| Trade Unions Oppose WTO |
| To voice their opposition to the developed countries’ pres-sure to initiate a new round at Doha ministerial meeting and Indian government’s attitude of surrender, central trade unions jointly held demonstrations and dharnas at various centers of the country on November 9, t he day Doha meet began. In Delhi, Comrade Ranjan Ganguli, one of the national secretaries of AICCTU, addressed a j oint dharna at Jantar Mantar in which AICCTU was also a par-ticipant. In Patna, a joint pro-cession was taken out from Gandhi Maidan and later a mass meeting was held at GPO crossing. Similar programmes were held in Bhagalpur, Muzaf-farpur, Saharsa and Gaya. |
AS PART of the ongoing campaign against war, anti-war citizens’ conventions were held at Arrah, Patna, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Darbhanga, Bihar Sharief, Gaya and Phulwari Sharief on 1 to 7 and 13 November, 2001 respectively. Party General Secretary Com. Dipankar Bhattacharya addressed these conventions. Similar conventions held at Arwal and Jahanabad were addressed by Party State Secy. Com. Ramjatan Sharma.
Addressing the conventions Com. Dipankar warned of the dire consequences that will follow the destructive acts by America in the name of finishing off terrorism. The real motive behind these acts was to establish hegemony over the globe, he said. A great danger is hovering over democracy because of the open license given to the CIA to commit political murders. He pointed that it was a well-planned conspiracy to link terrorism with Islam and China. A well-conceived theory is now being constructed to search its philosophical, civilisational and cultural roots and portraying it as a threat to the Western civilisation. Com. Dipankar said that efforts to convert secular India into a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ are also being intensified and fascism is being imposed on the country by means of suppressing anti-war movements and imposing black laws like POTO.
He said that soon after the Central Govt. banned SIMI, the Laloo-Rabri govt. quickly started implementing it, but it never showed courage to impose ban on Bajrang Dal and VHP like organisation. The West Bengal Govt. declined to impose POTO, but they already have a black law in its place, the POCO.
The convention held in Patna was presided over by a veteran of JP movement, Shri Arshad Azmal and Prof. Ishwari Prasad, formerly professor in JNU. Other prominent intellectuals participating in these conventions include noted Gandhian Razi Ahmed and Arshad Anzum in Phulwari Shrief, Ekbal Zafar of Indian National League, advocate Anjani Bhushan, Arshad Javed in Bihar Sharief, SV Bhaskar, Sayyed Ahmed Qadri, advocate Sartaj Ali Khan, Shauqat Hamaz and Satyanarain Bhattacharya in Gaya.
At several places including Bhojpur, Jahanabad, Nalanda and Patna, the effigy of US President George Bush was burnt on
Dashahara day, 26 October 2001. Earlier on 22 October 2001, all the ML groups had jointly organised an anti-war march in Patna.
ON SEVENTH November, anti-war conventions were held in district centres all over Jharkhand. In these conventions, America was asked to stop war on Afghanistan and Indian government’s decision to supply fuel to American warships was also condemned. Speakers said that taking undue advantage of the war situation, the govt. was conspiring to impinge on freedom of media and democracy by promulgating POTO. The convention also condemned the government decision to allow refuelling of American warships at Chennai. The conventions were addressed by Comrades Subhendu Sen, Bhuneshwar Bedia, Devkinandan Bedia, Pacchu Rana and Guni Oraon in Hazaribagh, Comrades Mohan Dutta, Anant Prasad Gupta, Md. Israel, Jayshankar Chaudhary, Kumar Vinod, Sankeshwar Mahato and Jahangir Ali in Ranchi, Comrades Janardan Prasad and Ravinder Ram in Daltonganj, Comrades Jitendra Kumar and Kishor Kumar in Garhwa, Comrades JP Minz and Sarfaraz Alam in Latehar, and Comrades DS Diwakar, JN Singh and Meena in Bokaro. A 45-km long anti-war march was brought out from Mahuatanr to NayaMore, Bokaro, where a dharna was staged.