How to Start a Revolution: Or the Delusions of Gene Sharp

The West promote this White Gandhi as the saint of non violence and the chief inspiration of Arab Spring. In fact he himself claims that he engineered the Arab spring. But who is this man in fact? Saint or an agent of CIA? The man the West says is the world's leading expert on non violent revolution...And this is a brief review of the new film on Sharp 'How to Start a Revolution' directed by Ruardh Arrow. Below is posted a trailer

By As'ad AbuKhalil - Fri, 2011-12-02 19:43- Angry Corner

The documentary How to Start a Revolution by Ruaridh Arrow was screened at the Zionist Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University, among other places presumably. It comes at a time when Foreign Policy magazine has decided that Gene Sharp “has inspired Arab spring protesters.” It all started with a front page story in the New York Times, which decided—without any evidence whatsoever—that Gene Sharp has inspired a non-violent revolution throughout the Arab world.

Of course, the Arab uprisings have not been non-violent at all: the Egyptian people revolted violently in Suez and other places, and government buildings and police stations have been attacked throughout the country, as were offices of Hosni Mubarak’s party. The Libyan uprising degenerated, with NATO intervention, into multiple wars inside Libya. In Tunisia, the rebels also attacked government buildings. In Syria, the situation is now regularly labeled a “civil war.” So one can easily dismiss the theory of Gene Sharp’s so-called inspiration by underlining the non-non-violent nature of the “Arab spring” — it’s more like an Arab autumn these days. But what does the documentary How to Start A Revolution say?

It is not easy to finish the movie: there is no story, really. It is also a bit disturbing. It focuses on Gene Sharp in his old age, in his house in Massachusetts. In the basement of the house works the executive director of his Albert Einstein Institution. The movie focuses on both. But the director struggles to make his case, and the movie has the feel of a promotional movie of a cult.

Sharp disturbingly has no problem in promoting himself and praising, nay exaggerating, his influence. He starts the movie by talking about the oft-used evidence of the spread of his ideas: that his books have been translated into more than 30 languages. They keep talking about the translation of one of his books (prominently featured in the film) into Arabic. But this is dishonest. Sharp knows that his books were not translated through the initiative of Arab fans. They were translated by his own Einstein Institution and through external funding provided to his organization.

Jamila Raqib (who was featured in the film as his devotee) contacted me a few years ago when the Institution funded the translation of the books. They asked me to supervise the translation process and verify the accuracy. But the books were too uninteresting for me, and I turned down the job (although I referred them to a friend). How could Sharp convince himself that the translation of his work into multiple languages is evidence of his influence when he knows that he himself commissioned the translation of his own work?

Politically speaking, Sharp has been working largely in sync with US foreign policy goals. He promoted his non-violent agenda against the communist governments during the Cold War, and his partner (a former US army General) talked about his work under the tutelage of the Republican International Institute. But if Sharp is keen on promoting non-violence, why does he not preach non-violence to the US government which practices more violence than most countries of the world? And why has Sharp preached non-violence to Palestinians but not to Israelis? His project of non-violence seems in the interest of the most violent governments in the world today.

The movie could not provide any evidence of Sharp’s influence so it invites four men to confirm that Sharp has inspired revolution. One man is from Serbia, and another from Georgia, and one is from Egypt, and the fourth, a Syrian from London. Each of the four was tasked with providing a testimonial (clearly under prodding from the interviewer behind the camera) to the effect that, yes, Sharp inspired “his” revolution. But that was it. The film was crude in contrasting images of revolutions and protests with a close up of Gene Sharp’s face in his house. But this method would then prove that a potato inspired a revolution, if you contrast the images of that revolution with the image of a potato.

And the movie claimed falsely that governments around the world have been attacking Gene Sharp’s works due to his influence. Sharp himself, without any evidence, claimed that the Russian government set on fire two printing presses because they carried his books. The film claimed that protesters in Iran were convicted on following the instructions of Sharp — and again no evidence was presented.

The second part of the movie focuses on the Egyptian and Syrian cases. In the Egyptian case, the movie brings in a guy and introduces him to us as “a leader of the Egyptian revolution.” I personally have never heard of the guy, but you had to believe that he is the leader of the revolution. He, of course, said that, yes, Sharp inspired “his” revolution. The Syrian guy, an Ussama Munajjid, was even funnier. He lives in London but the film introduced him as a — you guessed it — “leader” of the Syrian revolution. We saw him in his office uploading footage from cameras that he “had placed” all over the country, as the film alleges. But if this guy’s testimonial was not enough, he was flown to Boston to be filmed while listening to Sharp’s advice.

It is not difficult, of course, to mock the writings of Sharp. His instructions for revolution are too basic and common-sensical to be credited to Sharp. The film even suggests that he was behind the idea of beating pots and pans in Serbia, when Latin Americans have engaged in this form of protests for decades, long before Sharp’s books were translated (at his own initiative) to Spanish. He, for example, suggests that protesters should wave flags, as if they did not think of that prior to the publication of Sharp’s books.

The film is disturbing at more than one level: the message of Sharp is condescending and patronizing, although his firm belief in his own international influence has a tinge of self-delusion. He believes that he — the White Man — alone knows what is the best course of action for people around the world. He preaches to Arabs that they were wrong in insisting on the resignation of the leader: he urges that the downfall of the government be stressed instead, as if Arab popular chants did not aim at that. Sharp (or his one Egyptian fan in the film) may have not heard of the nine bombings of the Egyptian pipeline to Israel. That was not in any of Sharp’s books.

CPI Maoist calls for 'Bharat Bandh on December 4-5

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)

CENTRAL COMMITTEE

Press Release

November 25, 2011

Condemn the brutal murder of Comrade Mallojula Koteswara Rao, the beloved leader of the oppressed masses,
the leader of Indian revolution and CPI (Maoist) Politburo member!

Observe protest week from November 29 to December 5
and 48-hour ‘Bharat Bandh’ on December 4-5!!

November 24, 2011 would remain a black day in the annals of Indian revolutionary movement’s history. The fascist Sonia-Manmohan-Pranab-Chidambaram-Jairam Ramesh ruling clique who have been raising a din that CPI (Maoist) is ‘the biggest internal security threat’, in collusion with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, killed Comrade Mallojula Koteswara Rao after capturing him alive in a well planned conspiracy. This clique which had killed Comrade Azad, our party’s spokesperson on July 1, 2010 once again spread its dragnet and quenched its thirst for blood. Mamata Banerjee, who had shed crocodile’s tears over the murder of Comrade Azad before coming to power, while enacting the drama of talks on the one hand after assuming office, killed another topmost leader Comrade Koteswara Rao and thus displayed nakedly its anti-people and fascist facet. The central intelligence agencies and the killer intelligence agencies of West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh chased him in a well planned conspiracy and killed him in a cowardly manner in a joint operation and now spreading a concocted story of encounter. The central home secretary R.K. Singh even while lying that they do not know for certain who died in the encounter, has in the same breath announced that this is a big blow to the Maoist movement. Thus he nakedly gave away their conspiracy behind this killing. The oppressed people would definitely send to grave the exploiting ruling classes and their imperialist masters who are day dreaming that they could wipe out the Maoist party by killing the top leadership of the revolutionary movement.

Comrade Koteswara Rao, who is hugely popular as Prahlad, Ramji, Kishenji and Bimal inside the party and among the people, is one of the important leaders of the Indian revolutionary movement. The tireless warrior who never rested his gun while fighting for the liberation of the oppressed masses since the past 37 years and who has laid down his life for the sake of the ideology he believed in, was born in 1954 in Peddapally town of Karimnagar district of North Telangana, Andhra Pradesh. Raised by his father Late Venkataiah who was a freedom fighter and his mother Madhuramma, who has been of progressive views, Koteswara Rao imbibed love for his country and its oppressed masses since childhood. In 1969, he had participated in the historic separate Telangana movement while he was in his high school studies in Peddapally town. He joined the revolutionary movement with the inspiration of the glorious Naxalbari and Srikakulam movements while studying graduation in SRR college of Karimnagar. He started working as an active member of the Party from 1974. He spent some time in jail during the black period of the Emergency. After lifting up of the Emergency, he started working as a party organizer in his home district of Karimnagar. He responded to the “Go to Villages” campaign call of the party and developed relations with the peasantry by going to the villages. He was one of those who played a prominent role in the upsurge of peasant movement popular as ‘Jagityal Jaitrayatra’ (Victory March of Jagityal) in 1978. In this course, he was elected as the district committee member of the Adilabad-Karimnagar joint committee of the CPI (ML). In 1979 when this committee was divided into two district committees he became the secretary of the Karimnagar district committee. He participated in the Andhra Pradesh state 12^thparty conference, was elected to the AP state committee and took responsibilities as its secretary.

Up to 1985, as part of the AP state committee leadership he played a crucial role in spreading the movement all over the state and in developing the North Telangana movement which was advancing with guerilla zone perspective. He played a prominent role in expanding the movement to Dandakaranya (DK) and developing it. He was transferred to Dandakaranya in 1986 and took up responsibilities as a member of the Forest Committee. He led the guerilla squads and the people in Gadchiroli and Bastar areas of DK. In 1993 he was co-opted as a member into the Central Organizing Committee (COC).

From 1994 onwards he mainly worked to spread and develop the revolutionary movement in Eastern and Northern parts of India including West Bengal. Particularly his role in uniting the revolutionary forces which were scattered after the setback of the Naxalbari movement in West Bengal and in reviving the revolutionary movement there is extraordinary. He mingled deeply with the oppressed masses of Bengal and the various sections of the revolutionary camp, learnt Bangla language with determination and left an indelible mark in the hearts of the people there. He worked tirelessly in achieving unity with several revolutionary groups and in strengthening the party. Comrade Koteswara Rao was elected as a Central Committee (CC) member in the All India Special Conference of erstwhile CPI (ML) (People’s War) held in 1995. He strived for achieving unity between People’s War and Party Unity in 1998. In the Party Congress of erstwhile CPI (ML)(PW) held in 2001 he was once again elected into CC and Politburo. He took up responsibilities as the secretary of the North Regional Bureau (NRB) and led the revolutionary movements in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab states. Simultaneously he played a key role in the unity talks held between erstwhile PW and MCCI. He served as a member of the unified CC and Politburo formed after the merger of the two parties in 2004 and worked as a member of the Eastern Regional Bureau (ERB). He mainly concentrated on the state movement of West Bengal and continued as the spokesperson of the ERB.

Comrade Koteswara Rao played a prominent role in running party magazines and in the field of political education inside the party. He took part in running ‘Kranti’, ‘Errajenda’, ‘Jung’, ‘Prabhat’, ‘Vanguard’ and other party magazines. He had a special role to play in bringing out various revolutionary magazines in West Bengal. He wrote many theoretical and political articles in these magazines. He was a member of the Sub-Committee on Political Education (SCOPE) and played a prominent role in teaching Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to the party ranks. In the entire history of the party he played a memorable role in expanding the revolutionary movement, in enriching the party documents and in developing the movement. He participated in the Unity Congress-9^th Congress of the party held in 2007 January, was elected as CC member once again and took responsibilities of Politburo member and member of the ERB.

The political guidance given by Comrade Koteswara Rao to the Singur and Nandigram people’s movements which erupted since 2007 against the anti-people and pro-corporate policies of the social fascist CPM government in West Bengal and particularly to the glorious upsurge of people’s rebellion in Lalgarh against police atrocities is prominent. He guided the West Bengal state committee and the party ranks to lead these movements and on the other hand conducted party propaganda through the media too with initiative. In 2009 when the Chidambaram clique tried to mislead the middle classes in the name of talks and ceasefire, he worked significantly in exposing it. He did enormous work in keeping aloft the importance of People’s War and in taking the revolutionary politics into the vast masses. This great revolutionary journey which went on for almost four decades came to an abrupt end on November 24, 2011.

Beloved People! Democrats!!

Do condemn this brutal murder. It is the conspiracy of the ruling classes to wipe out the revolutionary leadership and deprive the people of correct guidance and proletarian leadership. It is a known fact that the Maoist movement is the biggest hurdle to the big robbers and compradors who are stashing millions in Swiss banks by selling for peanuts the Jal, Jungle and Zameen of the country to the imperialist sharks. The multi-pronged, country-wide brutal offensive named Operation Green Hunt of the past two years is exactly serving this purpose. This cold-blooded murder is part of that. It is the duty of the patriots and freedom-loving people of the country to protect the revolutionary movement and its leadership like the pupil of their eye. It’s nothing but protecting the future of the country and that of the next generations.

Even at the age of 57, Com. Koteswara Rao led the hard life of a guerilla like a young man and had filled the cadres and people with great enthusiasm wherever he went. His life would particularly serve as a great inspiration to the younger generation. He studied and worked for hours together without rest and traveled great distances. He slept very little, led a simple life and was a hard worker. He used to mingle easily with people of all ages and with people who come from various social sections and fill them with revolutionary enthusiasm. No doubt, the martyrdom of Comrade Koteswara Rao is a great loss to the Indian revolutionary movement. But the people of our country are very great. It is the people and the people’s movements which gave birth to courageous and dedicated revolutionaries like Koteswara Rao. The workers and peasants and the revolutionaries who have imbibed the revolutionary spirit of Koteswara Rao right from Jagityal to Jungle Mahal and who have armed themselves with the revolutionary fragrance he spread all over the country would definitely lead the Indian New Democratic Revolution in a victory path. They would wipe out the imperialists and their lackey landlord and comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie and their representatives like Sonia, Manmohan, Chidambaram and Mamata Banerjee.

Our CC is appealing to the people of the country to observe protest week from November 29 to December 5 and observe 48-hour ‘Bharat Bandh’ on December 4-5 in protest of the brutal murder of Comrade Koteswara Rao. We are appealing that they take up various programmes like holding meetings, rallies, dharnas, wearing black badges, road blocks etc protesting this murder. We are requesting that trains, roadways, commercial and educational institutions be closed and that all kinds of trade transactions be stopped as part of the ‘Bharat Bandh’ on December 4-5. However, we are exempting medical services from the Bandh.

(Abhay)

Spokesperson,

Central Committee,

CPI (Maoist)

Support Meeting on Arab Revolution in Paris on 15th October 2011

Maoist Road

Meeting Proposed by the Maoist Communist Party of Italy, Maoist Communist Party of France and with collaboration of supporters of MKP France and with the interventions of the Maoist Movement of Tunisia and Maoist Morrocan Comrades, also all organisations and antimperialist commitees in France and other european countries, and with invitation of organisations and parties of the oppressed countries that have possibility to participate, we are organising a meeting in Paris 15th October.

'From Arab revolts to New Democratic Revolution and the march to socialism and communism'.

It is the first public and open reflection of the Maoist forces on the revolt situations and the task of supporting, particularly support for Maoists in the Arab world, in the context of the general support to all antimperialists forces and peoples in struggle in Arab area.

contact for information and participation:

ro.red@libero.it Italy

drapeaurouge@yahoo.fr France

Foxconn to rely more on robots; could use 1 million in 3 years

Reuters

Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group, known for assembling Apple’s iPhones and iPads in China, plans to use more robots, with one report saying the company will use one million of them in the next three years, to cope with rising labor costs.

Foxconn’s move highlights an increasing trend toward automation among Chinese companies as labor issues such as high-profile strikes and workers’ suicides plague firms in sectors from autos to technology.

Contract manufacturers such as Foxconn, which also counts Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Nokia among its clients, are moving parts of their manufacturing to inland Chinese cities or other emerging markets.

They are also boosting research and development investments to lift their thin margins.

“Workers’ wages are increasing so quickly that some companies can’t take it longer,” said Dan Bin, a fund manager at Shenzhen-based Eastern Bay Investment Management, which invests in technology and consumer-related shares in China and Hong Kong.

“Automation is a general trend in many sectors in China, such as electronics. Of course some companies will consider moving their manufacturing overseas, but it’s easier said than done when the supply chain is here.”

The China Business News on Monday quoted Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou as saying the company planned to use 1 million robots within three years, up from about 10,000 robots in use now and an expected 300,000 next year.

Foxconn, whose listed units include Hon Hai Precision and Foxconn International Holdings Ltd, issued a statement later saying Gou told staff at its campus in Longhua, China, that he planned to move its more than 1 million employees up the value chain beyond basic manufacturing work.

STRIKES, SUICIDES

Foxconn, which has been plagued by a spate of workers’ suicides in its Chinese factories since last year, plans to use the robots for simple assembly line procedures, the statement quoted its chairman Gou as saying.

Since last year, China has been struck by a series of labor-related issues, such as high-profile strikes and suicide cases at well-known companies as heady economic growth fueled the need for wage increases.

In southern China, auto and parts factories owned by Japan’s Honda Motor and Toyota Motor went on strike.

“Rising salary costs should be the key reason why Foxconn is doing this. This year’s wage increase has been quite significant and I don’t expect the pace to slow down next year,” said C.K. Lu, a Taipei-based senior analyst at research firm Gartner.

“If they don’t do this, they will have to move their factories elsewhere.”

At Foxconn, a worker fell to his death last month at a manufacturing plant in southern China, local media reported.

The worker’s death was the latest in a series of apparent suicides by young migrant workers at its factory complexes in the past two years.

Foxconn employs about 1.2 million workers, one million of which are based in mainland China, the China Business News said.

“The use of automation is driven by Foxconn’s desire to move workers from more routine tasks to more value-added positions in manufacturing such as R&D, innovation and other areas that are equally important to the success of our operations,” Foxconn said.

Foxconn plans to buy a set-top plant in Mexico from Cisco Systems and is looking into investing more in Brazil, where it is already making mobile phone handsets.

It has bought LCD TV plants from Japan’s Sony Corp in Mexico in 2009 and Slovakia in 2010 and is in cooperation talks with a number of top Japanese hi-tech firms, including Sharp, Canon and Hitachi.

On Monday, Hon Hai Precision’s Taiwan shares rise 3.3 percent, while Foxconn’s cellphone maker unit Foxconn International’s Hong Kong shares ended up 4.3 percent.

Shares of another of the group’s unit, Foxonn Technology Holdings Ltd, which mainly makes casings, jumped 6.8 percent.

(Additional reporting by Argin Chang in TAIPEI and Melanie Lee in SHANGHAI Editing by Charlie Zhu and Vinu Pilakkott)

Declare Solidarity with The Workers

India is witnessing one of the greatest workers' struggle in recent times following the decision to force a lock out at the Manesar, Gurgaon plant of Maruti Suzuki India, the biggest car company in the country since the morning of 29th August. On this occasion we request all our friends to sign the petition declaring solidarity with the workers.

http://www.petitiononline.com/MSIL298/petition.html

This piece is from Gurgaonworkersnews

Gurgaon in Haryana is presented as the shining India, a symbol of capitalist success promising a better life for everyone behind the gateway of development. At a first glance the office towers and shopping malls reflect this chimera and even the facades of the garment factories look like three star hotels. Behind the facade, behind the factory walls and in the side streets of the industrial areas thousands of workers keep the rat-race going, producing cars and scooters which end up in the traffic jam on the new highway between Delhi and Gurgaon. Thousands of young people lose time, energy and academic aspirations on night-shifts in call centres, selling loan schemes to working-class people in the US or pre-paid electricity schemes to the poor in the UK. Next door, thousands of rural-migrant workers uprooted by the agrarian crisis stitch and sew for export, competing with their angry brothers and sisters in Bangladesh or Vietnam.

And here is a short film on Maruti Suzuki Employees Union

Arundhati Roy on Anna Hazare Drama

The Hindu

I'd rather not be Anna

Arundhati Roy

If what we're watching on TV is indeed a revolution, then it has to be one of the more embarrassing and unintelligible ones of recent times. For now, whatever questions you may have about the Jan Lokpal Bill, here are the answers you're likely to get: tick the box — (a) Vande Mataram (b) Bharat Mata ki Jai (c) India is Anna, Anna is India (d) Jai Hind.

For completely different reasons, and in completely different ways, you could say that the Maoists and the Jan Lokpal Bill have one thing in common — they both seek the overthrow of the Indian State. One working from the bottom up, by means of an armed struggle, waged by a largely adivasi army, made up of the poorest of the poor. The other, from the top down, by means of a bloodless Gandhian coup, led by a freshly minted saint, and an army of largely urban, and certainly better off people. (In this one, the Government collaborates by doing everything it possibly can to overthrow itself.)

In April 2011, a few days into Anna Hazare's first “fast unto death,” searching for some way of distracting attention from the massive corruption scams which had battered its credibility, the Government invited Team Anna, the brand name chosen by this “civil society” group, to be part of a joint drafting committee for a new anti-corruption law. A few months down the line it abandoned that effort and tabled its own bill in Parliament, a bill so flawed that it was impossible to take seriously.

Then, on August 16th, the morning of his second “fast unto death,” before he had begun his fast or committed any legal offence, Anna Hazare was arrested and jailed. The struggle for the implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill now coalesced into a struggle for the right to protest, the struggle for democracy itself. Within hours of this ‘Second Freedom Struggle,' Anna was released. Cannily, he refused to leave prison, but remained in Tihar jail as an honoured guest, where he began a fast, demanding the right to fast in a public place. For three days, while crowds and television vans gathered outside, members of Team Anna whizzed in and out of the high security prison, carrying out his video messages, to be broadcast on national TV on all channels. (Which other person would be granted this luxury?) Meanwhile 250 employees of the Municipal Commission of Delhi, 15 trucks, and six earth movers worked around the clock to ready the slushy Ramlila grounds for the grand weekend spectacle. Now, waited upon hand and foot, watched over by chanting crowds and crane-mounted cameras, attended to by India's most expensive doctors, the third phase of Anna's fast to the death has begun. “From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, India is One,” the TV anchors tell us.

While his means may be Gandhian, Anna Hazare's demands are certainly not. Contrary to Gandhiji's ideas about the decentralisation of power, the Jan Lokpal Bill is a draconian, anti-corruption law, in which a panel of carefully chosen people will administer a giant bureaucracy, with thousands of employees, with the power to police everybody from the Prime Minister, the judiciary, members of Parliament, and all of the bureaucracy, down to the lowest government official. The Lokpal will have the powers of investigation, surveillance, and prosecution. Except for the fact that it won't have its own prisons, it will function as an independent administration, meant to counter the bloated, unaccountable, corrupt one that we already have. Two oligarchies, instead of just one.

Whether it works or not depends on how we view corruption. Is corruption just a matter of legality, of financial irregularity and bribery, or is it the currency of a social transaction in an egregiously unequal society, in which power continues to be concentrated in the hands of a smaller and smaller minority? Imagine, for example, a city of shopping malls, on whose streets hawking has been banned. A hawker pays the local beat cop and the man from the municipality a small bribe to break the law and sell her wares to those who cannot afford the prices in the malls. Is that such a terrible thing? In future will she have to pay the Lokpal representative too? Does the solution to the problems faced by ordinary people lie in addressing the structural inequality, or in creating yet another power structure that people will have to defer to?

Meanwhile the props and the choreography, the aggressive nationalism and flag waving of Anna's Revolution are all borrowed, from the anti-reservation protests, the world-cup victory parade, and the celebration of the nuclear tests. They signal to us that if we do not support The Fast, we are not ‘true Indians.' The 24-hour channels have decided that there is no other news in the country worth reporting.

‘The Fast' of course doesn't mean Irom Sharmila's fast that has lasted for more than ten years (she's being force fed now) against the AFSPA, which allows soldiers in Manipur to kill merely on suspicion. It does not mean the relay hunger fast that is going on right now by ten thousand villagers in Koodankulam protesting against the nuclear power plant. ‘The People' does not mean the Manipuris who support Irom Sharmila's fast. Nor does it mean the thousands who are facing down armed policemen and mining mafias in Jagatsinghpur, or Kalinganagar, or Niyamgiri, or Bastar, or Jaitapur. Nor do we mean the victims of the Bhopal gas leak, or the people displaced by dams in the Narmada Valley. Nor do we mean the farmers in NOIDA, or Pune or Haryana or elsewhere in the country, resisting the takeover of the land.

‘The People' only means the audience that has gathered to watch the spectacle of a 74-year-old man threatening to starve himself to death if his Jan Lokpal Bill is not tabled and passed by Parliament. ‘The People' are the tens of thousands who have been miraculously multiplied into millions by our TV channels, like Christ multiplied the fishes and loaves to feed the hungry. “A billion voices have spoken,” we're told. “India is Anna.”

Who is he really, this new saint, this Voice of the People? Oddly enough we've heard him say nothing about things of urgent concern. Nothing about the farmer's suicides in his neighbourhood, or about Operation Green Hunt further away. Nothing about Singur, Nandigram, Lalgarh, nothing about Posco, about farmer's agitations or the blight of SEZs. He doesn't seem to have a view about the Government's plans to deploy the Indian Army in the forests of Central India.

He does however support Raj Thackeray's Marathi Manoos xenophobia and has praised the ‘development model' of Gujarat's Chief Minister who oversaw the 2002 pogrom against Muslims. (Anna withdrew that statement after a public outcry, but presumably not his admiration.)

Despite the din, sober journalists have gone about doing what journalists do. We now have the back-story about Anna's old relationship with the RSS. We have heard from Mukul Sharma who has studied Anna's village community in Ralegan Siddhi, where there have been no Gram Panchayat or Co-operative society elections in the last 25 years. We know about Anna's attitude to ‘harijans': “It was Mahatma Gandhi's vision that every village should have one chamar, one sunar, one kumhar and so on. They should all do their work according to their role and occupation, and in this way, a village will be self-dependant. This is what we are practicing in Ralegan Siddhi.” Is it surprising that members of Team Anna have also been associated with Youth for Equality, the anti-reservation (pro-“merit”) movement? The campaign is being handled by people who run a clutch of generously funded NGOs whose donors include Coca-Cola and the Lehman Brothers. Kabir, run by Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia, key figures in Team Anna, has received $400,000 from the Ford Foundation in the last three years. Among contributors to the India Against Corruption campaign there are Indian companies and foundations that own aluminum plants, build ports and SEZs, and run Real Estate businesses and are closely connected to politicians who run financial empires that run into thousands of crores of rupees. Some of them are currently being investigated for corruption and other crimes. Why are they all so enthusiastic?

Remember the campaign for the Jan Lokpal Bill gathered steam around the same time as embarrassing revelations by Wikileaks and a series of scams, including the 2G spectrum scam, broke, in which major corporations, senior journalists, and government ministers and politicians from the Congress as well as the BJP seem to have colluded in various ways as hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees were being siphoned off from the public exchequer. For the first time in years, journalist-lobbyists were disgraced and it seemed as if some major Captains of Corporate India could actually end up in prison. Perfect timing for a people's anti-corruption agitation. Or was it?

At a time when the State is withdrawing from its traditional duties and Corporations and NGOs are taking over government functions (water supply, electricity, transport, telecommunication, mining, health, education); at a time when the terrifying power and reach of the corporate owned media is trying to control the public imagination, one would think that these institutions — the corporations, the media, and NGOs — would be included in the jurisdiction of a Lokpal bill. Instead, the proposed bill leaves them out completely.

Now, by shouting louder than everyone else, by pushing a campaign that is hammering away at the theme of evil politicians and government corruption, they have very cleverly let themselves off the hook. Worse, by demonising only the Government they have built themselves a pulpit from which to call for the further withdrawal of the State from the public sphere and for a second round of reforms — more privatisation, more access to public infrastructure and India's natural resources. It may not be long before Corporate Corruption is made legal and renamed a Lobbying Fee.

Will the 830 million people living on Rs.20 a day really benefit from the strengthening of a set of policies that is impoverishing them and driving this country to civil war?

This awful crisis has been forged out of the utter failure of India's representative democracy, in which the legislatures are made up of criminals and millionaire politicians who have ceased to represent its people. In which not a single democratic institution is accessible to ordinary people. Do not be fooled by the flag waving. We're watching India being carved up in war for suzerainty that is as deadly as any battle being waged by the warlords of Afghanistan, only with much, much more at stake.

OPPOSE THE RAOGHAT RAILWAY LINE AND THE MINING PROJECT WHICH WOULD DE-RAIL THE VERY EXISTENCE OF BASTARIYA PEOPLE!

Bannedthought

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)

DANDAKARANYA SPECIAL ZONAL COMMITTEE

Press Release

June 7, 2011

OPPOSE THE RAOGHAT RAILWAY LINE AND THE MINING PROJECT WHICH WOULD DE-RAIL THE VERY EXISTENCE OF BASTARIYA PEOPLE!

CLAIM OF SAVING BHILAI STEEL PLANT IS NOTHING BUT TRICKERY!

ENSURING THE PLUNDER OF BASTAR'S WEALTH BY MULTI-NATIONAL COMPANIES IS REALITY!!

The moment when the process of deploying the Army in Bastar is just underway, the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), one of the biggest Public Sector Units of India, has declared that the Raoghat mines would be privatized. These two acts not just coincided, but there was a conspiratorial coordination between them. Raoghat hills are located just 25 kilometers away from Narayanpur (in Maad region), a district headquarter town, where the Raman Singh government of Chhattisgarh has given permission to the Army to acquire 750 square kilometers (i.e. 185,250+ acres) of land. Now so many notorious MNCs will rush into this area to rob the iron ore which is known for its best quality. From one side, the Army and from other side, the corporate companies are trying to gulp down the whole Maad region which is the motherland of Mariaand Gond adivasis, the primitive tribal communities of Bastar.

In 2006, before the Raoghat project is commenced, some accusations were made against the management of BSP that it had illicitly leased out some of the deposits of Raoghat mines to Tata and NECO companies. People believed strongly that the BSP management was acting as paw in the hands of big business houses such as Tata, Essar, Jindal, NECO etc. But then it had cleverly managed it and stated that there was no such thing. But lately the chairperson of the SAIL, Chandrashekhar Verma himself has declared that they are going to privatize Raoghat mines and global tenders would be invited for this. (Source: Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, May 24, 2011). With this, now the game of hide-and-seek is over! Intentions of the exploitative governments are very clear! With the neo-liberal policies dictated by the imperialist masters getting implemented so openly, the MNCs would capture not just Raoghat mines; they would even buy the BSP or buy the SAIL itself. The recent examples of POSCO, Vedanta etc. of other states also clearly indicate this trend.

It's believed that Raoghat hills are having 7.4 billion tonnes of iron ore which is known for finest quality with 62 percent Fe grade. BSP is supposed to excavate 511 million tonnes of iron ore. Construction of Dalli-Raoghat-Jagdalpur railway line is underway for this purpose. Government has already started grabbing the lands forcefully from the peasants between Dalli and Raoghat. But it's facing stiff resistance from the local people.

This project in fact is an old one. In 1992, government was forced to give up implementing this project due to massive protests of people. In Antagarh, ten thousand adivasis had taken a massive procession to register their strong opposition to the proposed mining project. But the state had responded with repressive methods as always happens. A police camp was set up on the top of these hills. That camp is still present there. Our Party has been actively supporting this just struggle.

Local people are opposing this project because 3,278 hectares of forests would completely be destroyed. Apart from this, large portions of adjoining forests would also be destroyed. River Mendhki and so many other streams flowing through the region would get polluted. The farming will be destroyed so much that it is difficult to quantify. Local people see these mountains as their cultural centers and ritual faith. After the opening up of the mines these will be buried for ever. Many environmentalists believe that environment and monsoon from the perspective of Bastar, Raoghat Mountains are extremely important. With Raoghat mining project the existence of 23 villages will immediately be endangered. Further, 13 villages of adivasis might be uprooted in Chargaon area, next to this mine proposed by a private company of NECO Jaiswaals. (And now if you add the proposed massive acquisition of land by the Army - bloated 750 square kilometers - you can't imagine that the existence of how many villages is going to disappear!)

On the issue of where to setup township for the proposed mines, an ugly tussle is going on amongst the business classes of Narayanpur and Antagarh. These selfish people do not worry at all about how many villages will be destroyed, how many thousands of tribals will be displaced, how much forest will be cut, how many rivers will be polluted and to what extent the tribal culture will be destroyed, when the mining work is started in this region. Overall, they don't bother about the oncoming destruction in this region. They are supporting the government's false claims of 'Bastar development' because they think that their own business will grow with this at the price of whatsoever.

Government still makes the argument in support of railway line and mine that the digging up of Raoghat mines is necessary as the mines of Dalli Rajhara which are supplying the raw material to the Bhilai steel plant are going to end up. It's making dubious propaganda that if the mining will not start in Raoghat, BSP could be stopped due to the scarcity of raw material, threatening the future of the thousands of BSP workers. Thus, such an environment is created that anybody dares to oppose Raoghat mine will immediately be labeled as 'anti-development'. In fact, in the guise of this promotion, the government and administration have put a veil over many realities.

Dalli town today is in a position of almost desolation only because of the wrong policies of the BSP, particularly of indiscriminate mechanization. All rivers and streams of this area have been badly polluted. In Dalli and several surrounding villages, as red dirt coming of mines and roads turned on to the fields of farming, and the farming has been fully destroyed. In Dalli where 16 thousand workers used to work earlier, today the number has decreased drastically to 1200. Can the businessmen of Narayanpur and Antagarh and the contractors sitting in Raipur and Jagdalpur give the guarantee that after 20-25 years this region will not become another Dalli?

If the government is really worried that the 'BSP will be closed if it won't get raw materials supply', then why doesn't it stop selling iron ore of Bailadilla mines to the multinational companies of Japan, China and Korea? In fact, many sponge iron factories in Raipur and Bhilai have closed due to lack of iron ore supplies. They appealed to the government several times for supply of raw material from Bailadilla for them and to stop selling the iron ore to foreign companies. Doesn't this prove that the interests of big and foreign capitalists are paramount for the spineless rulers of our country? Isn't the government's "concern" about the future of BSP workers just a pose? Isn't this just a ploy being adopted to deal with the opposition putting up against proposed the Raoghat mine?

We urge all the workers, employees and other people who are concerned with the future of the BSP, that they should recognize who actually is a threat to the BSP. In 1960s, when the Bhilai steel plant was founded, the annual production was 1.5 million tonnes and the number of workers was 95 thousand. Today, the production has been increased to 4.5 million tonnes, but the number of workers is reduced to less than 37 thousand. Contracting, mechanization and partial privatization process are in full swing in BSP. Many facilities for workers have been taken back. New recruitment and compassionate appointment is closed. BSP is planning to increase the production to 7.5 million tonnes by 2012-13, taking up further modernization and expansion. This means even more layoffs and 'retirements' of workers will take place. And even there is a talk of selling out of BSP to Tatas, Mittals or Jindals! BALCO experience is before us. Overall, the policies of imperialist globalization which have been implemented by governments are responsible for this situation. So, you must fight against the anti-worker and pro-capitalist policies of the governments to protect the BSP. You should not fell prey to the designs of the ruling classes to inflict destruction to the Jal-Jungle-Zameen by opening mines in another area. You should fight against this too. Entire people of Dandakaranya will support your struggles.

The Special Zonal Committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) calls upon all the workers and farmers of Chhattisgarh and democratic and patriotic forces of our country to demand the closure of Raoghat project; to register their protest to mechanization, contracting and all other anti-worker policies being implemented in Bhilai steel plant and other industries; to demand to stop selling the high quality iron ore to the foreign companies from Bailadilla; to lend support to the people of Dandakaranya who are fighting for the right over their Jal-Jungle-Zameen; and to oppose the Army deployment in Bastar to suppress their just struggles.

(Gudsa Usendi)

Spokesperson

Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee

CPI (Maoist)

Indian Maoists on the Deployment of Army Troops to Tribal Forest

Bannedthought

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST),

CENTRAL COMMITTEE:

Press release

• Deployment Of Army In The Name Of Training Schools Puts The Very Existence Of The Aborigines and Inhabitants Of Bastar In Peril!
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• Forest Belongs To The Indigenous People (Mulvasis) – The Government Doesn’t Have Any Right Over Even An Inch Of It!
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• Indian Army GO BACK – Do Not Kill Your Own Citizens!

While the Bastar adivasi peasants are readying themselves for the monsoons to till their lands so that they can feed their children and families throughout the year – unknown to them, silently and stealthily the central and state governments have completed the preparations for another kind of monsoons. These ‘monsoons’ do not rain droplets of water but bullets and shells, rockets and cannon balls and would irrigate their lands with the blood of children, women and men – young and old. These ‘monsoons’ promise a lifelong peace and prosperity. Peace it would – as peaceful as a graveyard could be and lifelong as their longing for life would come to an end. Of course, prosperity it would be – for the imperialists, their running dogs – the ruling classes of India, the corporate vultures, the MNC sharks, the great Indian extended family of the comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie i.e., the chief ministers, ministers, MLAs, MPs, IAS, IPS, IFS, bureaucrats etc as now they could lay their greedy hands on the immense wealth buried under this graveyard.

The home ministry says it wants to ‘clear, hold and build’ in the ‘Maoist areas.’ In our country words have long ago ceased to have their original meaning, for which they were created in the first place. Here is the new lexicon– ‘clear’ means massacres, mopping up or complete destruction of everything, ‘hold’ means a war of occupation and ‘build’ means absolute loot of people’s resources. All this ultimately results in reducing the people to a slave like existence complete with absolute surrender to the imperialist slave-owners and this has got its own word – ‘development’. And it is not just words, even institutions have changed their ‘supposed duties’ in our country (into their ‘actual duties’ for which they were created, in fact) – the government doesn’t look after the welfare of the people – it bends over backwards and crawls on its fours to protect the interests of those who exploit them; the judiciary doesn’t protect the rights of the people – it shows admirable adroitness in finding ways to deny them; the police think they are the ‘law’ and that ‘ordering around’ restores it; and the Indian Army with impeccable acumen finds ‘enemies’ in the dilapidated huts of poor adivasis, in the empty granaries of the bankrupt peasants or in the stench-filled bastis of workers and of course in every nook corner of Kashmir and North-East.

In the first week of June, a thousand-men strong iron heeled column marched its way to Bastar – physically that is. Because the Indian Army has been breathing down the necks of Bastar people in many more indirect ways since almost a decade. It has been an integral part of all the counter-insurgency operation plans formulated against the Maoists and has been training the mercenaries who do that job in hundreds. In just Narayanpur the land to be allotted for the Army (training school) amounts to 750 sq.kms while the talk is about three training schools and in three districts (Narayanpur, Bastar and Bilaspur). This is not counting the previous allotments to army and air-force.

‘Oh, no, don’t mistake us, all this is just for the training school, the army won’t enter into operations against Maoists, it is just to gain a psychological advantage over the Maoists, to tell them – ‘see a lion is sitting at your door!’ says the army. And pray – may the humble citizens ask His Excellency Herr Manmohan what this ‘training’ is for as it is he who with great insight discovered that Maoists were the biggest internal security threat? Who are you trying to fool? Only a fool would believe that this lion just sits there and roars instead of pouncing on us. Don’t forget, this is a man-eater on the prowl which has tasted human blood in Kashmir and North-East. Let us be very clear – this training is nothing else but counter-insurgency training ‘to fight the guerilla like a guerilla.’ Unable to contain the armed resistance of the most deprived people of Central and Eastern India through their police and paramilitary, the ruling classes of our country have now turned to the army whom they have been ‘grooming’ exactly for such purposes (read for wars on people). What is the need for another ‘training school’ when there are already so many? And more importantly, why in Central India?

It is as clear as daylight – it is no doubt a training school but it doesn’t stop with training, as soon as a batch finishes training it would be ready with its boots and helmets, guns and grenades on to be sent off to its destination to fight the Maoists, and it doesn’t cater just to Chhattisgarh but also to Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Western Ghats, West Bengal, Odisha and last but not least Andhra Pradesh. That explains the location of it.

Following the policy of ‘draining the water to catch the fish’, the central and state governments, with the close guidance of their mentors – the US imperialists – are implementing the ‘Low Intensity Conflict’ (LIC) strategy, applying it ‘creatively’ to the concrete conditions in India. This can be in such ‘indigenous forms’ like – in preparation for the deployment of army and ‘draining water’ – now Maad adivasis do not get to buy rice anywhere nearby their dwellings. They get them only from towns (and only in such quantities so that the Maoists do not take some rice from them) from shops which are actually police camps. Even the namesake schools from the hamlets are being shifted to pucca buildings on the road-side and would exist in the name of that hamlet which would be at least 60 to 100 kms away. Next the army would step in and ‘clear’ the forest of all inhabitants and herd them off to strategic hamlets which are a euphemism for concentration camps. At the higher level, the recent hobnobbing exercises of Indian and US ruling classes for ‘helping each other’ in Homeland Security were done in preparation for the crueler phase of this War on People – the Phase Two of the Operation Green Hunt as it is being called.

No people in this world without a land to claim as their own could wage battles against their enemies. The ruling classes know this truth more than anybody else and this is exactly what it is planning to do. In the name of training schools it is occupying thousands of square kilometers of land and in the name of strategic hamlets it is rendering the adivasis and forest dwellers homeless and everybody knows that forest IS their home. So, revolutionaries, democrats, civil rights activists and particularly the adivasi organizations must realize the whole conspiracy behind the smokescreen of army training schools. It is the need of the hour to assert loudly that Jal, Jungle and Jameen belongs to the indigenous people (Mulvasis) of Bastar, who represent one of the most ancient inhabitants of the world and to theMulvasis of Central and Eastern India.

True, the government must be questioned about land acquisition, throwing to wind all laws and regulations it has promulgated for adivasi areas (5^thschedule, PESA, Forest Rights act etc). Though posing a direct question about its not following its own rules is necessary, one must be careful not to give it legitimacy to occupy the forest ‘if it follows its rules’. In fact, a conspiracy is under way in the name of land acquisition act to hand over the land of the peasants in a ‘legal’ manner to the corporates. It would not result in any peaceful transfer of land from one hand to another but would remain a naked land-grabbing act which would never be implemented without shedding the blood of the peasants and without destroying their livelihoods. The first and foremost thing to be done is to declare that forest belongs to the Mulvasis and that they do not have any ‘elder brother’ named ‘government’ with whom they should share it!

As our party has been consistently saying and as even all genuine democrats have been expounding – all these operation green hunts and clear-hold-build policies are meant to loot the immense mineral wealth and other natural resources in Central and Eastern India. And for this they do not care if a whole community or a civilization is wiped out; it would just be a ‘collateral damage’ as taught by their ex-boss ‘Bush’ or their current master ‘Obama’.

The Central Committee of CPI (Maoist) calls upon the people of Bastar and Chhattisgarh to fight back the Indian Army as they had been fighting back the police, paramilitary and vigilante gangs like Salwa Judum to protect their lives and livelihoods, to secure the future of their children and to save their mother forest and one of the most ancient cultures of this world of which they are the proud inheritors.

Let the slogans – Forest belongs to the Mulvasis – Not an inch of it to the Sonias-Manmohans-Chidambarams and Raman Singhs, not to blood-sucking land grabbers masquerading as chief ministers and ministers, not to MNCs, not to Indian corporate sharks, not to mining mafias – reverberate in every corner of Central and Eastern India. Mobilize to the very last member in the family – children and elders, young and old, women and men with the slogan – Indian Army Go Back, do not kill your own citizens.

We have seen many offensives, but this new offensive using the army puts the very existence of the aborigines and inhabitants of the forests in Central and Eastern India in peril. It is a question of life and death. If we let them prevail, the consequences would be very bleak and may lead to many decades of dark years. Sacrifices and acts of bravery are not new to us. It is a specific characteristic of our history of struggle against colonial rule that the most consistent, continuous, militant armed struggles against the British colonialists were waged by the adivasis of this country. And some of the most glorious chapters in it belong to the Santhals and Bastar adivasis during the Santhal rebellions and Mahan Bhumkal of 1910 respectively. It is this struggle legacy from our fore fathers and mothers which we have to evoke now if we have to save everything that is precious to us, everything that is dear to our heart – everything that makes us breathe free. So let us fight the enemies of the people to the end. Let us fight back everything which seeks to reduce us to a slave-like existence in the name of ‘development’.

We appeal to all the revolutionary, democratic and patriotic organizations and particularly the adivasi organizations in India and abroad to raise your voice against the deployment of army in Central and Eastern India and do everything in your means to expose, to fight back and stop this war of the Indian government on its own citizens.

(Abhay)

Spokesperson,

Central Committee,

CPI (Maoist)