We are trying to articulate what Chengara means in ideologically turbulent times. I accidentally saw these exchanges on another thread and am disturbed. I hope people would respond. In terms of the original sin allegations of foreign funding that lot of us are grappling with, who has been entitled to make these authoritative statements and questions of where, why and how
--- Original Message ----- *From:* Vijayan MJ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *To:* YAM 2006 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] *Sent:* Thursday, August 21, 2008 1:01 PM *Subject:* [ANN:694] On CHENGARA struggle & support *Friends, * ** *kindly also consider this an invite to join in the Chengara support demonstration and public meeting that will take place at Kerala House (on Jantar Mantar road, New Delhi) on 23rd Saturday (Chengara solidarity day) between 2.30 pm and 4.30 pm. *Several of Delhi's human rights groups, eminent and concerned comrades, students and other members of the civil society are expected to participate in the Demonstration and Public meeting. Delhi Solidarity for Chengara land struggle ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: *anil tharayath* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: 2008/8/20 Subject: Re: [YAM] Re: [ =>> Jharkhand <<= ] CHENGARA UPDATE AUG 2008 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], Vijayan MJ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dear friends I had been to the solidarity struggle on the 14th of August 2008 to Chengara where we were blocked by the huge police contingent. The plantation goons also came in the lorries and we were told by the police that they were trying to create provocation with the police so that they could attack the solidarity members. So in order to save us they arrested the solidarity group. Post the arrest we had a three hour long planning meeting theafter which was very productive. On 25th ,the solidarity committee is planning to organise a huge security chain in Chengara with the active participation of Dalit and Women's organisations (the dates are now changed to the 30th. August 23rd will be marked as "Chengara Day". There will be small and big protests in every part of the state and outside. ( Please do consider to do a solidarity with the protestors in Chengara). Please do support in terms of money too (this is an appeal from a sympathiser and supporter of the struggle). I would like to respond to the 3rd point raised by S Kumar - "*The movement has no support either of the Govt. leftist Govt., or the judiciary or even the Estate workers or the local people at large because the agitation started an year back but sustained by vested interests of NGO-s. Sooner or later Tamilnadu immigrant labour have to return to their home-State and the illegal Muslim immigrants detained and deporte"* I think it is important to challenge some of the misconceptions prevalent in "intellectuals" about apparent paranoia about the so-called "Foreign" funding and "vested interest of NGOs". The issues( like Chengara) needs to be addressed with a sense of political maturity and public policy options- not by knee jerk reaction and the so-called " press expose" to bark at the wrong trees.. Simply by pointing fingers to any NGOs will not help anyone , other than distracting attention from the real issue. Mr Kumar in fact, national level coalition of Dalit organizations and activists across the country like NCDHR, NACDOR( National Confederation of Dalit Organizations) etc could have been strategic allies of the Left Parties. Because they also have significant outreach in the country to shape and make opinions and public discourse. By alienating such organizations, the Left Parties are not going to gain anything and eventually may lose many things. - With regard to the issue of " foreign" funding , less said the better many of the most important Organizations and academic institutions( including the National Law School were actually initiated and strengthen with International Support, including grants from the Ford Foundation. Institutions like TISS, TIFR and IISc were also initiated and strengthened with the grants from Tata Trust and international organizations. I work in an NGO and our organization have openly , unapologetically and assertively taken international support from responsible organizations to initiate and build some of the most credible organizations in this country- and supported by some of the most credible people in our country- including those from the Left . We are legitimately proud about the contributions of such organizations and initiatives. Some of people in NGOs have also been part of the initiatives to promote public accountability of all those governmental and non-governmental organizations that receive money from public or private sources. It is one thing to seek Transparency and Accountability of all those who received funds from governmental and non-governmental sources and it is an entirely different thing to questions the very legitimacy of citizens associated with such organizations to speak up for social justice or human rights. All these information are very much in the public domain. All of these are done in a very transparent, accountable, conscientious and responsible manner, and in our capacity as the committed citizens of this country - with courage of conviction and will continue to do so as long as India is a free country, with a Constitution. Just because a Narendra Modi, Sangh Parivar or few other actors with vested political interest cry foul , citizens of this county do not need to keep quite and will asset and claim ones fundamental rights to association, and expression at any cost.. It is high time for organizations and people to be open and assertive about it. It is plain and simple. "Yeh, desh kisi ka baap/ maa ka desh nahi hai!! Sab ka desh hai!" As citizens of an Independent India, such initiatives to improve society and polity are a part of our moral and political responsibility. "Gandhi did receive support from different sources, including Tata, and few wealthy German people........for the struggle. It is not too long ago that every Tom and Harry from some political parties went to Moscow even to treat a sneeze. There could be more exciting information on this as well........... In a lighter vein, what would have Marx done in London with out the "foreign" funding from Engels( a blue blooded bourgeois- running a textile mill in the Colonial high days of Manchester) and of course the owners of Philips( yes, the same Philips company based in Eindhowan, Netherland!)" "THE STRUGGLE HAS COMPLETED AN YEAR - FRIENDS AND I DO NOT SEE A COMPETITION WHETHER THE STRUGGLE IS A SUCCESS OR A FAILURE AT THIS JUNCTURE. CHENGARA STRUGGLE HAS OPENED A PANDORAS BOX OF QUESTIONS IN FRONT OF THE LEFT PARTY ON A NUMBER OF SOCIO POLITICAL ECONOMICAL ISSUES AND THEIR DEMANDS FOR THE THE RIGHT TO LIVE IN THE SUPPOSEDLY GODS OWN COUNTRY IS GENUINE. PLEASE GO TO CHENGARA SEE THE STRUGGLE - THEN TALK THINK ACT .............................. Anil On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 12:26 PM, Vijayan MJ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: (Written in response to the tirade against Chengara (Kerala) struggle by vested interest groups and some sections of the ruling coalition in Kerala, using their media - also in response to a rhetoric I came across in the Jharkhand e-group, below) Thank you Ajay for the sane intervention below. but in the interest of other sensible group members let me humbly state the following facts: 1) The fact that all the 7000 odd famillies are Keralites (and pls give a break to the Tamil immigrants theory) and that they belong to the Dalit/Adivasi/Dalit christian/OBC sections is something that is vouched by the erstwhile district collector, Mr. Raju Narayanaswamy, after inspecting and cross-checking the list provided by the struggling group. However, because of the fact that the District Collector and SP were sensible people who understood the rationale of the struggle and its genuinety, they have been replaced by 'yes men' 2) Com. Laha Gopalan, one of the pioneering leaders behind the agitation, is a Dalit, who was employed with the state electricity department (KSEB). He has challenged the CPM newspaper Deshabhimani as well as the Harrison Plantation Company to prove that even one rupee for the struggle has been accepted from any foreign source or funded NGO. Ofcourse as elsewhere, there are several groups who have tried to take claim for the struggle (also there have been several political groups from radical left), but people of Kerala have understood there is no truth in this. The financial accounts of the struggle as are transparent as it can be and are put up at the office of SJSVS at district headquarters for anyone to check or clarify. So kindly do not indulge in American funding and CIA allegations without paying any attention to truth 3) Harrison Malayalam plantation has not paid up its lease amount to Govt of Kerala since 1998 and as per the lease contract, a break of the lease payment for more than 2 years amounts to automatic expiry of the lease contract. In that case, the land no more belongs to the plantation company, it belongs to the Govt of kerala who had promised re-distribution to landless 4) It was the left front led by Com. VS Achuthanandan who had made an election promise that all the lands that are illegally occupied by plantation companies or whose lease period has expired will be made available to (re-distributed) Dalit and Adivasi landless famillies. The struggle group SJSVS got into a written agreement with the Forest minister and revenue minister of Kerala as on June 2006, an year before Chengara struggle started in August 2007 that land will be made available to landless. It was on the realisation that the left front govt is going back on this promise that the SJSVS launched the struggle at Chengara. 5) All the political parties in kerala have been supporting the struggle for the single exception of CPI-M till June 2008. however, then the plantation company sent its finance managers / envoys to several of them including BJP and Congress, from which point these parties started backing out after collecting their share. 6) Harrison Malayalam Plantation Company does not know how much land they own in the Chengara estate. This is atleast what they stated in a written submission to the District authorities in January 2008. It is not that they do not know. they are afraid to say the actual acre figure as they know they are in possession of more than three times the actual land they have.This is another aspect that the Chengara struggle has made its mark for making such a powerful intervention in exposing the illegal holding of land by private companies in Kerala. The kerala revenue department after conducting a survey and study has now made this public through the report of its secretary Ms. Nivedita P Haran, who states that Harrison Malayalam company itself holds more than 60,000 acres of land in such a small state as kerala, of which more than 40% are illegal holdings and that out of the other 60%, 30% are lands for which lease has expired. 7) There is no direct case existing against the Chengara struggle, except for false cases made by the police for inor forest produce theft, etc. The High Court case is one filed by the plantation workers (much before the struggle), against the company for not paying their wages. In that case, the company made a strategic petition arguing that the company is not able to pay the workers because the state is illegally occupied by some people and till they are evicted, the company cannot make the workers work or pay them. This was an utter lie as the company has not paid the workers for the past three years, while the struggle is only one year old. The HC of Kerala intervened in this case and asked the state government to file an affidavit about by when the illegal encroachments will be evicted so that the company can be taken to task on the non-payment of wages issue. however, the state government after realising the magnitude of the struggle and the fact that forced eviction might lead to conflict (also means loss of votes for ruling party from dalits) has not taken any action on the court directive, yet 8) The Company has now imported about 130 people (read goonds) from bordering areas and TN and have put them up at the Chengara estate godown of the company. They are running a 24 x 7 bar from there and including the local police officers and ruling party office-bearers, there are many regular visitors there. They have been regularly sexually assaulting the women who go in adn out of the estate and hence came into a conflict with the local people. The police and the goonds went to the extent of physically thrashing several local villagers, for trying to protect some of the elderly women from attack by the goonds. (several of the national media has reported all this, including New Indian Express, The Hindu, Pioneer News and Statesman). There are also factual reports of four such dalit women raped by the plantation goonds (find news item below). 9) Kerala is one of the worse of states in implementing the 2006 forest Rights Act and hence a defaulter in settling forest rights of the STs/SCs and other forest dwellers. The setlement of claims is as of now impossible for the state govt also as much of these lands are illlegally in the possession of the private plantation companies. 10) the demand of the struggle is crystal clear: Its the first one of its kind in the state lead by Dalits, demanding agricultural land for survival and dignity - and whatever happens to the struggle in terms of victory or failure, it will remain in the memory of the dalits and adivasis of Kerala (atleast) for changing the socio-political-economic and cultural power equations and for asserting the genuine land politics... Vijayan MJ Delhi Solidarity Group THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Aug 11, 2008 Rape charge levelled against CPM activists Monday August 11 2008 10:46 IST http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEO20080811104533&Page=O&Title=Thiruvananthapuram&Topic=0 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Four female activists of the Sadhujana Vimochana Samyuktha Vedi, involved in a year-long agitation for land at Chengara in Pathanamthitta district have alleged that they were raped by CPM workers. The tribal women, four of them, were allegedly kidnapped by the CPM cadres during the wee hours of August 7, taken to the godown of the Harrisson Plantations and molested. They were let off by 4.30 a.m., after being kept in the godown for nearly three hours. The women, according to Vedi leader Laha Gopalan, went out of the plantation area in the night to fetch food after they were informed that the CPM cadres who had been laying siege to the agitation area for days, had dispersed. The CPM cadres and the police, Laha Gopalan alleges, were trying to starve the Vedi activists to death. The women were standing in front of a shop that was open at midnight when a group of men forced them into a jeep and sped away. The women have not registered a complaint with the police. ``Their husbands too are not in the know of things. We don't want their families to be destroyed,'' Gopalan said. Three of the women are married and have children. He said that the women came out into the open only after two male activists were found in a battered condition at the Harrisson godown on August 8. ``This practice of taking our activists to the godown and beating them up has become a regular feature,'' he alleged. Earlier, during a press conference held on August 7, Laha Gopalan had alleged that the CPM, the owner of Harrison Malayalam Ltd and the goondas have unleashed terror in Chengara with the support of the police. He said that the people who were taking part in the agitation were not being allowed to move out of the area and nobody was allowed from outside to enter the area. ``The people were not able to buy rice and other necessary items and medicines. Children are not able to go to school,'' Laha Gopalan said. --~--~---------~--~----~------ ------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ACTIVISM NEWS NETWORK" group. To post to this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/activism-news-network?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- -- Bobby Kunhu http://community.eldis.org/myshkin/Blog/ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. 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