West Bengal is witnessing a growing wave of bulldozer actions against poor vendors, slum dwellers and working people since the BJP government came to power in the state. From railway stations to minority localities, eviction drives are being carried out with cruelty and vengeance, threatening the lives and livelihoods of thousands of poor families.
CPI(ML), CPI(M), AICCTU, CITU, AISA, SFI, West Bengal Slum Development Committee and other Left and democratic forces have come forward in resistance against these attacks. Across the state, people are refusing to surrender before the bulldozer raj.
On the night of June 2, hundreds of activists of Left parties and democratic organisations, along with vendors and local residents, stood through the night in a powerful act of defiance against the demolition drive. Using both the street power of the people and available legal avenues, the protesters forced the bulldozers to retreat.
CPI(ML) leader Comrade Manas Ghosh, SFI General Secretary Comrade Srijan Bhattacharyya, AICCTU State General Secretary Comrade Basudev Basu, AISA leader Ritam Manji and several CPI(ML) activists, along with comrades and activists from other organisations, remained at the protest site throughout the night until the demolition attempt was pushed back.
The protesters said that the bulldozer attack is a political assault on the poor, on livelihood, on democratic rights and on the syncretic and progressive values of Bengal. They said that the BJP of trying to impose a politics of fear, revenge and communal polarisation through bulldozer action.
On the night of May 30, Uttarpara railway station in Hooghly district too, an exemplary public resistance was organised against the eviction notice issued by Eastern Railway. Like in several other stations, the railway authorities issued a notice for the eviction of markets and slum settlements in an arbitrary and cruel manner.
CPI(ML) Liberation, AICCTU, CITU and the West Bengal Slum Development Committee immediately began organising resistance. Protest meetings were held, posters were put up, and activists carried out continuous public contact work among shopkeepers, vendors and residents, moving from shops to neighbourhoods day and night. Efforts were also made to pursue legal struggle against the eviction.
CPI(ML) and Left democratic forces have called upon people across West Bengal to unite against the BJP’s bulldozer politics of eviction, communal targeting and destruction of working people’s lives.
