberation Army, assisting parties through the Joint Monitoring Coordinating Committee in implementing the agreement signed during the peace process, assisting in the ceasefire monitoring and providing technical assistance to the Election Commission for conducting the Constituent Assembly elections.
“We have suggested the government to draft a new request exclusively to monitor Maoist combatants,” added Sharma.
The UCPN (Maoist) has been objecting to the government’s idea of revising UNMIN’s current mandate, saying such a move would be a “serious blow” to the peace process.
http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathman...andate/212100/
Friday, August 27, 2010
Comrade Kiran - Mohan Baidya questions tactical line of UCPN Maoist
Comrade Mohan Baidya, in his supplementary political paper to the Maoist Central Committee meeting in Nepal , demanded a thorough review of the tactical line adopted by the party since the signing of the 12-point agreement with parliamentary political parties, and the charting out of a new course to achieve party goals.
Comrade Kiran felt that the current tactical line of Federal Republic and multi party elections was becoming strategic and a new course of struggle should be charted.He also said the the decision of UCPN Maoist to dissolve their parallel local governments in the past was a mistake.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Lance Corporal Joe Glenton “The real enemy is not the man in front who is facing your rifle, but the man directly behind and above you telling you to pull the trigger.”
British soldiers know that the politicians and generals have led them into disaster. A few military personnel have taken a heroic stand and refused to serve in Afghanistan. Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, jailed for refusing to fight in Afghanistan, said, “The real enemy is not the man in front who is facing your rifle, but the man directly behind and above you telling you to pull the trigger.” Others should follow his example by not fighting this oppressive war.
HANDS OFF AFGHANISTAN!
TROOPS OUT NOW!
ANTI-IMPERIALIST ACTION
Contact:
anti.imp@ntlworld.com
Mumia Abu Jamal on Prison Industrial Complex
Save the Life of Mumia Abu Jamal - the Struggle Continues - read the following update by Emma Lewis
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.com/2010/08/save-life-of-mumia-abu-jamal-victim-of.html
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Indian government rejection of Vedanta bauxite mine a “landmark victory” for Indigenous rights says Amnesty International
24 August 2010
Democracy and Class Struggle publishes this Press Release by Amnesty International and welcomes the decision by India's Ministry of Environment and Forests concerning Niyamgiri but we are still cautious because we do not trust the Orissa Government or Vedanta not to be duplicitous.There is already talk by the Orissa Government to appeal to the Supreme Court or the Prime Minister to overturn the decision of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
Amnesty International today described the Indian government’s decision to reject the bauxite mine project in Orissa’s Niyamgiri Hills as a landmark victory for the human rights of Indigenous communities.
India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests today rejected the mine project proposed by a subsidiary of UK-based Vedanta Resources and the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation, after finding that the project already extensively violates forest and environmental laws and would perpetrate abuses against the Dongria Kondh adivasi and other communities on the Hills.
"The Dongria Kondh and other local communities have been struggling for years for this decision, which is a very welcome one,” said Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Deputy Director, Madhu Malhotra.
“The companies and the Orissa government should now guarantee that they will not attempt to simply move the project to another site without ensuring adequate safeguards - they must ensure they will respect the human rights of Indigenous and local communities wherever the companies operate.”
Amnesty International also welcomed the government’s decision to suspend the clearance process for the six-fold expansion of the Lanjigarh refinery at the foothills of Niyamgiri, operated by Vedanta subsidiary Vedanta Aluminium, after a government’s expert committee found it to be illegal.
“The authorities should order a clean-up of the Lanjigarh refinery, which has caused air and water pollution, seriously affecting the rights of neighbouring communities who are finding life there unbearable”, said Madhu Malhotra.
Amnesty International called on government authorities to establish a clear and transparent process that seeks the free, prior and informed consent of any Indigenous communities who may be affected by such projects, and respect their decision, in accordance with national and international law.
The Ministry-commissioned expert report that underpinned today’s decisions, documented the companies’ legal violations and human rights abuses. Its findings and the rejection of the project are consistent with Amnesty International's extensive report published in February 2010, Don’t Mine us out of Existence: Bauxite Mine and Refinery Devastate Lives in India.
For eight years, the Dongria Kondh and other communities in Niyamgiri have been protesting against bauxite mining plans by Vedanta Resources subsidiary, Sterlite Industries India, and the Orissa Mining Corporation.
The communities were concerned that the project, which would have been situated on their traditional sacred lands and habitats, would result in violations of their rights as Indigenous peoples to water, food, health, work and other rights to protection of their culture and identity.
“After years of struggle and visits by committees our voice has finally reached Delhi,” a Dongria Kondh leader today told Amnesty International.
Democracy and Class Struggle publishes this Press Release by Amnesty International and welcomes the decision by India's Ministry of Environment and Forests concerning Niyamgiri but we are still cautious because we do not trust the Orissa Government or Vedanta not to be duplicitous.There is already talk by the Orissa Government to appeal to the Supreme Court or the Prime Minister to overturn the decision of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests today rejected the mine project proposed by a subsidiary of UK-based Vedanta Resources and the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation, after finding that the project already extensively violates forest and environmental laws and would perpetrate abuses against the Dongria Kondh adivasi and other communities on the Hills.
"The Dongria Kondh and other local communities have been struggling for years for this decision, which is a very welcome one,” said Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Deputy Director, Madhu Malhotra.
“The companies and the Orissa government should now guarantee that they will not attempt to simply move the project to another site without ensuring adequate safeguards - they must ensure they will respect the human rights of Indigenous and local communities wherever the companies operate.”
Amnesty International also welcomed the government’s decision to suspend the clearance process for the six-fold expansion of the Lanjigarh refinery at the foothills of Niyamgiri, operated by Vedanta subsidiary Vedanta Aluminium, after a government’s expert committee found it to be illegal.
“The authorities should order a clean-up of the Lanjigarh refinery, which has caused air and water pollution, seriously affecting the rights of neighbouring communities who are finding life there unbearable”, said Madhu Malhotra.
Amnesty International called on government authorities to establish a clear and transparent process that seeks the free, prior and informed consent of any Indigenous communities who may be affected by such projects, and respect their decision, in accordance with national and international law.
The Ministry-commissioned expert report that underpinned today’s decisions, documented the companies’ legal violations and human rights abuses. Its findings and the rejection of the project are consistent with Amnesty International's extensive report published in February 2010, Don’t Mine us out of Existence: Bauxite Mine and Refinery Devastate Lives in India.
For eight years, the Dongria Kondh and other communities in Niyamgiri have been protesting against bauxite mining plans by Vedanta Resources subsidiary, Sterlite Industries India, and the Orissa Mining Corporation.
The communities were concerned that the project, which would have been situated on their traditional sacred lands and habitats, would result in violations of their rights as Indigenous peoples to water, food, health, work and other rights to protection of their culture and identity.
“After years of struggle and visits by committees our voice has finally reached Delhi,” a Dongria Kondh leader today told Amnesty International.
Post-mortem indicates Azad was shot from close range
Posted by Rajeesh on Indian Vanguard August 24, 2010
Top Maoist leader Azad, who the Andhra Pradesh police claimed to have killed in an encounter on July 1, was shot from very close range, according to his post-mortem report accessed by Rediff.com’s Krishnakumar Padamanbhan.
Top Maoist leader Azad, alias Cherukuri Rajkumar, who the Andhra Pradesh police claimed to have killed in an encounter in the forests of Adilabad district in Andhra Pradesh, was shot from very close range, probably from less than one foot, according to his post mortem report, accessed by Rediff.com
The post-mortem report stands in contradiction with the police version that Azad was killed in a gun-battle between 11 pm and 11.30 pm on July 1 in Sarkepally village, Wankedi, in Adilabad district.
After the Andhra Pradesh police claimed Azad, a member of the Communist Party of India-Maoist central committee and politburo as well as its national spokesman, was killed in the forests of Adilabad district, the Maoists claimed that he had been picked up in Nagpur a day earlier, flown to Adilabad by helicopter, and executed in cold blood along with a man named Hemchandra Pandey.
In May, Home Minister P Chidambaram had invited Swami Agnivesh, who had led a peace march in Chhattisgarh in April, to mediate with the Maoists and explore the possibility of a cease-fire, which would likely result in peace talks with the central government.
With Chidambaram’s permission, Agnivesh met with senior Maoist leaders Kobad Gandhy in Delhi’s s Tihar jail and Narayan Sanyal in Raipur jail in Chhattisgarh to begin the peace process.
He also wrote to the Maoists, informing them about the government’s interest in a dialogue, to bring about a peaceful resolution to the Leftist insurgency that has crippled life in many districts in the country.
Azad responded on the Maoists’s behalf, expressing willingness in possible talks with the Centre and indicating that his organisation could think of a cease-fire.
One sticking point was Chidambaram’s insistence on a date for a cease-fire, which the home minister felt would indicate the Maoists’s intentions.
Once a cease-fire — the duration of which could extend for three days or six months or longer — was in place, Chidamabaram told Agnivesh talks could begin.
In late June Agnivesh wrote again to Azad, suggesting three likely dates in July when the cease-fire could go into effect.
Azad was carrying Agnivesh’s letter with him the day he died.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Anti Vedanta leader Lada Sikaka Majhi released
It is meant to be a captive unit of the group’s R8,400-crore, 500,000-tonne aluminium plant in Orissa.
On August 9, Majhi was on his way to Raipur in Chhattisgarh in a vehicle, along with two other anti-mining activists, to board a train to New Delhi. They were to attend a meeting on the Forest Rights Act.
As their vehicle was passing through the Niyamgiri forest, more than 12 armed men with AK-47 rifles stopped their car, snatched the car key and a mobile phone, and dragged out Majhi, his companion Sana Majhi and a woman activist. The men packed them into another vehicle and drove towards Rayagada. They threw Sana Majhi and the woman out of the vehicle on the way.
“I could not see where they were taking me because I was blind-folded. After about four hours, my blind-fold was removed and I found myself in a police station,” Majhi said.
“There they started beating me with bamboo sticks. They accused me of being a Maoist, organising Naxal meetings on the Niyamgiri hills and uniting the Dangria Kandhs (tribe) to protest against Vedanta.
“I told them that I was not a Maoist and organising meetings of the Niyamgiri Surakshya Parishad, fighting for the protection of the hills. But they did not listen to me and beat me.”
This continued for the next three days, he said. The police then coerced out of Majhi a statement saying that he had sheltered Maoists. On the fourth day, they took his left thumb impression on a blank piece of paper and let him off with a warning: “No further meetings.”
When asked why Majhi was taken into custody, Rayagada SP Anup Krishna said: “We had information that he had Naxal links. We let him go the day after we found that he was just organising meetings for the Niyamgiri Surakshya Parishad.”Kalahandi SP Sudha Singh and Krishna denied that Majhi was beaten up. “He is lying,” Singh said
Source: Hindustan Times
London and Tamil Nadu demonstrations against Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in Sri Lanka
Photos of the protest held Saturday 21st August 2010, organised by New Direction in London.
At the mean time with the same slogans a Tamil Nadu Left movement called “makkal kalai ilakkiya kalakam” (people’s movement for art and literature) organised a protest in various provinces in Tamil Nadu.
emails: vinavu@gmail.com
info@kuralweb.com
write@inioru.com
Sunday, August 22, 2010
After revolution has failed, all questions must center on how a new revolutionary consciousness can be mobilized.
This weekend Democracy and Class Struggle looks at music and it's role in developing revolutionary consciousness.
Mumia Abu Jamal on Hip Hop
Save the Life of Mumia Abu Jamal :
http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.com/2010/08/save-life-of-mumia-abu-jamal-victim-of.html
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Last Call for Sri Lanka Demonstration on 21st August 2010 at Westminster - London - Stop the Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
“There has been a deafening global silence in response to Sri Lanka’s actions, especially from its most influential friends. The international community cannot be selective in its approach to upholding the rule of law and respect for human rights. Impunity anywhere is a threat to international peace and security everywhere.” - Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General
We all remain silent since we heard the Sri Lankan government massacred fifty thousand Tamils, according to a United Nation filed officer, in a tiny area in the north of country within three days. More than two hundred thousand innocent Tamils are held in concentration camps without any valid reason. Thousands of pregnant women, innocent children were killed by aerial attacks and chemical weapons. In the name of eliminating minority ultra nationalists, the Sri Lankan government committed a shocking genocide, preventing the entire national and international media, right groups, United Nation and so on, in the war zone.
Is this an example for eliminating the resistant politics, for the international power? Is this the new feature of new world order? Will it be the general phenomena of the world’s power? Just some months after this Sri Lankan humanitarian disaster, India has started to massacre in order to evacuate poor hill country forest inhabitants from acres and acres of their own land for exploitation of mines. Similar atrocities of power against the innocent poor people and against those who resist, is becoming social recognition in the other parts of the world. The war between the business power and the innocent is the real Avatar.
Sriri Lanka is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multicultural country. Despite this, the Sinhala-Buddhist Government claims that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala-Buddhist country. The ethno-religious mix of Sri Lanka, with 20 million people, consists of ethnic Sinhalese (74%), Tamils (18%) in two groups (ethnic Tamils, 12.5%, and the plantation, or Indian, Tamils, 5.5%) and Moors (6.5%).
The major Sinhalese political parties competed with each other to discriminate the Tamils in language, education and employment with the clear intention of gaining the Sinhalese vote. The head of the SLA stated in an interview last year that the Sinhala-dominated Sri Lankan Armed Forces comprise of 99% Sinhala.
After the so called genocide, the Sri Lankan government is currently conducting the ethnic cleansing against the minorities.
To achieve their goal with the silence of international community:
1. Drive them out of the country. Although 1.3 million have already been driven out, there are still 2 million left.
2. Make them "non-people", i.e. internal refugees. Currently, there are 2 00,000 Tamil civilians living in concentration camps in the Tamil north and east or have fled into the jungles in the north to escape SLA bombing. There are also 200,000 Tamil refugees in south India.
3. Make them "disappear". Today, Sri Lanka leads the world in "involuntary disappearances".
4. Kill them — i.e. commit genocide
“On December 23 2009, the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) came out with a detailed 49-page report entitled Besieged, Displaced, and Detained. The Plight of Civilians in Sri Lanka's Vanni Region of the Sri Lankan government's responsibility for the plight of 230,000 to 300,000 displaced people in the Vanni (northern) conflict zone. “
The world constructs a new world order with a new power configuration. If we fail to stand together, we will be the victims. Sri Lanka is just the laboratory for the power to learn how to handle the resistance. Please come and participate in the demonstration against the Sri Lankan and Indian government held on:
Date: 21/08/2010
Time: 2 - 5 P.M
Venue : Richmond Terrace, Westminster
Nearest Tube: Westminster
07926033161
Email : inioru@gmail.com
Organisers :New Directions (NDS) With collaboration of Progressive Nepalese Society UK
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Repression in India from West Bengal to Tamil Nadu - trumped up charges expose the corrupt comprador Indian State
PUDR statement on the arrest of Naba Dutta
PUDR is outraged at the arrest of Naba Dutta of Nagarik Manch, an organization that has been working for over two decades, devoted to environmental and labour issues. The trumped up charges against him is yet another instance of the West Bengal state government deliberately targeting activists, civil liberties groups, media representatives…in order that truth about the actual happenings on the ground in Lalgarh area remain suppressed.
Naba Dutta along with his 3 companions; Progna Paromita Dutta Roy Chowdhury, Gautam Ghosh and Dipankar Mazumdar, are all members of Nagarik Mancha, an organization mainly focused on environmental and labor issues, attended a sit in, in front of the Block Development Officer’s office at Narayangarh block of West Midnapur. The programme was organized by Lodha Shabar Vumij Kalyan Smiti, whose patron is Mahashweta Devi. After the program when they were returning to Kolkata they were all detained by the police.
While driver of the vehicle and Naba Dutta’s three colleagues were later released the police proceeded to arrest Naba Datta and charge him among other things under Arms Act, S 307 (attempt to murder) 120 B of IPC, pretending that he was the mastermind of the incident in Jhargram where vehicles belonging to an illegal sponge iron mill were burnt on December 18, 2009. Significantly, in the past eight months, since the incident occurred, not once did the Jhargram police summon Naba Dutta, if they indeed have evidence in their possession to link him to the crime. Naba Dutta was not in Jhargam when the incident took place. And it is the CPI(Maoist) which carried out the act of arson, which they publicly declared to be a result of state government’s failure to take action against the owners of the illegal plant and its contractors. Nagrik Manch had filed a PIL in Kolkata high court against the illegal operations of the plant.
Although the magistrate has given him bail and also implied that the case looked implausible, we are alarmed that for West Bengal authorities filing a PIL against an illegal plant is akin to commission of a crime. We, therefore, appeal to saner elements in the administration to think of the consequences of suppressing dissent and legitimate activities in the name of emergency like situation.
Asish Gupta and Moushumi Basu
secretaries PUDR
New Delhi 18 August, 2010
India: Authorities in Tamil Nadu must release five activists campaigning against torture and drop false charges against them
Authorities in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu must release five arrested human rights defenders, drop the false charges against them and hold the state police accountable for harassment and intimidation, Amnesty International said today.
The five human rights defenders - Bharathi Pillai, Niharga Priya, Sudha, Gnana Diraviam and Anandan – who were part of a human rights training programme conducted by People’s Watch, Madurai, were arrested on the night of 15 August on false charges. They had gone to Veeravanallur police station for a fact-finding exercise as part of the field training programme to inquire about the lack of investigation in the torture of a Dalit youth, Suresh, allegedly by a police officer there. Earlier, they were detained at the police station for six hours.
The five activists have been charged with section 170 of the Indian Penal Code (impersonating a public servant), section 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his or her duty), section 416 (cheating by impersonation) and section 506 (criminal intimidation) and lodged in prison. The police also declared Henri Tiphagne, Director of People’s Watch, Madurai, as an “absconding offender” in the case. This was on the basis of a complaint from one of the police officials that the five activists, claiming to be public officials, had apparently tried to threaten them.
Fact-finding exercises are commonly held globally and in India, as a way of probing allegations of human rights violations and seeking accountability. There was no attempt by the fact-finding team to impersonate public officials and the team had informed the Veeravanallur police in advance about the purpose of its visit.
Amnesty International is concerned that the arrests and the filing of charges appear to be politically motivated, as a result of their work as defenders of human rights raising issues of torture and impunity. The police charges of impersonation against Henri Tiphagne and the five arrested human rights defenders appear to be an attempt to silence the victims of police torture by criminalizing a legitimate form of protest by human rights defenders.
Amnesty International calls on the Tamil Nadu government to:
· drop the false charges against the six human rights defenders and immediately release the five persons.
· hold the State police accountable for such harassment and intimidation and ensure an independent investigation into the allegations of torture by the police of the Dalit youth.
The Tamil Nadu authorities should also create an enabling environment and ensure respect for the rights of individuals in Tamil Nadu engaged in the peaceful promotion of respect for human rights, including the right to seek, obtain, receive and hold information about respect for human rights.
Public Document
For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on
+44 20 7413 5566 or email: press@amnesty.org
International Secretariat, Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW, UK
www.amnesty.org
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Save the Life of Mumia Abu-Jamal – victim of racist capitalist justice by Emma Lewis
Activism is not a part- time activity but a lifetime commitment” Mumia Abu-Jamal addressing a public meeting in London in June from his cell in death row".
Mumia was born in 1954 and given the slave name Wesley Cook. At 14 with a group of other young men he founded the Philadelphia branch of the Black Panther Party(BPP). Still only a teenager he started writing for the party newspaper. In 1968 when the state assassinated Chicago Panthers Fred Hamilton and Mark Clarke, Mumia wrote about the crime. Gradually the state incarcerated or assassinated a whole generation of political activists.
Mumia eventually resigned from the BPP due to factionalism, fomented by government infiltrators. He became a supporter of the Move Organisation the predominantly black back to nature group led by John Africa which refused to join “the system” Inevitably Move became the focus of police attention and brutality. Its members were arrested hundreds of times on trumped up charges. On August 8th 1978 the police laid siege to a Move house ands opened fire . One officer was killed apparently by “friendly fire”.
At the City Hall later that day , as a reporter, Mumia asked the Mayor all the “wrong” questions – “Who has fired the first shot” “Why had the crime scene been destroyed so hastily and so completely ?” – until at last the Mayor shouted “They (the people) believe what you write and what you say – and its got to stop.”Nine move members were arrested, tried for conspiracy and third degree murder and sentenced to between 30 and 100 years.
Due to his sympathetic coverage of Move and the investigation of the police Mumia lost his job as a radio journalist. He got a job as a cab driver and on 9th December 1981 had just dropped a client off and was waiting for another when he heard what sounded like a gunshot and saw people running. He recognised one of them as his brother Billy Cook and ran towards him.
Suddenly he saw a police officer aim a gun at him and fire; Mumia fell. When he regained consciousness’ he was surrounded by police, and saw a policeman lying on the pavement. Mumia was then beaten by the police and thrown into a police wagon. After hours of driving around the city – presumably because they were hoping he would die of his wounds – the police finally took Mumia to hospital where he was again beaten.
The trial was a farce: witnesses changed their statements, vital evidence was suppressed and death threats were made against the legal team. The “bullet fragment” removed from officer Faulker’s fatal wound disappeared and the description in the ballistics report does not match the photograph. Mumia was saddled with an incompetent court appointed lawyer. The rabidly racist judge ensured there was no chance of Mumia getting justice . He was convicted of a crime he did not commit and has remained on death row for the last 30 years.
In 2001 Arnold Beverley confessed that he and an accomplice had been hired to kill Faulkner by corrupt police officers, because Faulkner was an obstacle to their pay off racket in downtown Philadelphia. In his signed confession he states clearly that “Jamal was not involved “
It is clear that the state wanted Mumia dead because of his political views and radical investigative journalism and had been trying to frame him for some time. In 1991, 700 pages of Mumia’s FBI file were released and revealed that the state had considered framing Mumia for the murder of the Governor of Bermuda as early as 1973 – Mumia had never even been to Bermuda.
Mumia ‘s case is on appeal before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the US Court of Appeal for the Third Circuit. At stake is whether Mumia will be executed or granted a new trial. Two years ago the federal court found that the original trial judge had misled the jury, rendering the trial constitutionally unfair. But in January 2010 the Supreme Court voided the ruling and ordered the case to be reviewed again by the court of appeal. The prosecution filed its opening brief in April. Mumia submitted his brief on 28th July 2010.
Mumia has been on death row for nearly 30 years. In all that time the state has failed to destroy his spirit , his humanity and his extraordinary intellect. He remains a champion of the oppressed and a voice for justice.
Emma Lewis
The Free Mumia Abu Jamal Defence Campaign UK
E mail free2mumia@googlemail.com
First published on Fight Racism Fight Imperialism
New World Order from the Ashes by Saba Navalan
From Pope to Barack Obama, everyone is feels the need for a New World Order and come out with statements every day. World’s most influential economists have been debating alternative economic policies. The economies of US and Europe have been protected for just three years from an imminent downfall.
This is not the first time a New World Order is being proposed. In the 1940s, capitalism and world economy were redefined according to the ideas proposed by economist John Maynard Keynes. When world economy took a hit in the 1970s, neo-liberalism and globalisation helped recharge a new world order.
The economic crisis of the 1990s aggravated globalisation. The structural crisis faced by global economy led to the downfall of capitalism.
In 2009, 150 years after Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital, leaders of world monopolies remember him for the third part of his treatise. The knowledge world requires both Marx and electronics to sustain itself in the new era of politics.
In 1940s, a summit similar to the present G20 summits was held to discuss the then economic crisis. The summit which was attended by 66 countries discussed a new world order. The conference created new superpowers and new alliances. The economic contradictions of the that era created Germany’s dictator Hitler.
Tthe new world order of 2000s enact several genocides, the then world order killed innocent Jews in its first genocide.
The acceptance of economist John Maynard Keynes’s proposals in the 1940s saw formation of International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, World Trade Centre and led to global dominance under United States.
When this economic structure faced a crisis in the early seventies, Marxism and its related dialogues witnessed a revival. The G5 meet held in Paris in 1975 discussed a new world order again. It was then that the concept of globalisation and related paradigms originated.
The structural crisis created by globalisation helped Asian economies take centrestage. The basis of capitalism is maximizing profit and is a variable factor. Only if this factor has an ever-increasing quality, functioning capitalism is a possibility.
The varying nature of profit forms the basis of many factors defining functioning capitalism
Workforce and the process of converting money into capital.
The growth of technology which is an important part of the forces of production.
Mediating the varied interests of production relationships.
The process of maximizing profits ensures the continuance of functioning capitalism. During the period of Karl Marx, capitalism extracted all the work from labourers and made them as a class which has nothing to lose.
There was a clear classification in the society he lived. There were two classes: the capitalists and the workers. That is why he mentioned in the Communist Manifesto that capitalism exhibited contradictions clearly.
But post-1940, the clear contradiction was deliberately altered. A new managerial class was created in between the two classes. The creation of a class beyond capitalists and workers brought about qualitative changes in the character of the classes.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
A Rapper from Britain - Lowkey - Obama Nation
The new single Obama Nation (produced by Red Skull) taken from Lowkey's forthcoming album Soundtrack To The Struggle.
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Second Report on the London Demonstration on the 15th August at Indian High Commission Protesting Operation Green Hunt and indian Expansionism
The protest at the Indian High Commision organised by the newly formed Alliance for Peoples Rights in South Asia was a success with many different organisations participating including the Nepalese Progressive Forum, Indian Workers Assocation (GB), South Asia Solidarity Forum, International Campaign against the War on the People of India, Kashmiri Workers Assocation, Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance,and a Sikh organisation Dal Khalsa UK.
There were speeches from the different South Asian organisations present condemning the murder of Comrade Azad and the journalist Hem Pandey.
The George Jackson Socialist League and the Coordination Committee of the Revolutionary Communists of Britain made speeches strongly condemning the murder of comrade Azad and journalist Hem Pandey and pledged themselves to expose the crimes of the Indian State before the working people of Britain.
A statement of the Coordination Committee of Revolutionary Communists of Britain condemning the murder of Comrade Azad and the Journalist Hem Pandey was distributed at the protest.
Monday, August 16, 2010
A Report of Anti-Operation Green Hunt protest in New York on August 13, 2010
The protest demonstration was endorsed by the Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia and was attended by individuals from Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas representing diverse South Asian and international organizations like SASI (South Asia Solidarity Initiative), ILPS (International League of Peoples Struggles), ISO (International Socialist Organisation), RCP (Revolutionary Communist Party) USA, FRSO (Freedom Road Socialist Organization), WWP (Workers World Party) and others. A legal observer from the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) was also present during the protest.
The demonstration continued from 11 am to 1pm and was marked by chanting of slogans, distributing pamphlets to passers-by, making speeches in support of peoples’ struggles in India, singing songs of resistance and finally submitting a signed petition registering a strong protest against the government’s military offensive in the regions populated by the indigeneous (adivasi) people.
Bad War, Don't Fight!: Picket at Chetwynd Army Barracks Nottingham
Chetwynd Barracks at Nottingham is where many British armed forces personnel are mobilised before being sent to fight In Afghanistan. A small picket was held on 14th. August under the slogan 'Bad War, Don't Fight!'. Protestors urged soldiers to follow the example of Lance Corporal Joe Glenton and others by refusing to fight in Afghanistan. Leaflets (see text below) were distributed to soldiers entering and leaving the camp. Megaphone appeals were made for the troops to take the initiative in ending this unjust, murderous war. It was pointed out that although the great majority of people in Britain are against this futile war, the politicians and generals persist in this folly, happy to sacrifice their own soldiers as dead heroes.
The Government and media propaganda campaign in recent years portraying Britsh forces as "heroes" has intimidated many people from protesting to the troops and when they are paraded through town centres.. It is essential to make such demonstrations and today's event shows that this is possible. Many soldiers have doubts about their part in this war and some would welcome support for their dissent. The Stop the War Coalition has deliberately avoided taking such actions.
Those of us demonstrating today call for further pickets and demonstrations at military bases and parades across the country.
BAD WAR,
DON’T FIGHT!
American, British and other NATO forces attacked and invaded Afghanistan in 2001. Since then this war of terror against the Afghani people has dragged on and is intensifying and spreading. Now NATO are sending in many more thousands of troops because they have failed to crush the resistance of the Afghani people to foreign invasion.
FACT: No Afghanis were involved in the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in New York.
FACT: It was America and Britain which attacked Afghanistan, the Afghanis did not attack Britain or America.
FACT: NATO has forced on the Afghani people a puppet government controlled by corrupt, drug-running warlords. The same bunch of murderous thugs had previously been thrown out by the Afghani people.
FACT: Most of the heroin on British streets, especially in Nottingham, comes from these criminal warlords who have made billions from the misery of drug addiction here.
FACT: The war in Afghanistan is costing billions each year while massive cuts are being made in public services in Britain.
FACT: The British Government says that Afghanis are plotting to carry out terrorist attacks in Britain. Yet the few acts of terrorism in Britain have not been committed by Afghanis.
FACT: British forces in Afghanistan are among the best equipped soldiers in the world, able to call in devastating attacks by RAF Tornados and Harrier fighter-bombers on Afghani villages.
FACT: For each dead British soldier the British Army claims it has killed at least a hundred Afghanis.
STOP THIS MURDEROUS WAR
Ever since 1838, on and off, the British Army has been attacking Afghanistan. The Afghanis always have fought back and defeated foreign invaders. In the 1980’s they repulsed a massive invasion from the Soviet Union. Sending more troops will simply make them fight harder to defend their homeland.
British soldiers know that the politicians and generals have led them into disaster. A few military personnel have taken a heroic stand and refused to serve in Afghanistan. Lance Corporal Joe Glenton, jailed for refusing to fight in Afghanistan, said, “The real enemy is not the man in front who is facing your rifle, but the man directly behind and above you telling you to pull the trigger.” Others should follow his example by not fighting this oppressive war.
HANDS OFF AFGHANISTAN!
TROOPS OUT NOW!
ANTI-IMPERIALIST ACTION
Contact:
anti.imp@ntlworld.com
Sunday, August 15, 2010
First Report on Demonstration at Indian High Commission - London 15th August 2010
The protest at the Indian High Commission in London on the 15th August 2010 attracted hundreds of people. There were Kashmiri's, Sikhs, Sri Lankans and Nepalese and other Indian nationalities present at the protest.
There were also representatives of progressive organisations in Britain all protesting Indian Expansionism and Operation Green Hunt and the murder of Comrade Azad spokesperson of the CPI Maoist and Hem Pandey a progressive journalist by the murderous comprador Indian state.
The protest organised on India's National Day exposed the crimes of the Indian State and the sufferings of it peoples.The newly formed Alliance for People's Rights in South Asia is to be congratulated for organising a successful protest.
There were also representatives of progressive organisations in Britain all protesting Indian Expansionism and Operation Green Hunt and the murder of Comrade Azad spokesperson of the CPI Maoist and Hem Pandey a progressive journalist by the murderous comprador Indian state.
The protest organised on India's National Day exposed the crimes of the Indian State and the sufferings of it peoples.The newly formed Alliance for People's Rights in South Asia is to be congratulated for organising a successful protest.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Last Call - Protest against the murder of Comrade Azad and Hem Pandey , Operation Green Hunt and Indian Expansionism at the Indian High Commission in Aldwych - London on Sunday 15th August between 11 am - 1 pm - be there !
CALLED BY ALLIANCE FOR PEOPLE'S RIGHTS IN SOUTH ASIA
afprisa@googlemail.com
Representing Indian Workers Association (GB)
Progressive Nepalese Society UK
Britain-South Asia Solidarity Forum
Do you know?
According to the Indian government, they have deployed 150,000 troops in India’s central and eastern states. Independent witnesses say the numbers are closer to 250,000. This is more than the number of US troops in Afghanistan. This is war on the Indian people. •Recent statistics show 37% of the country’s people suffer from chronic malnutrition and 50% are undernourished. •A nearly third of India is under army occupation with no democratic freedoms? All over India arrests, detentions, disappearances have increased to alarming levels since the people began resisting the corporate take over of India?•On July 1, the Indian Maoist revolutionary Azad, a Polit Bureau member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the spokesperson of its Central Committee along with a Delhi-based journalist Hem Chandra Pandey were killed by the Andhra state police. •During the last few days at least 29 innocent Kashmiris have been killed.
India has sent one of its ex-ambassador to Nepal to influence the election of the Prime Minister there.
We support
The following demand of the CONCERNED CITIZENS FORUM AGAINST WAR ON PEOPLE, DELHI, INDIA:
"While condemning in the strongest possible words the killings of Azad and Hem Chandra Pandey, we demand that the government constitute an immediate judicial enquiry to probe into the incident. We also demand an immediate stop to all extra-judicial execution of revolutionaries as well as activists and leaders of people’s movements. The government must respect the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights of the people to life and dignity. The gagging of the media and stifling of media freedom must be stopped by the government. We demand an end to the Indian government’s war on people in the name of Operation Green Hunt, and the immediate withdrawal of its armed forces from the areas of conflict. The government must scrap all the MoUs signed with the multinational and Indian corporations for the exploitation of mineral resources at the expense of people’s lives and livelihood. The Indian government must also politically address the demands of the struggling people of Kashmir and the North East through dialogue, and must stop the brutal repression of their voices through state repression. "
Seven Questions on the Struggle in India - Interview by "To the Struggle" of Norway with Nickglais Editor of "Democracy and Class Struggle"
1. Can you tell us briefly about Communism in India?
The Communist Party of India was founded originally in 1919 in Kolkata then re-founded in Soviet Tashkent in 1925 under the impact of the Russian Revolution.
The Communist Party of Great Britain was closely involved in the formation and British Indian comrades like Saklatvala and Rajani Palme Dutt were early influences on the Communist Party of India. N M Roy an Indian Communist also distinguished himself with contributions to the Comintern.
The Communist Party of India concentrated on the urban areas in the 1920’s and 1930’s and faced repression by the British authorities who banned the party. Of the repression the most famous case in the 1930’s was the Meerut trial.
The Second World War brought out some contradictions within the Communist Party of India especially when the party refused to support the quit India Movement.
However some of the finest years of the Communist Party of India manifested themselves in the 1940’s with the famous Telengana struggle from 1946 -1951 when the Communist Party of India supported the struggle of the rural poor in Hyderbad.
With the defeat of the Telengana struggle the Communist party of India embraced Krhuschevite revisionism under the leadership of Dange.However revisionism pre dates Dange in the Indian Communist movement with the rejection of the Maoist model by Indian Communists in the 1930's. However in the great debate the Namboodiripad faction in the Communist Party of India sided with China and broke away to form the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1963.
However the anti revisionist promise of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) was soon exposed by the Spring Thunder of 1967 which saw the Naxalbari uprising. When the tribal poor rose against the West Bengal State they were met with serious repression including from the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
It was the Darjeeling District Secretary of The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Charu Muzumbar who created the revolutionary third trend in Indian Communism which led to the creation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) by the 1970’s.
However severe repression of the third trend within Indian Communism which championed India’s rural poor led to a splintering of the movement
By the late 1970’s and early 1980’s new groups of the third trend emerged in different parts of India in Andhra Pradesh we saw the rise of the Communist Party of India Marxist Leninist Peoples War) and in Bihar and West Bengal the of the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) which has a long history back to the 1960's. Other groups like Communist Party of India Marxist Leninist (Party Unity) also emerged.
By the 1990’s these forces met up geographically in central India with violent clashes unable to resolve contradictions in a comradely way.
This low in the Indian Maoist movement then gave way to a drive for unity first with the Peoples War Group with Party Unity and then with the Maoist Communist Centre to create an all India Communist Party – The Communist Party of India ( Maoist) in 2004. For the first time Maoists in India could work on an all India revolutionary strategy
2. The Indian Maoists have criticised the line of the Nepalese Maoists – what is their critique all about?
Comrade Azad of the Communist Party of India Maoist who was recently murdered by the Indian authorities wrote a polemic attacking the Nepalese Maoists after 2006 for participating in bourgeois elections and agreeing to the cantonment of the Peoples Liberation Army.
The Indian comrades believed that the People’s War in Nepal should have been continued. Of course the Nepalese comrades think that they are continuing Peoples War in another way by developing a strategy to take control of the urban centre’s like Kathmandu. The Nepalese Maoists are utilising elections to win mass urban as well as rural support.
The exchanges between the Nepalese Maoists and the Indian Maoists reflect the different level of struggle in the two countries. Comrade Ganapathy of the Communist Party of India Maoist in his interview with Jan Myrdal approvingly notes that the Nepalese Party is involved in a two line struggle of the issues raised by Indian comrades.
However I would like to add that we should not seek to exacerbate the real differences that exist between the Indian and Nepalese comrades has some so called revolutionary groups do in the West.
It is our duty to help Indian and Nepalese comrades resolve differences to advance the cause of revolution in South Asia
3. How do Communists unite the Mass Movement with the Communist Movement in India?
This is a difficult question but we know the outlines of the problem. Has Bernard D’ Mello of the Economic and Political weekly has said the Communist Party of India Maoist has raised the struggle of the rural poor to new heights in India with the Adivasi struggle.
However on its own the rural struggle cannot produce the Indian revolution – it can provide the spark – the urban areas need to be won over to the cause and the Communist Party of India Maoists recognises the problem and welcomes criticisms by urban groups involved in the struggle to build unity with the rising communist movement. See Ganapathy interview with Jan Myrdal.
Has the urban struggle unfolds and unites with the struggle of the rural poor practice will provide an answer to the question of uniting communists with the mass movement.
4. What kind of contradictions exists between the communist movement and the mass movement?
The Maoist movement is primarily a rural movement and need to develop its slogans and policies for the urban areas. Has Harsh Thakhor has written
“On the trade union front the CPI Maoist has not been able to form democratically functioning trade unions and has often ended up giving political slogans of revolutionary armed struggle not compatible with the political capacity of broad sections of the working class
The working class was not fully explained the link between their interests and the agrarian revolutionary movement but slogans glorifying heroes of armed squads.”
Harsh Thakor's position could be criticised because it does not take account of the slowness of the development of urban infrastructure in India
Overcoming the contradiction between the rural and urban struggles is one of the primary questions addressed by the CPI Maoist today.
5. What is the Red Corridor and why do Communists have many sympathisers in that region or area?
The area of central and northeast India from Bihar which borders Nepal to Andhra Pradesh constitutes the Red Corridor of India some forty percent of rural India.
This area is also the forested and jungle area of India and it also happens to be the area where the poorest and most hunger stricken area of India which according to Binyak Sen and Arundhati Roy should be declared famine zones by the Indian Government.
However the Indian Government has chosen food has a weapon of war to fight the Maoist and Adivasi rebellion.
This area of the Red Corridor also happens to have rich mineral resources like coal and iron ore, bauxite, gold and diamonds. The Indian Government and State Governments has signed hundreds of Memorandums of Understanding ( MOU’S) with Multi National Corporations and Indian compradors selling both land and resources under the feet of the people who live there.
The Maoists have also operated in this area for 30 years originally as separate groups like Peoples War and Party Unity and Maoist Communist Centre. They have long campaigned for the defence of the Adivasis and the unified party in 2004 launched a campaign against the Multi National Companies and the Indian Compradors.
Hence this is the area of the greatest sympathy for the Maoists who are defending the Adivasis people against the Genocidal onslaught of the Indian Government with Operation Green Hunt. This is an Indian Government that would happily starve its Adivasis population to death so it can steal the minerals and resources for the MNC’s and the compradors.
6. What are the biggest challenges that the Indian Communist movement is facing today?
The first challenge is the enormous military offence launched against the Maoists and Adivasis people. A bigger military deployment than western forces in Afghanistan.
However the long term strategic challenge is developing a mass movement in the urban areas to create a coalition of forces to bring about the Indian revolution
The question of the nationality movements and the Dalit (untouchables) and the gender struggle require creative development of Marxism Leninism Maoism. Communists have not been very successful in the 20th Century in nationality movements and Indian Maoists need to advance the Dalit Question from caste struggle to class struggle.
Overcoming these challenges will help create the all India coalition for revolution led by the Indian Maoists.
7. What are the lessons can Communists in the West learn from the contradictions that the Indian comrades have faced, solved
Th first lesson that Indian Maoists have advanced is the question of resolving contradictions amongst themselves.
It was only in the 1990’s that rival groups of Maoists were killing one another by the 21st century not only are most Maoists united in one Party the Communist party of India Maoist but they are resolving contradictions in line with struggle transformation unity and not struggle split has in the past and a healthy two line struggle is the new weapon of communist advance in the 21st century.
The second lesson we can learn from Indian Maoists is the successful application of the mass line in the rural areas and particularly the success with the indigenous tribal peoples. The application of a mass line that “listens” to the Adivasis and not just “commands” them is an important development requiring emulation.
There are still many more contradictions the Indian comrades have to face especially in regard the nationality movements the gender question and the Dalit Question – however on past experience we can be confident the Indian comrades will resolve these contradictions and further advance the cause of the Indian and World Revolution.
Thanking for asking me such thoughtful questions please study the book India's War on the People published by Democracy and Class Struggle and watch my site Democracy and Class Struggle on the Internet for updates on the Indian Struggle - Please build solidarity with our Indian comrades from Norway.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Sri Lanka - Stop the Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing - meeting 21st August 2010 - Westminster - London
“There has been a deafening global silence in response to Sri Lanka’s actions, especially from its most influential friends. The international community cannot be selective in its approach to upholding the rule of law and respect for human rights. Impunity anywhere is a threat to international peace and security everywhere.” - Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General
We all remain silent since we heard the Sri Lankan government massacred fifty thousand Tamils, according to a United Nation filed officer, in a tiny area in the north of country within three days. More than two hundred thousand innocent Tamils are held in concentration camps without any valid reason. Thousands of pregnant women, innocent children were killed by aerial attacks and chemical weapons. In the name of eliminating minority ultra nationalists, the Sri Lankan government committed a shocking genocide, preventing the entire national and international media, right groups, United Nation and so on, in the war zone.
Is this an example for eliminating the resistant politics, for the international power? Is this the new feature of new world order? Will it be the general phenomena of the world’s power? Just some months after this Sri Lankan humanitarian disaster, India has started to massacre in order to evacuate poor hill country forest inhabitants from acres and acres of their own land for exploitation of mines. Similar atrocities of power against the innocent poor people and against those who resist, is becoming social recognition in the other parts of the world. The war between the business power and the innocent is the real Avatar.
Sriri Lanka is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multicultural country. Despite this, the Sinhala-Buddhist Government claims that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala-Buddhist country. The ethno-religious mix of Sri Lanka, with 20 million people, consists of ethnic Sinhalese (74%), Tamils (18%) in two groups (ethnic Tamils, 12.5%, and the plantation, or Indian, Tamils, 5.5%) and Moors (6.5%).
The major Sinhalese political parties competed with each other to discriminate the Tamils in language, education and employment with the clear intention of gaining the Sinhalese vote. The head of the SLA stated in an interview last year that the Sinhala-dominated Sri Lankan Armed Forces comprise of 99% Sinhala.
After the so called genocide, the Sri Lankan government is currently conducting the ethnic cleansing against the minorities.
To achieve their goal with the silence of international community:
1. Drive them out of the country. Although 1.3 million have already been driven out, there are still 2 million left.
2. Make them "non-people", i.e. internal refugees. Currently, there are 2 00,000 Tamil civilians living in concentration camps in the Tamil north and east or have fled into the jungles in the north to escape SLA bombing. There are also 200,000 Tamil refugees in south India.
3. Make them "disappear". Today, Sri Lanka leads the world in "involuntary disappearances".
4. Kill them — i.e. commit genocide
“On December 23 2009, the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) came out with a detailed 49-page report entitled Besieged, Displaced, and Detained. The Plight of Civilians in Sri Lanka's Vanni Region of the Sri Lankan government's responsibility for the plight of 230,000 to 300,000 displaced people in the Vanni (northern) conflict zone. “
The world constructs a new world order with a new power configuration. If we fail to stand together, we will be the victims. Sri Lanka is just the laboratory for the power to learn how to handle the resistance. Please come and participate in the demonstration against the Sri Lankan and Indian government held on:
Date: 21/08/2010
Time: 2 - 5 P.M
Venue : Richmond Terrace, Westminster
Nearest Tube: Westminster
07926033161
Email : inioru@gmail.com
Organisers :New Directions (NDS) With collaboration of Progressive Nepalese Society UK
Thursday, August 12, 2010
The Ten Declarations of the Maoist Communist Party of China - The Second Socialist Revolution
FIRST Posted by Mike Ely on August 11, 2010 Kasama
For background to the formation of the Maoist Communist Party of China visit Serve the People from Australia for the article Bo Xilai and the Maoist Party of China
The Ten Declarations of the Maoist Communist Party of China (MCPC)
22 March 2009
一、强烈抗议中国共产党修正主义叛徒统治集团对我党实行秘密追剿的声明！
1. We strongly condemn the traitorous revisionist ruling bloc of the Chinese Communist Party and its policy of secretive suppression of our party!
2008年12月26日， 我党分别在北京、上海等大城市闹市区散发了“宣告中国人民对中国共产党修正主义叛徒统治集团造 反有理”的《 告全国人民书》，在“老虎”的屁股上狠狠地摸了 一把！随后在网络上和其它一些城市也进行了宣传。我党的这次革命行动，对中国共产党修正主义叛 徒统治集团造 成了强烈的政治冲击，有力地打击了中国共产党修 正主义叛徒统治集团的嚣张气焰。我党的《告全国人民书》是号召人民起来推翻中国共产党修正主义 叛徒统治集团 、开展一场中国无产阶级反复辟大革命运动的号 角；是号召人民共同声讨中国共产党修正主义叛徒统治集团的罪行、剥去中国共产党修正主义叛徒统 治集团的伪装 、打一场文攻武卫的人民革命理论战争的信号弹。
On 26 December 2008, our party gave out the pamphlet “To all the people of China” that declares that “the peoples of China have the right to rise up against the traitorous revisionist ruling bloc of the Chinese Communist Party” in the central districts of cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. By doing this we have “dared to touch the tiger’s ass”!
Afterwards we engaged in more propaganda online and in other cities. This revolutionary action of our party has resulted in a strong political wave against the traitorous revisionist ruling bloc of the Chinese Communist Party, and managed to beat down the arrogant air of the revisionist ruling bloc.
This is the clarion call for a great revolutionary movement among the Chinese proletariat against capitalist restoration; this is the signal flare to mobilise the people to strike against the crimes conducted by the traitorous revisionist ruling bloc; to peel away the false skin of the revisionists, and to engage in a people’s revolutionary war through both words and actions.
我党的《告全国人民书》不仅在国内引起了广泛关注，极大的唤醒和鼓舞了中国无产阶级，而且造成 了强烈的国际 政治影响。“自由亚洲电台”、“美国之音”等宣 传媒体纷纷作出“中国出了个中国毛泽东主义共产党”的报道。国内外反动派对我党《告全国人民书 》的亮剑顿时 感到如临大敌，纷纷跳出来对我党进行攻击并为统 治集团出谋划策，什么“震惊！反胡拥毛，毛子毛孙成立了中国毛泽东主义共产党”，什么“不彻底 清算毛泽东养 虎成患”，什么“强烈要求把毛泽东像从天安门上 摘下来”，什么“要求中国当局脱掉共产党外衣”，什么“共产党若不迅速剿灭中毛共党，必将死于 其手”等等， 真是鸡飞狗跳炸开了锅……
The pamphlet of our party “To all the people of China” not only received great attention within China, and to a great extent served to wake up and stimulate the Chinese proletarian class, but it also triggered a lot of international political responses. “Radio Free Asia” and “Voice of America” all made reports about us. Reactionary forces both inside and outside of China immediately felt threatened by our pamphlet, and started to attack our party and offered strategies to the ruling regime of China.
They used slogans such as:
“Shocking, going against Hu Jintao in favour of Mao Zedong, the sons and grandsons of Mao have created the Maoist Communist Party of China”
“Without completely getting rid of the legacy of Mao we will surely be breeding problems for the future”
“We strongly propose that the portrait of Mao be removed from Tiananmen”
“We demand that the Chinese government discard its communist coating” and
“If the CCP does not destroy the MCPC fast, it will surely die in its hands”…it’s almost as if chickens and dogs are flying apart!
中国共产党修正主义叛徒统治集团表面上装聋作哑，实际上却迅速指使警方对我党展开了不遗余力的 阻止和追查， 他们勘察散发传单的地点，调集当天的监视录像，在互联网上顺藤摸瓜，传讯审问可疑人员，企图将 新生的我党扼 杀在摇篮之中。
对此，我党向中国共产党修正主义叛徒统治集团提出强烈抗议！我党强烈要求立即停止对我党进行的 秘密追剿！
The traitorous revisionist ruling bloc of the Chinese Communist Party pretends to not hear anything, but in practice they have began to utilise police forces to pursue our party. They are keeping the locations where we hand out our pamphlets under careful supervision, and are checking the CCTV images of the days when we are active. Through the internet police they are pursuing suspicious personnel. They want to destroy our party while it is still in its infancy.
We strongly condemn the actions of the traitorous revisionist ruling bloc of the Chinese Communist Party!
We strongly demand that all secretive suppression of our party by the regime completely cease immediately!
我 党奉行“君子动口不动手”的民主政治诉求原则，同时也奉行“小人动手，老子也动手”的革命铁律 。我党的《告 全国人民书》及此《十大声明》，就是要动员全国 人民行动起来关心国家大事。我党坚决反对中国共产党修正主义叛徒统治集团实行法西斯白色恐怖！ 如果中国共产 党修正主义叛徒统治集团一意孤行，硬是要把中国 人民引入腥风血雨之中，那么，我党只有奉陪到底！直到打得中国没有一个敢于恶毒攻击毛主席的反 革命分子为止 ！直到打得中国没有一个敢于走资本主义道路的修 正主义叛徒分子为止！
Our party follows the democratic political principle of “the virtuous person uses their mouth not their hands”, but we also follow the iron revolutionary law of “if the petty reactionaries use force, we shall do likewise”.
The pamphlet “To all the people of China”, as well as the Ten Declarations here, shall act to mobilise everyone in China to start considering the big events of our country. We firmly oppose the utilisation of fascistic “white terror” by the traitorous revisionist ruling bloc of the Chinese Communist Party! If the revisionists stubbornly carry on with their actions, and drag the people of China into bloody wind and rain, then we will surely accompany them to the very end! We shall not stop until every single anti-Maoist reactionary has been removed from China! We shall not cease our struggle until every single traitorous revisionist that dares to embark on the capitalist path has been utterly destroyed!