Monday, March 30, 2015

USA: Our Brother in Danger ! Free Mumia Abu Jamal !

 
Dear friend, 

We all called, so SCI Mahanoy shut down their phones. 

Now please call these numbers to demand that Mumia's family can see him at Schuylkill Medical Center immediately.


 


Call these numbers now to demand hospital visitation rights for Mumia's family:



Richard Ellers

Director, PA Department of Corrections Health Care Services
rellers@pa.gov 

(717) 728-5311(717) 728-5311 

John Wetzel
Secretary, PA Department of Corrections

(717) 728-4109(717) 728-4109

 

Schuylkill Medical Center
420 S Jackson St, Pottsville, PA 

(570) 621-5000(570) 621-5000


SCI Mahanoy
Superindendent John Kerestes

(570) 773-2158(570) 773-2158

 
 
 
 
 
Renowned Black revolutionary Mumia Abu-Jamal has been hospitalised, and is being held captive in intensive care at the Schuykill Medical Centre, Pottsville, Pa.

Sources from the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ) report that Mumia is being held in the ICU incommunicado, and that his wife has not been allowed to contact him. He is reportedly on an insulin drip.

Call SCI Mahoney Superintendent John Kerestes (570-773-2158570-773-2158) and DEMAND that Mumia Abu-Jamal’s family be able to see him.

FIRE TO THE PRISONS and

FREEDOM TO THE PRISONERS!

FREE MUMIA, FREE THEM ALL!



SOURCE: SERVE THE PEOPLE PHILADELPHIA


Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Heidi Elizabeth Boghosian and I travelled to Frackville, PA to visit Mumia today because we knew that he was not well. When we arrived we were told that he was hospitalized. We did a little reconnaissance and were able to get into the unit where he is being held, but were not let in to see him to see him.

We were within 10 feet, spoke to his nurses, and delivered a note saying that we are here. Unclear that he will get it. Four uniformed guards are outside his room. Mumia has been sick for months. He landed in the hospital because he did not get the proper care. We were just asked to vacate the building. It's time to mobilize to defend Mumia's life.

Please call the medical center at 570-773-2158 and the Superintendent at SCI Mahanoy, John Kerestes 570-773--2158 x 18102

I travelled to Frackville, PA to visit Mumia today because we knew that he was not well. When we arrived we were told that he was hospitalized. We did a little reconnaissance and were able to get into the unit where he is being held, but were not let in to see him to see him.

We were within 10 feet, spoke to his nurses, and delivered a note saying that we are here. Unclear that he will get it. Four uniformed guards are outside his room. Mumia has been sick for months. He landed in the hospital because he did not get the proper care.

We were just asked to vacate the building. It's time to mobilize to defend Mumia's life.

Please call the medical center at 570-773-2158 and the Superintendent at SCI Mahanoy, John Kerestes 570-773--2158 x 18102.

Thank You,

 The Campaign To Bring Mumia Home

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 

For Immediate Release: March 30, 2015 
Attn: News Desk


Prisoners and Advocacy Groups Win Right to a Trial
On Constitutionality of the Silencing Act (PA SB508) 

This morning, Chief Judge for the federal court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Christopher Conner, will hear the cases Abu-Jamal v. Kane and Prison Legal News v. Kane in a trial that willl determine the constitutionality of PA SB508 "the Silencing Act".  Defendant PA Attorney General Kane will be hard pressed to argue the constitutionality of the Silencing Act, a censorship law targeted at Mumia Abu-Jamal and other currently and formerly incarcerated people.

Defendant Seth Williams was dismissed from the case based on his explicit disavowal of enforcing the act until a court of competent jurisdiction rules on the constitutionality of the statute. His dismissal does not hinder Plaintiffs ability to obtain the relief of invalidating this law, as a favorable ruling on the First Amendment issue against Defendant Kane will achieve the same result. Williams' disavowal of enforcement is a far cry from his political grandstanding in support of this bill's passage in the fall.

The judge has ordered that this trial will include Plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction merged with a trial on the merits, meaning that if we win we will be granted a permanent injunction against the statute, and the statue will be invalidated.

“Silencing prisoners is one more way of dehumanizing them,” said Amistad Law Project Policy Director Nikki Grant. “We need the voices of the marginalized to shed light on injustice.”

The trial is set for this morning March 30 in Harrisburg, PA approximately 5 months since former Governor Corbett signed this ill-fated bill into law.

 The Abolitionist Law Center, Amistad Law Project, and the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University School of Law filed the lawsuit on Nov. 10th to stop enforcement of the law. The law firms represent Mumia Abu-Jamal, Prison Radio, Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal, Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall, Robert L. Holbrook, Donnell Palmer, Anthony Chance, and Human Rights Coalition.

The Silencing Act, also known as 18 P.S. § 11.1304, allows the Attorney General, county District Attorneys, and victims of personal injury crimes to bring a lawsuit in civil court against the person convicted of the personal injury crime to enjoin conduct that “perpetuates the continuing effect of the crime on the victim”. The actions that could prompt a lawsuit include “conduct which causes a temporary or permanent state of mental anguish.”

“This law is unconstitutional,” said David Shapiro of MacArthur Justice Center. “The facts are on our side and the law is on our side. The Silencing Act targets a huge amount of constitutionally protected speech based on who is speaking.”

After a prerecorded commencement speech by journalist and prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal was played for graduates at Goddard College in Vermont, the Pennsylvania legislature passed and outgoing Governor Corbett signed into law the Silencing Act on October 21st, 16 days after the commencement speech.

Abu-Jamal has spent 33 years in prison, 29 of which were in solitary confinement on death row after being convicted at a 1982 trial that Amnesty International said “failed to meet minimum international standards safeguarding the fairness of legal proceedings.”

Robert L. Holbrook, who is serving a death by incarceration, life without parole, sentence he received as a child, had this to say about the law: “there are people in prison who will stop writing, stop publishing, stop speaking out because of this law.”

Bret Grote       bretgrote@abolitionistlawcenter.org    412-654-9070
Ashley Henderson ashley@amistadlaw.org          215-310-0424
Noelle Hanrahan info@prisonradio.org         415-706-5222
David Shapiro david.shapiro@law.northwestern.edu        312-503-0711

Amistad Law Project is a West Philadelphia-based public interest law center.
Our mission is to fight for the human rights of all people by providing
legal services to people incarcerated in Pennsylvania’s prisons.
www.amistadlaw.org | @amistadlaw | 267-225-5884

The Abolitionist Law Center is a public interest law firm inspired by the struggle of political and politicized prisoners, and organized for the purpose of abolishing class and race based mass incarceration in the United States.   412-654-9070

Prison Radio has recorded Mumia and other political prisoners for over 25 years, and we are pulling out all the stops to keep these voices on the air.   415-706-5222415-706-5222

Please donate today to amplify prisoners' voices far and wide beyond the bars:
     Support Prison Radio: prisonradio.org/donate
     Defeat SB 508: bit.ly/defendfreespeech
 
                                    
 
 
 

India: Oppose Awarding Bharat Ratna to Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya and Atul Bihari Vajpayee by Harsh Thakor

                                                 
                                                PANDIT MADAN MOHAN MALVIYA


OPPOSE AWARDING BHARAT RATNA AND PATRONISING OF HINDU COMMUNAL LEADERS  LIKE  PANDIT MADAN MOHAN MALVIYA AND ATUL BIHARI VAJPAYEE BY B.J.P.GOVERNMENT !

Secular or patriotic  democratic forces in India have to condemn the Indian government posthumously giving the award of the Bharat Ratna to Atul Bihari Vajpayee and Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya.Today late Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya will be given the coveted award.
It is of no strange coincidence that in March 2015 the Hindu Mahasabha ,of which Malviya was one of the founders ,commemorates it’s centenary year.
In 2008 the government of India issued a stamp printing the photo of Malviya and in 1961 felicitated his centenary year.  
It reflects the blessings and patronage it gives to Hindu communal or fascistic ideology .
So many dead anti-colonial martyrs have been forgotten.
We have to particularly expose the felicitation of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya. Some historians distort history by claiming Mohan Malviya was freedom fighter against British Rule. In fact he went out of the way to discourage the genuine anti-imperialist fighters and movements. He may have had some moralistic inclinations like on uplifting backward castes but nevertheless was a staunch proponent of the ideology of Hindutva.
He fought tooth and mail to promote the ideals of Hinduism which laid the seeds for such a movement taking a nationalistic form. Mohan Malviya laid the seeds for the formation of the Hindu Mahasaba in 1915 and later the R.S.S and Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
It is of no strange coincidence that in March 2015 the Hindu Mahasabha commemorates it’s centenary year. As an educationist he promoted the ideas of Hinduism and staunchly attacked Marxist ideals.
Historians have exposed the treachery of such figures in isolating progressive anti-imperialist movements.
Pandit Mohan Malviya sowed the very seeds of movements which later on took the form of the Rath Yatra in 1990 and precipitated the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 or Godra riots in 2002.
The roots  of the Hindu communal fascist onslaught in India today are in the work of figures like Malviya  who launched a crusade against Christianity and Islam.
He was master in propagating that Hinduism comprised all the religions prevailing and promoted equality of all religions.
Atul Bihar Vajpayee encouraged the kar sevaks in the 1992 riots in Ayodhya. Today educational or cultural institutions go out of the way to promote teachings of the Bhagavada Gita or Vedanta, giving them a very progressive camouflage.
Corporates patronize institutionalization of Hinduism and teaching of religious Gurus or Organizations like Chinmaya mission.
Secular, scientific thinking is not promoted .In even primary schools Hindu communal teachings are imbibed which promote casteist ideals and indirectly even glorify fascism.
Progressive forces should not oppose people believing in God or being spiritual or upholding even some of the lofty ideals of the Bhagavad Gita which partially have scientific and progressive undertones but must unite to condemn those who wish to divide people on the basis of religion and caste .
Some teachings of the Vedas have scientfic relevance and are close to theory of evolution and people are entitled to their personal beliefs.
Even scientists like Oppenheimer, Einstein and now Hawkings quote certain teachings of the Gita.
A secular democracy is failing in it’s duty by felicitating historical figures who trampled against the ideals of secularism and democracy.
This year is the 50th anniversary year of the formation of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad founded by Swami Chinmayanda which has centres all over the world and great patronage of the India N.R.I’s.
Such missions have launched strong anti-marxist propaganda  and play an instrumental role in diverting the youth from anti-imperialist or progressive movements the world over.
No doubt it’s teachers comprise some of the most learned people and certain lofty ideals are expressed but overall they promote Hindu nationalism.
Middle class crowds and youth flock to discourses of such sections .In Mumbai there is a polarization of the Dalit sections with youth of other castes .
The Dalits vehemently oppose the casteist ideology in the Bhagavad Gita .
It is also of historical significance that the first leaders of the R.S.S. were great admirers of Hitler and Mussolini like Veer Savarkar or Moonje. During World War II RSS leaders openly admired Adolf Hitler.[39] Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, who became the supreme leader of the RSS after Hedgewar, drew inspiration from Adolf Hitler's ideology of race purity.[40]
RSS leaders were supportive of the Jewish State of Israel, including Savarkar himself, who supported Israel during its formation.[4 Promoting the Bhagavad   Gita as a national book in 2014 the Indian government has totally proved it’s Hindu communal credentials.
Communal historians distort the secular history of India by claiming that the Aryans were the original inhabitants of India and that Moghul rulers imposed tyranny on Hindus.
Today the scientific spirit is discouraged by organizations like Hare Krishna movement who oppose theory of evolution  and other scientific theories.
We need to build a secular cultural movement combating the trend of Hindu communal fascistic ideals  and even expose how leaders like Gandhi gave their patronage to leaders like Malviya.
Without hurting religious sentiments we  must make a critique of teachings of epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, particularly on caste and also discover certain progressive aspects of the Gita in the Vedas.
We have to also build a movement to protect the rights of democratic intellectuals who expose religious communalism and promote scientific temper.
We need to bring out a series of articles exposing the anti-people historical role of forces like the Hindu Mahasabha who are just celebrating their centenary this month and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad who turned 50 in 1914.
The secular history of India has to be re-written and developed.We must remember how brilliantly the Hindu communal forces disguise or camouflage themselves through innovating different organizational forms.
The fascist nature of the Hindu Mahasabha  and R.S.S has to be exposed as well as their negative role in the anti British struggle and conspiracy against the genuine anti-Britsih resistance..
Even educated sections of the Indian intelligentsia is attracted to the ideals of Hindutva.
Above all  democratic intellectuals  have to guard themselves against the Hindi fascistic onslaught in times to come.
We have to particularly defend the rights of minorities like the Muslims and Christians who are facing attacks and never club minority communalism with the principal danger of Hindu majority communalism.

Tunisia: Declaration of the Social Movements Assembly – World Social Forum 2015




Tunisia, Tunis, 27 March 2015
The people, united, will never be defeated!
 
The Social Movements Assembly of the WSF 2015, Tunisia is the place where we come together through all our diversity, in order to forge a collective agenda to fight against capitalism, imperialism, patriarchy, racism and all forms of discrimination and oppression.

We have forged a common history and a common stream of work which led to some progress, with the hope to garner some amount of victory against the ruling system and to create several alternatives for a socially just development that respects nature.

People all over the world are suffering the effects of the aggravation of a profound crisis of capitalism, in which private transnational corporations, banks, media conglomerates and international financial institutions are trying to increase their profits by applying interventionist and neocolonial policies with the complicity of neo-liberal governments.

War, military occupations, free-trade neoliberal treaties (Trans-Atlantic, Trans-Pacific, ALECA, UE-MERCOSUR, APE, MERCOSUR-Israel and different bilateral treaties) and “austerity measures” are expressed in economic packages that privatize the common good, and public services, cut wages, violate rights, increase unemployment and precarious conditions, overload women´s care work and destroys nature.

Such neo-liberal policies have massive impacts both on the Southern and the Northern countries and contribute to an increase in migration, forced displacement, evictions, debt, and social inequalities. They re-enforce conservatism and the control over women´s bodies and lives. In addition, they impose "green economy" as a solution to the environmental and food crisis, which not only exacerbates the problem, but leads to commodification, privatization and financialization of life and nature.

We assert that the peoples are in no way responsible for this crisis and they must not continue to pay for it. We also assert that no solution is possible within the capitalist system. Here, in Tunis, we reaffirm our commitment to join forces to forge a common strategy to guide our struggles against capitalism. This is why we, social movements, struggle:

- Against transnational corporations and the financial system (IMF, WB and WTO), who are the main agents of the capitalist system, privatizing life, public services and common goods such as water, air, land, seeds and mineral resources, promoting wars and violations of human rights, and ransack resources. Transnational corporations reproduce extractionist practices endangering life, grabbing our lands and developing genetically modified seeds and food, taking away the peoples’ right to food and destroying biodiversity. 
 
We fight for the cancellation of illegitimate and odious debt which today is a global instrument of domination, repression and economic and financial strangulation of people. We reject free trade agreements that are imposed by States and transnational corporations and we affirm that it is possible to build another kind of globalization, made by and for the people, based on solidarity and on freedom of movement for all human beings.
 



 
- For climate justice and food sovereignty, because we know that global climate change is the result of the capitalist system of production, distribution and consumption. Transnational corporations, international financial institutions and governments serving them do not want to reduce greenhouse gases. We denounce “green economy” and refuse fake solutions to the climate crisis such as bio-fuels, genetically modified organisms and mechanisms of the carbon market like REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), which ensnare impoverished peoples with false promises of progress while privatizing and commodifying the forests and territories where these peoples have been living for thousands of years.
 
We defend food sovereignty and support sustainable peasant agriculture which are the true solutions to the food and climate crises and which also entail an access to land for all who work on it.
 
We call for a mass mobilization on climate in December 2015 in Paris alongside the COP21. Let's make 2015 the year of mobilizing social movements around the world for climate justice.
 
- Against violence against women, often conducted in militarily occupied territories, but also violence affecting women who are criminalized for taking part in social struggles. We fight against domestic and sexual violence perpetrated on women because they are considered objects or goods, because the sovereignty of their bodies and minds is not acknowledged. We fight against the traffic of women, girls and boys.
 
We defend sexual diversity, the right to gender self-determination and we oppose all homophobia and sexist violence.
 
We call upon all people to support the activities of the 4th World March of Women during March-October 2015.
 
For peace and against war, colonialism, occupations and the militarization of our lands.
 
We denounce the false discourse of human rights defense and fight against fundamentalism, which is often used to justify military occupations. We defend the right to people’s sovereignty and self-determination. We denounce the installation of foreign military bases to instigate conflicts, to control and ransack natural resources, and to foster dictatorships in several countries.
 
We demand reparations for all the peoples who have been victims of colonialism across the world.
 
- For democratizing mass media and building alternative media, which are fundamental to overthrow the capitalist logic.
 
- For resistance and solidarity, we fight for our freedom to organize trade unions, social movements, associations and all other forms of peaceful resistance.
 
We denounce the intensification of repressive measures against people´s rebellions; the arrests, assassinations and imprisonments of activists, students and journalists; and also the criminalization of our struggles.

Inspired by the history of our struggles and by the rejuvenating strength of the people on the streets, the Social Movements Assembly call upon everyone to mobilize and develop actions - coordinated at the world level – in a global week of mobilization against capitalism from 17 to 25 October, 2015

Social movements of the world, let us advance towards a global unity to shatter the capitalist system!
Let’s strengthen our solidarity with the people of the world who fight everyday against imperialism, colonialism, exploitation, patriarchy, racism and injustice in Tunisia, Palestine, Kurdistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Greece, Spain, Burkina Faso, Mali, Congo (DRC), Central Africa, and Western Sahara...

Long live the people’s struggle!

The people, united, will never be defeated!

Translated by Suchandra De SARKAR (CADTM)


Saturday, March 28, 2015

Samir Amin at World Social Forum in Tunisia



Democracy and Class Struggle is always prepared to listen to new analysis but we reject the revisionist analysis of Samir Amin on China.


India: We Won't Give In ! We Won't Give UP ! by Abhinav Sina

 

(Editor, 'Mazdoor Bigul' and 'Muktrikami Chhatron-yuvaon ka Aahwan', Writer of blog 'Red Polemique' and Research Scholar in History Department, Delhi University)

On 25th March, we witnessed one of the most brutal, probably the most brutal lathi charge on workers in Delhi in at least last 2 decades.

It is noteworthy that this lathi-charge was ordered directly by Arvind Kejriwal, as some Police personnel casually mentioned when I was in Police custody.

It might seem surprising to some people because formally the Delhi Police is under the Central Government.

However, when I asked this question to the Police, they told me that for day-to-day law and order maintenance, the Police is obliged to follow the directives from the CM of Delhi, unless and until it is in contradiction with some directive/order of the Central Government.

The AAP government is now in a fix as it cannot fulfill the promises made to the working class of Delhi.

And the working class of Delhi has been refusing to forget the promises made to them by the AAP and Arvind Kejriwal.

As is known, on February 17, the students of School of Open Learning, DU went in sizeable numbers to submit their memorandum to the CM.

 Again, on March 3, hundreds of DMRC contract employees went to submit their memorandum to the Kejriwal government and were lathi-charged.

From the beginning of this month, various workers' organizations, unions, women's organizations, student and youth organizations have been running 'WADA NA TODO ABHIYAN', which aims at reminding and then compelling the Kejriwal government to fulfill its promises to the working poor of Delhi, like the abolition of contract system in perennial nature of work, free education till class 12th, filling 55 thousand vacant seats in the Delhi government, recruiting 17 thousand new teachers, making all the housekeepers and contract teachers as permanent, etc.

The Kejriwal government and the Police administration had already been intimated about the demonstration of 25th March and the Police had not given any prior prohibitory order.

However, what happened on 25th March was horrendous and as I was part of the activists who were attacked, threatened and arrested by the Police, I would like to give an account of what happened on March 25, why did scores of workers, women and students go to the Delhi Secretariat, what treatment was meted out to them and how the majority of the mainstream media channels and newspapers conveniently blacked out the brutal repression of wokers, women and students.

Why did thousands of workers, women and student go to the Delhi Secretariat on March 25?

As mentioned earlier, a number of workers' organizations have been running 'Wada Na Todo Abhiyan' for last one month in Delhi to remind Arvind Kejriwal of the promises he and his party made to the working people of Delhi.

These promises include the abolition of contract system on work of perennial nature; filling 55 thousand vacant posts of Delhi government; recruiting 17 thousand new teachers and making the contract teachers as permanent; making all contract safai karamcharis as permanent; making school education till 12th free; these are the promises that could be fulfilled immediately.

We know it will take time to build houses for all jhuggi dwellers; however, a roadmap must be presented before the people of Delhi. Similarly, we know that providing 20 new colleges will take time; however, Mr. Kejriwal had told the media that some individuals have donated land for two colleges and he must tell now where are those lands and when is the state government going to start the construction of these colleges.

It is not as if Kejriwal government did not fulfill any of its promises. It fulfilled the promises made to the factory owners and shop-keepers of Delhi immediately!

And what did he do for the contract workers? Nothing, except a sham interim order pertaining to contract workers in the government departments only, which ordered that no contract employee in government departments/corporations shall be terminated till further notice.

 However, newspapers reported a few days later that dozens of home guards were terminated just a few days after this sham interim order!

That simply means that the interim order was just a facade to fool the contract workers in the government departments and people of Delhi at large.

These are the factors that led to a suspicion among the working people of Delhi and consequently various trade unions, women's organizations, student organizations began to think about a campaign to remind Mr. Kejriwal of the promises made to the common working people of Delhi.

Consequently, Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA) was initiated on March 3 with a demonstration of contract workers of DMRC. At the same day, the Kejriwal government was informally informed about the demonstration of 25th March and later an official intimation was given to the Police administration.

The Police did not give any prior prohibitory notice to the organizers before the demonstration.

However, as soon as the demonstrators reached Kisan Ghat, they were arbitrarily told to leave!

The police refused to allow them to submit their memorandum and charter of demands to the Government, which is their fundamental constitutional right, i.e., the right to be heard, the right to peacefully assemble and the right to express.





What really happened on March 25 ?

Around 1:30 PM, nearly 3500 people had gathered at the Kisan Ghat. RAF and CRPF had been deployed there right since the morning. Consequently, the workers moved peacefully towards the Delhi Secretariat in the form of a procession. They were stopped at the first barricade and the police told them to go away.

The protesters insisted on seeing a government representative and submit their memorandum to them. The protesters tried to move towards the Delhi Secretariat.

Then the police without any further warning started a brutal lathi-charge and began to chase protesters.

Some women workers and activists were seriously injured in this first round of lathi-charge and hundreds of workers were chased away by the Police.

However, a large number of workers stayed at the barricade and started their 'Mazdoor Satyagraha' on the spot.

Though, the police succeeded to chase away a number of workers, yet, almost 1300 workers were still there and they continued their satyagraha.

Almost 700 contract teachers were at the other side of the Secretariat, who had come to join this demonstration.

They were not allowed by the police to join the demonstration. So they continued their protest at the other side of the Secretariat.

The organizers repeatedly asked the Police officers to let them go to the Secretariat and submit their memorandum. The Police flatly refused.

Then the organizers reminded the police that it is their constitutional right to give their memorandum and the government is obliged to accept the memorandum. Still, the police did not let the protesters go the Secretariat and submit their memorandum.

The workers after waiting for almost one and a half hours gave an ultimatum of half an hour to the Police before trying to move towards the Secretariat again. When the Police did not let them go to the Secretariat to submit their memorandum after half an hour, then the police again started lathi charge. This time it was even more brutal.

I have been active in the student movement and working class movement of Delhi for last 16 years and I can certainly say that I have not seen such Police brutality in Delhi against any demonstration.

Women workers and activists and the workers' leaders were especially targetted.

Male police personnel brutally beat up women, dragged them on streets by their hair, tore their clothes, molested them and harrassed them.

It was absolutely shocking to see how several police personnel were holding and beating women workers and activists.

Some of the women activists were beaten till the lathis broke or the women fainted.

Tear gas was used on the workers. Hundreds of workers lied down on the ground to continue their peaceful Satyagraha. However, the police continued to brutally beat them. Finally, the workers tried to continue their protest at the Rajghat but the Police and RAF continued to hunt them down. 18 activists and workers were arrested by the Police including me.

One of my comrades, Anant, a young activist was beaten brutally even after being taken in custody in front of me. The police abused him in the worst way. Similar treatment was meted out to other activists and workers in custody. Almost all of the persons taken in custody were injured and some of them were seriously injured.

Four women activists Shivani, Varsha, Varuni and Vrishali were taken into custody and particularly targeted. Vrishali's fingers got fractured, Varsha's legs were brutally attacked, Shivani was attacked repeatedly on the back by several police personnel and also sustained a head injury and Varuni also was brutally beaten up..

The extent of injuries can be gauged by the fact that Varuni and Varsha had to be admitted again to the Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital on 27th March, when they were out on bail. Women activists were constantly abused by the police.

The police personnel hurled sexist remarks and abuses on the women activists, that I cannot mention here. It was part of the old conventional strategy of the Police to crush the dignity of the activists and protesters.

The 13 arrested male activists were also injured and five of them were seriously injured. However, they were made to wait, two of them bleeding, for more than 8 hours for medical treatment. During our stay in the Police station, we were repeatedly told by a number of police personnel that the order to lathi charge the protesters was given directly from the CM's office.

Also, the intent of the Police was clear from the very beginning: to brutalize the protestors. They told us that the plan was to teach a lesson
.
The next day four women comrades were granted bail and 13 male activists were granted conditional bail for 2 days. The IP Estate Police station was asked to verify the addresses of the sureties. The police was demanding 14 days police custody for the arrested activists. The intent of the administration is clear: brutalizing the activists again.

The police is constantly trying to arrest us again and slap false charges on us.

As is the convention of the police administration now, anyone who raises their voice against the injustice perpetrated by the system is branded as "Maoists", "Naxalite", "terrorists", etc.

In this case too, this intent of the police is clear.

This only shows how Indian capitalist democracy functions. Especially in the times of political and economic crisis, it can only survive by stifling any kind of resistance from the working people of India against the naked brutality of the system.

The events of 25th March stands witness to this fact.




What happens next?

It is a common mistake of the rulers to assume that brutalizing the struggling women, workers and students would silence the voices of dissent. They commit this mistake again and again. Here too, they are grossly mistaken.

The police brutality of March 25 was an attempt of the Kejriwal Government to convey a message to the working poor of Delhi and this message was simply this: if you raise your voice against the betrayal of the Kejriwal Government against the poor of Delhi, you will be dealt with in the most brutal fashion.

Our wounds are still fresh, many of us have swollen legs, fractured fingers, head injuries and with every move we can feel the pain.

However, our resolve to fight against this injustice and expose the slimy fraud that is Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP has become even stronger.

The trade unions, women organizations and student organizations and thousands of workers have refused to give up. They have refused to give in. They are already running exposure campaigns around Delhi, though most of their activists are still injured and some of us can barely walk.

Kejriwal government has committed a disgusting betrayal against the working people of Delhi who had reposed a lot of faith in AAP.

The working people of Delhi will not forgive the fraud committed by the Aam Admi Party.

I think the Fascism of Aam Aadmi Party is even more dangerous than the mainstream Fascist party like the BJP, at least in the short run, and I myself witnessed it on March 25!

And there is a reason for it: just like small capital is much more exploitative and oppressive as compared to big capital at least immediately, similarly, the regime of small capital is much more oppressive as compared to regime of big capital, at least in the short run!

And the AAP government represents the right-wing populist dictatorship of small capital, of course, with a shadow of jingoistic Fascism. This fact has been clearly demonstrated by the events of 25th March.

Apparently enough, Kejriwal is scared and has run out of ideas and that is why his government is resorting to such measures that are exposing him and his party completely.

He knows that he cannot fulfill the promises made to the working poor of the Delhi, especially, abolition of contract system on perennial nature work because if he even tries to do so, he will lose his social and economic base among the traders, factory owners, contractors and petty middlemen of Delhi.

This is the peculiarity of AAP's agenda: it is an aggregative agenda (a ostensibly class collaborationist agenda) which ostensibly includes the demands of petty traders, contracters, rich shopkeepers, middlemen and other sections professional/self-employed petty bourgeoisie as well as jhuggi-dwellers, workers, etc.

It can not fulfill all the demands mentioned in the agenda, because the demands of these disparate social groups are diametrically opposite.

The real partisanship of the AAP is with the petty bourgeoisie and the bourgeoisie of Delhi which is already apparent in the one-and-a-half-month rule of AAP. AAP actually and politically belongs to these parasitic neo-rich classes. The rhetoric of 'aam admi' was just to make good of the opportunity created by the complete disillusionment of the people with the Congress and the BJP. This rhetoric was useful as long as the elections were there.

As soon as, the people voted for the AAP en masse, in the absence of any alternative, the real ugly Fascist face of Arvind Kejriwal has become exposed.

Even internally, the AAP politics has been exposed due to the current dog-eat-dog fight for power between the Kejriwal faction and the Yadav faction.

This is not to say that had Yadav faction been at the the helm of affairs, things would have been any different for the working class of Delhi.

This ugly inner fight only shows the real character of AAP and helps a lot of people realize that AAP is not an alternative and it is no more different from the parties like the Congrees, BJP, SP, BSP, CPM, etc. Particularly, the workers of Delhi are understanding this truth.

That is the reason why the workers of Hedgewar Hospital spontaneously went on strike against the police brutality and the Kejriwal government on the evening of March 25 itself.

Anger is simmering among the DMRC workers, contract workers of other hospitals, contract teachers, jhuggi-dwellers and the poor students and unemployed youth of Delhi.

The working class of Delhi has begun to organize to win their rights and oblige the Kejriwal government to fulfill its promises; the desperate attempt of the Kejriwal government to repress the workers will definitely backfire.

Workers', students' and women organizations have begun their exposure campaign in different working class and poorer neighbourhoods of Delhi. If the AAP government fails to fulfill its promises made to the working poor of Delhi and fails to apologize the disgusting and barbaric attack on thousands of women, workers and students of Delhi, it will face a boycott from the working poor of Delhi.

Each and every of the wounds inflicted on us, the workers, women and youth of Delhi on March 25 will prove to be a fatal mistake of the present government.


 

Friday, March 27, 2015

India: Unity Conventions Commemorating Shaheed Bhagat Singh by Harsh Thakor




                                                    Programme in Punjab - Ludhiana

Today their role and teachings are more significant in light of the attack of Hindu communal fascism.

Some significant programmes were in Delhi and Punjab held by organizations, lighting the torch of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and reverberating his message.

Shaheed Bhagat Singh was a unique revolutionary whose life and teachings are that of a great Marxist-Leninist revolutionary whose teachings Indian revolutionaries must imbibe.

I compliment such democratic revolutionary forces for painstaking efforts who could convert a spark into a prairie fire.

I just attended a convention opposing communalism on the 84th martyrdom anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh,Sukhdev and Rajguru.in Ludhiana on March 22nd.I was tremendously impressed by the organization and response of workers in Ludhiana.

For days and nights activists of the Bigul Mazdoor dasta, Punjab Students Union(Lalkaar) Naujwan Bharat Sabha, Karkhana Mazdoor union and Textile hosiery workers union undertook a painstaking mobilisation campaign in the basis of the workers.

Leaflets were distributed, street corner meetings held, cycle rallies held, speeches made and plays staged.. Keen response was evoked amongst the working class who seemed to understand the divide and rule policies of the ruling classes. and how communalism was used as a weapon to break their struggles for genuine demands.

I was impressed with the enthusiasm of the youth and the workers and the discipline of the cadre.. It was heartening that several women also participated in the convention.

The slogans raised were “Down with Communalism”, “Long Live Peoples Unity”, and “red salutes to the martyrs and continue their struggle forever.”

Speakers narrated how today the forces of the world capitalist system were accentuating the capitalist exploitation of workers in India.

They explained how Hindu communal fascism was the primary weapon of all democratic movements and to combat it all sections of the society must be united mobilised ,be it Hindus, Muslims or Christians or any other religion.

They also emphasised that revolutionary class struggle and movements must be built to combat the menace of communalism and not just propagating brotherhood of all religions.

They highlighted instances of how even factory struggles were divided by communal leaders in Punjab deploying the Hindu-Sikh divide.

They explained how burning issues of the masses like price –rise ,employment, housing, food,  transport electricity and rations were diverted and labour laws were introduced to suppress the struggles of workers.

They narrated how fascist the R.S.S .was and how the tentacles of Hindu fanaticism were used and how Hindu communalism is spreading in a more organized form.. They also condemned Muslim and Sikh fundamentalism..

The new Modi government has sharpened the thread of Hindu communalism. and the attacks on Muslims and Christians and communal poisoning was deepened.

They explained how the administration or the state’s forces could not be used to oppose communal riots and often the police colluded with forces like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. They stressed on the attacks of communal fascism on women.

The speakers could relate to the problems of the day to day lives of the workers and their connection with fighting communalism.

The speakers were Kuliwinder of Naujwan Bharat Sabha,, Rajwinder of Textile Hosiery workers Union,Lakhwinder of Karkhana workers union, Namita of Stree Mukti Leage, Harjinder of Moulder and Steel workers Union, Harsh Thakor from Mumbai, Sukhawinder,editor of magazine Pratibhadh and Chinder Pal of Punjab Students Union.(Lalkaar).

Comrade Rajwinder in detail described how rulers and industrialists divided the struggles of workers after making false promises and sanctioned economic policies to break their struggles. He gave concrete examples of the tricks the Industrialists used conniving with the politicians.

I am sorry that a translation was not made of all the speeches of the speakers. Some significant points wee also made by Harjinder Singh on how in the days of Khalistani terrorism Sikh fundamentalism was fought by revolutionary Trade Union struggle.

Unlike other speakers he called for supporting the peasant struggles and narrated past struggles of the electricity workers . The message of the fighting the menace of communalism lit a flame in the hearts of the workers attending the convention.

Around 500 workers participated. Such gatherings are need all over India to light the flame of Shaheed Bhagat Singh.



                               Delhi Programme - Nehru Park,North Delhi in Shababdi area



In Delhi and Noida(Uttar Pradesh) Shahedi Melas or fairs were held commemorating Shaheed Bhagat Singh from March 21-March 23rd by Naujawan Bharat Sabha and Bhagat Singh publications.

Workers,students, women and children participated in large numbers. The participation of children was heartening in light of the current offensive of Hindu fascistic propaganda in primary schools and they could identify with the message of Bhagat Singh.

They may not have been quantitatively big but qualitatively they were of high class. They could tap the hearts and evoke the message of the martyrs to the workers of those areas in light of the repressive economic policies of the government and their nexus with Hindu communal fascism.

Street plays were performed, films were shown , prabhat pheris held and finally on the last day a torchlight Shaheedi rally was staged.

In Delhi certain Hindu communal goonda .elements with the blessings of the administration attempted to sabotage the campaign but the activists resisted.

A youth activist was badly attacked by the communal goondas.

The administration connived with the communal elements. Threats were particularly given to female workers.

In fact on the 1st 2 days the police or administration tried to deny permission to the stage but the resistance of the activists enabled the programme to be staged. The programme received enthusiastic support from the workers children and women whose unity thwarted the attacks of the goondas.

It was an ideal example of how the tentacles of communal poison were strengthened by the present government and of the possible times to come. In Mumbai in Mankhurd area NBS stage a cultural programme with a street play and  for 3 days ran a leaflet distribution campaign.

It was significant that it was held in an area of the industrial workers.

The programmes taught us that even if the strength of forces are small qualitative work is a trump card. The numbers may not have been many but the seeds sown were of great texture.

I wish that such a convention received more support from other democratic revolutionary forces of Punjab and from other parts of the country.

Such unity is the need of the hour. Progressive Dalit organizations or Muslim organizations could also join this campaign. We also need to reach the peasantry. A united revolutionary movement against communalism is the need of the hour and various sections of the Indian revolutionary camp should comprise it.

I thank comrade Lakhwinder of Karkhana Mazdoor Union and Kavita Krishna Pallavi and Anand of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Pustakalya for reports which I translated.

I particularly thank Lakhwinder for his endorsing my personal participation. regards Harsh Thakor.


 

Thursday, March 26, 2015

India : Brutal attack on workers rally protesting AAP policies in Delhi: PUDR strongly condemns the brutal lathicharge by Delhi Police




 A workers rally was attacked in Delhi today protesting against AAP.policies.Delhi police today brutally lathi charged and tear gassed hundreds of Delhi workers and students who had gathered at the Delhi secretariat to remind the Kejriwal govt about its promises.

Scores of workers and activists, including women, have been badly injured, some of them have suffered serious head injuries.

Several leading workers and activists have been arrested, including Abhinav, the editor of workers paper Mazdoor Bigul and Shivani, legal advisor of the Delhi Metro Contract Workers Union. Police have even broken the cameras and mobile phones of local journalist and individual persons covering the protest.

No medical treatment is given to injured workers inside police station and 2-3 leaders of workers are still being brutally beaten  inside station.


 
PUDR strongly condemns the brutal lathicharge by Delhi Police on a workers’ demonstration on 25 March 2015 when nearly 1000 workers and activists belonging to different unions (Wazirpur hot rolling steel industry, Delhi Metro Railways Corporation, Karawal Nagar almond workers, safai karamcharis of Dr. Hedgevar and Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospitals and several unorganized workers from Khajuri) had gathered outside the Delhi Secretariat to meet the Labour Minister in order to present a memorandum of demands.
 
Several university students had also joined the demonstration. The demonstration peacefully waited for four hours but the minister did not meet them. Instead, they were attacked by the police who used several rounds of tear gas and lathicharge against them.
 
While the lathicharge was indiscriminate and brutal, certain activists and workers, including female activists, were particularly targeted and attacked by male policemen.
 
The head injuries sustained by at least two shows that the aim of the police was not to disperse but to attack.
 
Later, when the workers re-assembled at Rajghat, they were again lathicharged. 5 workers/activists have sustained injuries including one who has had a fracture. 17 activists including 4 women have been arrested on charges of rioting and for participating in an unlawful assembly with common object and obstructing public officials from discharging duty (s. 186, 353, 147, 148, 149, IPC).
 
The arrested persons have been detained in Indraprastha Estate Police Station. This is the second attack carried out by Delhi Police in less than a month's time.
 
On 5th March 2015, hundreds of contract workers who had demonstrated outside the Secretariat, under the banner of Delhi Metro Rail Contract Workers Union, were brutally lathi charged and several were seriously injured.
 
The Labour Minster was forced to meet a delegation then as the workers refused to disperse. However, unlike then, this time not only did the Government not meet any of the protesters, the police has also arrested some of the prominent faces within the demonstration.
 
Quite clearly, yesterday’s attack was premeditated and was meant to intimidate the workers from protesting any further. By using the old strategy of charging protesters with lawlessness—by attacking, detaining and forcing them to face criminal charges—the Kejriwal Government has exposed its class character and complicity with the police.
 
Not only has the Government refused to honour its election promise, of regularizing contractual work, it has deliberately turned a peaceful workers’ demonstration into law and order problem and encouraged the police to attack protesters and arrest them.
 
It is shocking to note that a Chief Minister, who is a believer in the right to protest and dissent, has such animosity towards legitimate protests against his Government. PUDR strongly condemns the police actions and demands an immediate and unconditional release of all 17 persons.
 
 PUDR demands action against male policemen who targeted women activists and attacked them. Megha Bahl, Sharmila Purkayastha (Secretaries)
 
26th March 2015 www.pudr.org Section: Denial of Justice Worker Undemocratic Laws
 

A Song of Revolutionary Change in India : Aye Bhagat Singh Tu Zinda Hain: A Mass Song Composed and Sung by Sheetal Sathe



Lyrics, Composition and Vocalist: Sheetal Sathe. Sheetal Sathe is a great singer of the cultural organization 'Kabir Kala Manch', a troupe of Dalit protest singers and poets from Pune.

She sang this mass song about the exploitive and despotic character of Indian bourgeois politics and our discriminative society based on religion, caste, communalism and gender.

The song also portrays the possibilities of revolutionary change of the society


"Maoism is too Modern for me" says Alexandr Dugin : Five Questions for Alexandr Dugin

  
 
Publication of views of Alexandr Dugin is not approval of them but form the basis for an informed  critical examination of his influential views.
 
A process which we started last year with publication of Aleksandr Dugin - Radical Conservatism dressed up as Revolution.  
     
Five Questions for Alexandr Dugin 
1. Recent attacks on you especially from Glenn Beck in the United States label you a Fascist Racist I understand you to be a conservative communist (nationalist communist) and anti racist - is my understanding correct ?

I am certainly not "Fascist Racist". I am not Fascist (not Third Position). I am convinced anti-Racist. I hate racism as part of liberal Eurocentric and imperialist ideology. Most Westerners including human rights partisans – are definitively racists being universalists and sharing the vision of Modern Western civilization as normative one.

I defend the plurality of civilizations, the absence of the universal (Western) pattern of social development. I strongly oppose any kind of xenophobia and nationalism as the bourgeois artificial and essentially Modern construction.

I am not communist nor Marxist because I refuse the materialism of any kind and deny the progress. So much more correct to describe my views as Fourth Political Theory and traditionalism.

On the level of International Relations it is translated as the Theory of Multipolar World based on the vision of the pluralist architecture of the World based on the great spaces principle (Grossraum). I am against capitalism as a essential phenomenon of Modernity.

I strongly believe that Modernity is absolutely wrong and the Sacred Tradition is absolutely right. USA is the manifestation of all I hate – Modernity, westernization, unipolarity, racism, imperialism, technocracy, individualism, capitalism.

It is in my eyes the society of Antichrist. USA hates me – repressing, putting under sanctions (only for my ideas!), blaming, lying, organizing the defamation on the world scale (Glenn Beck is only small part of it).

But I accept all this patiently. If you are against the Modernity it is but logical the Modernity were against you.

2. In your Fourth Political Theory you owe much to the ontological theories of Martin Heidegger in which being is the fatherland a theory which allowed for a rebasing of Neo Fascism after the Second World War based on rootedness of being and not Nazis "scientific racism". This ontology gives ideological support to neo fascism and ethnic nationalism.

I cannot classify Heidegger as "neo-fascist". He is simply the greatest European thinker of XX century. I rate and consider him to be the founder of Fourth Political Theory.

He was resolutely anti-liberal and anti-communist but as well very critical toward national socialism. He has laid the basis for completely new political philosophy that I try to render explicit. I am convinced that we need to re-discover Heidegger , re-read his writings beyond any form of classifications. He is a kind of metaphysical prophet.

3. Inclusive Bourgeois Civic Nationalism on the Scottish Model offers a better way for dealing with social contradictions like class than ethnic nationalism which just deals with the ethnic other. Civic nationalism offers a framework in which a socialist and communist movement can move forward. Western Ukraine being prime example of self destructive ethnic nationalism.

I think the problem has two levels. First – the ethnic organic societies should be saved from nationalist modernist dictatorship of the Western kind. The Eurasianism is precisely this: traditional sacred religious and spiritual Empire based on organic traditional ethnic societies against bourgeois Nation State and globalization (that is the universalization of the liberal pattern on the world scale). Here on the first level ethnic nationalism can be considered as legitimate part of liberation struggle against imperialism. That is the case of Welsh or Scottish fight today that I fully support.

More than this: I consider legitimate the will of Ukrainians to re-affirm their ethnic identity. But one thing affirmation of identity the other – creation of new bourgeois National State that will necessarily oppress the ethnic minorities. So National State – big or small is never solution.

Here we are coming the second level. The struggle for ethnic historic identity being legitimate it should be placed in correct context. This context should be Sacred and Imperial, not national. Russian Empire was sacred.

I think that the myth of the Sacred Empire of King Arthur can be regarded as celtic project for eschatological unification of the Western Europe. That was the idea of Henry VII that was fully inverted by Henry VIII. So I suggest Red Dragon Empire as a kind of Pan-Celtic vision of the great space that should overcome the context of small ethnic nationalism.

The past has its roots in the eternity. And eternity is always new and fresh. So I consider King Arthur and Holy Grail narrative as something ontologically real.

The English Empire was thallassocratic and merchant, the new Carthage. That was anti-Empire – modernist, capitalist and racist. It was wrong not because of being Empire but because of being anti-Empire. Against it we need to oppose not only ethnic struggle of liberation but alternative continental tellurocratic Empire. Irish, Welsh and Scottish people as well as Brettons and French people should create their proper celtic imperial vision. The figures of the King of biturges Ambigatos or King Arthur can be taken as symbols for this.

So Russian Spring as it is called is not nationalist. It is imperial and spiritual revival of sacred roots of our Eurasian – inclusive, not exclusive! – identity. We are Third Rome. It is our eschatological project. Not narrow nationalism or new kind of imperialism: pluricentric vision that refuses anglosaxon and modernist global Empire but accept plurality of imperial spaces. We don’t want to exchange American domination for Russian one. We are struggling for independent great spaces – Eurasian, European, Celtic, German, North-American, South American, Muslim, Chinese, Indian, African and so on.

So first level – anticolonial struggle on the ethnic ground; the second – positive multipolar vision based on the concept of the pluralility of sacred Empires (great spaces).

4. Mao's theory of knowledge based on knowing through doing (On Practice) and his theory of contradiction (On Contradiction) and Marxism Leninism Maoism offers a better route to knowledge than Heidegger's intuitive knowledge through being.

Mao was right affirming that socialism should be not exclusively proletarian but also peasant and based on the ethnic traditions. It is closer to the truth than universalist industrial internationalist version represented by trotskyism. But I think that sacred part in Maoism was missed or underdeveloped. Its links with Confucianism and Taoism were weak. Maoism is too Modern for me. For China it would be best solution to preserve the socialism and political domination of national-communist party (as today) but develop more sacred tradition –  Confucianismand Taoism. It is rather significant that ideas of Heidegger are attentively explored now by hundreds of Chinese scientists. I think Fourth Political Theory could fit to contemporary China best of all.

5. Maoism is the most successful rebasing of Communism in 21st century. 
 
What do you think of Marxism Leninism Maoism has developed by Chairman Gonzalo in Peru and Ganapathy in India and Jose Maria Sison in Philippines ?

All these struggles were synthesis of national and class struggles and are patriotic struggles.

Generally speaking I am rather on favour of such tendencies – anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and directed toward social justice.

But I refuse their materialism, universalism and progressivism.

They could transform in something more close to Fourth Political Theory. The 4PT is based on the Dasein and Tradition. 4PT refuse the Western hegemony and Modernity.

We could collaborate with left and with right, with Maoists or with Evolians but heading always toward new vision.

Last words.

I appreciate very much the Welsh, Irish, Scottish and Breton struggle for the affirmation of the deep Celtic identity. I am admirer of Celtic culture and history. I consider this the great treasure of Indo-european heritage.

So I think that Celtic front is very important part of our common fight.
 
SEE ALSO: http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/aleksandr-dugin-radical-conservatism.html