By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi: The National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) on February 2 extended support to the youth groups of India and Australia that try to draw global attention to the struggles of oppressed communities against exploitative multinational corporate conglomerates.
The youth organized Global Week of Action to #StopAdani under the banner YAStA (Youth Action to Stop Adani) that highlighted the struggles of aborigines, indigenous peoples, farmers, laborers and others vulnerable groups.
The January 27-February 2 program also drew global attention to corporate-induced crimes and climate crises.
“Recognizing the need to challenge exploitative corporates wielding enormous economic and political clout, without any accountability, youth groups from around the world have joined hands and organized a global week of action against Adani, amplifying local struggles and creating awareness among different sections of society about the need to stand in solidarity with the peoples’ movements and resist conglomerates like Adani,” says an NAPM statement.
The NAPM also points out that the ongoing historic farmers’ movement in India has highlighted the deep corporate-state nexus and how the Adanis and Ambanis in particular are at the heart of this “structural pandemic.”
“At this juncture, it becomes pertinent to emphasize many of the local struggles that have been and are being carried out across the country and the world — invisibilized by big pro-establishment media houses and ignored by the complacent sections of society,” the movement asserts.
Adani, it adds, is one of the largest multinational corporate giants that has expanded its operations exponentially especially after Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister in May 2014.
“Even as millions of working and middle class people lost jobs and the world witnessed an unprecedented livelihood and health crisis, corporates like Adani, which represent the deeper malaise plaguing our planet, became richer by over 21.5 billion dollars during the 2020 Covid lockdown,” a NAPM statement alleges.
According to the movement, what Adani earned during lockdown was the maximum revenue jump, in comparison to all other domestic corporate houses.
“For billionaires and conglomerates, the pandemic has been an opportunity to further exploit and trample upon the rights of the marginalized communities all over the world. They are further aided by the ruling political mafias and state apparatus that have pulled no stop in utilizing every means available — from legislation to brute police violence — to suppress people struggles and campaigns,” the movement says.
Adani’s ventures such as mega ports, coal mines or other carbon-intensive industries ignore the ‘collateral damage’ they cause.
Agricultural lands, sensitive ecosystems like coasts, forests and wetlands, indigenous ways of life, the dignity and rights of the working class are all deemed necessary ‘sacrifices’ in this quest for unbridled development, the movement points out.
“Development for whom and at what cost is a question that mass movements of this country have been posing for decades now, with little change in the broader capitalist paradigm that is only aggravating the global climate crisis and affecting the most vulnerable populations,” it further says.
Through ‘Pass the Mic: Unheard Voices from Adani Sites’, YAStA made it possible to hear voices that are central to the ground resistance against Adani’s excesses: people from Godda (Jharkhand), Kattupalli (Tamil Nadu), Goa, Mundra (Gujarat), Vizhinjam and Kavalappara (Kerala), from the Farmers’ Protests (Delhi), and Juru Country (Queensland, Australia), united by their struggle against corporate oppression.
They make a compelling case for mainstream mass media to start paying attention to their struggles. Other events, including a film festival and a talk on climate fiction, effectively engaged culture as a powerful tool in spreading the stories of resistance and the importance of addressing environmental/ecological destruction.