India grabs two Maoist leaders and turns them over to Nepal. A World to Win News service

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The AWTWNS packet for the week of 16 February 2004 consists of four articles, 
all in this file. They may be reproduced or used in any way, in whole or in 
part, as long as they are credited.

 

- India grabs two Maoist leaders and turns them over to Nepal

- Proposed Gaza pullout: Sharon?s shell game

- Israel?s ?demographic time bomb?

- A report from Mumbai Resistance 2004 and the World Social Forum


 
India grabs two Maoist leaders and turns them over to Nepal
 

16 February 2004. A World to Win News Service. India has grabbed two senior 
leaders of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Matrika Prasad Yadav and 
Suresh Ale Magar, and turned them over to the Nepali authorities.

            Apparently, the idea was to do this in secret, since the Indian 
government made no resort to the courts or any official statements. Although 
news media in India and Nepal said that the two were arrested in Lucknow 
(India) 8 February and then taken to an undisclosed army base in Nepal, the 
Kathmandu regime, at least initially, did not officially admit to having them 
in custody. 

            In a statement issued 10 February, CPN(M) Chairman Prachanda said 
that the two were seized ?kidnapping style? and dispatched ?overnight? into the 
waiting arms of the Nepali monarchy. He identified Matrika Prasad Yadav as a 
member of the Party?s Political Bureau, and Suresh Ale Magar as an alternate 
member of the Central Committee. 

      In response to this situation, on 14 February the World People?s 
Resistance Movement (Europe) called for ?rapid, determined and widespread 
resistance? to protest this action and call for the release of both men.?

      Within days, a picket line was organized at the Nepali embassy in Milan, 
Italy, and a press conference held in Frankfurt, Germany. A mass meeting is 
planned for London, among other upcoming actions. 

            ?Given the long and well documented record of torture, rape, 
extra-judicial killings and ?disappearances? at the hands of the Nepali 
government security forces and especially the Royal Nepal Army of prisoners 
accused of supporting the CPN (M),? the WPRM warned,  ?it is clear that the 
physical integrity and even the lives of both Matrika Prasad Yadav and Suresh 
Ale Magar are in grave danger.?

            The WPRM statement also points out the illegal character of the 
handover: ?It is an open and flagrant violation of Indian law and international 
treaties that India has signed, in particular the International Covenant on 
Civil and Political Rights which among other things guarantees that, ?Anyone 
who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take 
proceedings before a court?; and the Convention Against Torture and Other 
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment which states that, ?No 
State Party shall expel, return (?refouler?) or extradite a person to another 
State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in 
danger of being subjected to torture.? 

The Indian government has long claimed to be ?non-aligned? in relationship to 
the war between the monarchy and those seeking its violent overthrow and 
replacement with a republic. In reality, it has long considered that it has the 
right to interfere in, bully and exploit Nepal as it likes, and it has used the 
pliant Nepali monarchy to do so. BBC reports that in the past India has 
arrested and handed over more than 50 Nepali Maoist leaders and activists. 
India, together with the US and UK, are the main sources of support to a 
government that increasingly has little else to rely on but the Royal Army. 

            Referring to this latest incident, CPN (M) Chairman Prachanda 
declared, ?This extremely reactionary move by the Indian government that claims 
to be a great world ?democracy? and a ?republic? has shocked and infuriated the 
Nepalese people and our party, who have been fighting for a republic and 
against the medieval, autocratic monarchy.? 

The Indian government has been holding another senior CPN(M) leader, Political 
Bureau member Chandra Prakash Gajurel (Comrade Gaurav), since last August 20, 
when he was arrested at Chennai (Madras) airport for a passport violation. The 
Indian government?s continuing refusal to release him in the kind of case that 
is commonly settled quickly is clearly the result of a political decision. The 
Nepal government has demanded his extradition. With the latest Indian handover 
of the two Nepali party leaders, there are even more intense concerns for 
Comrade Guarav?s safety.

Many hundreds of revolutionaries and other opponents who have fallen into the 
hands of the Nepali government have been tortured and murdered. An Amnesty 
International report issued late last year states that it has recorded more 
than 250 cases of people who ?disappeared?, most of them after being arrested 
or simply kidnapped by the monarchy?s police or armed forces. 

             The Nepali monarch seized all power in his own lands and dismissed 
the government last October. What was once touted as a ?constitutional 
monarchy? as in the UK or Europe has become so openly autocratic and widely 
unpopular that police used tear gas and batons against thousands of 
demonstrators (including members of the parliamentary opposition?s youth 
organisations) in Kathmandu last month because they dared chant slogans against 
the king. The Educational Minister warned of ?severe action? against any 
students who challenge the monarchy in school discussions and debate. 

Comrade Prachanda?s statement noted that Comrade Yadav is a leader of the 
people of Nepal?s Terai (plains) region as well as a Party leader, and Comrade 
Magar a leader from among Nepal?s indigenous people. For several hundred years 
these peoples have been oppressed by the central monarchy and the local feudal 
tyrants, their thugs and high-caste landowners tied to the king. With the 
advance of the Maoist-led people?s war since 1996, the recent establishment of 
revolutionary autonomous governments in several regions largely inhabited by 
these peoples marked a giant step in the struggle against feudal rule and 
social relations in much of Nepal?s countryside.

Chairman Prachanda called on ?human rights organisations and institutions, 
intellectuals and all sections of the people of Nepal and India to create a 
movement for the security, respect and release of comrade Matrika Prasad Yadav 
and comrade Suresh Ale Magar, condemning the unholy alliance and activities of 
Nepalese military fascism and Indian reaction.?  The World People?s Resistance 
Movement has announced that it intends to mobilise people as rapidly and widely 
as possible to intervene on their behalf.

(For comrade Prachanda?s statement, go on the Internet to www.cnpm.org. For the 
WPRM statement and latest activities, go to www.wprm.org) 

 

 
Proposed Gaza pullout: Sharon?s shell game
 

16 February 2004. A World to Win News Service. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel 
Sharon?s announcement of plans to unilaterally pull all Israeli troops and 
settlers out of the Gaza Strip caught many by surprise. A number of people who 
backed the Oslo accords and then Bush?s road map cautiously hailed the gesture. 
They argued that if a Sharon, who likes to be called the godfather of the 
settlement movement, could now declare that he was ?working on the assumption 
that in the future there will be no Jews in Gaza?, the Israeli establishment 
might have come to a grudging recognition that Israel could no longer hold on 
to the Occupied Territories, and that they had no choice but to make a radical 
turnaround in policy. The New York Times hailed Sharon?s announcement as a 
?turning point?. While cautioning that Sharon would try to stop part way in 
abandoning the settlements in Gaza and the West Bank, the Times nonetheless 
concludes that Sharon?s pullback could work ?only if what is contemplated
 is Gaza first?.

            A dictionary defines the _expression ?shell game? as ?a swindle 
involving the substitution of something of little or no value for a valuable 
item?. That is exactly what Sharon is up to.  He has no intention of abandoning 
Gaza ?first? and then the West Bank. Instead, he is trying to trade a handful 
of Jewish settlements in Gaza for bringing much of the West Bank into Israel 
permanently.

Consider exactly what Sharon is proposing: his current proposal is to pull back 
about 7,500 settlers from 17 of the 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip, plus a 
few more from three small, isolated settlements on the West Bank. First, note 
the numbers involved: there are a total of almost 240,000 Jewish settlers 
living in Gaza and the West Bank. Their ranks have been growing by almost 
10,000 a year over the last three years. It is worth recalling that all of 
these settlers have arrived in violation of UN resolutions and even Bush?s road 
map. Of course, the US has done nothing to counter this and has continued to 
provide the Zionist state with massive levels of aid.

Many (although not all) Zionists consider the Gaza Strip of less importance 
ideologically than the West Bank, but there are other differences as well. The 
West Bank has valuable agricultural land and water. That?s a big factor in why 
the bulk of Israeli settlers are there. The Israeli settlements in Gaza are 
mostly small and rudimentary. Sharon has said that removing the settlers from 
Gaza is a ?painful sacrifice? ? but the Israeli press has reported that under 
the plan each settler family, many of whom are religious zealots living in 
mobile homes next to Israeli military outposts, is to be compensated with a 
half million dollars! Israeli officials have raised the possibility that 
settlers paid to leave Gaza might relocate to old or new settlements in the 
West Bank. Recently the Israeli government allocated a million dollars for yet 
another Jewish-only road through the West Bank to connect an isolated, 
extreme-rightwing colony with Israel. 

Sharon?s real plan is in fact as clear and palpable as the wall of concrete and 
steel that the Zionists have been building at a furious pace through the West 
Bank over the past year. The ?separation wall?, as the Israelis call it ? the 
Palestinians refer to it more contemptuously as the ?apartheid wall? ? is 
supposed to be finished by next summer, about the time the pullout from Gaza is 
to begin. Can there be much doubt that what Sharon really has in mind is not 
some unilateral concession to the Palestinians aimed at restarting peace 
negotiations, but in fact for Israel to retrench unilaterally behind the walls 
surrounding the Palestinians and fortify its position there? 

As the West Bank wall is now projected, it would leave the Palestinians with 
roughly half of the land. Israel would keep the bulk of the settlements in the 
West Bank, meaning most of the present settlers would stay. There Israelis 
dominate the transport and water networks and help Israel maintain a 
stranglehold on the economic life of the West Bank Palestinians. Sharon has put 
forward plans to continue the apartheid wall on the east side of the West Bank, 
joining up with the western wall between Palestinians and Israel now under 
construction, to wall off Palestinians from the Jordan valley.

The Gaza Strip is already totally enclosed by what the Israelis call a 
?separation barrier?, meaning that the 1.4 million Palestinians living there 
are virtually imprisoned. In fact, as a prison it is not viable. Unlike the 
West Bank, where Palestinians farm and have some other forms of independent 
economic life and trade with neighbouring countries, Gaza has little economic 
life of its own. 

There is another nasty aspect to what Sharon is up to as well. Israel recently 
made a prisoner exchange with Hezbollah, an organisation in Lebanon that helped 
drive Israel out of that country, in a deal observers saw as a slap in the face 
to Yasser Arafat?s Palestinian Authority. Sharon?s declaration of a unilateral 
Gaza pullout is similarly intended. A writer in the Israeli daily Haaretz says 
that Sharon is counting on the Hamas guerrilla organisation?s political 
strength in Gaza to prevent the Palestinian Authority from being able to rule 
there, ensuring that Gaza remains separate from whatever kind of ?mini-state? 
the Palestinian Authority might be able to set up in the West Bank some day. 
Building up the Islamic Palestinian organisations in opposition to Arafat has 
been a hallmark of the Zionists? cynical tactics.

At the same time, to make sure everyone knows who is and will remain the boss, 
a week after Sharon?s Gaza pullout announcement, the Israeli army came crashing 
into Gaza. In the middle of the night, Israeli tanks, armoured cars and troops 
entered Gaza City, home to a large percentage of Palestinians in Gaza and by 
far the most populous Palestinian town anywhere. Rolling into the Shijaia 
neighbourhood, the Israelis opened fire on a Palestinian Authority police 
checkpoint and killed one of Arafat?s policemen whose job includes helping 
protect Israel from Palestinian fighters. Several hundred people in the 
neighbourhood came out of their homes and engaged in gun battles with the 
invaders until the afternoon. Hundreds of young, unarmed Palestinians took to 
the streets and set up blazing barricades. Israeli troops also invaded the 
Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza. At least 15 Palestinians were killed in 
the two places that day during the heaviest fighting in recent months.

Palestinians and some Israeli journalists had predicted these raids as Sharon?s 
way of making certain that the pullback announcement was not understood as a 
sign of weakness.

But what makes Israel strong is the US. Sharon is due to meet American 
officials next week. US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was one of a 
number of Bush aides who hailed Sharon?s Gaza pullback announcement. Rather 
than warning Sharon not to act unilaterally and drop the US-sponsored road map 
for negotiations ? which certainly could be what Sharon is up to with his 
unilateral move in Gaza, Armitage said that Sharon?s move is a ?step in the 
right direction?. US Secretary of State Colin Powell ?put the blame squarely on 
Chairman Arafat? for this situation. 

Meanwhile, Sharon agreed to a US suggestion that Israel make some minor 
adjustments to the route followed by the wall to undercut criticism, especially 
from European countries. At the request of the UN General Assembly, the UN 
International Court of Justice in The Hague is about to issue a non-binding 
ruling on the wall?s legality. Israel has announced it will boycott the 
hearing. But Israeli authorities demonstrated their strong concern for these 
proceedings when they detained three Palestinian lawyers returning from The 
Hague via Israel?s international airport and seized and copied their legal 
papers. The US filed a deposition asking the world court to drop the case 
against Israel. It was joined in this by the UK and Germany.

On the same day Sharon made his announcement, a committee of British MPs 
released a scathing summary of a six-month inquiry denouncing Israeli policy in 
the West Bank and Gaza.  The report blames the wall as well as Israeli 
incursions, curfews, checkpoints and other restrictions for strangling the 
Palestinian economy. It notes that unemployment shot up to nearly 70%, and a 
serious decline in living standards has resulted in malnutrition levels as bad 
as in sub-Saharan Africa. 

?What makes the poverty so unpalatable,? the report goes on, ?is the level of 
deprivation vis-à-vis Israel, and the awareness that it is not the result of 
natural calamity but of deliberate action on the part of the government of 
Israel.? The report points out that one particularly ?emotive? practice is 
Palestinian ambulances being held up for long periods at checkpoints. The MPs 
go on to say: ?It is hard to avoid the conclusion that there is a deliberate 
Israeli strategy of putting the lives of ordinary Palestinians under stress as 
part of a strategy of bringing the population to heel.?

-end item-

 

 
Israel?s ?demographic time bomb? 
 

16 February 2004. A World to Win News Service. Sharon?s Gaza pullout plan was 
accompanied by the idea that Israel might ?turn over? to some future 
Palestinian authorities several towns occupied by ?Israeli Arabs?. This is how 
Israel categorises Palestinians who are permitted to be (second class) Israeli 
citizens; they make up 20% of the population of Israel itself (not counting 
Gaza and the West Bank). This is linked to what some people call Israel?s 
?demographic time bomb? ? the fact that the majority of the population in 
Israel and the territories beyond its borders it occupies are expected to be 
Palestinian within a decade. 

            This is what has led many Israelis to argue for the ?two-state 
solution? proposed by the US-sponsored ?road map?, which foresees a Jewish 
state of Israel coexisting, someday, with a Palestinian state. Some Israelis, 
Palestinians and people of apparent good will in other countries are critical 
of Sharon?s government for not making progress in that direction by negotiating 
an Israeli pullout not only from Gaza but also from the West Bank.  It?s time 
to say that going in that direction would be no progress at all. It could even 
be quite compatible with what Israel has done under Sharon and his plans for 
the future.

Former Israeli PM Shimon Peres argued, ?If a division of territory is not 
effected within a decade, the Arab minority will have become an Arab majority. 
Israel will no longer be a Jewish state ? or stop being a democratic one. A 
Jewish state is not a religious nation but a democratic one: the creation of 
one place in the world where the Jewish people are in the majority.? 

The fact is that Jews are now a majority of Israel because they kicked out most 
of the Palestinians and brought in colonists from other countries with the help 
of the US and other imperialists. The United Nations has held that the expelled 
Palestinians have the ?right of return? ever since 1948, shortly after Israel?s 
violent birth. Count Folke Bernadotte, the UN official instrumental in the 
investigation of the Zionists? destruction of Palestinian homes and villages 
?without apparent military necessity? that lay behind the passing of that UN 
resolution, was murdered by Israeli terrorists in revenge. Israel has refused 
to meet its promises to let Palestinian refugees return to their homeland ever 
since, despite the fact that most of the country is still empty.

Sharon?s treatment of Gaza shows what kind of ?state? Palestinians can expect 
Israel to agree to ? a weak, dependent satellite of Israel. But the whole idea 
of ?two states for two peoples? is flawed under any circumstances, let alone 
the real world in which Israel is a military outpost for US domination of the 
Middle East.

Whether Jews are in a majority or minority, and even through Zionist chieftains 
come to power through elections when they are not having one another 
assassinated, what is ?democratic? about setting up a state for one religion 
and one people?  There was a different word for it when the Nazis tried to 
implement a similar project. In our time, it?s called ?ethnic cleansing?. 

            -end item-

 

A report from Mumbai Resistance 2004 and the World Social Forum 

 

16 February 2004. A Worlds to Win News Service. The following report was 
written by the delegates from the World People?s Resistance Movement who went 
to the events in Mumbai.

With a population of over 13 million people, Mumbai is India?s second largest 
city and its financial, commercial and media centre. Anyone travelling to this 
city for the first time is struck by its size and its incredibly crowded 
conditions. Every morning a seemingly endless flood of humanity pours into the 
streets. Vast expanses of slums extend for kilometres in all directions. At the 
same time there are cyber cafes just about anywhere one goes and the sound of 
cell phones ringing is just as present as in any city in Europe. Modern office 
towers rise above sidewalks where in many places there is hardly a square meter 
that is not also someone?s bedroom. The contradictions of 21st century 
imperialist globalisation could hardly take a more concentrated ? and massive ? 
_expression. Thus Mumbai was quite an appropriate venue for what took place in 
the week of 16-22 January: an outpouring of anti-imperialist resistance that 
was felt not only throughout this city, but will no doubt
 reverberate around the entire region and even the whole planet. Over 60,000 
people from all over India, South Asia and around the world people descended on 
this metropolis to participate in two events, the World Social Forum and Mumbai 
Resistance 2004 ? Against Imperialist Globalisation and War. These two 
conferences took place concurrently in a section of the city called Goregaon 
some 35 kilometres north the historic centre of the city built during the 
nearly 200 years of British colonial rule.

 

Mumbai Resistance 2004 ? Against Imperialist Globalisation and War

 

         The initiators of MR2004 felt that the political sentiment summarized 
in the WSF?s main slogan ?Another World is Possible? was limited and thus set 
the goal of showing how imperialism today is a global system of economic and 
social relations. In that light, they focused on the ways active resistance to 
it can be built. In the weeks before MR2004 activists launched a major graffiti 
campaign, covering the walls in and around Mumbai with slogans against 
imperialist globalisation and war.

Two days of seminars and workshops were held on 17-18 January. Over a thousand 
delegates took part in the opening plenary session. The overwhelming majority 
where from the countries of South Asia and other oppressed countries in Asia 
(especially the Philippines), the Middle East and other regions. Workshops 
followed on the problems of peasants and agriculture up against the World Trade 
Organisation and imperialism, globalisation and its impact on women, democratic 
rights within the scope of the ?war against terrorism?, the working class, and 
the national question on the first day. Well-known anti-imperialist leaders and 
intellectuals from all over the region and beyond were among the participants. 
During the entire conference great efforts were made to translate the 
proceeding into Hindi the second most common language among the delegates. 

Sunday?s workshops included topics such as the occupation of Iraq, the 
marginalisation of indigenous peoples, the impact of globalisation on Dalits 
and the question of fascism. The highlight of Sunday?s workshops was the one on 
the occupation of Iraq and imperialist war. Over 250 delegates attended and 
heard the well-known Indian writer and political activist Arundhati Roy give 
the opening address. At this workshop the delegates representing WPRM (Europe) 
made a presentation on the origins, importance and effect of the anti-war 
movements that have arisen in the imperialist metropoles to oppose the 
imperialist invasion and on-going occupation of Iraq.

An activist of the Stop the War Brigade (an anti-imperialist organisation 
affiliated with the WPRM working among soldiers and their families from the US 
and other countries) pointed out how opposition and even active resistance to 
the war and occupation had even developed among the military forces of the US, 
UK and other countries and the important role that veterans of previous 
imperialist wars have played in fostering this resistance.  

On behalf of WPRM (SA) and WPRM (Europe) a delegate gave a presentation 
entitled ?People?s Liberation is Not Terrorism: Imperialists and Reactionaries 
? Hands Off Nepal/Free Comrade Gaurav!?, referring to the Communist Party of 
Nepal (Maoist) leader imprisoned since last August by Indian authorities. 

            On Monday the cultural program  ?Waves of Cultural Resistance?  
brought together artists, musicians, writers and actors who are active in the 
struggle against imperialism and who consciously use their art to aid this 
struggle. Starting early in the morning and lasting well into the evening over 
3,000 people heard the music and poetry, saw the painting and films and other 
forms of _expression representing the cultures of over a dozen countries and 
nationalities. 

            Although authorities refused a permit to march on the U.S. 
consulate in Mumbai, a lively demonstration was held at which U.S. and Israeli 
flags were burned  MR2004 decided to takeup the cases of the political 
prisoners Comrade Gaurav and African-American political prisoner Mumia 
Abu-Jamal and issued a call for people everywhere to participate in the Global 
Day of Actions against the US-led occupation of Iraq that is being organised 
for 20 March.

 

World Social Forum (Mumbai)

 

The WSF and its related regional social forums have a very contradictory 
character. On the one hand, the leadership and organisational control of the 
WSF is in the hands of forces (like the Brazilian Workers Party, which along 
with President Lula hosted previous WSF events in Porto Alegre) who criticise 
particular outrages of the imperialists and their world institutions, but 
promote the illusion that through the pressure of the people and dialogue a 
just international economic and social system can be brought about without 
doing way with imperialism as a whole.

            While some of these forces oppose the current US imperialist drive 
for unquestioned world hegemony they do not oppose the imperialist system 
itself. Their organisational principles, for example, exclude ?those who would 
take human life for political ends?, a position which does not prevent them 
from accepting direct or indirect support of certain reactionary states such as 
France or Brazil whose police and army have shown in countless ways that they 
can and do ?take human life? to maintain and preserve the rule of the 
exploiting classes. 

            On the other hand, it is also clear that the slogans and activity 
of the WSF and its affiliates have attracted large numbers of activists and 
progressive-minded people, mainly from the middle classes, who are outraged by 
the growing inequalities and injustice in the world, who are furious at US 
imperialism and want to oppose it in an effective way. Most of these forces are 
young and have little or no exposure to a consistent and thoroughly grounded 
anti-imperialist point of view. These individuals and forces are eagerly 
looking for a more comprehensive explanation and solution to the problems of 
the world. Also, many of them want to act. Although many of these forces have 
different degrees of contradiction and opposition to the main leaders of the 
WSF, it is also clear that they still consider the WSF an important arena in 
which they can learn and interact with others from different countries and 
express a united and international opposition to the policies of imperialism.

            This contradictory character was more than evident right on the 
first night of the WSF. Over 30,000 people gathered at the open-air venue on 
the Exhibition Grounds for the opening programme. Scheduled to speak were among 
others both Arundhati Roy and Shirin Ebadi. As mentioned above, Roy also took 
part in MR2004 and is known for her uncompromising stance toward many forms 
imperialist domination and oppression. Speaking to the gathered thousands at 
the WSF opening programme she said that ?imperialism is like rape, there is no 
polite way to describe it?.

            Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer who was just awarded the Nobel Peace 
Prize also spoke. An open letter from the March 8th Women?s Organisation 
(Iran-Afghanistan) to the WSF was distributed there, entitled ?Shirin Ebadi 
Does Not Want ?Another World?!?. It stated, in part,  ?Shirin Ebadi?  is a 
person of status quo. She represents a political trend in Iran which believes 
in rectifying the dying, corrupt, absolutely oppressive and woman hating 
Islamic regime, from within? This faction of the regime is just a different 
interest group within the absolutely reactionary Islamic Republic 
regime...(which believes) the people of Iran do not have any choice but to 
choose ?the bad over the worse?.? Delegates from WPRM (SA) and WPRM (Europe) 
distributed 1,500 copies of this open letter during the opening programme where 
Ebadi spoke. As soon as people became aware of the subject they lined up to get 
copies, all of which were distributed within just a short time. In the 
following days another
 3,000 copies of this letter were printed and distributed at the WSF.

            The main slogan of the WSF ?Another World is Possible? appeals to 
many people exactly because they feel it opens up the perspective of a world 
without imperialism. At the same time the main WSF organisers like to emphasise 
that they are really seeking to ?put a human face? on globalisation. Both sides 
of this debate were present in practically all aspects of the event. Some of 
the basic features of the WSF, the fact that it is held in the oppressed 
countries and that the vast majority of people attending come from the 
oppressed countries, mean that you cannot talk about addressing globalisation 
and war, without also allowing at least some people talk about imperialism. 
This is because in these countries the fact of imperialist domination and 
exploitation is so starkly evident in so many peoples? daily lives that if no 
one was allowed to talk about imperialism being the key source of the world?s 
ills an event like the WSF would quickly lose all credibility. At the same
 time, most of the many hundreds of WSF seminars and workshops tended to focus 
not on imperialism?s role in causing and perpetuating poverty and injustice, 
but rather on specific issues and practical ways to address them, whether 
through grassroots and/or political action, or various kinds of reforms, 
electoral/legislative pressure, or even alternative teaching methods.

The local press criticised the WSF saying that it was more like a ?street 
festival? than a ?serious? political event. Actually it was a mixture of both! 
People attended meetings, mulled around to take in the "scene", or visited the 
hundreds and hundreds of information stands and book tables set up all over the 
grounds. Many groups formed up ranks, raised their banners and marched around 
the grounds (very often accompanied by drums and other instruments) 
distributing their leaflets and generally trying to draw attention to their 
cause or issue. There was an incredible amount of energy in the air. Far from 
apolitical, it had the feeling of solidarity, of common purpose and destiny: a 
festival of the oppressed.

            Dalit organisations from all over India and the region had 
organised to attend the WSF in Mumbai and their large presence put its stamp on 
the whole event. Dalits, often referred to as ?untouchables? or ?tribals? are 
the people at the very bottom of caste society in South Asia with few rights 
and little or no access to education, jobs, health care, etc. This was a main 
question discussed at the Forum.

            On Sunday evening the main programme on ?Wars Against Women, Women 
Against Wars? drew some 6,000 participants. Less than half of the crowd raised 
their hands when Arundhati Roy, asked who could understand English. In a part 
of her remarks, which were translated into Hindi, she talked about the 
government inspired anti-Islamic pogroms in the Indian state of Gujarat. After 
recalling how hundreds of Muslims had been brutally murdered and raped while 
the police stood by and watched she declared that these events showed that the 
current government of India ? headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Hindu BJP 
party ? was in fact a ?fascist government?. With national elections expected in 
India within the next few months and Vajpayee currently expected to win 
re-election, she went on to state that ?the only thing worse than a fascist 
dictatorship, is an elected fascist dictatorship!?

 The internationally known Egyptian writer Nawal el Saddawi spoke to the claim 
that colonialism ended decades ago and that therefore this can no longer be 
considered to have any role in the extreme poverty and depravation common in 
the former colonies she said, ?They are right, colonialism ended long ago. But 
that does not mean that the countries of the so-called third world ? and I 
strenuously object to that term since there is only one world and I am just as 
much a part of it as anyone from the USA, the UK or France ? that does not mean 
that we are no longer being dominated by the former colonial powers.... Now 
they have a more clever way of doing it ? neo-colonialism!? Her bold statement 
brought a loud cry of approval from the audience.

Participating in the discussion of the Global Day of Action being planned for 
20 March, WPRM spokesperson warned people against putting their faith in a 
change of political party in the White House, simply getting Bush out of 
office, as some were advocating. He reminded people that Democratic Party 
presidents Kennedy and Johnson sent US troops to Vietnam and then escalated 
that war to the whole of Indochina. And then Nixon, a Republican, was forced to 
pull them out as they were militarily defeated on the battlefields of Vietnam 
and politically defeated in the streets of countries all over the world, 
including in the US itself.  He argued that in this battle against the 
occupation and US-led offensive, as in every other battle against this system, 
we must not be diverted into political dead-ends and can only rely on our own 
unity and struggle.

The WSF came to a close 21 January with a demonstration in downtown Mumbai 
against globalisation and war. In total more than 10,000 people took part. 

- end item-

 

 












                
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"[C]apital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and 
dirt."
--Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chapter 31

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