Sunil Kumar, Blind Workers Union
(A Unit of All India Federation of Blind Workers)
Affiliated to Workers Unity Center of India, WUCI
Today, on December 3, 2011, more than a thousand visually challenged workers from Benaras, Nasik, Kanpur, Faridabad, Bahadurgadh and Delhi participated in a massive protest rally on Parliament Street. Their rally was taken out from Jantar Mantar to Parliament Street on the occasion of World Disability Day. It was a culmination of an earlier struggle these blind workers have carried out against a well-known NGO which employs and exploit them, i.e. the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). The rally was an extremely important moment for these workers since they were using World Disability Day to expose how they were still denied many fundamental rights at workplaces. Instead of celebrating this day in the usual festive manner, these blind workers celebrated World Disability Day as a black day, which marked unfulfilled promises of equality.
Initially, the Delhi Police refused to allow the rally to proceed to Parliament Street. However, the agitated workers refused to be held back and broke free of the barricades so as to march onto Parliament Street. Quite expectedly, their fiery spirit did not mellow down, despite being manhandled. Following their protest rally, a delegation of the workers submitted a memorandum to the Hon’ble Minister of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India. The delegation met the concerned minister, Shri Mukul Wasnik, and apprised him of plight of blind workers. They drew the minister’s attention to the fact that the government was doing little to prevent the rampant violation of its own laws pertaining to disability. In particular, the workers highlighted the violation of several provisions in the Persons with Disability (Equal Opportunity, Protection of rights and full participation) Act of 1995.
When discussing matters with the Minister, the workers highlighted how section 33 of this Act, which provides 3% reservation in identified posts (1% being earmarked for the blind and low vision persons), is unable to provide sufficient respite to the disabled because of inadequate job creation in the public sector itself. Another important provision in this 1995 Act which is far from being implemented is section 41. It provides incentives to disabled persons so as to ensure that at least 5% jobs of all workforces goes to them.
However, as highlighted by the protesting workers, both the older laws and policies as well as the newest government policies are failing miserably when it comes to ensuring a dignified and productive life to disabled people, in particular, disabled workers. For example, even the recently adopted National Policy for Persons with Disabilities (2006), which provides incentives, awards, tax exemption, etc. is redundant because the private sector which employs a large number of disabled workers, is least interested in implementing such policies, let alone statutory labour laws pertaining to minimum wages and parity at work. In fact, the promise of the National Policy for Persons with Disabilities (2006) to create one lakh jobs is still a mirage today. In this light, the recommendations of the Sudha Kaul Committee which was constituted to help frame a policy on disability, are also flawed. This Committee, for example, has made no recommendations with respect to labour rights relating to safety when assisting in the drafting of the Right of Persons with Disability Bill, 2011.
The gathering of workers on Parliament Street was addressed by aggrieved workers (those employed by National Federation of the Blind) as well as their leaders. Shri Alok Kumar from the All India Federation of the Blind addressed the gathering, and argued how shameful it was that National Federation of the Blind was also commemorating World Disability Day when this NGO itself exploited the impoverished blind workers. He went on to argue how necessary it was for the government to create more jobs opportunities for disabled workers, and how the government should ensure that all statutory labour laws are implemented in production centres run by “social service” organizations (like NFB) as well as other employers. Indeed, almost every blind worker who stood up to speak, emphasized that NGOs like NFB as well as other employers, act as if they are doing the blind workers a favour by employing them. In reality, as employers they earn huge profits from the labour of these workers. NGOs, in particular, also amass huge amounts of funds from the Government/foreign funding agencies by using the face of these poor blind workers.
It is with the express purpose of attaining greater job opportunities for disabled workers as well as parity in work conditions and wages between blind workers and sighted workers that the spirited rally of blind workers marched onto Parliament Street.
We strongly condemn the brutal and cold-blooded murder of Mallojula Koteshwara Rao alias Kishanji by the security forces in the Burisole forest area of West Bengal.
Now it is very much clear from various sources that the Maoist leader Kishanji was first captured and severely tortured by security forces and then killed in a planned fake encounter under the connivance of both West Bengal and central governments. Mamata Banerjee government of WB has used almost the same weapon of ‘Peace Talk’ to eliminate the Maoist leader as by the R. S. Reddy government in AP.
It is a known fact that the central and various state governments are jointly conducting a special military operation to suppress Maoist activities. The unjustified and irrational killing of Kishanji is nothing but a part of state terror being unfettered under ‘Operation Green Hunt’, centrally controlled by the UPA government. It is a clear cut violation of not only the guidelines given by Supreme Court and National Human Rights Commission but also by different international institutions.
It is to note that the state is not only killing the Maoists and their supporters but also viciously suppressing all voices of dissent, especially of democratic and revolutionary forces. We strongly feel that Naxalism / Maoism cannot be suppressed by killing its propagators / leaders and organizing massacres of its supporters.
So, we demand that:
1. The central and state governments should immediately stop ‘Operation Green Hunt’ and physical elimination of Naxal /Maoist leaders and cadres.
2. The central government should set up a high level Judicial Enquiry Committee on the killing of Kishanji.
3. The government should register a case of culpable homicide under section 302 of IPC, so that the killers of Kishanji are forced to face the court trial, as directed by Supreme Court and National Human Rights Commission.
We call upon all the progressive, democratic and revolutionary forces to come together and oppose the killing of Kishanji and the suppression of people’s movements.
We, the undersigned have decided to organize a Protest Demonstration before the Bang Bhavan, 3, Hailey Road, New Delhi-110001 on 2nd Dec. 2011 at 12 PM to show our united anger against state oppression. We appeal to all the pro-people forces to make this Protest Demonstration successful by joining it in huge number.
Signed by:
1. Arjun Pd Singh, PDFI
2. P.K. Shahi, CPI(ML)
3. Narender, Peoples Front
4. Thomas Mathew, Bahujan Vam Manch
5. Shieo Mangal Sidhantkar, CPI(ML) New Proletariat
6. Ashish Gupta, PUDR
7. Anil Chamaria, Journalist
8. Amit, krantikari Nawjawan Sabha
9. G.N.Saibaba ,Revolutionary Democratic Front
10. Mrigank, Navajwan Bharat Sabha
11. Harish, Inquilabi Majdur Kendra
12. Alok Kumar. Krantikari Navajawan Sabha
13. Deepak Singh, NDPI
14. Mritunjay, CCON
15. Banojyotsna, Democratic Students Union
16. Kusumlata, Student For Resistance
17. Bijunayek, Lok Raj Sangathan
18. Ambrish Rai, Social Activist
Contact: 9868638682, 8800356565, 9873315447
We write this at a time when our movement is under attack from all quarters, and three of our leaders, namely, Sonu Kumar (the President of MSEU), Shiv Kumar (the General Secretary of MSEU) and Ravinder, have been arrested by the police in a completely unjustified and unlawful manner.
All concerned probably know the way in which processes unfolded over the past few weeks. Our leaders went to the negotiation table with the management of Maruti Suzuki and the Labour Department on the 16th of September. Talks were still going on today, when they broke down because the management stubbornly refused to take back those workers that had been thrown out.
We believe that the management, prepared for this eventuality, had already made suitable arrangements with the police and the administration. That the government and its police have been bought over by the company management is absolutely clear. When talks broke down at about 10:15 pm today, the police spared no time in arresting our leaders. The attempt, clearly, is to cripple our movement when we have refused to back down in the face of all threats and enticements.
It is known to us that Ravinder already has an FIR filed against his name; but Sonu Kumar and Shiv Kumar have never been charged before. However, looking at the foul play that the police are already indulging in, we are sure that our leaders will be charged of crimes they never committed.
This way or that, we will continue our struggle. We appeal to all to condemn such acts by this unholy alliance of the police, the government and the company management. We ask you to stand in our support, in the support of our movement, of our arrested leaders and against injustice.
Rishipal
Executive Member
Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU)
The story of those who make all stories possible is a simple one of every moment’s struggle. The around 3000 workers in Maruti Suzuki in Manesar, Haryana, more than half of whom are hired on contract, are extremely angry, and this collective anger is one of the most lethal arms that they possess. It arises from discontent of the unending days and nights of alienated labour, reduced to being mere parts of the machine, torn from his fellow workers by the attack on the right to organise. The worker lives and bleeds to death, faces insults and feels fatigue, thirsts for water and suppresses his urine, all this, only so that the assembly line goes on. In this nerve centre of the automobile industry, the Plot no.1, Phase 3A of the Industrial Model Town Manesar, a Swift and an SX4 model car is assembled in 38 seconds. 1250 squeezed out per day. Super-profits of the bosses. Efficiency. Development. Growth. Consumer satisfaction. A ‘happy’ middle class family.
Maruti Suzuki Industries Ltd., the biggest automobile company in India with a passenger car market share of over 45%, promises a “way of life”. For this, it spent a reported Rs. 2000 crores on advertisement alone in a year (so the bent-back welcome to its lies from Wall Street Journal to all the so-called objective corporate media in India). As its profits soar in geometric progression, its financial statement says it spent a mere 1.9% as total employee cost in the year 2010-11, down from 3.5% in 2001 and 2.3% in 2008. When in June this year, the young workers all in their 20s, demanded their right to organise, and filed for Union registration on 3rd June, the company sent its ‘bouncers’ to literally arm-twist the workers into signing a blank sheet of paper to give up their demand for this minimum of respect. The workers struck work on June 4th and continued a sit-in inside the factory for 13 days till June 16th. The suspension of 11 workers was revoked.
Made to cower down momentarily in face of the workers’ fight, the company, with blood on its hands from crushing the workers movement in early 2000 in its Gurgaon plant, plotted revenge and Shinzo Nakanashi, the MD threatened that workers must be “educated”. Cockroaches and dead flies begun to be found in the food in the hurried lunch-break of 30 minutes that workers earn in the canteen ½ km from the working station. The tea was without tea leaves or sugar in the 7 minute break, as workers would go to the bathroom running with a snack in the mouth, tea cup in one hand, unzipping with the other hand, before the bell rings and the assembly line resumes. The company doctor would give heavy doses of ‘instant’ medicines even on any minor complaint by a worker, only so that disruption of work could be prevented. The disease then returns in greater degree and one day’s wage cut of Rs.1500, two days Rs.2200, three days cut of Rs.7-8000 is implemented, so that almost the total month’s wage is cut. One second late into punching-card entry is a day’s wage cut, but he cannot then go out of the factory but has to give his full production for that day too.
Meanwhile, with ‘development’, ‘growth’, ‘consumer satisfaction’ involved, the willing State too lends its full support (rejecting the minimum demand for registration of the workers’ Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) as a pre-independence day gift on 14th August; police force of 500 send to occupy the factory to ‘prevent violent activities’ as a pre-emptive measure on August 28th night). The company then terminated 11 workers and suspended 38 on August 29th and 30th on false charges demanding a ‘good-conduct bond’ (read: humiliation by law), with the state police and administration, the media (which is singing the management’s tune that production has resumed), and ‘bouncers’ on its payroll as its willing pawns.
Inside the factory, with cameras even in the bathrooms, the company’s evidence-less charges of ‘indiscipline’ and ‘sabotage’ or go-slow in production are baseless. Is it remembering the death penalty for ‘industrial sabotage’ implemented in an emerging industrial England with the 1812 ‘frame breaking act’, that corporations clamour for more ‘solid’ laws? The language now is ‘flexible’ labour laws for a more insecure and ‘mobile’ labour force. In fact, contractualisation of labour is fast becoming the definitive burning issue before the working class. The workers, both permanent and contract, in Maruti Suzuki however stand united in this struggle.
In such a situation, the current demand of the recognition of a Union that the workers feel represents their interests becomes the first step towards demanding the end of such despicable working conditions and back breaking extraction of labour which make profit and strength of the company possible in the first place. The Maruti Suzuki Employees Union (MSEU) is demanding as an immediate measure, the withdrawal of the charge-sheet, termination, suspension of the 49 workers. The workers are sitting day-and-night at the factory gate, peeling off the layers of Maruti Suzuki’s “way of life”.
The significance of the current struggle in Maruti Suzuki’s assembly plant where workers anger and corporate-state power battle, can only be fully comprehended in view of its impact in the vast network of arteries of the industry in the area and beyond of which Maruti sits at the centre, exhausting a low paid, ‘mobile’ workforce with the normalcy of exploitation. On 1st Sept, on the call of the MSEU, in solidarity with all the workers of MSIL, Manesar, over 5000 workers assembled at the factory gate no.1 for a dynamic gate meeting and juloos that followed in the IMT Manesar area. On the 5th September again, around 4000 workers rallied till the highway to block it. The Gurgaon-Manesar-Dharuhera-Bawal industrial belt in Haryana is stirring up in solidarity and protest by workers and Unions in the area. The social power of these young workers is tangible with the thunderous camaraderie that erupts when workers and others join in solidarity.
This struggle erupts as a continuation of rising tide of workers` struggles in Gurgaon-Manesar with the most prominent being the police attack on a demonstration of Honda (HMSI) workers in July 2005. In May 2006, immediately after a five day occupation at Hero Honda by 3,000 contract workers, tools were laid down in the supplying plant of Shivam Autotech. Similar situations at HMSI and Delphi have also arisen after that. The Rico Auto 43-day strike happened in September 2009 with one lakh workers in the area going on a one-day general strike which shook not only the entire area but stopped production lines in General Motors in the US. This present struggle thus, more than itself, is important in the possibilities it shows ahead for working class struggle and the struggle of the masses in crisis.
We know and realise even better with the ongoing struggle in Maruti that profit depends on one most significant variable- exploitation of working people. This is true from POSCO Orissa to Maruti Manesar, where the potentiality of the masses is violently disrupted on one hand by displacement and uprootedness, and then boxed up in daily routines, shift rhythms and distorted social relations. We realise that exploitation is not an event or a spectacle but married to how ‘normalcy’ is produced. As young women and men faced with the crisis of the system as it stands, we realise that this and other such struggles of the workers and masses expose the skeletons on which the grand houses of riches are built. As a youth organisation, Krantikari Naujawan Sabha, seeks to expose the limitations of the present system from a left revolutionary perspective, seeking a living political process. Rather than ending up ‘interpreting’ Marx’s 11th thesis “Philosophers have only interpreted the world so far. The point however is to change it”, a direction is sought towards really changing the world.
With the struggle in Maruti Suzuki, we stand as part of the larger solidarity effort and forum which is in coordination with the Union’s effort. We call upon all to join us in the solidarity meeting with the struggling workers in Kaveri mess, JNU, tonight 9th September at 9.30pm.
100 hr Barricade by Students and Youth Against Corruption and Corporate loot. Thousands of students were detained and later released in order to prevent them from carrying out their 100 hr barricade at night. An interview with Sandipan Talukdar (AISA).
Organised by Student-Youth Campaign Against Corruption at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi after a nation wide campaign. Interview with Aslam Khan, Student-Youth Campaign Against Corruption
Organised by Student-Youth Campaign Against Corruption at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi after a nation wide campaign. Interview with Kavita Krishnan of CPI (ML)Liberation
Please send in your name if you wish to sign on this Memorandum that will go to the Vice Chancellor on Wednesday. Please distribute among your networks. Alternatively, please print it out and collect signatures which can be collected from you or sent on by you.
We are shocked and outraged at the shameful incident that took place inside the Arts faculty premises, at around 11:30 am, on 22nd July 2011. The Security staff of the university physically and verbally assaulted a woman and her male colleague, in order to prevent them from distributing pamphlets. Several Delhi Police personnel who were present, stood by and watched the assault, instead of preventing it from continuing. Worse, when some students intervened on behalf of the victims, they and the victims were threatened by the police with arrest. Later the students and several college teachers approached the Dean of Students Welfare and the Proctor, demanding an explanation for, and action against the excessive and outrageous conduct of the Security personnel. The Administration was extremely reluctant to take up the issue, and in fact, locked the main gate to the Proctor’s office when they learnt that teachers and students were on their way to meet the Proctor. The strange explanation that was offered for the behaviour of the Security was that the victims were outsiders to the university, and that they were distributing religious literature which is allegedly against the rules of the university. When asked to produce the rule in question, Proctor’s office could not do so. A police complaint was filed and the medico-legal examination revealed injury and swelling above the left eye. The incident is grave on several counts:
1. Even if it were illegal or against University Rules to distribute religious literature (which it is not), the Security do not have the right to physically assault anyone who does so, even if they are outsiders to the university.
2. The Constitution of India guarantees the right to disseminate religious literature. Therefore, the assault is a direct attack on the Constitution. The University’s defence is an attempt to dangerously and gratuitously communalize the sensitive issue in an attempt to wriggle out of the serious charge of manhandling and physical assault.
3. The fact that one of the victims was a woman did not deter the Security from physical violence and the subsequent specious justification of it. It may be noted that in the absence of any female Security personnel, the incident noted above constitutes gender bias and possibly sexual harassment.
4. Over the last two years, both staff and students of the university have repeatedly been threatened physically and verbally on several occasions by the Security. Recently, the Security and the University administration have taken it upon themselves to decide what is appropriate reading material for members of the University. They have arbitrarily forbidden and disrupted programs, harassed faculty and students of the University who have taken up socio-political, economic, etc., issues that the administration does not approve of. This is absurd per se, but more so in a University space.
5. It is shameful and tragic that the University Security is itself a danger to the campus.
6. It is of profound concern that over the last few years the university administration has displayed a tendency to be increasingly hostile towards democratic activities and indeed to the very idea of democratic culture. They are attempting to change the very character of a University.
We demand:
1. Prompt and stringent action against the Security personnel involved in this incident.
2. The repeal of any Directive requiring permission from the University administration for distribution of pamphlets and other such exercise of intellectual freedom. Such activities are the democratic right of any organization and every individual. It is not the business of the Administration to function as a moral and intellectual custodian of the University.
3. Safe campus for women at all times. The University administration should take immediate measures to ensure this without increasing police presence in the campus.
Thousands of Workers Converge on Jantar-Mantar to Present Their Charter of Demands, 3 Year Long Program of Struggle Launched
New Delhi, 2 May. Thousands of workers coming from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad and Chhattisgarh have warned the central government that if the demands of the 80 crore toiling masses are not urgently paid attention to, the increasing dissent among the workers could take a rebellious turn.
While announcing the launch of country-wide ‘Workers’ Satyagrah’ in the workers’ assembly which continued till late evening yesterday on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the May Day, it was stated that if the government does not take action on the 26-point charter, the toiling masses from every nook and corner of the country will be mobilized by holding worker Panchayats in all the industrial regions, workers’ settlements and villages and after 3 years, lacs of workers will lay siege to the national capital.
The main demands of the charter which was presented to the government include: enforcing an 8 hours working day, stop forced overtime, increase minimum wage to Rs. 11,000 per month, abolish contract system, make proper safety arrangements in factories and payment of proper compensation in case of accidents, ensure equal rights to women workers, safeguard interests of migrant workers, registration of all domestic and independent daily wage workers and construction workers, put an end to the corruption in the labour departments and effective implementation and review of labour laws. It was announced in the meeting that it was a beginning of a long drawn battle for the political and economic rights of the workers.
The speakers expressed their anguish about the fact that in the ongoing movement against corruption there is no mention of the corruption which victimizes crores of workers every day. Without targeting the tactics of the industrialists to deprive millions of workers of their rights by openly flouting the labour laws, the movement against corruption cannot be meaningful.
While discussing the changes which have been brought about in the forms of the industries and the exploitation machinery and the disintegration of labour movement, the speakers said that in the ‘Workers’ Charter Movement’ the workers are being united under a combined banner.
Tapish from Textiles Workers’ Union, Gorakhpur; Rajvinder and Lakhvinder from the Karkhana Mazdoor Union, Ludhiana; Abhinav from Bigul Mazdoor Dasta, Delhi; Ashish from Karawal Nagar Mazdoor Union, Delhi; Ganesh Ram Chaoudhary, President, Chhattishgarh Mines Workers Union; Shekh Ansar, Vice President, Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha; Kavita from Stree Mazdoor Sangathan, Delhi; Pramod Kumar from Bigul Mazdoor Dasta; Gorakhpur; Roopesh, labor organizer from north-west Delhi and a number of workers from different regions put forward their view point. The meeting was compered by Satyam of workers paper Mazdoor Bigul. Folk singer Faguram Yadav from Chattisgarsh elevated the spirit of the demonstrators through his spirited songs.
Around 8 thousand labourers coming from the distant corners of the country consisted largely of unorganized workers of small and large factories. Women workers also came in large numbers from Delhi and outside. Processions of workers coming from outside started pouring in Jantar Mantar from railway stations and bus stands right from the morning, holding red flags and placards and even after the meeting ended workers were discussing forthcoming program in small gatherings on the Jantar Mantar road till late in the evening and the process of the workers leaving the meeting place continued till 9 pm.
Organized by Coordination Committee for Oppressed Nationalities (CCON)
Speakers: Prof. Bimol akoijam, CSSS/ JNU, Satya Sivaraman, Journalist, Santhosh, Visiting Faculty, SAA/JNU, Someetharan, Jaffna Based Documentary Film Maker.
Followed by Documentary Screening on Mullaitivu Saga, 45 min , a English Documentary on the ‘final’ brutal military operation of the Srilankan army and A Book Release of In the Name Of Peace: The IPKF Massacre of Tamils in Srilanka
Tamil Eelam Movement: The Contemporary Crisis and Its Significance
When the Sri Lankan Government declared on May 19th 2009 that the war against the Tamil Tigers is over, thereby claiming that the Eelam struggle was finished, it received compliments from a curious combination of international forces. India and Pakistan welcomed Sri Lanka’s victory against ‘terrorism’. Israel and Iran congratulated Rajapaksa for upholding democracy. The Turkish government expressed opinions signaling that the PKK would meet a similar fate like the LTTE while quite a few military analysts in India and Colombia considered the possibility of finishing off the armed struggles waged by the Maoists and the FARC respectively in a ‘Sri Lanka style’ solution. The big powers, USA, France, Russia and China also expressed their solidarity with the victorious Lankan government. The pro-US Colombian government and the supposedly anti-imperialist Cuba and Venezuela conveyed their admiration for Rajapaksa’s firmness in dealing with ‘seditionists.’ Most of the above mentioned countries have also directly and indirectly provided material support to Sri Lanka.
INTELLECTUALS AND THE WAR: Indeed, some of the intellectuals who support these so-called anti-US countries, considering them to be truly ‘revolutionary’, have even characterized the Eelam struggle as being funded by imperialist powers. This despite the fact that the LTTE was banned and continues to faces a ban in the US, Canada and the European Union and that quite some Tamils who have been suspected of aiding the Tigers have been arrested by these governments. This despite the fact that the US, Israel and many countries of the West have supplied the Sri Lankan government with economic and military aid. This despite the fact that none of those countries that had no qualms in going to war with undemocratic regimes in Iraq earlier and now in Libya raised a finger while over 50000 civilians were butchered by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces between January and May 2009. Media houses like The Hindu and NDTV that put up a sham liberal facade propagated this blatant lie of ‘terrorism promoted by foreign powers’, besides even positively projecting Sinhalese chauvinist-triumphalism after the massacre of the Tamils. Recent cables released by Wikileaks shows how the Indian Government opposed foreign powers preventing the Sri Lankan state’s war against the Tamils and also how the Sri Lankan government was desperately trying to get greater aid from the US in their war on the Tamils.
While the silence in intellectual circles on the genocide in Sri Lanka is grossly disproportionate to its intensity, the talks and debates on Sri Lanka in the mainstream Indian media and academia focuses on either peace or reconciliation or both. What is conveniently forgotten is the struggle of a people for freedom and justice. The ‘left’ intellectuals affiliated with the CPM and few other parliamentary left parties, who have no qualms in shouting their support for the Palestinian liberation struggle, are happy to denounce the equally genuine demands of the Eelam Tamil people and to distort the truth of their oppression. That they hold similar positions on the other national-liberation struggles in the subcontinent is testimonial to their commitment to the oppressed peoples. Even those who recognize the war-crimes of the Sri Lankan government are rather silent on the political demand for self-determination of the Eelam Tamils and slip into a human-rights discourse instead. The tragedy that befell the Tamils then becomes a ‘soft-story’ discussion for the NGO’s and status quo intellectuals.
The truth is this. The war in Sri Lanka is not about human rights violations alone. It is primarily about political rights of the Tamils as a nation to secede and form an independent state. Unless that is recognized, all appeals for peace and co-existence are just mere shams to cover the naked racist oppression that exists in Sri Lanka, the brutal face of Sinhala majoritarian chauvinism. The Lankan emperor is wearing no clothes – but why do so few have the courage to point that out?
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BLOOD: As soon as Sri Lanka gained independence in 1948, it passed the Citizenship act, which in effect disenfranchised more than 10 lakh plantation Tamil workers in the island. Following the Sirimavo-Shastri pact of 1964, over 5 lakh of them were expatriated – the remaining were to get Sri Lankan citizenship only in 2003. In 1956, the notorious ‘Sinhala Only’ act, that made Sinhalese the sole official language was passed. Tamils staged peaceful protests and the response was state-sponsored riots which led to over a 150 deaths. Large scale riots against the Tamils occurred again in 1958, again as a response to non-violent protests of the Tamils. When the Federal Party declared civil disobedience, emergency was declared in many Tamil areas and the army was deployed to crush protests. Sinhalese academics in this period wrote ‘historical works’ that received official support which sought to obliterate the historical presence of the Tamils in the island. A sample – “The history of Sri Lanka is the history of the Sinhalese race… Buddhism is the golden thread running through the history of the Race and the Land…” (DC Wijewardena, The Revolt in the Temple)
Anti-Tamil riots occurred with varying frequencies in the 60’s and the 70’s. The Republican constitution of 1972, plucked away the few minority rights that the Tamils had. By officially privileging the faith of the majority, it made complete Sinhala-Buddhist supremacy a reality. The Tamils, deeply conscious of the oppression that they faced as a collective, realized that future in an united Sri Lanka would only spell doom for them. The Tamil United Liberation Front, which was formed on 1976, passed the Vaddukkodai resolution under the aegis of S.J.V. Chelvanayakam that year which stated that the struggle for “the Free, Sovereign, Secular, Socialist State of Tamil Eelam, based on the right of self determination inherent to every nation, has become inevitable in order to safeguard the very existence of the Tamil Nation in this Country.” The constitution promised a socialist-democratic state, committed to abolition of casteism and religious discrimination.
THE RISE OF ARMED STRUGGLE: The Tamil youth, who were the worst to be affected by the language policy of the government, and the rural populace who were under constant economic pressures, began losing faith in the peaceful methods of the TULF. The LTTE which was formed in 1976, gained popularity after the assassination of Jaffna mayor Alfred Duriappah. The burning of the Jaffna library, which contained numerous valuable historical manuscripts of the Tamils, by Sinhalese policemen in 1981 convinced the radical youth that the Sinhala chauvinist government was bent on erasing them totally and that armed struggle was the only way to secure justice. The horrible Black July riots of 1983 by Sinhalese mobs, policemen and the army, that was given a free hand by the state and which caused the deaths of over 4000 Tamils and the displacement of hundreds of thousands led to the intensification of Tamil armed resistance and its greater acceptance among the Tamil populace. The LTTE, with its programme for a Socialist Tamil Eelam, consciously promoted the involvement of women, dalits and backward castes in its ranks and reached out to a wider audience than the other parties.
INDIAN INVOLVEMENT: Other militant groups also emerged in this period. The TELO was openly favoured by the Indian government. After its decimation by the LTTE, the RAW chose the EPRLF, who were content to be happy stooges of India. Only the LTTE maintained its independent agenda and refused to be a junior partner of any power. Thus, when following the Indo-Sri Lanka accord the Indian Peace Keeping Force entered Sri Lanka, they launched their brutal assaults on the LTTE and the Tamil people. The IPKF also trained mercenary squads from the EPRLF in the name of ‘Tamil National Army’ to create terror among the local people. Yet, the Tigers were able to secure a decisive victory over the Indian army owing to their mass support and the usage of guerrilla warfare. After that defeat, India has supplied arms to Sri Lanka and also training to its armed forces, albeit covertly, mostly owing to fear of a backlash in Tamil Nadu.
CONSOLIDATION AND CRISIS: After a series of military successes, the LTTE consolidated its rule in the North and Eastern regions of Sri Lanka, having almost 15000 sq km under its control. When it entered into a Ceasefire agreement with Sri Lanka in 2002, it was functioning as a de facto state. It ran schools, hospitals, relief teams, judiciary and police. But by this time, various international powers starting stepping up their covert and overt support to Sri Lanka, especially after the media-generated paranoia on ‘terrorism’ after 9-11. The LTTE was banned in various countries and people suspected to be its members/sympathizers were arrested in India, the USA, France etc. While the movement of men and material for the LTTE was clamped down, the governments of China, Israel, Russia, Pakistan, Libya and Iran gave extensive military support to Sri Lanka.
The defection of Karuna, the Eastern Commander of the LTTE, in 2004 which was partly engineered by the Lankan government came as a major blow to the Tigers. The December 2004 Tsunami also greatly damaged human resources and infrastructure in Tiger controlled areas. With Rajapaksa’s election in 2005 the ceasefire began to deteriorate. On July 2006, the Sri Lankan military started its full scale offensive against the Tamils with blessings from various international powers. Numerous atrocious acts like the Chencholai orphanage bombing of August 2006 which killed 61 Tamil children were committed by the Lankan armed forces with impunity.
Towards the last stages of the military operations in Mullaitivu, the Lankan armed forces violated all established conventions of war. Chemical weapons and cluster bombs were used on civilian populations. Non-combatants were subject to tortures and sexual abuse. Media freedom was curtailed and vigilante groups were propped to violently snuff out any democratic voices. The murders of journalists Taraki Sivaram, Lasantha Wickramatunga and P. Devakumaran are ghastly examples. When the Lankan government declared on May 19th that the war was over and that peace was ahead, it failed to mention the bloody trail that it had left behind.
POST-WAR SRI LANKA: The Permanent People’s Tribunal in a hearing on January 2010 found the Sri Lankan government guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Chomsky compared the Sri Lankan war on the Tamils to the atrocities in Rwanda. Despite claims to champion ‘peaceful co-existence’ the Sri Lankan government has been consistently pursuing militarization and colonization of Tamil areas since May 2009, especially in the absence of an organized resistance from the Tamils. Summary executions by mercenary gangs and the army, abductions, illegal detentions and rape are commonplace. Suicide rates among Tamils are one of the highest in the world and many suffer from psychological traumas.
Demographics of the region are changed by state supported Sinhalese settlements and establishment of army camps in Tamil areas. Many Tamil lands have now been used for foreign projects under the guise of government schemes. The assaults on the cultural level are also happening side by side. Besides wanton destruction of Tamil Churches and Temples, there are attempts to change the names of Tamil localities into Sinhala, thereby denying them their local history. Desecration of statues of Tamil martyrs has been accomplished with systematic efforts. In July 2010, the army demolished the Tamil war heroes cemetery in Thenmaradaachi, Jaffna, in order to build an army base over it. The purpose of this is two fold: one, to show the Tamils once and for all who their superiors are. Two, to erase all memories of resistance from the thoughts of the Tamils. Despite all this, dreams persist, words are spoken and stories are told.
CCON feels that at a stage where various national-liberation struggles are being brutally suppressed and are undergoing strategic and ideological changes, it is imperative for us to learn from various movements. And since the so-called ‘Sri Lanka solution is being upheld by various oppressor countries, we feel it is necessary to discuss how this ‘final solution’ turned out to be and what it signifies for the Tamils and other oppressed nationalities.
Chinese Working Class Rising Like Phoenix from the Ashes:
Problems & Prospects of the Working Class Movement in China
Speaker : Jackson
(A Political Activist from China) Venue :Activity Centre, Above Spic Macay Canteen, Arts Faculty, D.U. Date :Wednesday, 23rd February 2011 Time :1.30 P.M. Onwards
As you are aware Shri K.G. Kannabiran, former President PUCL, eminent lawyer, writer and the most active civil liberties activist, passed away on December 30, 2010. The PUCL is organizing a condolence meeting to pay our tributes to the doyen of civil liberties movement.
Day and Time: January 8, 2011 (Saturday) at 5:00 p.m.
Venue: Gandhi Peace Foundation,
223, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg
New Delhi – 110002
You are requested to join us in paying respects to him.
Following is the video of a seminar organised by Correspondence and Kudos, the Literary Society of Hindu College (University of Delhi) on 4th March, 2010 with the aim of initiating a discussion on radical student and university politics.
Date: 7th December 2010, Tuesday
Venue: M.N. Sreenivas Hall, Delhi School of Economics,
Department of Sociology, University of Delhi
Documentary Film: “AFSPA-1958” is a documentary film Script and Directed by Haobam Pebam Kumar a well-known documentary film maker. AFSPA 1958 was awarded INTERNATIONAL FIPRESCI CRITICS JURY AWARD (MIFF2006);INTERNATIONAL JURY AWARD (MIFF 2006);THE JURY PRIZE (10th Ismailia International Film Festival 2006);A.C.T. Award to AFSPA 1958 for the Best Film that deals with women problems, subjects, concerns and rights in the official competition of the 10th Ismailia International Film Festival 2006;BEST DOCUMENTARY AWARD (SIGNS 2006, Kerala/India);BEST DOCUMENTARY AWARD (6th KARA International Film Festival, 2007, Pakistan) ; Awarded the Swarna Kamal for the Best Non-Feature Film in the 56th NATIONAL FILM AWARDS FOR THE YEAR 2008 It tries to capture the everyday life of the people in “disturbed area” in the case of Manipur who lives under one of the most draconian law enacted by the post- independent India. It shows some of the experiences, life, pain, helplessness, anger, resistance, rejection, and calls for support to the progressive peoples from the story of atrocities, humiliation, insecurity of life and dignity. It documented after 2004, July 10, Miss Manorama who was taken away by the Assam Rifles from her residence after giving an arrest memo to her family. She was raped and murdered. 11 women protested without any cloths, a student leader Mr. Chitarenjan performed self immolation; many students from Manipur University were badly beaten up in front of Governor’s house, people lived under curfew for months, a long mass protest by the people in Manipur and unending non violent protest (hunger strike till justice) by Irom Sharmila Chanu to repeal AFSPA. For the first time in the history of post independent India, national security legislation was forced to review under a commission appointed by Prime Minister and resulted no result.
Abstract: AFSPA is essentially one of the colonial acts like Indian Forest Act 1927, Indian Penal Code, Indian Land Acquisition Act, the Criminal Tribe Act 1871 etc. It is originated from Armed Forces (ordinance) 1942 and passed as Armed Forces (Manipur and Assam) Special Power Act in 1958 in parliament. After the implementation of this act in certain regions or people of the state, it can be stated that laws are made on the basis of race, religion and people. The idea of rule of law without any difference on the basis of sex, race, color, and people of a modern democratic state has been compromised by this very implementation of this act in the last 5 decades in some part of this country. Why such kind of law can exist so long? What is the politic of this act? How AFSPA can be understood in an academic and public discourse? How can we imagine the society under AFSPA-1958?
2.30 pm: Documentary Film: “AFSPA-1958”
Discussion:
3.40 pm: Indian State, AFSPA-1958 and Rule of Law
by
Dr. Sudha Vasan
Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, DU
4.10pm: Human Rights and Security Law in India (AFSPA)
by
Colin Gonsalves
Supreme Court Lawyer and Human Right Activist
You are requested to kindly witness this documentary film and take part on the discussion.
6th December 1992 marked the demolition of the Babri Masjid situated at Ayodhya by Hindu communal hordes led by Hindutva leaders, while the central security forces looked on without intervening. The Central Govt. of Congress led by P.V. Narasimha Rao and the state BJP Govt. led by Kalyan Singh stood by and allowed the demolition. Narasimha Rao’s first public statement promised the country that the Govt. would rebuild the mosque; a sentence which the Central Govt. ceased to repeat in the space of just a few days. Anti-Muslim violence under the patronage of the police followed in Mumbai, where the Sri Krishna Commission report remains unimplemented till date.
Later the Supreme Court refused to answer a Presidential reference to ascertain whether any Hindu religious structure was demolished to build the Mosque. Criminal complaints filed against the Hindutva leaders for the demolition continue to lie pending before various special benches of the state High Court.
Now the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has passed a judgment which legalizes the illegal act of smuggling of idols under the central dome of the Babri Masjid which for centuries had been a functional mosque .It has condoned the act of physical demolition of the Mosque by holding that the area under the Central dome of the Mosque had all along been the birth place of Rama. Not only that the Lucknow Bench has even endorsed the VHP’s plan of a ‘grand temple’ at Ayodhya entertaining VHP functionaries as a Party and their design of ‘grand temple’ as a legally valid cause. While the religious demolition of the Babri Masjid took place in 1949, its physical demolition in 1992, this court judgment has effected its legal demolition. Worse, it has opened wide the doors to avenging missions of Hindu communalists to reverse perceived ‘wrongs’ of history targeting the minorities.
Not only this .The current High Court judgment has passed comments of far reaching significance on archeology and history with dangerous consequences regarding use of these disciplines.
The Babri Masjid demolition and the aftermath till date puts on agenda the entire question of Hindu communalism in India. Congress practices a ‘soft’ Hindu communalism while wearing the mask of secularism while the Hindutva organizations like BJP, VHP, and RSS take aggressive Hindu communal position. The communal conspiracies of the rulers divide the people’s movements and turn the focus away from the real issues before the people.
To discuss all these aspects, especially the Allahabad High Court judgment, Delhi Committee of CPI (ML) New Democracy is holding a meeting
on 6th December 2010
from 5.30 pm
at Gandhi Peace Foundation
where several distinguished speakers will place their views. We hope you will be able to spare your valuable time to attend the same.
JOIN A DEMONSTRATION ON NOVEMBER 8TH 2010 (MONDAY) AT JANTAR MANTAR (NEW DELHI) AT 2:00 PM
Dear Friends,
At a time when US imperialism has escalated the war against Afghanistan and is even extending this war by assaults by NATO forces led by it against northern districts of Pakistan, leader of warmongers, looters and exploiters of the world people, President of USA, Barack Obama, will visit India in early Nov. 2010. Since Obama came to power, US forces have increased their numbers several times over in Afghanistan. There are innumerable proven instance of deliberate targeting of innocent civilians by these forces in the name of “targeted” attacks on “enemy”. In essence, US imperialism under Obama administration is continuing the Bush era attempt of a permanent base in Afghanistan from where it will interfere in central Asia. India should be in the forefront of opposing the US move. Let us use the opportunity of Obama’s visit to strongly demand that US and NATO forces immediately withdrawn from Afghanistan.
It was 2001 that US imperialism under Bush had launched its current war, which the world people were told was against ‘terrorism’. War was launched first against Afghanistan and later against Iraq. In reality wars were launched to further the quest of US imperialism for hegemony over the world’s oil resources and also to establish military dominance over the world.
In essence, the Obama administration is continuing the aims of Bush era but it has changed rhetoric. US under Obama has made a mockery of his promises of withdrawal of forces from Iraq, keeping a huge army stationed there in the name of ‘aid’ to local troops. While Afghanistan is the main theatre of war, US continues a sharply aggressive stance on West Asia and Central Asia. On Palestine, Obama has no policy different from the earlier one and continues backing Israel against the just fight of the Palestinian people.
The current world economic crisis began in US and the US economy continues to be in the grip of severe unemployment. One of the chief ends of the Obama visit is to push further opening of the markets of our country. He is expected to give a massive push for opening of the retail sector to US MNCs like Wal-Mart, which will directly affect the livelihood of a large section of our people, and which step the Indian people have resisted all along. All this even as Obama administration seeks to protect US markets back home. Obama is championing opposition to outsourcing by US companies; those companies which outsource are to face stiffer taxes. It is also no secret that Obama is going to use the occasion of his visit to push for fresh defence deals with US, aiding the powerful weapon industry. Ahead of Obama visit Indian government has signed the international nuclear liability treaty to dilute the liability of suppliers as stated by Nuclear Liability Act 2010. This is in accordance with the demands of US companies. Let us not forget that Obama administration, like previous US govts, has refused to reconsider the issue of extradition of Warren Anderson, guilty of Bhopal Gas Tragedy, for trial in India.
Obama is coming at a time when ruling classes of India have hitched themselves firmly to the chariot wheel of US imperialism. They aspire to the junior hegemons under US in Central Asia. Ruling classes of India are committed to bowing to the diktats of US imperialism in the economic spaces too. As it is the people of India are reeling under the pro imperialist policies of India’s ruling classes especially the new economic policies being implemented since 1991. The result is visible in the severe price rise which is burdening the common people including the working class. Severe agricultural crisis has gripped the country. Land acquisition by the state for cooperates; MNCs and SEZs have devastated last sections of the peasantry and tribal. Privatization and liberalization are putting health and education further out of reach of common masses. People all over country are resisting these policies in various ways. The furtherance of pro imperialist policies, which is what the Obama visit will signify, will increase the burdens on the common people.
On the occasion of President Obama’s visit to India, let us unitedly demand
US imperialism, Get out of Afghanistan.
Send back Warren Anderson to face trial in India
CPI(M-L), CPI(M-L) New Democracy, CPI(M-L) New Proletariat, Democratic Students Union, Indian Council of Trade Unions, Indian Federation of Trade Unions, Inqlabi Majdoor Kendra, Krantikari Yuva Sangathan, Mool Pravah Akhil Bharatiya Nepali Ekata Samaj, Pragatisheel Mahila Sangathan, Progressive Democratic Students Union, Revolutionary Democratic Front, Trade Union Centre of India, CPDM, Bahujan Vam Manch
