Connecting with people's movements in India

[Nilofer Ahsan]

Dear all,

 

As some of you may know I was recently in India to participate in the World Social Forum.  As part of that trip I participated in a tour of people's movements coordinated by the National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM).  NAPM is a loose network of about 250 progressive people's movements in India such as those working to get restitution for the people injured and killed by the gas leak in Bhopal, the Narmada Bachao Andolan--the movement for justice for those impacted by the Narmada Dam, Dalits' movements for civil and human rights, land rights movements for tribal villagers, anti-corporate campaigns.  Participating in this tour really raised the question for me about the ways in which we structure our work in Chicago so that it can truly support and connect to important struggles like these in the subcontinent.  Many of us are immersed in work related to Voices of Resistance in the short term, but after the March 6th VOR event I would like to convene a working group of folks that are interested in exploring this question. 

 

One specific opportunity I want to alert people to--while I was there I had a short preliminary conversation with some activists workign with the NAPM.  We talked about organizing a similar tour to the one that I had participated in but for only an audience of progressive South Asian activists within the Diaspora.  The idea is create real opportunities for us to not only learn about, but have opportunities to work with and support the work of people's movements in India.  I'm hoping the working group can take the lead in planning and designing this effort. 

 

If you are interested in being a part of this work please e-mail me back.  The first meeting will not be held until the 2nd week in March. 

 

Nilofer

 

PS.  I am also planning to start posting e-mails about solidarity actions we can do around specific struggles happening in India based on on-going communication with NAPM activists.  Look for e-mails from me on the international campaign building against Coca Cola and upcoming actions to stop a height increase in the Narmada Dam.  I will try to keep e-mails short and focused on specific action steps at the end.  Please forward these e-mails as widely as possible to folks in your network that are interested in these issues.