Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Picket Indian Embassy - No to landgrab and state terror in Lalgarh, India

AntiLandGrab | 09.07.2009 23:14 | Globalisation | Repression | Social Struggles | Birmingham

Protest at the Indian embassy, Birmingham, against the state terror unleashed on the people of Lalgarh, a village in West Bengal, India, who refused complying with a government sanctioned corporate landgrab of 5000 acres of land uprooting them from their homes and depriving them of their livelihood.

Campaign Against Land Grab and Forced Displacement of People calls

PICKET

FRIDAY 10 July 2009 at 4.00 pm

INDIAN CONSULATE
1 The Spencers, 20 Augusta St, Jewellery Quater, Hockley
Birmingham, B18 6JL

---------------------------------------------------------------
STRUGGLE OF THE OPPRESSED CONTINUES:
LALGARH (INDIA) AND THE STATE TERROR

On 18 June 2009, in a massive operation, the central government of India rushed 6 companies of Border Security Force (BSF) and 4 teams of CoBra special security force to Lalgarh, in West Midnapore region of the West Bengal state of India, in a massive operation against the local tribal populations. Why? Because they protested against the state facilitated corporate land-grab for one of the notorious Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

Since the mid nineties when the Indian government launched its economic liberalization programme following “globalization”, it has seized thousands of acres of land uprooting tribals, dalits, small farmers and landless farm workers (by one estimate affecting approximately 250 million) and handed it over to the transnational corporations - Indian and foreign. The Indian state created SEZs where industries are exempted from labour and environmental laws, bestowed complete tax exemption and are constitutionally to be treated as foreign territories on Indian soil, come fully equipped with the special courts to serve purposes of the corporations.

Discontent among the largely neglected tribal population started mounting since the state government of West Bengal seized 5000 acres of land for an SEZ in Salboni, West Midnapore district which includes Lalgarh, to be handed over to Jindal Steel Works, a leading Indian multinational steel company with interests in India and outside, including Bolivia. On 2nd November last year when the Chief Minister of West Bengal and the central minister for mining were returning from the inauguration of the Jindal Steel Works in the SEZ, a landmine explosion occurred targeting the ministerial convoy.

Instead of investigating the mine blast, on 5 November 2008 the state government began a massive police operation against the people of the region - arresting them indiscriminately, torturing, raping and killing many. None of this is unusual. Tribals have mostly been ignored by the policy makers, kept safely hidden from the public discourse to be exploited or persecuted when they try to stand up against their exploitation.

What is different is that this time the people of Lalgarh said ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. They gathered at the police station where three school boys had been detained and demanded:

1. Unconditional apology from the superintendent of police for the indiscriminate arrests, torture, rape and illegal detention of the people.

2. Apology from the policemen involved in the operations.

3. Compensation for those injured and families of the dead.

4. All negotiations be held in public and not behind closed doors.

Their demands have met with support from a wide area to the point where 1000 sq. acres has been bounded off and the area is expanding. The Indian state has labelled this is an attempt to create a “liberated zone” and has lately sent a massive special security force to suppress the people.

YOU DECIDE – ARE THE DEMANDS OF THE PEOPLE OF LALGARH JUST?

In South Asia people have spoken. Some are with the state or fence-sitting - supporting the state with their silence, and others with the people of Lalgarh supporting their struggle for economic and social justice.

WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?

AntiLandGrab
- e-mail: antilandgrab@ymail.com
- Homepage: http://antilandgrab.wordpress.com

Comments

Display the following 3 comments

  1. Is this the same Lalgarh? — confused
  2. probably — censored
  3. Reportback on the picket of Indian Consulate at Birmingham — AntiLandGrab
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech