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dam-l LS: NAPM to Oppose Bill Clinton's visit
National Alliance of People's Movements
National Office: c/o Chemical Mazdoor Sabha, Haji Habib Building,
‘A’ wing, First Floor, Naigoan Cross Road, Dadar (E), Mumbai 400 014
Tel: 022-4150529 (O) 022-5369724 (Res.-Sanjay MG)
Email: <admin@sanjay.ilbom.ernet.in>
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Third National Convention of NAPM to be Held at Chotta Badada (M.P.)
from 11th - 14th March
NAPM to Oppose Bill Clinton's visit - Massive Rally at Delhi on 15th March
The 3rd National Convention of National Alliance of People's
Movements (NAPM) will be held at village Chotta Badada (Near
Badwani), M.P. - in the Narmada Valley - from 11th - 14th March.
Veteran Gandhian leader Baba Amte will inaugurate the meet.
Representatives of hundreds of organisations from all of India will
be coming for the three-day conclave. Prominent among them are
Chairperson of World Fishwworkers Forum Thomas Kocherry, veteran
Sarvodaya leader Siddharaj Daddha, Dr.Sunilam (MLA) of Kisan
Sangharsh Samiti, veteran leaders of Samajwadi Jan Parishad Kishan
Patnayak (Orissa) and Bhai Vaidya (Maharashtra), Aruna Roy of Mazdoor
Kisan Sakthi Sangathan (Rajasthan), Ravindra Shanbagh of Parisar
Samrashana Samiti (Karnataka), Gabriele Deitrich who is fighting
against the Urban Displacement (Tamilnadu), Sukhedu Bhattacharya
(Bengal) and Medha Patkar.
The three day convention will have deliberations on different
subjects. They include Labour, Agriculture sector, Women, Dalit,
Child Labour, Displacement - urban and rural, Nuclear power,
Constitution, Health, Alternatives, effects on people of
Globalisation-Liberalisation based economic policy and other relevant
issues. A special session will be there on the future strategies and
actions for NAPM.
On March 13th, on the occasion of World Anti Big Dam Day, a massive
demonstration will be taken out at the district headquarters in
Badwani, which will culminate in a public meeting. The decision to
observe "International Day of Action against Dams and for Rivers,
Water and Life" with a theme "Water for Life, Not for Death!" was
taken in a meet of all dam affected people from over 20 countries in
1996 at Curitiba, Brazil. More than 37 actions are planned in 20
countries to protest against dams and speak out for free-flowing
rivers and the communities that depend on them.
An unique attraction of the Sammelan is the exhibition and sale of
various alternative products and methods. They include handmade and
Khadi cloths, other Khadi products, pedal pump, machine to produce
power by peddling, products by bamboo, handmade papers, products of
organic farming etc.
Brief Programme:
11th - Inauguration, Discussion on Globalisation, Liberalisation
12th - Group discussions on Agriculture, Labour, Women, Backward
classes, Communalism, Child Labour
13th - General discussions on Alternatives, Education, Health,
Energy, Water, Arts and Culture; and Rally against mega dams
14th - Future strategies for Actions.
Rally to Oppose Clinton's Visit
After the conclave, all the participants will be heading towards
Delhi, where a large protest rally is organised on the 15th of March.
The powerholders and the capitalists in India and their retinue seem
to be quite thrilled with the proposed visit of Mr. Bill Clinton, the
President on United States of America. Nothing is allowed to mar this
auspicious occasion. Not even the terse reminder by the Secretary of
State, Mandeline Albright regarding the status of Kashmir and CTBT
would affect the lecherous attitude of the present government -
politicians and bureaucrats alike- and the big business, capitalists
who are in league to 'privatise' and 'globalise' the economy and
polity of this country.
The people of the country are ashamed of the way the Chief Ministers
of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have been vying for the visit of the
American President to their capitals like two children eager to show
their progress card to the master. All this IT hype is to marginalise
the real issues and concerns of the common people - the farmers,
toilers, dalits, backward classes and castes, adivasis, fisherpeople,
workers and other depressed classes of Indian society. The elite in
this country are out to submerge the reality of this nation, the real
concerns of the people and the visit of the American president
provides them an apt moment to reinforce their attempts.
However, the people and people's movements in this country will not
allow the real issues to be hijacked with the visit of Mr. Clinton.
We, the representatives of people's movements from all over India
oppose the visit and the entire build up corresponding to that visit.
We see the American President's visit as another attempt to thrust
the 'globalisation' agenda down to the throats of Indian people. The
American capitalists and powerholders, through their President, have
been trying to achieve what they failed to do at Seattle Conclave of
the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in November, 1999.
We oppose and the visit of Mr. Clinton' as the United States has been
instrumental in imposing the unequal multilateral treaties on the
developing nations. Be it in the form of the trade agreement or the
impending the Agreement on Agriculture, the rights of the Third World
countries are seriously curtailed in such unequal treaties.
We question the rationale behind the newly touted Agreement on
Agriculture. While the US. and European Union nations can have the
state support to the agriculture in their countries on various
pretexts, the developing nations are being told to cut subsidy and
state support to agriculture which has already been in doldrums. The
food security of India is being jeopardised with the usurpation of
the seeds, patents on bio-diversity, people's knowledge and the
monopolisation of the agribusiness in the hands of a few
conglomerates from the developed nations.
The U.S. has been hypocritical in insisting on the labour and
environmetal standards about the imports from the Third World
countries, while encouraging the movement of capital and development
pattern which has been highly violative of the environmental norms
and labour rights. The entire gamut of 'globalisation' and WTO kind
of development has been usurping the resources like land, water and
water bodies from the hands of the people in this country and has
been resulting in squeezing the employment opportunities, causing
large scale retrenchment and unemployment. The WTO sponsored
development pattern has given precedence to the monetary capital at
the cost of the human and natural capital. Third World countries like
India have been used as dumping grounds and production grounds of
hazardous and unwanted products in the Developed countries. The
onslaught of capitalist development has posed a threat to the lands,
land rights, forests, fisheries and livelihood of billions of people
in this country.
We are alarmed at the serious erosion of the rights of civil society
in India. Civil society, the Indian powerholders and their cohorts in
media and international scene must understand, does not consist of
the big business and blue eyed IT brats, but millions of the farmers,
labourers, adivasis, dalits, fisherpeople and workers of this
country. We hold the United States as one of the responsible party
for the continued erosion of the democracy and powers of the civil
society in India.
We make it clear that the present policies of Indian government and
the bureaucrats, their cohorts in big business and big media do not
represent the priorities and concerns, opinions of billions of
Indians in the towns and villages, in the river valleys or on the sea
coast. Their decisions, policies and projects are being opposed and
will be resisted tooth and nail by the Indian people. Thus, though
the American President and all the hype that follows him is being
given red-carpet treatment by the Indian powerholders and big
business, we the people of India oppose and resist it all as a symbol
of the hegemony, exploitation of the rights and resources of the
people and of this nation. We also warn the Indian government and all
the big business that any attempt to further usurp the rights and
resources of the people will result in fierce resistance. If it
thinks that it can overcome the resistance of the people with the aid
of the multilateral conglomerates, big business and the powers like
U.S. and WTO, it is seriously mistaken. We will not tolerate the
attempts by these powers to erode rights and exploit the resources
and lives of the people of India.
Sanjay M.G.Vimalbhai
Dr.Sugan Baranth Co-coordinator - NAPM
National Convenor - NAPM Narmada Bachao Andolan
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