It was pretty much ‘business as usual’ for the month of February. Corporations continued acting as innocent third parties while Governments continued to demand indigenous People allow the theft of their lands and destruction of their cultures without question. “It’s in your best interests,” we’re told. “It’s for the greater good.”
Amidst this however, there was one important shift in the world this month–one that we can only hope will catch on in greater force. Governments began pulling back the reins of development, and a few corporations and Shareholders started withdrawing from and speaking against development projects because of the dangers they pose to indigenous people and the environment. This happened more in February than in the last 6 months combined.
Considering how schizophrenic the government-backed development industry is, it’s doubtful this shift will develop into something substantial any time soon. After all, change …
On Wednesday, hundreds of children between the ages of 5 and 12 demonstrated against a proposed steel plant, in Orissa, India.
from http://www.andhracafe.com After walking across five villages including Trilochanpur, Patana and Govindpur, the children congregated at Dhinkia village. They were protesting under the banner of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS), the main organisation opposing the project in the district.
The children shouted slogans against POSCO, holding placards and distributing leaflets, the police official said. Some children also delivered speeches.
‘I am ready to give my life with my parents because we will lose everything if the plant starts,’ Sujit Das, 5, a Class 1 student of Dhinkia Primary School told IANS.
‘We have had no peace since the day the state government signed a deal with the company,’ said 7-year-old Lucky Das of the same school. ‘We have almost stopped going to school and have decided to join our parents in the …
Land Acquisition In Bastar At A Critical Stage
By Debaranjan Sarangi, Countercurrents.org
March 15, 2007
The situation in Bastar is at a critical stage, with clashes on 27-28 Feb trying to force land acquisition for Tata’s steel plant. The “manufactured civil war” pursued by Salwa Judum continues with at least 80,000 tribal refugees in what are virtually concentration camps.
The steel plant is planned on 2,000+ hectares of tribal land belonging to 10 villages in Lohandiguda block, near the amazing Chitrakot waterfall on Indravati river. The agreement for the plant was signed between the Chhattisgarh Govt & Tata in June 2005 - precisely the month when Salwa Judum was formed - labelled a “people’s movement against the Naxalites” but actually a police sponsored terror militia forcing the evacuation of one tribal village after another, with refugees pressurized to join SJ.
On 27 Feb police in the 10 villages to try & force thro land …
Development Through Industrialization? Or Environmental Colonialism Leading To Catastrophe? By Aseem Shrivastava, Countercurrents.org
10 March, 2007
“You can’t save land and water unless you can save agriculture and forests.”
- Prafullah Samantara, an activist from Orissa, speaking at the National Convention on Corporate Land-Grab at the Indian Social Institute, New Delhi, February 8, 2007
“If the company comes up we will lose thousands and thousands of acres of cultivable land and be reduced to beggars. That’s the reason why we won’t allow our land to be destroyed.”
- Shankar Prasad Muduli, a local farmer from Kashipur, Orissa, testifying before the Indian People’s Tribunal, October 2006.
In times of corporate totalitarianism such as ours, when the media – with visibly noble exceptions – is merely the obedient tail of the capitalist canine, the impression that is sought to be created is that in “the world’s largest democracy” there is an unchallenged consensus that India …
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