Underreported Struggles #60, March 2012 ~ #DGR #Activism #Solidarity


Musqueam First Nation members, supporters halt condo construction at Marpole midden site. Vancouver, March 12, 2012. Photo: Sandra Cuffe

In the month’s Underreported Struggles: Australian government passes legislation to store nuclear waste on indigenous land; Himba people of Namibia reach out to the international community for support; Musqueam First Nation halts construction of new condominium; Mexico’s Supreme Court affirms indigenous right to take part in decision making.

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Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that a Tarahumara (Raramuri) community in the state of Chihuahua has the Constitution right to participate in the decision-making of any project that would affect them. The little-noticed decision could have far-reaching effects across the country. The high court also stated that relevant national law is similar to the International Labor Organization’s Convention No. 169, which protects the rights of indigenous communities and tribal peoples. Mexico is among 22 nations that have ratified the international agreement.

The National Indian government recently gave its approval for the first of two Russian-designed nuclear reactors at Koodankulam (Kudankulam) in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The unsettling move has been met with a massive uprising involving up to 20,000 locals and protests around the country. The government’s response has been severe. According to a recent appeal thousands of armed policemen began terrorizing the local protesters. At least 500 people—some reports say as many as 3,000—have already been arrested. A media blackout is also now in effect.

Fifty years ago, in 1962, Dryden Chemicals Ltd. quietly began funneling its mercury waste into the Wabigoon River, a practice they continued until 1970. When all was said and done, the British-owned company had dumped some 10 metric tonnes of mercury into the Wabigoon, severely contaminating its fish and disrupting the economy and subsistence practices of three Indigenous communities. Fifty years later, the mercury problem continues.

Nyoongar activists are being continuously confronted by police on Heirisson Island, where a Nyoongar Tent Embassy has been established. Since the Tent Embassy began in mid-February—in opposition to a government proposal that would force the Nyoongar to permanently surrender their land title—there have been at least 6 confrontations in which police have arrested the activists, seized their property and dismantled the Embassy. The determined Nyoongar and their allies however, refuse to back down. They keep going back to the site and restoring the Embassy.

Naga Youth in Burma have formed a new group to resist the construction of the Tamanthi Dam which is located at Homlin township in Naga area, Myanmar. Once completed, the Dam reservoir would flood 1400 sq kms, permanently displacing 53 Naga villages, 15 villages inhabited by both Naga and Kuki people and 14 Kuki villages. At least 2400 people have been already relocated at gun point.

Fishermen in Palawan are being urged to follow the traditional sustainable fishing methods of the Tagbanua people. Over the years, destructive and careless fishing practices have depleted the population of Irrawaddy dolphins, bringing them to the edge of extinction. The Tagbanua, who consider dolphins to be messengers, limit themselves to catching certain fish species based on the position of the moon or the tide. They also share their catch among neighbors and relatives, avoiding wastage and overfishing.

The Chinese government introduced a new policy that places almost every Buddhist monastery in Tibet under the direct rule of government officials. The officials will be permanently stationed in each religious institution. According to official documents, the new policy is described as, “critical for taking the initiative in the struggle against separatism,” and aims to “ensure that monks and nuns do not take part in activities of splitting up the motherland and disturbing social order.”

The Australian government passed new legislation to let nuclear waste be stored at a remote indigenous community in the Northern Territory, a decision that indigenous groups and environmentalists have vowed to fight. Muckaty Station was nominated by the Northern Land Council in 2007; But since then several traditional owners have argued they were not properly consulted and did not give their consent.

In Ecuador, A group of women led protests against a Chinese-financed Canadian copper mining project, the first large-scale mine under a new government mining policy. The women say the project would damage Amazonia’s fragile ecosystem, affecting “for all time the territory of indigenous people and nature”. The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador, CONAIE, also came forward against the mine as well as President Rafael Correa’s plans to allow international companies to carry out large-scale mining projects. In response, the Ecuadorian government mounted a march of its own, on International Womens’ Day.

Dozens of Musqueam First Nationmembers and supporters joined forces to halt the construction of a new 5-storey condominium that threatened an ancient village and midden site known as c??sna??m. After successfully preventing contractors from entering the site; the demonstrators set up a blockade camp to maintain a permanent presence at the site. The camp was dismantled on March 14 to make way for a three-week period of negotiations.

Representatives of Moro and Lumad communities in Mindanao signed a five-point kinship covenant in a gathering filled with remembrances of historical relationships and aspirations for peace and unity in the island. The inspiring covenant cited mutual recognition and respect (kilalaha), mutual sharing of information (sayuda), cooperation (buliga), mutual protection and preservation of life (uyaga), and mutual obligation to help the needy (pagbatunbatuna).

Quebec police dismantled a blockade that was organized by a group of Innu citizens to protest the construction of hydro transmission lines that are being placed through their traditional territory. According to available reports, no one was injured during the court-backed offensive, which the Innu passively tried to resist. The blockade/checkpoint went up soon after Innu representatives walked away from negotiations with the Hydro company.

Indigenous Peoples throughout Sarawak are coming together for the sake of their ancestors and future generations. Under the banner of “Save Sarawak Rivers” (SAVE Rivers), affected Indigenous Peoples like the Kenyahs, Ibans, Penans, Bidayuhs and Ukits have joined with local organizations and concerned individuals to halt the construction of new hydro dams and other plans to bring ‘dirty industries’ to Sarawak.

The Indigenous Peoples Confederation of Honduras (CONPAH) released a statement calling on the government of Honduras to withdraw a REDD proposal submitted to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. The statement declares that the Honduran government failed to consult the Indigenous peoples, whose land would be used for various forestation programs, before submitting the proposal.

The Government of Israel is currently considering a new bill that would turn the controversial Prawer Plan into law, paving the way for Israel to increase its efforts to dispossess the Bedouin Peoples of their land and relocate them to impoverished townships. The Bedouin’s struggle, meanwhile, continues to be widely ignored by media outlets.

Tomkav, a Luiseno village and burial site in Northern San Diego County, is being desecrated by developers working for Pardee Homes and Palomar College in San Marcos, CA. “During the course of [work], many archeologically significant new discoveries have been made, and dozens of Luiseno burials have been unearthed”; but rather than halting work as required by state law, the construction activities have been increased. To make matters worse, the construction workers have actually been celebrating their work, laughing and giving each other high fives as Luiseno Elders and others watched on.

The Himba people, who have long seen their rights trampled upon by the Namibian government, have turned to the United Nations and the international community to intervene on their behalf. A January statement signed by all 36 Traditional Himba Leaders reveals a lengthy list of abuses concerning rights to land, cultural identity, lack of consultation relating to mining and dam construction, land grabbing, interference in ancestral tribal institutions and routine oppression. Though issued in January, the Himba’s call has received little international attention.

Videos of the Month

Can Traditional Knowledge Survive in the Modern World? - Anishinabek activist, scholar and writer Dr. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson answers the question: “Can Aboriginal Traditional Knowledge Survive in the Modern World?”

The History of ILO Conventions on Indigenous Peoples - Lee Swepston, Former Senior Human Rights Adviser at the International Labour Organization (ILO), discusses the history of the ILO’s Conventions on Indigenous Peoples.

Song on the Water - “Song on the Water” takes viewers along with 50 indigenous canoes, their crews, and communities on a modern-day voyage to a traditional potlatch.

Underreported Struggles is a monthly round-up of essential news and film compiled by Intercontinental Cry.

Published on Apr 2, 2012 at 12:54pm Some Rights Reserved

India cheers while #Monsanto burns: "take your money out now, before we reduce it to ashes" bit.ly/kL6Ags #fb #DGR #GMO #food

“We send today, a very clear message to all those who have invested in Monsanto in India and abroad; take your money out now, before we reduce it to ashes”.
Karnataka State Farmers Association, India

One of the most morally dubious Claims made in Monsanto’s recent _ newspaper advertising blitz was the assertion that the widespread use of food biotechnology is the only way to feed the world’s poor. The corporation’s argument went like this: millions of people currently go hungry in developing countries. In the future, as global population increases, this problem is set to worsen. Only high yield agriculture can possibly produce enough food to meet this increased demand. There fore, quite obviously, only “biotechnology can feed the world.”

Monsanto’s strategy was to try to por tray its genetically modified (GM) crops as the solution to the hunger and poverty problems of the Third World. The company even tried to round up a group of ‘respect ed voices’ from developing countries to endorse an advert entitled ‘Let The Harvest Begin’, which praised biotechnology as the seed of the future”, which will “feed the world in the next century.” Monsanto was playing a clever game: it was trying to portray opponents of food biotechnology as selfish and insular. What right, asked the corporation, do well fed Western environ mentalists have to deny the poor farmers of the Third World access to this wonderful new technology, which could teed their families and improve their living standards dramatically in years to come?

But this tactic is beginning to backfire spectacularly. In trying to use developing countries as pawns in its game, as it plays for dominance of the world’s food markets, it is alienating the very people it claimed to be supporting: the poor. In India, where millions of peasant farmers still live a life of small scale, subsistence agriculture, the corporation is facing nothing less than a crisis. Its trademark evasion, deception and subterfuge has enraged farmers all over the country. And if it won’t go voluntarily, they are prepared to chase it out, by any means necessary.

At 1.30 in the afternoon on 28th November 1998, in Sindhanoor, in the Indi an state of Karnataka, the leader of the Kar nataka State Farmers Association (KRRS), a movement which claims a membership of ten million, arrived at one of India’s first Monsanto test sites. The owner of the field, Basanna Hunsole, came out to greet him. With the help of Basanna’s neighbours, a number of KRRS members, other local grassroots organizations representing ‘untouchables’ and landless farmers, they proceeded to tear up every one of the genet ically modified cotton plants growing there. They stacked them in a heap in the middle of the field, and set them on fire. In minutes, Monsanto’s test crop was reduced to ashes.

This was the first strike in a grassroots campaign that is spreading rapidly across India: ‘Operation Cremate Monsanto’. Pro fessor Nanjundaswamy, a committed Gandhian and leader of the KRRS, issued a statement to the press as the field burned. “We denounce the ignorance, incompe tence and irresponsibility of the Union gov ernment to gamble with the future of Indian agriculture,” said the Professor. He went on to demand that all tests of genetically mod ified crops in India be stopped, that the country’s Patent Act be amended to stop the patenting of basic crop varieties, and that Monsanto be banned from the country. Otherwise, he said, Indian farmers would continue to take the situation into their own hands .

Since that first action, at least three more Monsanto test sites have been burned, in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and more cremations are promised. The tactic has spread from the KRRS to other grass roots organizations. In December 1998, following actions by local farmers and con cern about illegal growing of GM crops, the government of Andhra Pradesh ordered Monsanto to stop the seven trials it was operating in the state. The first shots have been fired by Indian farmers in what is increasingly looking like a war against the giant corporation.

Monsanto has been operating in India since 1949, and is a market leader in agri cultural chemicals. In recent years it has spent much time and money trying to win over Indian politicians and officials to the cause of GM crops, on which it has staked its future. It operates three Indian sub sidiaries: Monsanto India, Monsanto Enter prises and Monsanto Chemicals, and early in 1998, Monsanto quietly acquired a 26 per cent stake in the Indian seed company Mahyco.

Mahyco Monsanto is the organization through which Monsanto is attempting to push its GM crops onto the Indian people. The company is already claiming patent rights over thirty ‘new’ crop varieties including corn, rice, tomatoes and potatoes which it has genetically altered to be resistant to its own herbicides. But Mahy co Monsanto’s biggest effort in India at present is going into the testing of GM cot ton. Cotton is grown widely in India, and Monsanto hopes that its GM variety known as ‘bollgard’ cotton can corner this market. The cotton is modified to be resistant to the boll weevil, a major cotton pest.

Of course, Monsanto wouldn’t be Mon santo without a bit of subterfuge, and this is where the tale gets murkier. Monsanto apparently doesn’t trust Indian farmers to swallow its propaganda as easily as it would like. So, in order to avoid having to persuade farmers of the case for GM crops, it has tried a different tack: growing CM crops on the farmer’s land without telling him. This is what happened to Basanna Hun sole, on whose land the first cremation took place. According to the farmer, he was approached in July 1998 by officials from Mahyco Monsanto, who offered him the chance to grow free of charge a new variety of cotton, which they claimed would give him wonderful results. They omitted to tell him that the cotton was genetically modified, or that it had not been approved for testing by the government. In effect, Monsanto tricked Basanna Hunsole into unknowingly growing illegal crops on his land. Moreover, Basanna was unim pressed with what he saw. Despite Mon santo’s claims, he said that the GM ‘bollgard’ cotton grew “miserably”, and reached less than half the height of the tra ditional strains he was growing in nearby fields. Worst of al}, they were heavily infested with boll weevils.

These illegal tests on Basanna Hun sole’s land were carried out with no safe guards in place. There was no ‘buffer zone’ around the field, and none of the farmer s neighbours was notified of the potentially hazardous crops that were growing near their fields. Basanna only discovered the truth about what was growing on his land when Karnataka’s Minister of Agriculture publicly announced, in November, the locations of Monsanto’s test sites in the state.

Monsanto had obviously calculated that Indian farmers were easily fooled and too ignorant to bother informing about what was really happening on their own land. It is this corporate arrogance that has enraged farmers’ groups all over India, and seen support for ‘Operation Cremate Monsanto’ spread rapidly since its inception. After the truth about Basanna Hunsole’s field was discovered, Monsanto belatedly signed a statement in which they admitted their deception, and promised to behave them selves in the future. But when, a few weeks later, the government of Andhra Pradesh announced it was stopping all Monsanto trials in the state, it cited similar deceptions as the reasons for its decision.

So, what future for Monsanto in India? None at all, if another group of campaign ers the ‘Monsanto Quit India’ campaign has its way. ‘Monsanto Quit India’ is a coalition of NFOs opposed to GM crops, and to Monsanto’s attempts to monopolize Indian agriculture. It was launched on 9th August 1998 the anniversary of the day when Gandhi famously told the British to ‘Quit India’. Now, say the coalition, the same message is being sent to Monsanto’s headquarters in Illinois. The Monsanto Quit India campaign has already distrib uted thousands of ‘Quit India’ postcards to NGOs, community groups and farmers across the country. So far, just four months after the campaign began, over 10,000 peo ple have signed these postcards and sent them to Monsanto’s headquarters.

Resistance to Monsanto, and to their vision of a future where farmers every where will be dependent on global corporations for their livelihood, and where consumers have no choice about the food they eat, is growing fast in India. The recent decision by the Indian government to allow the mass import of American soya beans is beginning to alert the Indian pub lic to the potential hazards of GM foods. Campaigners say that, due to the lack of labeling, there is no way of telling whether or not the beans from America are geneti cally modified.

The Monsanto Quit India campaign already claims tens of thousands of sup porters, as do the various organizations and local efforts concentrating on burning Monsanto’s crops until the corporation begins to listen to those who have worked the land for generations. Perhaps in future, before Monsanto claims that its super crops are the only way to save the people in developing countries from a future of penury and hunger, they might care to ask those people themselves. In India, at least, they will find themselves increasingly unwelcome.

Italian Intelligence agency CNAIPIC steals sensitive data from Indian Embassy



Sensitive defence information appears to have been stolen from the Indian embassy here by an Italian intelligence agency during the past two years. If the documents released by Anonymous Hackers are to be believed, the Italian cyber police - National Anti-Crime Computer Centre for Critical Infrastructure Protection (CNAIPIC) - was widely hacking Indian embassy’s letters with Russian defence firms.

Leaked Data which include the letters between the Indian embassy’s Air Wing and a local company supplying spares for military aircraft. Izvestia said Italian cyber police had hacked on June 22, 2010 Deputy Air Attache D S Shekhavat’s correspondence with Aviazapchast, a company specialising in the supply of aviation spares, complaining about delays in the shipment of 15 helicopter engines.

A reply from the Aviazapchast representative in India written on the same day was also hacked by the CNAIPIC. The Italian cyber police had also accessed correspondence of the aircraft engine manufacturer NPO Saturn and Ilyushin Aircraft with the Indian embassy in Moscow and the Air Headquarters in New Delhi.

Indian embassy’s Counsellor Information Nutan Kapur Mahawar had no comments to offer on the report. The files put online reveal that besides the Indo- Russian defence cooperation the CNAIPIC widely targeted correspondence of Russian nuclear and hydrocarbon majors like ‘Atomstroieksport’ and ‘Gazprom’, Izvestia reported.

The Aviazapchast spokesman told the daily that there was no leakages from the company and the letters had been stolen from the Indians. Izvestia was inclined to believe in this as Indian embassy cellphone bills from local Beeline provider that were among the hacked documents accessed by it including the bill dated February 28, 2011, containing a printout of all telephone numbers called or SMSed by the Indian embassy staff.

Although from the report it was evident that Russian energy majors and not Indian embassy were the prime targets of the economic intelligence by the Italians, including on the construction of Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran, but in the past the Indian mission here has been the target of cyber attack.

In April 2010, the Indian Embassy here has boosted its cyber security in the wake of a report about alleged Chinese cyber espionage by infecting scores of Indian government and defence related sites by malwares to steal the confidential information.

Then the US and Canada based Information Warfare Monitor and Shadow-servers Foundation in their report ‘Shadows in the Cloud’ had traced China’s Chengdu based servers of exfiltering sensitive information from the Indian computers, including Indian missions in Moscow, London and Washington. Commenting on the report, a section of Russia media had raised concerns about sensitive and secret information about Moscow and New Delhi’s defence cooperation falling into the Chinese hands. At that time the Indian embassy here confirmed that at least two attacks were traced to Chinese servers, but denied leakage of any confidential information.

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Mass rally against inflation in Indian capital #India #Revolution

Tens of thousands of people gathered in the Indian capital on Wednesday to protest against inflation, complaining that rising prices were increasing hardship for the country’s many poor.

The mostly working-class demonstrators, many carrying Communist flags and shouting slogans against inflation and corruption, converged on the centre of New Delhi for the rally, with surrounding roads closed to traffic.

The rally was organised by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), which joined forces with other unions to pressure the government over inflation before the unveiling of a new annual budget on Monday.

“Workers from 19 states, thousands of women among them, are reaching Delhi and will march to parliament to seek their rightful share in the country’s so-called ‘robust growth story’,” said a CITU statement.

The CITU said it expected 800,000 to one million people, though this figure could not be independently verified. Police were unable to estimate the number of demonstrators.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described inflation as a “serious” threat to India’s growth, and the government has been racing to boost vegetable and other supplies to bring down soaring food prices.

The most recent data show annual food inflation at 11.05 percent, down from its highs of nearly 20 percent, while headline inflation as measured by the wholesale price index is at 8.23 percent.

Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat told AFP that nearly 2,000 policemen had been deployed in central Delhi to keep order during the demonstration.

“We have instructed the police to ensure that the crowd does not vandalise government buildings or monuments in central Delhi,” he said.

One protester, Jagdeesh Thakur, president of a secondary school teachers’ association in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, said the left-leaning government was “on the wrong path”.

“We need to control inflation. Stop unemployment and stop privatisations,” he told AFP. “The government is on the wrong path. It has forgotten the poor. It is only interested in helping the rich.”

Rishi Pal, a 52-year-old member of a farmers’ union from the northwestern state of Punjab, said: “We need the government to control prices. Poor people can’t feed their families.”

As well as surging inflation, a host of corruption scandals ranging from the Delhi Commonwealth Games last October to the sale of telecom licences has sapped the energy of Singh’s administration and led to months of bad publicity.

On Tuesday, Singh agreed to set up a cross-party investigation into the licence sales in 2008 that has led to a police investigation and the arrest of his former telecom minister, A. Raja.

Opposition parties wrecked the last session of parliament in 2010 by holding protests every day demanding an inquiry into the cut-price sales, which could have cost the country up to $40 billion in lost revenue.

The government, a coalition led by Singh’s Congress party, is expected to pass its budget for the next fiscal year on Monday next week.

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