ML International Newsletter October 2002 *********************************************************************** An update on news and ideas from the revolutionary left in India. Produced by: Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation international team *********************************************************************** Website: www.cpiml.org Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED]
PART-2 5) Agricultural Labourers Organise in Champaran, Bihar (Continuation from Part-1) 6) Peasant Uprising in Pakistan 7) A World Summit for Unsustainable Development 8) South Asians' Struggles Around the World Mass Uprising in South Asia Agrarian Labourers Organise in Camparan, Bihar Since 1988-89 CPI(ML) has been organising agrarian labourers in this district, in the course of which dozens of comrades have sacrificed their lives. The Party has carried on agrarian labourers' struggles uninterruptedly, leading even minor struggles at whatever cost. As a result the labourers of West Champaran have started fearlessly resisting all kinds of feudal bullying and the most brutal atrocities. Examples of their courage are the militant struggles currently taking place on the questions of land and wages. In July, agrarian labourers from 50 villages of Gaunaha Block launched a successful struggle on the demand of wage increase. Similarly, agrarian labourers of Bargo, Barnihar and a dozen of other villages also plunged into the struggle. The wage struggle was joined by agrarian labourers of Lakhankhor-Chhaudhariya of Ramnagar Block. In all these villages wages were 3-4 hatai (2 to 3 kg of grain), but were increased to 5-6 kg as a consequence of the struggle. In addition the agrarian labourer would get breakfast at 11 a.m. and lunch at 3 p.m. Belwa-Bahuari village of Gaunaha Block is the harbinger of this struggle. 70 per cent of the village population are agrarian labourers. Landlord Shankar Sharan Singh has been treating the whole village as his personal estate and ruling it using his own hired thugs. He has maintained illegal hold over hundreds of acres of ceiling surplus land The agrarian labourers have not been able to take possession of the land they hold parchas (title deeds) for. They used to get only 3 kg of grain as daily wages. The landlord has built a market on a part of his land where the condition of renting a shop is to support his misdeeds. If a renter opposes him, he is evicted or his shop is looted and burnt. This has happened to the medical shop of Dr Hazari Prasad and tent house of Rajendra Sharma. In 1997-98 agrarian labourers were mobilized here, the issues were of social dignity, minimum wages and possession over the land for which agrarian laboures have parchas. The landlord's hired thugs resorted to robbing the agrarian labourers' houses and destroying their crops. However, finally the movement scored a victory and the wages were increased from 3 kg to 4 kg. This boosted the morale of agrarian labourers. The second upsurge in Belwa-Bahuari struggle came around time of the Panchayat (village council) elections. The landlord fielded one of his lackeys for the post of mukhiya (headman) and on the other hand agrarian labourers led by Party fielded Comrade Yogendra Majhi. Immediately after the nomination the landlord bullied him to withdraw from the contest but the comrade did not bow down. Then the landlord started malicious propaganda against him on the basis of his belongiong to the dalit Mushahar caste. How can a Mushahar, having no home to reside, not a chair to sit, be made mukhiya? Even to drink water at a Mushahar's house is forbidden. No Mushahar has ever become a mukhiya, nor can he ever do so. But the people were resolute. As the date of elections drew nearer, the mobilization in favour of Comrade Yogendra grew larger. Then the landlord got him implicated in a false case and sent him to jail before the election. However, the agrarian labourers had made it a matter of honour. Comrade Yogendra won the elections even from inside the jail. The landlord lost the election to the Block Development Council (BDC) as well. After this victory, self-confidence among the agrarian labourers of Gaunaha area got a powerful boost. Agrarian labourers from all the Panchayats of Gaunaha Block regard Comrade Yogendra as their own mukhiya. This protracted struggle earned Belwa-Bahuari the status of a model. Under its impact, agrarian labourers of other villages in this block have been drawn into the struggle. The struggle for wages spread to almost every village of this block. Landlord-Police Repression and People's Resistance This awakening of the landless labourers and poor peasants has resulted in intensification of class struggle in the countryside. Of late the movements on the questions of land and minimum wages have faced severe attacks by mercenary criminal gangs. However, in the face of organised strength and the militant mood of the people, they had to beat a retreat. Resistance struggles at Mandiha village of Gaunaha Block and Chiutaha village of Mainatanr Block stand testimony to this. On the other hand, police brutality has also surpassed all previous limits. Mandiha On 30 July a criminal gang patronised by landlord Sanjay Mishra of Muzaffarpur and other big landlords fired at Ram Kishun Oraon of Mandiha village in Gaunaha Block, injuring him seriously. He is still struggling for his life in PMCH, Patna. CPI(ML) activist Mukhlal Mukhiya, who went there to investigate the attack, was shot dead on the morning of 31 July. Comrade Mukhlal (50) was an active party worker who had taken the lead in establishing Sherpur Sugauli village of Bagaha block as a political centre. He used to kept on all noteworthy activities in the district and that is why people called him Khabarilal. "Farewell comrades, take care that the Party remains intact" were the last words he uttered. An orchestrated terror campaign by criminals against the poor villagers followed, but the police did nothing to protect the villagers. Ultimately the agrarian labourers and poor peasants from other villages assembled at Mandiha and tried to put pressure on the police to take action. The peasants even held four hired thugs. But the impact of this on the police was just the opposite. The DIG and SP, and around 200-250 policemen belonging to 20 police stations reached Mandiha on 1 August. Entering the houses they started beating the poor people, injuring scores of them. As the people started pelting stones the police opened fire indiscriminately. Ultimately 18 persons including two women were arrested. They were severely beaten even after arrest and one of them, Maharaj Diswa, died in police custody. Another villager Gharbharan Majhi is seriously injured. Maharaj Diswa (40) was from the Tharu community and took active part in the resistance struggles. Chiutaha 250 acres of land illegally held under possession by Markandey Pandey, a land mafia don belonging to Deoria district in UP, in Chiutaha village of Mainatanr Block was captured on 25 June, when thousands of poor people hoisted the red flag there. The main participants in this struggle were 70 Mushahar families residing in Uttarbari tola of this village, all landless and poor agricultural labourers. The step towards seizure of land was taken under Party leadership after a memorandum given by the CPI(ML) to the district administration demanding redistribution of this 250 acres of benami and gair mazarua land among landless and poor villagers fell on deaf ears. The storm took one month to build up. In this period Markandey Pandey was busy mobilizing criminals and feudal estates of UP and Bihar, and the police-feudal-criminal nexus was planning its next course of action. Then, on 26 July people came to know that criminals led by BJP leader and ex-minister of UP Harishankar Tiwari have assembled at the kuchhery (managerial office for leasing out land and collecting rent) of Markandey Pandey. On the same day the Party State Office informed the DM and the SP of West Champaran by fax about the criminal build up. Party's State Secretary Comrade Ramjatan Sharma talked to the DM Ravi Parmar over the phone at 10 p.m. on the night of 26 July. And on 27 July, an urgent letter was handed over to the Home Secretary in Patna. However, no precautionary steps were taken while hundreds of criminal thronged Markandey Pandey's kuchhery. On 28 July these criminals launched an attack on Chiutaha village. Apprehending this, the poor villagers had already prepared themselves for counter-attack with traditional weapons. A gathering of 1,500 villagers offered stiff resistance to the criminals and ultimately the latter had to retreat after indiscriminate firing for 2-3 hours. Throughout this the police remained a "neutral" spectator. For one week there was no activity on the part of criminals in Chiutaha. The criminals had learned that they could not make a dent in the self-defence of the spirited villagers. So the onus of teaching a lesson to the villagers fell on the police. The police took the lead in arresting three key Party activists at the district level. Even their whereabouts were not revealed. The Party decided to hold district wide protest movement on 2-3 August against these arrests. The gherao of Mainatanr Block was the most militant of all with 300 villagers participating. The employees were all driven out and offices were locked. In the face of these protests the police had to set free the three leaders, who had till then not been sent to jail but illegally held in various police stations. On 3 August Party District Committee announced the holding of a massive resistance meeting at Narkatiaganj on 6 August against the feudal-criminal-police nexus. On 5 August a large police contingent (around 200 policemen picked up from 18 police stations) led by DSP (Sadar) Ram Vilas Mahato attacked Chiutaha village around 3-4 pm. The SP of West Champaran Anil Kishor Yadav was himself camping at Mainatanr, only 7 km away from Chiutaha and had assumed indirect command of this operation. Later it was learnt that Markandey Pandey had lodged an FIR against four villagers implicating them in a fictitious case of theft of a tractor battery. And the police had come there simply to arrest not more than four people! The villagers resisted this attack and pelted stones. The police fired 20 rounds, killing twelve-year-old Laxman Majhi on the spot. He had just returned after work from a nearby village. Another villager Sheshnath Majhi was seriously injured. He is now in Narkatiaganj Hospital. The police contingent had attacked from northeast corner of the village. From southwest corner, where Markandey Pandey has his kachhery, criminals coming from that side fired 6 rounds. Ultimately in this uneven battle the villagers had to retreat to their houses. The policemen then entered the houses and mercilessly beat the villagers, including women and children, with rifle butts and lathis. Women were disrobed and dragged out of their houses. In the meantime the criminals had also entered the scene and joined this operation. Then the houses were razed to the ground and even their foundations were dug up. Their belongings, including utensils, bicycles and poultry, were all looted by the police and the criminals. It was a "destroy all and evict all" operation. Dozens of people suffered injuries and among them 12 were women. Police picked up 50 persons and took them to Mainatanr Police Station, where false charges were framed against 21 villagers including 12 women, one of them pregnant, and they were sent to jail. They were beaten even after arrest. Clearly the police attack on 5 August was a continuation of the criminals' attack on Chiutaha on 28 July. This is another clear example of criminal-police nexus in Bihar and events also show that this nexus enjoys the full backing and protection of politicians. More than 5,000 people participated in the resistance meeting on 6 August. The meeting demanded removal of the SP and urged the people to observe Champaran Bandh on 9 August. On this day the Party had already taken up "Jail Bharo" programme under the slogan "Saffron Forces, Quit India!" On 9 August thousands of people took to the street to implement the bandh call. The bandh was quite impressive throughout the district. More than 500 people were arrested at Bagaha in the morning itself. At Narkatiaganj, agitators marched on the streets into the afternoon in the form of procession but they were not arrested. However, at Bettiah, police resorted to lathi charge in an unprovoked manner and then killed Com. Ramji Patel, a Party leader in cold blood by firing a shot. In protest, the Party's District Committee has undertaken that until the SP Anil Kishor Yadav is removed from Champaran, the movement will continue on this demand. Starting from the first week of July till 9 August, in all five Party activists or sympathisers have been killed. Hundreds of people have been implicated in false cases. Around 50 persons have been arrested and sent to jail. The continuous campaign launched by the police to terrorise people and break their morale has however not succeeded so far, as is demonstrated by the large turnout of people in protests against incidents of police repression and atrocities from 31 July onwards. Peasant Uprising in Pakistan - Soumitra Bose Ironically the most anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistani Native writer V.S.Naipaul brought forth to the people of the world the history of "Maoist" movement of Pakistan. From 1964 to 1974, the peasants of the North West Frontier Province fought bitter battles against the feudal-military regime that is Pakistan. Later inspired by the Naxalbari model, some professional revolutionaries plunged themselves in the peasant movement. The movement was no less painful, no less sacrificial than the Naxalbari movement of India and Jhapa movement of Nepal. We did not hear much after or before that. Tariq Ali, who was the spokesperson of the Pakistani Left, due to his over-inclination towards Trotskyism and disdain of Mao Thought simply did not bother to inform the world about the peasantry's struggle. He was too busy with the students' uprising in the metro cities of Pakistan. Truth and fact cannot be subdued, although the middle class liberals tried to do so. The peasants are now showing the way and rallying all the progressives of Pakistan. Recently Pervez Hoodboy the conscience of Pakistani left has come out openly in support of the peasants. The corrupt middle class intelligentsia cannot keep these news under the carpet any more. We the revolutionary communists of India are looking forward to this movement with adoration, solidarity and camaraderie. The Pakistani peasants have shown once again that the spirit of Naxalbari (West Bengal, India), Bhojpur (Bihar, India) and Jhapa (Nepal) is blowing in the entire South Asia. We appreciate the time when students of Bangladesh are taking on their State terror, when people of Nepal are straight in a war against their State and the entire South Asian ruling class and of course the US, when the peasants and workers of India are involved in a life and death struggle against globalization, when Tamil Peasants of Sri Lanka are fighting against their State and the Tamil Mafia. We find that we, in any part of South Asia are not alone and are creating a South Asian confederation of Struggling People against State terrorism. We will be watching very closely every move of the peasants' movement, every nuances to learn from our Pakistani counterparts. People are confronting the mighty military power through mass movements, with the home tools, whatever they can amass. They are in a mass Bolshevik peasants' resistance - the line showed by Comrade Charu Mazumdar. Glory to the peasants' movement of Pakistan! Glory to the Peoples' movement of South Asia! Following is a short chronology of events that will give a glimpse of the recent developments, the backdrop and the character of the resistance movement! References are provided for further reading. July 05, 2002: For the first time the information of the peasant uprising came out in the open to the world through the following letter (excerpt). Letter To Subcomandante Marcos by Asha Amirali July 05, 2002 'Malki ya maut' - 'ownership or death' - is the slogan of one million landless tenants. We write to inform you of the plight of landless tenants in nine districts in this state of Punjab, Pakistan. A war rages here. On one side, thousands of police, rangers, and the military; on the other, thousands of men and women armed with nothing more than 'thappas', wooden sticks that women use to wash clothes. The women, thappa in hand, are in the front-line; the men, unarmed, are behind them. And so today, one million tenants live and work on state-owned farms spanning 70,000 acres across the province. While the provincial government owns the land, the farms are operated by different government agencies including the military, the livestock department, and the Punjab Seed Corporation. In the 1950's, these agencies had leased the land from the provincial government but their leases are defunct now, having expired decades ago. As the agitation for justice spread amongst the tenants, so did the panic within the status quo. To date, this panic manifests itself in tight media control, heavy police presence in villages, outrageous show of force, and the shooting and killing of five tenants in the last six months. The first death was in January this year, when the Director of Renala state military farms, Colonel Mohammad Ali, shot a tenant in Renala Khurd. Then, in mid-May, two more tenants were shot and killed, one in Okara, and the other in Khanewal. In every instance, retired or serving army officials were responsible. This is the price of resistance. But it is made lighter by the spirit of those who are demanding their due. Thousands are charged with crimes against the state. Hundreds are branded terrorists. Many languish in jail. Water supplies and phone connections to a farm in Khanewal district have been cut off for three weeks now; there is no entry or exit allowed. It is a state of siege. But 'malki ya maut' remains the weapon against which they must pit their guns and artillery fire. August 10-16, 2002: Somewhere in the world media we find the acknowledgement of the horrendous State terror of the military-feudal regime. The ugly State terror in rural Punjab South Asia Tribune Issue No 4, Aug 10-16, 2002 August 24th, 2002: Open war declared by the Pakistan Military Regime against her own citizens. Appeal: SUPPORT NEEDED FOR LANDLESS TENANTS MOVEMENT People's Rights Movement (PRM) Rawalpindi August 31, 2002: Jail saga of the leaders and activists start Tenants' leader in custody Dawn, September 2, 2002. International Analysis A World Summit for Unsustainable Development From: Liberation, September 2002. - Sundaram They came by the thousands, they yakked away for days, but as usual it was Uncle Sam (the one with the big stick) who conquered. The recently Earth Summit at Johannesburg, South Africa, attracted presidents and prime ministers from countries big and small but the chief of the biggest polluter of the planet-the United States - did not come. Instead George Bush Jr. (or 'little Bush' as the Iraqis like to call him) sent his smooth-talking butler Colin Powell to the event and yet had his way on almost every item of the agenda- global warming, renewable energy, subsidies for agriculture, the issue of poverty and debt- the whole lot. But it was not as if the so called 'leaders' of the rest of the world needed to be prodded or threatened to accept the US positions on these pressing subjects. In keeping with the international fashion these days all of them mouthed the neo-liberal mantra that 'markets know best' for the globe's environment and left the job of cleaning up the mess to those chiefly responsible for the mess- transnational corporations, the IMF, World Bank and the WTO. And thus having talked themselves out of the picture the 'leaders' left for home without even one of those 'ringing' declarations about cutting poverty by half in a decade or planting a zillion trees within a week. (I guess they realized their past declarations on such subjects is still 'ringing' painfully in our ears). What they did produce, after much bargaining, was a weak, non-binding agreement calling for an `improvement in human and environmental health and sustainability'. The major issues that the 200 odd countries that gathered at the Johannesburg Summit were supposed to tackle included global warming, the AIDS epidemic and poverty. On the agenda was also an appraisal of the ten years since the first Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That assembly too produced a document piously pledging environmental improvement and a betterment of living standards around the world. But one of the more tangible and time-bound products of the Rio summit was at least a pledge by industrial countries to voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions-which cause global warming-to 1990 levels by the year 2000. This goal, however, has not been met. On the contrary, global consumption of fossil fuels increased by 10 percent from 1992 to 1999. The Kyoto protocol on global warming, which had its roots in the Rio conference, has been rendered ineffective by the decision of the United States- which accounts for 25 percent of the globes energy consumption- to withdraw from the treaty. While the `little' Bush administration's decision to pull out of the Kyoto Treaty process was greeted with derision and protests from governments in Europe, the developing world and among green activist groups there is little they have been able to do about changing the only superpower's unilateralist approach. The other proclaimed goals of the Rio Summit like improving biodiversity or slowing down deforestation have fared no better. According to the UN Environment Program's estimates, the extinction rate of species is still accelerating while deforestation too continues, with a net annual loss in forest area of 0.2 percent during the 1990s. Recognising that there can be no way the global environment can be saved without saving human beings first the Rio summit had also pledged to improve social conditions. Over the past decade however there has been a sharp increase in social inequality on a global scale. Other goals such as providing basic access to safe drinking water or minimum energy requirements to the world's poor have also been obviously not achieved. Given this dubious record of the Rio summit there was nothing much that anyone should have expected to emerge out of the Johannesburg Summit anyway. And yet because of the all the money poured into the event, the publicity given to it and the fact that it was being held in a supposedly `new and apartheid-free' South Africa there were many who harboured hopes of some meaningful outcome. They were all in for crushing disappointment however as the Johannesburg Summit sent out the wrong messages all around from its choice of venue-at a posh, business district called Sandton City- to its obsequious wooing of private corporations as the new `saviours' of the environment. Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General was quoted telling corporate leaders on `Business Day'- a day set aside to shower special attention on big business, "The corporate sector need not wait for governments to take decisions. We realize that it is only by mobilizing the corporate sector that we can make significant progress." He appealed to companies to invest more in underdeveloped countries in order to solve the problems of social inequality that make these countries "fundamentally unstable." In keeping with the neo-liberal paradigm the emphasis at the summit was routinely on `rolling back the State' and eliminating governmental regulations while promoting so-called `private-public' partnerships. Often these partnerships do not involve the state at all being solely between corporations and NGOs or local authorities. Several hundred such partnerships were announced at the meeting giving a clear signal that global corporations are really the `New State' that override all concepts of `national sovereignty' or 'self-determination'. (Given these realities one wondered why government representatives bothered to attend the Summit at all ) Among these partnerships for example was an agreement between the French water company Suez and the municipal authority of the South African city of Queenstown. The company hopes to privatize the local water supply and make a profit. Other schemes along these lines in other parts of the world have sharply increased water prices, exacerbating the problem of scarcity for the majority of the population. US government representatives brazenly plumped for protecting the interests of the oil and automobile (among others) business lobbies that run their country . Together with Canada, Australia, Japan and the OPEC countries they opposed even the most nominal of targets and goals, such as a nonbinding pledge to increase to 15 percent the proportion of energy coming from renewable resources. The developed countries, again led by the US, also were united in opposition to a provision calling for cuts in agricultural subsidies.. Farmers in wealthy countries receive hundreds of millions of dollars in agricultural subsidies annually-the bulk of which go to agribusiness concerns-a policy that is devastating for small economies that rely on the export of primary agricultural goods. Despite demands by activist groups-particularly those working on the Bhopal gas disaster case- that multinational corporations should be held fully responsible for the pollution and damage they cause the Johannesburg conference decided not to include multilateral accountability rules for corporations operating in underdeveloped countries. Such rules had been sharply opposed by businesses in the US and Europe. More treacherously such rules did not have the support of leaders from underdeveloped countries either, who after all benefit from the exploitation of resources and labor in their own countries. The most lasting image of the Johannesburg summit had in fact nothing to do with the environment as such but with the heavy-handed way in which the South African government handled protests by anti-privatisation and land rights activists during the event. Faced with mounting opposition to its policies of `corporatising' its power and water utilities and its inability to redress the demand for land by landless farmers the African National Congress government brought out the army and hundreds of armed police to handle peaceful demonstrations that challenged their credibility. Ten years after the end of racial apartheid the South African government now presides over what its critics call a `class apartheid'. A vast majority of black people in the cities are still confined to the ghettos, their power supply cut off because they `can't pay their bills' and face mounting unemployment while in the countryside the farms are still largely by the former white rulers. The ANC, despite its initial rhetoric of socialism and redistribution of wealth is busy implementing IMF inspired economic policies and trying to create a new black elite who vow to be `responsible and efficient' in serving the interests of global capital. More than anything else the lesson from the Earth Summit- Part Two was basically about how most global environmental issues are so closely tied up with the `class apartheid' that still plagues the world. A true battle to save the globe's environment will begin only when those who organise charades like the Earth Summit become the targets of protests by the working people of the world- they are part of the problem and can never be a part of the solution. In the Diaspora South Asians' Struggles Around the World - Daya Varma Universal condemnation of the Gandhinagar massacre The attack on Hindus inside Swaminarayan Akshardham Temple in Gandhinagar, Gujarat has been condemned by Indian and South Asians groups overseas. Boston-based Alliance For a Secular and Democratic South Asia, Association for India's Development (AID), Insaniyat, Sangam, Indian Students Association at MIT and South Asian Center; the Vancouver-based SANSAD (South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy), Montreal-based CERAS (South Asia Center), UK-based South Asia Solidarity Group are some of the organizations. Protest against the massacre of Christians in Karachi There have been large scale protests against the killing of the seven members of Idara-e-Aman-o-Insaf in Karachi. A protest rally was held in Karachi on September 28. People marched from the Karachi Press Club to the Mazar-e-Qauid-i-Azam and demanded the dismissal of the interior minister Moin Haider, the Home Secretary, the IGP (Sindh) and city Nazim Niamatullah Khan. Montreal public meeting on Gujarat carnage On September 13 Dr. Sayeda Hameed, one of the authors of the report "How has the Gujarat Massacre affected Minority Women? The Survivors Speak" addressed a meeting of over 75 people in McGill University. The meeting was organized by the McGill University Centre for Research and Teaching on Women and cosponsored by Montreal-based South Asia Center (CERAS) and South Asia Women 's Community Center. Dr. Hameed gave a moving account of the humiliation to which Muslim women and girls of Gujarat were subjected with the tacit approval of the government. She complimented civil society organizations that have come forward to restore peace and assist in the rehabilitation of victims. America's NRIs appalled by the anti-Muslim carnage in Gujarat A group of NRIs (non-resident Indians) from the US recently went on a Sadbhavna Mission to Gujarat. There they met with the victims, human rights groups, religious leaders and leaders of opposition political parties, ex-law enforcement authorities. Horrified by what they saw there, they wrote a letter to the President of India (Sept 12, 2002) "The Continuing Tragedy in Gujarat". The Mission was horrified at the ensuing carnage directed against the Muslims of Gujarat, with the tacit complicity of state machinery at all levels."; and was of the opinion "that there is a systematic campaign to humiliate the victims and increase their agony in every way possible." In the opinion of the Sadbhavna Mission "only a period of President's Rule in the state, with an able and impartial administrator, who is beyond any party sympathies, can rescue Gujarat from a spiral of continuing hate and violence." The Sadbhavna Mission comprised of George Abraham, Dr. Satinath Choudhary, Dr. Aditi Desai, Gautham Desai, Nishrin Hussain, Ahsan Jafri, P.D. John, Dr. Arjun Makhijani, Rev Bernard Malik, Shrikumar Poddar, Raju Rajagopal and Dr. Najma Sultana.) Photo-exhibit on Gujarat carnage A roving exhibition of 79 photographs on the recent carnage in Gujarat, India, was held on Sunday September 8, 2002 in Shepherd of the Hills Church, Laguna Niguel, Southern California. The photographer is the 15-yr old Sahir Raza, son of Shabnam Hashmi of Sahmat and Gauhar Raza, a documentary filmmaker, who portrayed Gujarat in his recent documentary Evil Stalks the Land. The title of the photo exhibit refers to the killing of Mahatma Gandhi. The first photograph depicts a smashed spinning wheel, an image which, in its muteness and fragility, speaks quite eloquently, quite plaintively. Sahir, a class X student, visited Gujarat with his parents and with his camera. There Father Cedric Prakash, who runs Prashant, the relief and rehabilitation outfit there, assisted him. His exhibition was also held in Delhi, Mumbai, and Goa and is available for any organization. British Columbia Government's decision to abolish Human Rights Commission opposed The Bill 53 -Human Right Amendment Act, 2002 aims at abolishing the BC Human Rights Commission; if passed, it will make BC the only province in Canada without a Human Rights Commission. The Bill was introduced at the same time as Harinder Mahil, the Acting Chief Commissioner of Human Rights was fired. In a letter (September 13, 02) to the Attorney General Geoff Plant, the Vancouver-based community organization SANSAD, an affiliate of INSAF, expressed its serious concern on the governmental steps to eliminate the BC Human Rights Commission, which is responsible for protecting and promoting the public interest in the enforcement of human rights legislation. Protest against persecution of progressive Filipinos by Dutch government A number of progressive Filipinos who sought refuge in the Netherlands during Marcos ruthless regime are now facing numerous restrictions and cancellation of services including medical help. It is feared that the Bush administration has increased its military operations in the Philippines, has pressured the Dutch government to take these measures. One of the victims of this new policy of the Dutch authorities is Jose Maria Sison, the former head of the Philippine Communist Party. The Filipino community and their supporters held a two-hour protest in front of the Dutch consulate in Montreal on October 2, 2002 and demanded that the political refugee status of Sison and his wife Julieta Sison de Lima not be violated. ____________________________________________________________________________ __________ _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
