SACW | August 11-12, 2008 / Peace in Sri Lanka ? / Swat Valley / Kashmir under Siege / SIMI Fictions
Harsh Kapoor
aiindex at gmail.com
Mon Aug 11 23:52:25 CDT 2008
South Asia Citizens Wire | August 11-12, 2008 |
Dispatch No. 2550 - Year 10 running
[1] Sri Lanka:
(i) The three basic parameters for lasting peace (Jehan Perera)
(ii) joint press release by Free Media Movement and other organizations
[2] Pakistan:
(i) It's Curtains for Musharraf (Najam Sethi)
(ii) Swat in the grip of violence (Khadim Hussain)
[3] A War to Divide Kashmir:
- The long siege of Kashmir (Najeeb Mubarki)
- Kashmir coils up in death rage (Sankarshan Thakur)
- Muzaffarabad marchers fired upon, 5 killed (Shujaat Bukhari)
- Hopes for compromise fading (Praveen Swami)
- J&K: Douse The Incendiary Flames (Editorial, People's Democracy)
- A resolution from the meeting 'Present
Crisis and the Role of Civil Society'
[4] India: The SIMI Fictions -The Thin Red Line (Tarun J Tejpal)
[5] Economic Crisis & Market Turbulence -
Resistance and Alternatives (S. A. Shah)
[6] Announcements:
- Queer Azadi March (Bombay, 16 August 2008)
- Fat, Feminist and Free - a performance by
Pramada Menon (Bombay, 23 August, 2008)
______
[1] SRI LANKA:
(i)
August 11, 2008
THE THREE BASIC PARAMETERS FOR LASTING PEACE
A united country, a federal-based political
solution implemented by the government and the
laying down of arms by the LTTE are the three
basic parameters for lasting peace, writes Jehan
Perera from Colombo
The Sri Lankan government's ultimatum to all
deserters from the armed forces to return to duty
is one indication of the stresses that exist in
society due to the ongoing war which is gaining
in intensity in the north of the country. As the
army advances deeper into LTTE-controlled
territory there is a greater need for larger
numbers of troops to be deployed to secure the
newly-captured areas. The government needs to
ensure that the LTTE will not infiltrate back
into those areas even in small numbers, as these
can harass and overrun small detachments of
troops. Securing the territory is going to be a
bigger problem in the north than it was in the
east.
The difficulty that the army will be facing in
the north is the mono-ethnic nature of the
community located there, which is one hundred per
cent Tamil, as against the east, which is
multiethnic, and with a majority that is
non-Tamil. Some parts of the north that have been
recaptured were lost to the government some two
decades ago. The problem of communication and
getting information regarding LTTE movements from
the community will be more difficult in view of
the communication barriers between the
Sinhala-speaking government forces and the
Tamil-speaking population.
Another difficulty that the Sri Lankan army
will face as it progresses deeper into LTTE-held
territory is that the LTTE's own resistance is
likely to grow stronger. This again will be
unlike the situation that existed in the east,
where the LTTE cadre did not resist to the last
man but withdrew from the battle. When it came to
the east, the LTTE leadership appears to have
decided that discretion was the better part of
valour and their cadre would be better utilised
by redeploying them to defend in the north,
rather than to fight to keep hold of the east.
On the other hand, when it comes to resisting
the incoming Sri Lankan army in the north, the
LTTE cadre will have nowhere else to go. This
suggests that they will fight very hard to keep
the Sri Lankan army from overrunning the entirety
of the northern territory they control. As the
Sri Lankan army's lines of communication get
stretched with the need to defend more and more
territory that is being captured, the LTTE lines
of communication will grow tighter and their
resistance greater. The reports of high
casualties in the recent battles in the north
suggest that the LTTE is still not collapsing
under pressure.
Humanitarian crisis
There are also stresses in society due to the
deteriorating humanitarian situation in the
northern war zones. Tens of thousands of people
living in those areas have been displaced from
their villages and homes. As the Sri Lankan army
advances more and more areas are coming within
range of the army's long range artillery. The
alleged artillery attack on Mullaitivu town, and
damage to civilian infrastructure and persons
which the military spokesperson has denied, is a
sign of things to come. The LTTE's own strategy
of setting up their camps in the vicinity of
civilian settlements is likely to have collateral
implications on the civilian population.
Reports from humanitarian agencies working in
the north indicate that they cannot meet the
demand for emergency shelter, water and
sanitation to meet the needs of the rapidly
growing displaced population. More than 50,000
persons were reported displaced in the month of
July alone. They join the ranks of those
displaced by earlier phases of war and the
tsunami. Unfortunately, it appears that the
humanitarian organisations are lacking in
capacity to deal with this crisis, in part due to
the restrictions that the government has placed
upon them.
The government's legitimate concern would be
that the LTTE will take a part or most of the
supplies brought in by the humanitarian
organisations for its own use, and to further
strengthen its war machine. This may explain the
restrictions on a host of materials, including
cement, water pumps and fuel into the LTTE
controlled territories. The government has
recently been producing evidence to show that
equipment and relief items sent in by
humanitarian organisations have ended up in LTTE
camps.
However, the welfare of Sri Lankan citizens
ought not to be subordinated to military
necessities. In an appeal to the government, the
bishop of Mannar, Rayappu Joseph, has given a
first-hand account of the plight of the people.
He has referred to the displaced persons from his
diocese of Mannar, whom he reports as mostly
staying by the side of roads and in the adjoining
jungles without adequate food, shelter, medicine
and other basic needs. He has reported that the
whole region is on the move, and that the worst
affected in this situation are the children,
women and elderly.
As a response to this humanitarian crisis, the
bishop has requested the government to spell out
its plan for the safety and security of its
citizens in the north. In the absence of any
governmental initiative he has proposed that
urgent action be taken to permit humanitarian
organisations with access to these areas. He has
also proposed the establishment of 'no conflict
zones' in each of the three northern districts
affected by the present fighting.
Lasting peace
Unfortunately, the pleas of Bishop Joseph and
those of a similar persuasion are unlikely to
fall on receptive ears at the present time. This
is because military imperatives have taken
priority and the government is unlikely to do
anything that can jeopardise its military effort.
The chosen logic of both the government and LTTE,
and their respective supporters, is that the war
will be the foundation for a future solution.
While the government seeks a total military
victory, the LTTE resists being defeated. It is
aiming for a situation of hurting stalemate as
occurred in the period 1999-2001 which paved the
way for the ceasefire of 2002. The underlying
belief of both sides is that the ground
situation, rather than justice and fairness, will
determine the political outcome.
The values of democracy necessarily take a
back seat in the face of this logic of war. In
the LTTE-controlled areas there is no democracy
at all and in the government-controlled areas a
national security state has come to the fore.
This accounts for the frequent road closures,
restrictions on parking, night-time search
operations of homes and unknown groups who
supposedly operate with impunity in white vans.
Accompanying these violations of the rule of law
and democracy are regular reports from the
government indicating that final victory is
imminent. In these circumstances those who
publicly challenge or criticise the logic of war
and propose an alternative course of action, are
castigated as traitors.
One of those who have taken a public stand on
the issue of war and human rights violations has
been the veteran social activist, Fr Tissa
Balasuriya. A statement drafted by him has called
for a southern consensus between the government
and opposition, specially by the government and
the opposition for a constitutionally guaranteed
sharing of power within a united Sri Lanka, to be
accompanied by a ceasefire monitored by
international observers, with provision for the
LTTE and the other Tamil and Muslim political
parties also to share democratically in the
administration of the North and East, and for the
All Party Representatives Conference to include
the TNA and be a body to work out the modalities
of the ceasefire, and the constitutional reforms.
An initial draft of this statement met with
considerable support from Tamils, including
expatriates. At the same time the statement was
strongly condemned by many Sinhalese, especially
by those living abroad, who saw it as a
conspiracy to keep the LTTE from being militarily
defeated. When a subsequent draft of the
statement included a reference to a commitment to
lay down arms by the LTTE, the Tamil support
dropped. The response to Fr Balasuriya's
statement shows how on both sides of the ethnic
divide the belief in the armed struggle continues
to retain its hold. But this is the path to
endless war and suffering, which Sri Lanka needs
to get off if it is to prosper. A united country,
a federal-based political solution implemented by
the government and the laying down of arms by the
LTTE are the three basic parameters for lasting
peace.
o o o
#2.
The following is a joint press release by Free
Media Movement and a number of other civil
society organizations
[8 August 2008]
MORE THAN 150 DAYS OF DETENTION WITHOUT CHARGES:
RELEASE J.S TISSAINAYAGAM, N. JASIHARAN AND
VALARMATHY IMMEDIATELY
Senior journalist J. S. Tissainayagam, a "Sunday
Times" columnist and the editor of the website
http://www.outreachsl.com , has been in custody
without specific charges being brought against
him for more than 150 days, even though the
Attorney General's Department informed the
Supreme Court on 11 July 2008 that the
investigation in to his case was completed. The
Attorney General's Department now has until 20
August to report back to the courts on the status
of the investigation and on the next course of
action. To this date, no evidence has been
produced in court justifying either the arrest or
the detention.
Tissainayagam was arrested and detained on 7
March by the Terrorist Investigation Division
(TID) of the Sri Lanka Police. N. Jasiharan,
owner of E-Kwality press, who was renting office
space to Tissainayagam, and his wife, Valarmathy,
were detained on 6 March. Since then, all three
have been in detention under Emergency
Regulations.
This is a flagrant violation of a fundamental
tenet of Sri Lankan law that protects citizens
from arbitrary arrest and detention, and
guarantees equality before the law for all
citizens, regardless of an individual's ethnicity
or race.
The arrest and detention of Tissainayagam,
Jasiharan and Valarmathy have been conducted
without adherence to basic safeguards, such as
the production of valid detention orders at the
appropriate time and in court, as stipulated by
the Emergency Regulations. The detainees have
been denied the right of regular access to
lawyers and family members. On the two occasions
that lawyers have been able to meet with
Tissainayagam, it has been in the presence of a
police officer. The journalist was therefore
denied the privacy and confidentiality in seeking
legal counsel to which he is entitled by law. As
recently as 2005, the United Nations Committee
against Torture, in its Concluding Observations
on Sri Lanka, reaffirmed that confidential access
to legal counsel was basic to the provision of
safeguards against abuse.
In addition, all three detainees have been denied
timely access to medical attention, resulting in
a deterioration in their health. Furthermore,
there are allegations of torture of at least one
of the three detainees. On 23 June, Jasiharan
revealed in open court that he had been assaulted
by the officers of the TID for having told the
Judicial Medical Officer the extent of his
injuries, inflicted on him by the police.
The arrest and detention of these persons
reinforces a concern that we have consistently
voiced regarding the process of arrests and
detentions under the Emergency Regulations: that
in many cases, the process as followed infringes
on a basic principle consistently articulated by
the Supreme Court in the past; namely, that the
Secretary to the Ministry of Defense is
authorised to arrest and detain a person upon
material submitted to him or upon such further
additional material as may be called for by him,
only where he is satisfied that such a step is
necessary in order to prevent such person from
acting in any manner prejudicial to national
security or to the maintenance of public order.
As the Court has stated, the notion of
reasonableness cannot be negated to the point
where the essence of the safeguard secured by
Article 13 (1) of the Constitution is abrogated.
It is our view that the circumstances and context
of Tissainayagam's arrest and detention, as well
as the detention of his colleagues, lacks all the
requisite aspects of reasonable arrest and
detention.
The onus is on the Attorney General of Sri Lanka
to demonstrate respect for and adherence to the
Constitution and national laws in this case, by
presenting credible and substantial evidence to
further detain the three. It is also an opportune
moment for the Attorney General to demonstrate
that the arrests and detentions are not motivated
by other interests, be they ethnic or political.
The onus is upon the Attorney General to
demonstrate that the arrests and detentions are
in accordance with the law and that due process
has been followed. As the head of the Attorney
General's Department, the Attorney General has
the power to decide whether to pursue a case if
there is sufficient credible evidence or whether
to suspend investigations. He should only be
influenced by the evidence and not by other
factors or persons.
We are also concerned about the arrest and
detention of Tissainayagam because of the impact
that this has on broader issues of freedom of
expression and media freedom in the country. As
civil society organisations committed to the
democratic principles of human rights and
freedoms, including freedom of expression, we
feel that Tissainayagam's arrest has reaffirmed
the fear prevailing within the media community in
Sri Lanka today, that publication of any opinion
that provides critical analysis of the situation
in the country could lead to persecution,
arbitrary arrest, disappearance and even
assassination. The sad fact that nine media
persons have been killed in Sri Lanka over the
past two years and that many more have been
subjected to physical and mental harassment and
assault, bears out our concerns regarding
Tissainayagam. Investigations into these crimes
against journalists have gone nowhere. The
perpetrators of these violations go unpunished,
and the cycle of terror and impunity which grips
contemporary Sri Lanka is strengthened.
It is in this context that we call upon the State
to remedy this grave injustice to a journalist
who was engaged in expressing his opinions on the
state of human rights in the country within the
boundaries of the law. The continued detention of
Tissainayagam, Jasiharan and Valarmathy, without
charges is an affront to justice and we call for
due process and the release of all the detainees
without further delay.
(Signed)
Asian Human Rights Commission
Association of Family Members of the Disappeared
Centre for People's Dialogue
Centre for Policy Alternatives
Christian Alliance for Social Action
Civil and Political Rights Program, Law & Society Trust
EQUAL GROUND, Sri Lanka
Free Media Movement
Federation of Media Employees Trade Union
Home for Human Rights
Human Rights Centre, Kandy
Human Rights in Conflict Program, Law & Society Trust
IMADR Asia Committee
INFORM Human Rights Documentation Centre
Mothers and Daughters of Lanka
Muslim Women's Research and Action Forum
National Peace Council
Right to Life Human Rights Centre
Rights Now Collective for Democracy
Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum
Sri Lanka Tamil Journalists Alliance
Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association
Women and Media Collective
Women's Support Group, Sri Lanka
And various individuals . . .
______
[2] PAKISTAN:
(i)
Wall Street Journal
IT'S CURTAINS FOR MUSHARRAF
by Najam Sethi
August 11, 2008; Page A13
After months of prevarication, the Pakistani
government, led by Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif,
has finally decided to impeach President Pervez
Musharraf. Although a fighting man, Mr. Musharraf
is expected to quit within the week. He doesn't
have enough parliamentary backing to thwart the
move, and the army and America, his main sources
of support, have abandoned him in the face of
popular pressure.
The government has been mulling this move for
months. Mr. Zardari, of the People's Party of
Pakistan (PPP), and Mr. Sharif, of the Pakistan
Muslim League (PML), both hate the president for
political and personal reasons.
Mr. Musharraf ousted Mr. Sharif from power in
1999, exiled him to Saudi Arabia, and only
allowed him to return last year to contest the
February elections because of Saudi pressure. Mr.
Zardari was imprisoned for six years, then
permitted to leave the country to join his wife
Benazir Bhutto in exile in Dubai. Thanks to
American pressure, she was allowed to return last
October to contest the elections, and he only
returned after she was assassinated in December.
The popular Bhutto accused Mr. Musharraf of an
assassination attempt last October. When she was
killed two months later, many Pakistanis
remembered that accusation.
The Zardari-Sharif cooperation has been driven by
political missteps on all sides. Mr. Zardari's
decision to work with Mr. Musharraf -- under
American urging -- alienated the PPP's rank and
file, which has been historically antiarmy and
anti-American. At the same time, Mr. Sharif took
an anti-Musharraf and anti-America stance,
boosting his popularity. Mr. Musharraf didn't
help matters when he tried to oppose Mr.
Zardari's prime minister pick. Later, he also
criticized the new government's
"dysfunctionality" in the face of an "impending
economic meltdown."
Mr. Musharraf's biggest mistake was to lose focus
on the war on terror, alienating his Washington
backers without winning domestic public support.
For months now, the U.S. has been upset at
Pakistan's lackluster cooperation with coalition
forces in the war on terror in Pakistan's tribal
areas. Washington also accused Pakistan's
powerful Interservices Intelligence (ISI) agency,
which is associated with Mr. Musharraf, of
complicity in the Taliban attack on the Indian
embassy in Kabul last month. On the eve of Prime
Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's state visit to
Washington last month, the government decreed the
ISI would henceforth be answerable to the home
ministry, instead of to the army chief or
President Musharraf.
Mr. Musharraf couldn't countenance this loss of
power. He accused the government of trying to
"politicize the ISI and undermine national
security" at America's prodding, forcing it to
backtrack clumsily and lose face. To stave off a
possible sacking at Mr. Musharraf's hands, Mr.
Zardari joined hands with Mr. Sharif to impeach
the president.
Washington, which had not so long ago advocated
"working relations" between Mr. Zardari and Mr.
Musharraf -- and later shifted its stance to a
"dignified exit" for Mr. Musharraf -- responded
with a studied silence. "The impeachment of
President Musharraf is an internal matter for
Pakistan that must be resolved in accordance with
the law and constitution," said a White House
spokesman on Aug. 7, the day the impeachment
decision was announced.
In other words, "go Musharraf go." The U.S.
realizes that Mr. Musharraf is extremely
unpopular at home, and has concluded that the
army is not prepared to risk propping him up any
longer. So he is no longer useful. A working
relationship with the new civilian order is a
better bet.
The Pakistan army is the key to what happens
next. Formally, the impeachment of Mr. Musharraf
is a numbers game. The ruling coalition needs 295
votes out of 442 in a joint sitting of both
houses of parliament to clinch it. They claim the
motion will sail through.
But the result will critically depend on about 27
independent members of parliament, and members
from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. If
the ISI chooses to support Mr. Musharraf, it
could probably manage to sway the tribal votes
for the president. But it would need the green
light from the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani,
before doing this.
It's unlikely Gen. Kayani will dive into this
fray. The army is hugely unpopular at home for
fighting "America's war on terror." It is
dispirited because it is being criticized by its
American ally not just for not doing enough, but
for complicity in harboring and protecting the
Afghan Taliban. It is demoralized, having lost
over 2,000 men fighting terrorists in the tribal
areas without sufficient training or motivation.
The army remains the prime target of suicide
bombers in the urban areas of the country, so
much so that its officers no longer go about town
in uniform.
Gen. Kayani successfully salvaged some public
respect by refusing to tilt the February election
results in favor of Mr. Musharraf's party.
Therefore, while the officers abhor the "corrupt
and bungling civilians," the grudging view is
that any overt or covert military backing for Mr.
Musharraf would be hugely unpopular, and any
formal intervention untenable in the difficult
economic and political environment facing the
country.
If Mr. Musharraf throws in the towel this week,
the current political paralysis might end, but
the instability will remain. Mr. Sharif will play
to public opinion and press Mr. Zardari to punish
Mr. Musharraf for treason. He wants the deposed
chief justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Chaudhry, and
his erstwhile colleagues restored with full
powers.
Mr. Zardari, for his part, may heed advice from
the army and Washington and facilitate a safe
exit for the president. He will, in all
likelihood, refuse to reinstate the chief justice
for fear that a reinvigorated judiciary will hold
every Musharraf action to date as illegal,
including the amnesty from corruption charges
granted to him in November. Mr. Zardari also
wants to become president himself, a prospect Mr.
Sharif cannot stomach.
Pakistan's neighbors India and Afghanistan, and
its strategic ally America, cannot be too
sanguine about this continuing political
instability. Their core interests require
Pakistan's civilian leadership to lean on the
Pakistan army to rein in and retool the ISI,
support the war on terror in Afghanistan, and
refrain from refueling Islamist jihad in
India-administered Kashmir. But with the army
sulking politically and licking its wounds
militarily, the Zardari government looks unlikely
to deliver on these fronts -- with or without a
President Musharraf.
Mr. Sethi is editor of the Friday Times and Daily Times in Lahore, Pakistan.
o o o
(ii)
Dawn,
12 August 2008
SWAT IN THE GRIP OF VIOLENCE
by Khadim Hussain
THE echo of what Faiz Ahmad Faiz said half a
century ago is reverberating in Swat today:
Koi masiha na eefai ehd ko puhncha
Buhat talash pas-i-qatl-i-aam hoti rahi
(No messiah arrived to provide relief, but after
the carnage much investigation took place).
The people of the Swat valley, once billed as the
Switzerland of Asia, feel abandoned, helpless and
betrayed today. Since July 2007 this scenic
valley of orchards, snowcapped mountains,
fast-flowing streams and thick forests has been
in the grip of violence.
A second spree of violence began recently. It has
reportedly left more than 100 people dead,
including a number of security personnel,
civilians and Taliban in the troubled areas of
Kabal, Matta, Charbagh and Malam Jabba. The local
people estimate more than 500 human casualties in
the ongoing spree of death and destruction in the
valley.
Besides the loss of human lives, an additional
dozen or so girls' schools, the remaining part of
a PTDC motel in Malam Jabba and police checkposts
have been torched and destroyed in upper Swat.
Meanwhile, a notorious FM radio station continues
to air hatred against the government and exhorts
the people to revolt against the state's security
apparatus.The current wave seems to be the result
of the failed peace deal signed between the NWFP
government and Fazlullah's militia in May 2008.
The deal was expected to fail and lead to this
violent scenario for several reasons.
Firstly, it was signed without consultation with
civil society, political parties and the
professional classes of the area. Secondly, a
huge gap was evident between the interpretation
given by the Taliban and the government to some
key clauses of the deal. Thirdly, the probability
of the deal not taking off in the absence of
monitoring systems remained high. With its
failure, a new and ferocious current of death and
destruction became inevitable and is being
witnessed today in the valley. In other parts,
the violence is of low intensity.
Fourthly, the militants in Swat previously never
enjoyed the space the deal gave them. The chances
were that the deal would create a snowball effect
on militant organisations throughout the length
and breadth of the valley leading to 'warlordism'.
The present scope of insurgent activities is
broad-based and all-encompassing with
ever-increasing expansion further north and west
of upper Swat. The militants and security forces
have gun-battles in Qandeel (Madyan) despite the
refusal of local residents to give sanctuary to
the militants and the residents' constant appeal
to the security forces to desist from actions
that would cause the scenic mountain resort to be
engulfed in the flames of violence. The same
seems to be happening in the Lower Dir district
just beyond the hills of Peuchar though the local
people have adamantly refused the militants
sanctuary.
The present round of violence is more deadly and
the Taliban and the military seem to be in a more
aggressive mood than before. The number of
civilian casualties, including men and women, and
the destruction wrought are greater. Curfews and
unabated firing from both sides have brought all
activities to a standstill. According to the
incharge at the Mata Tehsil Hospital, patients in
the hospital are stranded as no attendant can
reach them and bring food and medicines for them.
Charitable hospitals, such as the one set up by
the Layton Rahmatullah Benevolent Trust in Kabal
tehsil, are virtually closed and the staff there
is afraid that the hospitals might be shifted to
other areas. Markets in the upper part of the
valley are deserted and amenities are sold at
prices that are 10 times higher than the actual
rate because of the non-supply of edible items.
Public and private properties are being destroyed
with impunity. Several brides and grooms, who
were en route to their villages in the upper part
of the Swat valley, are stranded in different
hotels in Mingora.
The common people believe that the present
violence is being orchestrated for the
procurement of more dollars from the US, despite
the fact that there are casualties among the
Taliban and the military everyday. Some local
people also believe that the military would like
the valley to be plunged into turmoil in order to
provide sanctuaries and infiltrating points to
the Taliban to enter Afghanistan through the
border at Chitral.
The present mantra of the NWFP governor at the
behest of the presidency and the adviser for
interior affairs that India's RAW agents are
involved in the insurgency in Fata and other
parts of the NWFP has actually given more
credence to this perception. The ISI and the
military's panic over the order of the prime
minister to bring the ISI under the
administrative, operational and financial control
of the interior ministry also played a crucial
role in developing this perception of the people.
The provincial chapters of the JUI-F and PML-Q
have been actively demanding the end of the
operation in the Swat valley. A large section of
the population in Swat believes these two parties
have close ties to spy agencies in Pakistan. It
was the MMA government in the NWFP which allowed
Fazlullah's militia to grow from a small bunch of
hardcore militants into a Frankenstein.
While the man in the street wants peace and the
dismantling of organisations responsible for the
turmoil, professionals, businessmen, students,
teachers, political activists and media outlets
in the valley appear to be sceptical about the
motives of the military in breaking the
organisational structures of the non-state
religious militant bodies active in the valley.
The people of the valley think that the supply of
manpower, weapons and other necessities to
Fazlullah's militia could have easily been
disrupted if the security forces had been keen
about doing so or had been allowed to eliminate
militancy in the valley. The federal and
provincial governments have failed to launch a
substantive dialogue while resorting to the
selective use of force and offering a
comprehensive economic development plan for the
rehabilitation of the displaced population. They
have also failed to effectively put into
operation the village peace committees. All this
has further eroded the confidence of the people
in the state apparatus.
The writer is coordinator for the Aryana
Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy.
______
[3] [The War To Divide Kashmir]
Economic Times
12 August, 2008
THE LONG SIEGE OF KASHMIR
by Najeeb Mubarki
Official discourse on the accession of the
princely state of Jammu and Kashmir to India in
1947 itself presupposes that the state willingly
joined the Indian Union. And given the national
narrative of secularism, J&K, with its majority
Muslim population was to be held up as the
showcase secular state. Some of the answers as to
why the same state erupted in a mass insurgency
in the late eighties lie in the spillages in
those narratives of accession, secularism and
Indian democratic processes in the state. The
ongoing fracas over the issue of land transfer to
the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, and the
economic blockade of the Valley, which has
literally split the state along communal lines,
would make sense only when viewed through this
prism.
The key divergence perhaps is that the thrust of
the national liberation movement in J&K was
against the autocratic and repressive Dogra
regime, not the British. The history of modern
political mobilisation in the state, and more
particularly the Valley, begins with the 1931
massacre of civilians in Srinagar by the Dogra
forces, which culminated in the 'Quit Kashmir'
movement of 1946 - spearheaded by the National
Conference (NC) under Sheikh Abdullah.
The movement would, in later decades, come to be
seen as the first stirrings of Kashmiri
self-assertion after around 600 years of foreign
rule, starting from the time when Akbar defeated
the last independent Kashmiri king. The
collective memory of the brutality of the
intervening foreign rulers isn't necessarily
communal - the Afghans, for example, are
considered to have been far more ruthless than
even the period of Sikh rule or the Dogras. The
Dogra state, however, was unique in that, as
historian Mridu Rai points out in her Hindu
Rulers, Muslim Subjects, it was an actualised
modern Hindu state, with savage discrimination
against Muslims enshrined in state laws.
It was the consequent desire to broaden the Quit
Kashmir movement into one of larger nationalist
expression that led people like Prem Nath Bazaz,
a Kashmiri Hindu, to influence Sheikh Abdullah to
change the Muslim Conference into the NC. Bazaz,
who remained one of the most original votaries of
Kashmiri independence, would later turn into a
bitter foe of the Sheikh. His criticism that the
latter had betrayed the Kashmiri nation by
gradually accepting its integration into the
Indian Union, would, over time, be legitimated by
the mass insurgency against the 'latest foreign
occupier' - the Indian state.
Given the contested nature of the instrument of
accession, and the fears of consequent political
mobilisation aligning itself either with Pakistan
or the idea of independence, the Indian state has
always had a rather neurotic approach to
democratic processes within J&K. Thus was
inaugurated a period of stymied democracy where
even a Sheikh Abdullah could be held suspect and
jailed for over a decade. This jump-started the
history of privileging the establishment of
pliant local regimes over the articulation of
local aspirations through functional democratic
processes.
The political history of J&K after independence,
thus, is one largely composed of the Centre
dismissing governments, installing new ones and
electoral exercises being routinely rigged. The
gradual discrediting of the entire democratic
process, as well as the consciousness of a larger
communal identity politics being played out
nationally, coalesced a first-of-its-kind
alternative in the Muslim United Front (MUF) in
1986-87. The blatant rigging of the consequent
elections, with the Farooq Abdullah-led NC
declared winner, marks the point of complete
rupture with the Indian democratic system and
political agency within the Valley. The MUF, even
as it was aligned along Islamist lines, had
strands of Kashmiri nationalism, and
consequently, it was no surprise that the first
wave of Kashmiri militants were mostly grassroots
workers of the MUF.
The complete Islamisation of the insurgency was,
however, not quite a natural phenomenon. Indeed,
the self-professedly secular-nationalist JKLF did
target a number of Kashmiri Hindus in the early
years, yet it also killed a disproportionately
higher number of Kashmiri Muslims, who belonged
to the same intelligence-political set up. The
gradual ascendancy of Islamist militant groups
has, in fact, also to do with both Indian and
Pakistani aversion for a genuinely Kashmiri
nationalist sentiment. The brutal state response
to the militancy was later followed by an attempt
to enforce a democratic process, with people
often forcibly hauled off to vote.
The increasingly communalised national political
process has also aided in the emergence of
Islamist narratives about the insurgency and the
Kashmir issue. These have been merely concretised
by a communalised state apparatus that seeks to
exclude local participation in historically
syncretic events like the Amarnath yatra. The
handover of land for the yatra was thus seen as a
symbolic act of a hostile
administrative-political set up. And even as the
memory of the various alternative access routes
to Kashmir live on in the popular unconscious,
the blockade of the sole remaining road link
reinforces the perception of physical and
psychological siege.
o o o
The Telegraph
August 12 , 2008
KASHMIR COILS UP IN DEATH RAGE
by Sankarshan Thakur
Jammu, Aug. 11: The Amarnath row has suddenly
triggered a far grimmer crisis that threatens to
plunge the Kashmir valley into the anti-India
tumult of the early nineties.
Senior Hurriyat Conference and People's League
leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz was among five shot dead
in police firing near Uri this afternoon, at once
stunning and inflaming a Valley already in uproar
over the alleged economic blockade imposed by
protesters in Jammu.
Today's events have spiralled swiftly out of hand
and left the government besieged on more fronts
than it had anticipated. The dramatic escalation
in the Valley may indeed have radically
transformed the nature of the crisis - a
provincial problem has overnight reincarnated
into an emergency with international
ramifications.
There's an angry - and growing - mass of
Kashmiris bent on marching across the Line of
Control into Pakistan-held Kashmir. Within the
Valley itself, Aziz's killing is bound to provoke
fresh and violent reaction.
To make matters worse, Pakistani forces have
resumed firing across the LoC on Indian Army
pickets in the Poonch-Rajouri sector.
"This is no longer a political crisis in the
state," said a senior official based in Srinagar.
"This is now a fullblown national crisis that
could require extraordinary measures."
Indefinite Valley-wide curfew was clamped and
security forces were put on optimum alert this
evening in anticipation of trouble, but tempers
in Kashmir are known to make short work of such
restrictions.
Sheikh Aziz's funeral tomorrow - slated in the
hotbed of militancy near the Jama Masjid in
downtown Srinagar - could prove a fresh
flashpoint. An irate Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Omer
Farooq tonight warned the government against
keeping the Valley clamped under curfew tomorrow,
saying the people of Kashmir would give "a
fitting funeral" to the slain Sheikh Aziz.
"We want to ask the government who is responsible
for the death of Sheikh Aziz and four other
innocent Kashmiris and only then shall we
disclose out future course," the Mirwaiz added.
"The atmosphere has suddenly become darkly
surcharged," said an old Srinagar resident. "This
could be worse than 1990 because the Valley is
intent on pushing into Pakistan (occupied
Kashmir) and nobody seems in control. Sheikh
Aziz's killing will give greater momentum to a
movement that has erupted out of nowhere."
The rapid and dramatic deterioration of the
security scenario in the Valley has verily
hijacked the focus from the Amarnath movement and
produced a flaming exigency that may well demand
immediate intervention from New Delhi.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called an
all-party meeting in the capital on Wednesday to
find ways of undoing the Amarnath tangle; the
Valley's lightning descent into chaos today could
make that agenda redundant. Especially with
Mehbooba Mufti's People's Democratic Party intent
on exhorting an inflamed Valley mob across the
LoC.
The 54-year-old Aziz was a member of the moderate
Hurriyat faction led by the Mirwaiz, but began
his career in the early 1990s as a militant. He
was the first supreme commander of an outfit
called Al Jihad but later came overground to join
the People's League and espoused secessionist
objective.
Frequently jailed, the Pampore-based leader had
been released in January this year and was an
active spokesperson of the Hurriyat.
o o o
MUZAFFARABAD MARCHERS FIRED UPON, 5 KILLED
by Shujaat Bukhari
Rally to break "economic blockade" of Kashmir Valley
http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/12/stories/2008081256610100.htm
o o o
HOPES FOR COMPROMISE FADING
by Praveen Swami
http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/12/stories/2008081259551000.htm
o o o
People's Democracy
August 10 , 2008
Editorial
J&K: DOUSE THE INCENDIARY FLAMES
HEARING the prime minister report to the
all-party meeting that he convened on the very
grave and serious situation in the state of Jammu
& Kashmir, it was clear that such an initiative
should have been taken earlier. All the parties
represented in the parliament were present at
this meeting. The unanimous resolution adopted
is being reproduced alongside.
The agitation spearheaded by the Amarnath Yatra
Sangharsh Samiti entered its 38th day as we go to
press. Through these columns in the past, we had
stated our position on the land dispute which is
central to this agitation. The situation has
worsened to the extent that there is a virtual
economic blockade of the Kashmir valley with the
traffic on the national highway being disrupted.
This highway is the lifeline of the Kashmir
valley providing it all the essential goods and
medicines. Likewise the produce of Kashmir like
apples and other perishable products is not being
able to reach the plains. This has adversely
affected the livelihood of the Kashmiri people.
The agitation has already seen a high degree of
violence.
The dispute centres round a widely circulated
belief that land allocated to the Amarnath Shrine
Board was withdrawn under pressure from the
people of the valley. The facts, however, are
completely to the contrary. Ownership of forest
land cannot be transferred under law. However,
the government can permit a change in the land
use. Earlier, the state government had
allocated some land to the Board to provide
facilities to the yatra pilgrims. Since this had
become a controversy, the new governor of the
state withdrew his predecessor's decision with an
assurance from the state government that it would
undertake the responsibility of providing all the
required facilities for the pilgrims. These are,
indeed, being provided now by the Jammu & Kashmir
government and the yatra continues to proceed
smoothly today. In fact, in 2005, a similar
situation occurred when the government allocated
land for the Board, whose ex-officio chairman is
the governor, which was rescinded with the state
government undertaking the responsibility for
providing all facilities. At that time, the
issue never became a controversy. The fact that
it has led to a raging agitation today clearly
points to the fact that this has been mounted
keeping in view the forthcoming elections to the
state assembly in October 2008 and the general
elections early 2009. Communal passions are
being sharply aroused with rumours spreading like
wildfire about the Hindus not being allowed to
undertake the yatra etc. Likewise, extremist
elements in the valley are also whipping up
passions.
Such a conflagration with a very dangerous
potential that undermines the unity and integrity
of India is being created in order to reap
electoral and political benefits. This has
serious implications threatening the very
security of our country in this border state and
creating a fertile ground for cross-border
terrorism to raise its ugly head. The fact that
the RSS/BJP has given a call for a three-day
all-India bandh on this issue is indicative of
its desire to utilise this issue to whip up
communal passions further in order to try and
consolidate its `Hindu vote bank'.
In the interests of our country's unity and
integrity, in the interests of our country's
communal and social harmony and in the interests
of safeguarding and strengthening the secular
democratic character of the modern Indian
republic, it is imperative that the incendiary
flames of this communally-charged movement must
be doused urgently. As the all-party meeting
suggested, with the active participation of the
BJP leadership, the UPA government must
immediately initiate a process of dialogue with
the Sangharsh Samiti which must be accompanied by
the suspension of the agitation till a solution
is arrived at.
o o o
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Srinagar, Sunday 10th August 2008
Today, on the initiative of Jammu Kashmir
Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), a wide
spectrum of civil society actors participated in
an urgent meeting to discuss the Present Crisis
and the Role of Civil Society. The meeting
besides the members of JKCCS was attended by the
members of Chamber of Commerce and Industries
Kashmir (CCIK), Kashmir Hotel and Restaurant
Owners Federation (KHAROF), Trade Union Centre,
Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti, Dr. Altaf
Hussain, Dr. Mubarik Ahmed, Zareef Ahmed Zareef
(Valley Citizens Council), Prof. A.G. Madhosh
(Educationist), Shujaat Bukhari (Senior
Journalist), Riaz Masroor (Executive Editor -
Rising Kashmir), Noor Ahmed Baba (Faculty of
Political Science, University of Kashmir), Dr.
Shaikh Showkat Hussain (Faculty of Law,
University of Kashmir), Arjimand Hussain Talib
(Columnist), Qazi Mohammad Amin (Retired IAS
Officer), Kumar Ji Wanchoo (Social Activist),
Anwar Ashai (Businessman), Dr. Abdul Ahad
(Retired Commissioner Secretary), Noorul Hassan
(Retired Chief Conservator Forests), Dr. Rafi
Punjabi (Social Activist) and students from
Kashmir University. After deliberations the
participants agreed to adopt the following
resolution.
RESOLUTION
We, the members of civil society, view the
current situation obtaining in the Indian
occupied state of Jammu & Kashmir with grave
concern. We, unequivocally, condemn the riots
against the Muslims of Jammu province being
engineered by the fanatical and extremist
elements. We view with horror the threat to the
lives, honor and property of Muslims of Jammu
province. We condemn the Gujarat type
administration of Jammu unreservedly. We express
our total solidarity with the Muslims of Jammu
and assure them that all the Kashmiris share
their pain and anguish in this grave hour.
This meeting also condemns the economic blockade
of the Kashmir valley, Doda, Poonch and Rajouri,
resorted to by the Hindu extremist organizations
and supported by Congress and other Jammu based
political and non political formations. This
meeting wonders as how the blockaders would
succeed without the active connivance of the
Indian State with the presence of 7 lakh
(700,000) occupational forces in the state of
Jammu & Kashmir, one wonders how Jammu-Srinagar
highway can be blocked by a few hundred
miscreants without the encouragement of the
occupational forces. The economic blockade of the
valley, Doda, Poonch and Rajouri has created an
unprecedented situation whereby there is acute
shortage of essential goods, particularly life
saving drugs. Our fruit and other exports are
blocked, resulting in enormous losses of our
economy.
We acknowledge with deep satisfaction, indeed
pride, the economic assistance rendered by
ordinary Muslims of Kashmir to the Yatris going
to Amarnath Cave.
We also place on record the age-old harmony,
tolerance and brotherhood shown by the Muslims of
Kashmir in spite of grave provocations emanating
from the communalist organizations and parties of
India.
This meeting reiterates to resolve of all
Kashmiris to continue to be hospitable to yatris
in consonance with our centuries old traditions.
However, the participants agreed that the number
of visitors to the Cave be regulated as guided by
the relevant International environmental laws,
and the carrying capacity of this region.
The meeting strongly condemns the attack on the
office of the Greater Kashmir in Jammu by the
hooligans and the seizure of the newspapers of
the Daily Etalaat by State agencies.
This meeting invites the urgent attention of
International community to the grave human rights
situation in Jammu & Kashmir whereby lives, honor
and property of Muslims are in serious jeopardy.
The International community should take urgent
and serious notice of consequence of economic
blockade of the Muslim regions of the Jammu and
Kashmir State. We urge the United Nations, the UN
Environment Programme, Green Peace, European
Union, Common Wealth and SAARC countries to
intervene in the matter and allow historical and
natural routes for people and goods to flow to
and fro from Jammu & Kashmir. This needs to be
addressed urgently if a great humanitarian and
environmental tragedy is to be averted. The
international humanitarian agencies also need to
focus their attention on Kashmir and ensure
adequate supply of drugs, particularly life
saving drugs to Kashmir. We demand the government
to allow international organizations be to
respond to the need of the medical supplies
particularly the drugs needed for diabetes,
anti-depressants, cardiac drugs and life saving
drugs for cancer patients.
The participants resolved to send a fact-finding
mission to riot affected Jammu province to record
the truth and disseminate it. Another
fact-finding mission should go to Baltal and
study the legal and environmental issues
concerning the land issue.
The participants unanimously supported the call
for Muzaffarabad March of 11th August.
______
[4]
Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 32, Dated August 16, 2008
THE SIMI FICTIONS
THE THIN RED LINE
by Tarun J Tejpal
Editor-in-Chief
I WAS AMONG several who saw him die. His name was
Surjit Singh Penta, and the year was 1988. A
smartly calibrated siege of the Golden Temple had
just ended in the surrender of all the militants
holed up inside the Harmandir Sahib, the Temple's
sanctum sanctorum. As they filed out and squatted
in the courtyard of the serai on the Temple's
periphery, a sudden commotion broke out. The
police spotters had recognised a major militant.
But before they could lay hands on him, he had
swallowed his cyanide pill, and though the police
threw him into a jeep to rush him to hospital, he
was dead. Penta's story deserves telling because
it illustrates the pathology of oppression. The
young Sikh was a national-level athlete
representing Delhi before he became a witness to
the brutal Sikh massacres of 1984. By the time he
committed suicide a few years later more than 40
killings were attributed to him.
Illustration Anand Naorem
Before he became a terrorist Penta had been
terrorised by the state - or its malign absence.
That is often the sequence: the state's excesses,
followed by those of the individual. The line
between law enforcement and high-handedness is
always very thin. In India, dangerously, it is
being smudged every day. Are Naxalites victims
before they become perpetrators? Are young
militants in the north-east and Kashmir
brutalised before they become brutal? Is the
ordinary citizen meted out insensitivity before
he becomes desensitised? What does one say about
a country where one turns to the police with
trepidation, where no one expects the men in
khaki to do the right thing?
While extreme viewpoints have a right to exist in
a free society, it goes without saying that no
one ought to have any sympathy for the positions
of bigoted groups and individuals. The kind who
base their existence on perilous ideas of divine
rights, exclusion of unbelievers, intolerance,
violence, and a preferred way of life to which
everyone else must conform. If SIMI is one such
organisation, it deserves our criticism and
scorn. If it is breaking the law and fomenting
hatred, it deserves to be rigorously investigated
and brought to justice. But what if it is a
target of widespread and growing prejudice? What
if the drive against it is misdirected and
designed to seed more terror than it aims to
suppress? And while steel may cut steel, as the
old Hindi saw goes, can prejudice ever neutralise
prejudice?
For the seven years since SIMI has been outlawed,
state agencies have been insisting that the
outfit is an anti-national organisation engaged
in conspiracies to destabilise the government
through acts of terror; and that it brazenly
preaches sedition, being closely linked with
Pakistanbased terrorist groups like the
Lashkar-e-Tyaba, Hizb-ul- Mujahideen, and the
Jaish-e-Mohammed. Alleged SIMI activists stand
accused of some of the worst terrorist crimes on
Indian soil, including bomb blasts that killed
187 people in Mumbai's local trains two years ago.
BUT A three-month long investigation by TEHELKA -
carried out all over the country - reveals that a
large majority of these cases are redolent of a
chilling and systematic witch-hunt against
innocent Muslims. Sadly, the expose shows it is
not just the policing and intelligence agencies
that are to blame - even the judicial process is
often complicit in the terrible miscarriage of
justice. Ajit Sahi's painstaking and remarkable
reportage reveals a shocking web of dubious cases
being pursued against so-called operatives of
SIMI - cases which lack evidence, cases which
flagrantly ignore standard procedures of criminal
investigation and trial, cases that callously
destroy the lives of young men and their families.
The Indian state must tread carefully. The
individual tragedies point to a wider psychosis.
For the last many years - abetted by global
trends - the state's actions and utterances seem
to be deepening a prejudice against Muslims.
Catching the mood, Bollywood's arch villains are
now mostly Islamic. India has 160 million Muslims
- more than Pakistan, more than any other country
save Indonesia. Even if 10,000 are radicalised
it's barely a tree in a forest. To create an
atmosphere that blights the entire forest is a
mistake. To foster a psychology of siege in an
entire community is a disaster. Before it seeks
further bans, the state ought to vigorously
introspect. William Faulkner wrote that
"prejudice is shown to be the most destructive
when it is internalised". TEHELKA's detailed
investigation suggests, alarmingly, that in the
shiningstruggling India of today there is a real
danger of that. *
______
[5]
ECONOMIC CRISIS & MARKET TURBULENCE
Resistance and Alternatives
by S. A. Shah [ July 2008]
Introduction:
Economic crisis is a significant feature of the
contemporary economies of the world. The term
crisis refers to a major turning point in the
evolution of economies characterized by rising
unemployment, serious threats of inflation and
recession, declining rates of profit and
intensified market rivalry. The crisis conditions
contributing to growing political instability as
well as the spread of resistance (Mertes, 2004;
Fisher & Pouniah, 2003).
This short note provides an outline of the
economic sequence of changes that periodically
generates turbulence in capitalist market
economies. The emphasis is on BOTH the triggering
tendencies as well as select causes of trends.
The most significant determinant being a decline
of the rate of profit (return on investment)
after 1965-'73 (Brenner,'96; Moseley,2000).
Sequence of Change:
1. Recovery from the Great Depression of the
1930's, specifically in the USA, was achieved by
a significant government intervention(public
works & subsidies) and the preparation for/waging
of WW II. By the second half of the 1940's the
economies of Europe lay ruined by the destruction
wrought by war. Industrial and agricultural
productive capacity was reduced to low levels.
The USA was the only major economy that had not
suffered direct war related destruction. On the
contrary productive capacity was enlarged which
enabled the US to emerge as the leading economic
power of the decade 1945-'55(Vatter,'53 &'85).
For about 12-13 years thereafter the US economy
consolidated its leading economic position.
2.Since the second half of the 1960's there has
been a growing experience of economic turbulence
in both the primary 'developed' industrial
economies and the secondary 'developing'
economies(Brenner,'06).
The specific changes in the 'developed'
capitalist economies are, in summary(Brenner,'06
& Glyn,'06) as follows:
--Conditions of prosperity and boom tend to increase income and savings;
--Rising incomes trigger growing demand -
given a potential of market expansion based
On pent-up demand during WWII; increased income & savings lead to higher
Investment;
--Market competition tends to spur a rapid
increase in the capacity to produce as well
Pressures to contain costs(labor & material
inputs); under capitalist market conditions
Incomes, salaries and wealth remain unequal;
--Over time goods & services produced tend to
run up against constraints of the limits of
Effective demand(relative slowdown of
wages). Herein lie the triggers compelling a
Search for external(overseas) markets;
--Uneven & unequal growth of the domestic
economy(leads and lags between economic
sectors/regions) tends to deepen demand stagnation - private and public;
--Credit expansion through finance
liberalization(changes in interest rates and rate
of
money circulation) are brought into play
to counter declines in effective demand;
--Stemming from the above sequence of change
in policy/regulations the stage is set for
the growth of 'asset bubbles', rise in
speculative financial activity which together
Influence and bring about financial/economic turbulence .
-- As market turbulence increases, business
rivalry & intensified competition gather
Strength with the expectation to expand/maintain market share;
-- Mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies
spread through the economy. These business
Outcomes are triggers for the increasing
concentration of production, distribution
And services;
-- Which leads to the elimination of
productive capacity - sometimes over short periods
Of weeks and at other times over extended periods of months/years;
--Militarization of the economy is a special
form of reducing civilian production
Capacity;
--Under the contemporary corporate global
market conditions there is an uneven &
Unequal impact of turbulence/instability
in different parts of the world; new areas
(countries/economies) appear as dynamic centers of 'growth';
--Peasants & workers are subjected to the
increasing pressures of displacement,
Division and degradation
3. From the second half of the 1970's through
2007 the attempts to reverse the declining rate
of profit has not been successful (Brenner,2007)
except for temporary & short periods.
4.Economic instability with greater market
turbulence contributes to a generation of the
politics of authoritarian rule in order to ensure
the domination of
capital(Raskin,'03;Phillips,'03;Barnett,'04;Palast,'06;Warner,'07).
5.The familiar resistance of mainly maintaining
labor unions is no longer sufficient to challenge
the rule of capital(economic dominance of big
corporations and the political authority of a
small minority). It becomes imperative to prepare
(in the sense of mobilizing) the critical sectors
of the 'silent majority'. Alternatives need to be
actively explored/elaborated in order to mobilize
a effective challenge to the existing status
quo(Hyman, '75 ;Fitch,'06; Silver,'03;Brody,'05).
Resistance:
The economics and politics of corporate market
globalization delivers social systems/structures
characterized by the 3-D's -
DISPLACEMENT - rural to urban and further into urban slums/ghettos
DIVISION - growing inequality of income & wealth
within economies and between countries
DEGRADATION - as social unrest & conflict; as
environmental destruction and health disorders;
as authoritarian governance; as cultural
homogenization.
Resistance to corporate globalization calls for a
mobilization of the 'silent majority' towards
neighborhoods of care & cooperation committed to
establish communities of social solidarity -
examples can be examined in the ongoing work of
VIA CAMPESINA, WORLD SOCIAL FORUM as well as
documented in the magazines COLOR LINES , the NEW
INTERNATIONALIST & the author Mike Lebowitz,'07.
In the words of the MST (Brazil): AGAINST
Barbarism, EDUCATE AGAINST Individualism,
SOLIDARITY.
Critical investigation for social change
necessitates a three level interactive process:
FIRST, structurally speaking, the core feature is
social division or class & its dynamic (Carchedi,
'87).
SECOND, movement/change in society is derived (in
the sense of correspondence) from social
relations particularly the contradictions at the
levels of structure & system (Ollmann, B. '93;
Ehrenberg, J. '99).
THIRD, enduring changes in society are
fundamentally linked (corresponding to the
balance of class forces) with the tendency of the
decline in the rate of profit - return on
investment (McMurtry, J. '78)
REFERENCES:
Thomas Barnett . THE PENTAGONS NEW MAP.'04. N.Y.,
Putnam; Robert Brenner. "The Economics of Global
Turbulence". NEW LEFT REVIEW.#229.May-June,1998;
Robert Brenner. THE ECONOMICS OF GLOBAL
TURBULENCE.2006.NY/London,Verso;Robert Brenner.
"Structure vs. Conjuncture". NEW LEFT REVIEW.#43.
Jan.-Feb.,2007; David Brody.EMBATTLED LABOR.2005.
U. Of Illinois Press; Guglielmo Carchedi. CLASS
ANALYSIS & SOCIAL RESEARCH. 1987. London,
Blackwell's. John Ehrenberg. CIVIL SOCIETY. 1999.
N.Y., New York University Press;
William Fisher & T.Pouniah (Eds.) ANOTHER WORLD
IS POSSIBLE. 2003. N.Y.,Zed Press; Robert Fitch.
SOLIDARITY FOR SALE.2006. N.Y. Public Affairs;
Andrew Glyn. CAPITALISM UNLEASHED.2006.
N.Y./London, Oxford U. Press ; Richard Hyman.
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS.1975.
London,Macmillan;Michael Lebowitz. BUILD IT NOW.
2007. N.Y., Monthly Review Press; John McMurtry.
THE STRUCTURE OF MARX'S WORLD VIEW. 1978.
Princeton(N.J.), Princeton University Press; Fred
Moseley. "Reply to Brenner". HISTORICAL
MATERIALISM. 2000.; Bertill Ollmann. DIALECTICAL
INVESTIGATIONS. 1993. N.Y., Routledge; Greg
Palast. ARMED MADHOUSE.2006. N.Y.,Dutton; Kevin
Phillips. WEALTH & DEMOCRACY.2003. N.Y., Broadway
Books; Kevin Phillips. "Numbers Racket". HARPER'S
MAGAZINE. May 2008; Jamin Raskin. OVERRULING
DEMOCRACY. 2003. N.Y., Routledge;Beverly Silver.
FORCES OF LABOR.2003.Ithaca(N.Y.), Cornell U.
Press; Vatter, Harold G. THE US ECONOMY IN THE
1950's. 1953. N.Y., Norton; Harold G.
Vatter. THE US ECONOMY IN WW II.1985. N.Y.,
Columbia U. Press; Carolyn Warner. THE BEST
SYSTEM MONEY CAN BUY. 2007.Ithaca(NY),Cornell U.
Press.
______
[6] Announcements:
(i)
Queer Azadi March
August Kranti Maidan
to
Girgaum
Chowpatty
16th August 2008
Who is 'queer'?Queer was originally used as a
put-down, but the word was reclaimed as a
positive marker of identity by those of us whom
society considered odd, strange or abnormal. We
use the word to refer to all people marginalised
by a society that is narrowly defined by
hetero-normativity and by the male-female gender
binary. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, hijra,
transgender, kothi, panthi, intersex all who
identify with words like these have gathered here
today under the umbrella of the "queer" community.
What's the slogan "queer azadi" about?This
country achieved Independence on 15th August,
1947, but its countless queer citizens are still
not free. We have no rights, and no place in a
society that refuses to accept us for who we are.
And that is why we've chosen 16th August as Queer
Azadi Diwas, so that we may be seen and heard,
and in order to bring to the notice of both our
society and our government some issues that
concern us
This event is not just for the queer
communities.Many others will be there to
encourage and support us - family members,
friends, colleagues; NGOs, women's groups, human
rights organizations, and trade unionists;
educational institutions and their students.
We invite you to join us on our march as well and
to raise your voice along with ours.
We will gather at
August Kranti Maidan 2:30 pm onwards.
Organised by:
Aanchal Trust, Astitva, Dai Welfare Society,
GayBombay, Humsaaya, Humsafar Trust,
INFOSEM, Lesbians and Bisexuals in Action, Queer
Media Collective, Rainbow Pride Connexion, Sakhi Char Chowghi, Salvation Star,
Sarathi, Symphony in Pink
LESBIANS ON THE LINE 9833278171
Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays (5pm - 8pm)
You can also reach us at:
LABIA/ Stree Sangam
P.O. Box 16613
Mumbai 400 019.
o o o
(ii)
Save the date!
Culture Cafe, Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, TISS presents
"Fat, Feminist and Free"
by Pramada Menon
DATE: 23 August 2008
TIME: 5.30 pm.
VENUE::Convention Centre, Naoroji Campus, Tata
Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
Fat, Feminist and Free
This stand up performance is based on Pramada's
encounters with many different people and some
crazy situations. Some were funny and seemed
impossible and yet they happened and some were
not so funny. This performance strings together
issues of identity, sexuality, body image and
takes a tongue in cheek look at the world we all
inhabit.
Pramada Menon
C 81 Sushant Apartments
Sushant Lok Phase I
Gurgaon 122001
Haryana
Mobile: 91 9810215148
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