The Int'l Campaign
The International Campaign Against Forced Displacement and SEZs launched in June 2008 during the Third International Assembly of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) urgently call on all people’s movements, activists and allies to protest against the arrest of Abhaya Sahoo. Sahoo is President of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (POSCO Resistance Struggle Committee), which has been leading the people’s movement against a big land grab
Introduction to 5 minute news story on the struggle in Nandigram, West Bengal, India
By Dave Pugh
(You Tube link to view/download/copy/present this story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY4Xl2MNWuI)
This five minute news report from Al-Jazeera gives some background on the anti-displacement struggle at Nandigram in the state of West Bengal. It includes interviews with some of the survivors of the March 14, 2007 massacre by police and armed cadre of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which supported the Special Industrial Zone at Nandigram.
I recently spent three weeks gathering information about the anti-displacement movement in India. As a guest of Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikas Andolan (People’s Movement against Displacement and for Development), I traveled across five states in central and eastern India visiting the sites of proposed industrial and mining projects, Special Economic Zones and real estate developments. I spoke with hundreds of villagers who are threatened with displacement and with many dedicated activists who are helping to organize the people’s resistance.
The people of Orissa have been facing worst kind of atrocities at present as the state violence is coupled with corporate violence resulting in large-scale displacement and destitution. Tens of millions of people are in the process of now being forcefully evicted from their homes and hearths. Most of these people are adivasis, dalits and other poor farmers. The people everywhere in Orissa are resisting tooth and nail the planned forcible displacement of people.
