A gigantic landslide in the Himalayas has created a potentially disastrous flood situation in the upper reaches of the Sutlej.

Now thatched roofing is being replaced with asbestos in haste, following the fire tragedy in a school in Kumbakonan, 350 km from Chennai. The replacement found for a thatched roof in the state is one with asbestos sheets, which is a cancer causing material, and it is going to have disastrous consequences for health.

Silent Valley National Park
Twenty years of constant efforts towards conservation of the Silent Valley National Park and its buffer areas by the Government of Kerala and the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Silent Valley HEP has been revived in the form of proposed Pathrakadavu HEP...

Three days ago the Narmada Bachao Andolan began an occupation of the back entrance to the State Building of Maharashtra in Mumbai, India. Their demands are over 20 years old and include an end to big dam construction on the Narmada River and satisfactory compensation, rehabilitation, and resettlement of Adivasis (tribal peoples) who have been displaced by flooding of their villages.

The current protest is in response to the recent Narmada Control Authority decision to allow the construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam to continue to a height of 110 meters. At least 12,000 families in Madhya Pradesh will face submergence and displacement without any resettlement, while at least 3000 tribal families in Maharashtra are in their villages and 2000 oustees are yet to be declared as oustees and resettled.

Since the beginning of big dam construction after Independence, around 55 million people have been flooded out of their villages. Most of these people have never received any substantive or just compensation or resettlement assistance from the Indian government.

Read:The Greater Common Good by Arundhati Roy
Watch:Video of Narmada Submergence

[Background | Take Action]

The week of meetings, speeches, protests, cultural events is underway in Mumbai. The WSF has addressed thousand of issues including child labor, indigenous struggles, homelessness, the G-20, art and resistance video, queers and sex workers, the coca cola boycott, songs and more songs of resistance, linking rivers, South Korean migrant workers, the dalits [es] (untouchables), testimonials about the dowry system, and a poetry book released for the forum. Artisans held workshops on candle making. There have even been calls for uniting WSF and MR. A critical issue has been the Iraq War and the presence of US military bases around the world.

A major theme by many activists is how to defeat Bush in 2004 and a broader call for a boycott campaign against US corporations which benifit from the occupation of Iraq.

To wrap up the week Mumbai Resistance will hold a protest and the WSF will be holding a less militant rally.

Photos from the WSF:
•   Slums of Mumbai
•   Stands and exhibits
•   Posters of the WSF
•   Posters of the WSF
•   Anti-War Posters of the WSF
•   Women's Issues Posters of the WSF
•   Photos of cultural Resistance
•   Mumbai Resistance 2004
•   More Mumbai Resistance 2004
•   Art and Resistance
•   Queer and Sex Workers March
•   Opening Day
•   People of the World Social Forum
•   Amnesty International
•   Anti-WSF cartoons

India Indymedia has been recording audio from some of the WSF events. Here is a compilation of what has been uploaded so far:

• 1 hour 28 min from Defeating Bush 2004
• WSF 2004 audio reports on US bases
• Songs from the WSF
• Testimonials about the dowry system
• Songs of Dalit Resistance
• Seminar on Indigenous People and their Land Rights

The World Social Forum began in Mumbai with extremely jubilant demonstrations of resistance. Around 100,000 poured into the WSF grounds singing and dancing throughout the day. Watch Video (mpeg 4)

In the evening the opening plenary featuring speakers such as Arundhati Roy (India), Shabana Azmi (India), Shirin Ebadi (Iran) and Mustafa Barghouti (Palestine) spoke to a massive crowd. [Photos | Video from One world TV.

Read a report of the First Day, art & resistance, and look at anti-war cartoons, photos, photos, and more photos.

Across the road from the WSF is Mumbai Resistance, organized by the Maoist sect of the Communist Party of India, which claims to take a more proactive step in comparison to the WSF. Arguments for and against the two forums can be found on the newswire. Organizer have called for unity between the two forums.

Anti-WSF Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Listen to a live radio stream produced by AMARC and you can find more articles about the WSF at ciranda.net

The 4th World Social Forum is set to begin January 16 at the NESCO Grounds, Goregaon, Mumbai. This World Social Forum, the first to take place outisde of Porto Alegre, Brazil, will feature over 1,000 events including workshops, lectures, and panel discussions. Organizers are expecting nearly 100,000 participants from around the world.

Preparations for the World Social Forum are moving along, including a media centre for journalists, and an extensive translations project.

Babels, an international network of over 4,000 translators, is collaborating with French and Tunisian activists to form Nomad, which has created the translation system. All events in the 5 main halls will be simultaneously translated into six languages and digitally archived. Audio archives of World Social Forum Coverage will be available at this website.

There is a one minute introduction video to the World Social Forum in India online.

There will also be an Indymedia presence at both the WSF Conference Center and the International Youth Camp.

Hundreds of thousands of protestors staged demonstrations across India as part of a worldwide protest against the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which held a summit in Cancun, Mexico, from 10-14 September. The summit saw a head on clash between the governments of rich and poor countries, while outside demonstrators clashed with police.

In Karnataka, 35,000 farmers protested in Bangalore on 10 September demanding that India quit the WTO if there was no deal on fair trade. They brought attention to the increasing number of suicides by farmers due to rising poverty caused by indebtedness. At least 200 farmers have committed suicide in Karnataka so far this year due to spiralling costs largely associated with the withdrawal of agricultural extension subsidies, as part of the neo-liberal agenda dictated by the IMF. The bitter irony was that on the same day as the Bangalore protest, South Korean farmer Lee Kyang-hae apparently committed suicide during a protest outside the WTO summit venue in Cancun. The next day, farmers attacked the former Bangalore offices of multi-national seed giant Monsanto over the issue of genetically modified crops. Similar anti-WTO protests were staged across the nation, including West Bengal, where hundreds of thousands of workers marched through the streets of Kolkata.

The BJP-led government claimed it was responding to the concerns of Indian farmers by leading the resistance to Western liberalisation demands at the summit. But many were sceptical, highlighting the fact that the government had broken its promises at the WTO’s Doha summit. Moreover, the liberalisation policies pursued by successive Congress and BJP governments have been harmed the poor. It seems the Indian government was simply grand-standing at Cancun, to appeal to nationalist capitalist interests represented by Swadeshi Jagran Manch.

Ultimately, the WTO was unable to agree on the Singapore issues of investment, competition, trade and government procurement. Developing countries resisted Western governments' demands for the effective formalisation of corporate imperialism, which would give multi-national corporations the legal power to dictate the policy agenda in the developing world. Consequently, the talks collapsed. The draft declaration backed by the European Union and the US, would require India to eventually make substantial reductions in import duties on agricultural products, but failed to commit Western states to reduce their controversial hefty subsidies for their own farmers. The Indian government resisted the proposals, although the ruling BJP’s economic model is virtually indistinguishable from the neo-liberal agenda of the West; it is a war on the poor, who are dying as a direct result of free market fundamentalism.

But while many celebrated the collapse of the talks, the poor continue to suffer rising deprivation as public services are sold to the government’s greedy business backers and world trade remains skewed towards rich Western interests. The poor remain marginalised and humiliated, having to resort to suicide to get their voices heard; summit politics always ignore the voice of the powerless. Only globalised resistance can overcome the inequities of capitalism.

Background reports
Indymedia Cancun
Oneworld.net Cancun summit coverage
Indymedia video reports from Cancun
Hedging by the WTO
WTO interactive guide

Continuing conflicts in the subcontinent have led to increased defence budgets at the expense of social sector spending. A very substantial part of world's labouring poor reside in South Asia, yet the region remains one of the most militarized areas of the world. While global military expenditure is declining, the trend in South Asia seems the opposite. Defence spending as a percentage of combined expenditure on health and education, for example, is around 65 per cent in India and 125 per cent in Pakistan.
India's military industrial complex is to spend an estimated $100 billion on defence in the coming decade. One hundred billion dollars (4,800 billion Indian rupees)! How many children could be fed in that amount, how many sick people given relief, how many schools built? At whose expense will all this spending on armaments be? The poor and the subaltern of India. And who will be major beneficiaries of all the arms purchases? They tell us its all for our security.
Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka have been and are continuing to pay the heavy costs of fighting their wars and insurgencies.
Trade union representatives and labour activists from all over South Asia met in Karachi on 1-2 September, 2003 and adopted the Karachi declaration , which firmly seeks to mobilise against our war maniacs and their defence spending lobbies in the region.
Reports on the event:

Pak., India urged to give up arms race - The Hindu

Dictators and extremists enemies of peace - The Daily Times

Pakistan, India asked to cut defence budget - Dawn

Mobilising labour in S. Asia against hatred - The Hindu

Role of workers in peace movement highlighted - Dawn

Groups and Resources:



Pakistan Institute of Labour Education & Research (PILER)
Center for Education and Communication (CEC)
India Pakistan Arms Race and Militarisation Watch