[Reader-list] INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY, MARCH 8, 2012, UPHOLD THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN STRUGGLE

[asit das]

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY, MARCH 8, 2012, UPHOLD THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN
STRUGGLE
by Uma V Chandru <http://www.facebook.com/uma.v.chandru> on Wednesday,
March 7, 2012 at 11:23pm ·

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY, MARCH 8, 2012

UPHOLD THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN STRUGGLE



Let us on this historic day reaffirm our commitment to:

   - Resist the increasing assault on people’s land, other resources,
   livelihoods and lives
   - Fight the increasing sexual assault in society at large, especially on
   women in mass struggles
   - Rescue March 8 from the cacophony created by media, corporates and
   government to fearlessly forge ahead in the struggle for the liberation of
   all women

On this day, in 1857, women workers in the textile and garment industries
in New York went on strike to protest against unfair wages, 12 hr working
days, sexual harassment in the workplace and other inhuman working
conditions. One of the first recorded strikes by women workers, they were
fired upon by police and brutally repressed. Women’s participation in
struggles increased subsequently across the world. So has the repression of
the Indian state like many other countries, especially in the era of
neo-liberal reforms. The crushing of dissent is making more women step
forward in India. Whether to protect forests or rivers, a dwelling place or
land, the future of children or safety of the elderly, source of livelihood
or the right to dignity, women across the country are in the forefront of
these struggles in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tamil
Nadu, Maharashtra  and other states.


While the relentless assault by national and international capital  is
forcibly dispossessing, displacing, starving and killing many, sexual
violence is being used systematically by the State as a repressive measure
through its armed forces, paramilitary and police. Women and girls are
increasingly subjected to sexual violence, whether it is in a police
station or on the way to one, and especially when they attempt to place
their demands before authorities. A growing number of incidents reveal that
the state is actively abetting the violence against women and facilitating
the plunder of resources. Law makers are manipulating existing laws and
enacting new ones that favor the corporations, big banks and other elite.
New draconian laws and archaic ones like the Sedition Act are being used to
silence dissent. Negotiation with elected representatives has become a
farce as the forces of capital have taken control of the state, judiciary
and the media. Police are often perpetrators of violence or abet as mute
spectators or by failing to file FIRs. Instead of protecting people's
rights, with few exceptions, the judiciary like other custodians of law is
crushing the hopes of ordinary people.


The following two incidences highlight the type of corporate and/or state
sponsored/abetted violence on people, especially women who are at the
forefront of struggles. On January 25, 2012 when the entire nation was
gearing up for Republic day celebrations, 4000 men and women were
peacefully marching to the Jindal Steel Plant in Angul to demand a more
just compensation for the land forcibly grabbed from them and also the jobs
promised to them by the company and Odisha Government. Security guards and
hired goons brutally attacked them with iron rods and left many profusely
bleeding. Women's clothes were torn and there were reports of iron rods
inserted into the private parts of some. When an FIR was lodged at the
local police station, except for a token arrest of the security officer,
none of the senior executives of the company culpable for the violence were
arrested.


On January 31, 2012 fifteen women and two representatives of the non
violent People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy, which has been opposing
the Koodankulam Nuclear Power plant since the late 1980s, went to meet with
the GOI's expert panel. They were attacked by Hindu Munnani and Congress
thugs in the presence of local Congress leaders and police in the
Collectorate’s Office in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. During this attack, four
women formed a human shield around the male representatives of PMANE. These
badly injured women were from the fishing community, which has been at the
forefront of the non-violent campaign along with Dalit workers, farmers,
shopkeepers and women engaged in beedi rolling. They were kicked on the
stomach, hit with helmets, hair was pulled and blouses torn. One woman had
a fracture, another had her neck disc dislocated, while the Collector
remained in his office and the police were mute spectators. Corporate as
well as Central and State Government sponsored/abetted  violence on
democratic and peaceful mass movements in collusion with other local
political parties, including Hindutva extremists are on the rise in our
country.


The extreme violence of communalism and casteism is affecting women from
various communities as majority fascism continues to spread its tentacles
to several states in India in the neoliberal era. Two recent cases of
extreme violence against women in intercaste marriage, where the victims
and their family members struggled to file FIRs, reveal state support for
the rising casteist patriarchy. Despite media attention, justice has been
delayed in the public lynching of a Dalit boy and Gowda girl, which
culminated in an “honor” killing of the Gowda girl in Mandya District,
Karnataka where the  girl’s father and other perpetrators wield political
power. Action on those responsible for the beating, public stripping and
parading of a 45 year old mother of a  Dalit boy by the upper caste girl’s
family in the CM’s district (Satara) in Maharashtra has also been delayed
due to political clout of the upper castes. Dalit women in particular
woman, face the brunt of violence of casteist patriarchy in other states as
well.



This year marks the tenth anniversary of the anti-muslim progrom in
Gujarat. The fascist CM responsible for the pogrom, where thousands of
muslims were massacred and even pregnant women were raped, their feotuses
slaughtered and burnt, remains firmly in power and is even projected by
corporate CEOs, NRIs and others as the next PM of India. Several brave
muslim women and men continue to struggle for justice for the victims who
perished and the survivors in this repressive state.

Custodial torture has also reached unprecedented heights as in the case of
Soni Sori, an Adivasi school teacher from Dantewada, Chhattisgarh who was
arrested on October 3, 2011 after police registered a false case. Medical
evidence submitted at the request of  the Supreme Court shows that she was
subjected to electric shocks and had stones pushed into her vagina and
rectum while in custody. This was under the supervision of the SP who was
awarded the President's Gallantry award on Republic day in 2012 for leading
an encounter attack on Maoists. By conferring this award, the state ignored
the concerns of the families of the innocent villagers killed in that
encounter and endorsed the custodial torture and sexual assault on an
Adivasi woman. Denied bail, Soni Sori refuses to be silenced and struggles
for justice, while she remains in pain in the custody of her torturers,
without access to a doctor. Her poignant letters from jail reveal the
injustice and violence faced by women prisoners in this country.


Our hopes lie in the refusal of people, especially women to be silenced and
their continued struggle for justice as we pursue our struggles against
casteist patriarchy, communalism, state repression and capitalism. We must
continue to expose other incidences, while building our strength and unity
through active solidarity, although the path for women's liberation has
become more uphill.



Let us reaffirm today our determination to:

   - RESIST STATE REPRESSION OF VOICES OF DISSENT AND PEOPLES' MOVEMENTS!
   - SPEAK UP AGAINST SEXUAL VIOLENCE ON WOMEN PRISONERS!
   - FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO DISSENT IN CORPORATE INDIA!
   - VANQUISH CASTEIST PATRIARCHY, COMMUNALISM AND CAPITALISM!

Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) is a non-funded
effort started in November 2009, to put an end to the violence perpetrated
upon our bodies and societies. We are a nationwide network of women from
diverse political and social movements comprising of women’s organizations,
mass organizations, civil liberty organizations, student and youth
organizations, mass movements and individuals. We unequivocally condemn
state repression and sexual violence on women by any perpetrator (s).



Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression

Email ID: <againstsexualviolence></againstsexualviolence>