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Happy New Year Twenty-Ten
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The Accidental Activist - How to start a protest – Part I
By Venita Coelho
First you have to be very angry. Indignation won’t do. Any battle worth
fighting takes a long time and your anger will have to simmer through
months and maybe years. It will have to sustain you when family try to
talk you out of it, neighbours quit talking to you and the panchayat
sends you notices for trumped up violations. Really hopping mad?
Willing to put yourself on the line? Here’s some simple advice on how
you can get going.
The next step is to get the facts. You want to stop that mega project in
its tracks? The public protests won’t do it, though they are vital for
bringing the issue into the public eye. What will do it is some small
little overlooked permission, or fact that will turn up when you get all
the documents under RTI. Get someone else to file for the documents
under RTI. Why set up alerts before necessary? Further, filing legal
objections is often a time bound activity, counting from the day you
actually got the facts in your hands.
Getting the facts out of various authorities under RTI is a complicated
exercise. If there is the slightest ambiguity in the wording of your
request, they will promptly send you the wrong papers, deny they have
them, or Xerox every paper in the building, except the one that you
want, and hand you the bill. But the key to winning the battle is right
here. No facts. No case.
Take your facts to the experts. Go straight to the people who are
already fighting on the ground, and use legal counsel that has already
proved itself as unbuyable. Remember that crores are at stake and in Goa
unfortunately, almost everyone and everything is up for sale.
If you are going to fight a long hard battle, you need an army. First
mobilize all those who are going to be affected by what you are
protesting. Start with your village. A good way is to do a simple flyer
( in English and Konkani). Rope in some youngsters to deliver it
doorstep to doorstep – always on a Sunday. Then hold corner meetings at
the various vaddos, explaining the facts. Follow up the flyer with an
awareness meeting.
You need a name, a working base and a face before you go public – launch
an Action Committee. Never ignore the existing clubs/committees/consumer
forums etc in your area. Speak personally to every single one and get
their support. If you leave them out, you can be garunteed an outbreak
of politics the minute the issue hits the headlines. Get a spokesperson
who can speak both English and Konkani fluently. Make sure he/she knows
the facts backwards. Get two convenors in case one is ever out of town,
or compromised. Make sure you have at least four people who will not
buckle no matter what the pressure. One of these better be a good
organizer, quick with to do lists, and inexorable with follow up. Take a
little internal donation so that you have some working capital.
Tackle the Panchayat. Make sure you are clear about the Panchayats role
having got all the correspondence from the files. Confront them in
writing. Documentation of every step is the key here. When it all ends
up in court you will be grateful for every single scrap of paper that
you have that traces the process. Get them to commit on paper the
permissions they did or did not give. Don’t expect much. Projects worth
crores, or violations that make money for people in high places, aren’t
ever innocently passed by the panchayat. If you can get a couple of
panchayat members on your side that is a bonanza.
At your awareness meeting you can expect your first reprisal. Along with
curious villagers, there will be spies in attendance, and, possibly,
rowdies paid to disrupt the event. Be ready to have a timely powercut
disrupt the proceedings. Make sure you have informed the police in
writing of the meeting and the loudspeaker permission is in place.
Pulling the plug on you is a simple matter for the authorities if you
haven’t already covered every single base.
Pull every favour to ensure that some press is present. This will
protect you.
Make sure you have some heavy duty names speaking. Get respected
activists who bring their moral authority to the issue that you are
tackling. Go and meet each of them personally with the facts be. Don’t
be afraid. They have spent years trying to save Goa. They always welcome
one more fighter to the fold. Make sure the awareness meeting alerts the
villagers on how the issue will affect each of them personally. Will it
ruin their water supply? Change the population of the village so they
are outnumbered? Dump sewage into their fields? People respond to
personal threat. (continues)
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First published in the Herald, Goa - January 5, 2010