We Rise Because We Refuse To Support State Violence On Women.
We Rise Because Rape And Violence Against Women Under Any Circumstances is Unacceptable.
We Rise On This International Women’s Day To Demand Freedom for Soni Sori & Punishment For Her Perpetrators.
Continue reading One Billion Rising for Soni Sori: 8th March 2013 and till she is free.
From Nityanand Jayaraman
Dear all:
The state’s propaganda and witch-hunt has taken a fresh and disturbing turn with an engineered FIR filed by the husband of Vijayapathi Panchayat President and his brother Stalin.
I spoke to V. Pushparayan at 1015 a.m. today. According to media reports, a gang instigated by Pushparayan and Udayakumar, attacked and injured Sahayaraj (President’s husband) and Stalin (Sahayaraj’s brother) at 830 p.m. on 14 April, 2012. The media reports do not even bother to interview the people accused of this alleged crime. The allegation is made into a fact, as if the reporter had observed the attack.
Here’s the version from Idinthakarai: Continue reading Kudankulam Udpate
This document has come to us via NITYANAND JAYARAMAN
The following is a rough and quick translation of the Demands placed by a delegation on behalf of the Struggle Committee of People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy.
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT FROM TAMIL, CONTAINING DEMANDS
“DEMANDS OF THE PROTESTING PEOPLE” Continue reading Kudankulam Update
Guest Post by V.GEETHA
My name is V. Geetha, and I live in Chennai. I am a writer, with an interest in civil rights issues. I write this note to register my shock and bewilderment at some recent developments in my state. Given your concerns about the relationship between freedom and responsibility as far as the media is concerned, I felt it important to convey some of my – and other peoples’ – misgivings over media reporting of sensitive political events.
Throughout today, March 25, SUN News, part of the SUN TV network, while reporting on three men arrested over the last few days, for supporting the anti-nuclear plant struggle at Kudankulam has alleged they are all ‘Maoists. The channel has further gone on to note that it has got wind of a ‘ naxalite plot’ that is all set to take over the anti-nuclear plant protests at Idinthakarai. Continue reading Letter to the Press Council Chair Person Justice Markandey Katju about SUN News reportage of the arrest of the supporters of the Kudankulam Struggle
Below is a note written by Udayakumar, one of the leaders in Kudankulam that is being circulated. Further below is an update from activist Nityanand Jayaraman on the Madras High Court interim orders in response to cases filed against all the illegal steps taken by the government on Kudankulam.
Please watch this blog for another audio broadcast from Sundari, an activist and member of the community in Idinthakarai. Continue reading Kudankulam Update
Dear all,
The Tamilnadu police in alliance with the paramilitary, rapid action force, Industrial security force has laid an utterly illegal and anti democratic siege on the peaceful struggle by fisherpeople and others in Idinthakarai village. In an attempt to terrorise the people and weaken their struggle the police in a nexus with civil administration has suspended electricity and water supply to the village. Vital supplies like milk powder, medicines and food stuff have been blocked entry. When neighbouring villagers tried to bring in firewood through the sea route they were blocked this morning. A pregnant woman who was in labour pain was detained by the police for quite some time and her admission into the hoispital was delayed. There are thousands of children, women, elder people and men in the protest site surrounded by layers and layers of police of every possible denomination and this is a peaceful struggle waged by the poor people of idinthakarai to safeguard their livelihoods and also to protect all of us all of humanity from yet another nuclear disaster.
So please take time and call/ message
Vijendra Bidari, SP, Tirunelveli : 09940193494
George, ADGP: o9442200913
Register your protest.
Demand them to stop intimidating the peaceful protesters.
SMS message: “Do not block media, food, water, medicines or movement of people in and out of Idinthakarai. Restore access to basic facilities and media freedom”
Dear friends
These are moments when spaces like Kafila become so important.
On the 19th of March, news came in that Tamilnadu Police men of six districts led by the ADGP for Crime of the Tamilnadu Police, Mr. O.S.George were sent to Kudankulam. This meant 6000 armed police men, 3 DIGs and 20 SPs were in Kudankulam. The TV reports, when they were still possible, showed police violence and extensive police presence in the village. We also saw women from Kudankulam, the backbone of the movement, declaring that there will be a strong people’s response to this violence and that they cannot be taken peaceful protest cannot be taken for granted. The first project taken up by the police seems to have bee to block off the village from any outsiders. Nearby villagers who tried to approach the villages by sea were also arrested by the police. As of now, all roads to the village have been blocked. Communication systems have been tampered with. Continue reading Kudankulam: A brief history and a recent update
[Here on Kafila we have written before about the new contours of class struggle and unrest in industrial zones. As the demands of capital become ever more rapacious, and worker’s bodies more dispensable, the last few years have witnessed increasing incidents of violent conflict in urban industrial areas across the country. In each case workers’ demands fall on the deaf ears of an increasingly unresponsive management backed by the weapons of the state. When the simmering violence finally comes to a head, it is workers who are demonized. We carry below a report by the Jamia Teacher’s Solidarity Association on the recent outbreaks of violence in Ludhiana’s industrial zone.]
A fact-finding team of university teachers from Delhi visited Ludhiana on Sunday (20.12.2009) to ascertain the facts of the incidents of violence that have gripped the industrial part of the city involving migrant workers. The team visited Dhandari kalan and Sherpur and spoke to a large number of migrant workers and visited their homes. The team found that despite a large number of the migrant workforce (around 12 lakhs) living in Ludhiana for over 15 years, sometimes even much longer, a majority of them had no voting rights or ration cards. Even when they applied for voters I cards, their applications were rejected on spurious grounds. It is not surprising that no political party, not even the local Member of Parliament, Mr. Manish Tiwari, has bothered to visit them. This attitude percolates down to the bureaucracy and police force, who treat the migrant workers as virtually second class citizens. Continue reading Report on Violence Against Workers in Ludhiana: JTSA
