The greatest of all modern myths is the nation-state. They exist to keep dissent corralled within their borders, and to provide pretexts for wars of acquisition. Meanwhile, capital operates globally. In the Indian state of Odisha, the government, in violation of its own law and guarantees, is conducting a violent confiscation of tribal land. It is doing so on behalf of a South Korean mining company which is owned in part by international capital, including Warren Buffet, owner of Wells Fargo and one of the chief beneficiaries of the economic collapse of 2008.
platoons of riot police (over 1,000 police personnel) have been
deployed to ruthlessly beat down women, children, the aged, and men
who have kept a day/night vigil and not allowed any State functionary,
police or company official to enter these villages; thus continuing a
phenomenal act of peaceful resistance to POSCO venture, sustained for
six years now under the leadership of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samithi.[1]
The government, no doubt under a good deal of pressure from the national government, has apparently not been entirely honest about it's intentions:
The communities are resisting brutal police action that is being engaged to illegally and wrongfully dispossess communities from their farming and forest lands against their will and also in violation of assurances made by the Odisha Govt before the Odisha High Court.[2]
A potential bloodbath:
Seventeen people - eight men, four women and five children - were arrested and beaten up today for opposing the illegal destruction of their betel vines in the village of Noliasahi, on the coast. The administration is now sending loudspeakers on vehicles around the area, threatening people with the use of force if they do not consent to the destruction of their farms within 24 hours. More than 2,000 people have assembled on the border of Dhinkia panchayat to defend their homes and lands and more are joining. The attack in the other villages is also expected tomorrow.
The sheer criminal, corrupt venality of this government is shown by the fact that these children, women and men were arrested even as the case filed by villagers was scheduled for hearing in the High Court today. The matter did not reach and is now posted by the 8th. It is clear that the government intends to try to use maximum force to complete the task before the 8th and present the court with a fait accompli.[3]
Here's an open letter of protest to Prime Minister Singh, not that it will do any good. Complaining to him about neoliberalism is like complaining about war to the Pentagon:
This attack on the lives and livelihoods of thousands is doubly outrageous because it has been repeatedly shown, and accepted by three different official committees, that the takeover of this land is illegal and in violation of the Forest Rights Act. The Environment Ministry has violated the law and its own orders and stated as much when giving the clearance. We note that in February of this year the National Advisory Council had specifically asked you to ensure that the practice of handing over forest land to companies in gross violation of this "landmark law", as you yourself described it, should be halted and action taken against the officials responsible. [4]
The world is their plantation. Us? Sometimes we are the slaves, and sometimes the cotton.
[1] http://www.countercurrents.org/posco080611A.htm
[2] http://napm-india.org/node/373
[3] http://www.sacw.net/article2132.html
[4] http://www.countercurrents.org/posco080611.htm
* Warrren Buffet
