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, intersexŠ 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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