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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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