May Day, Spring 2024
40,000 protesters at Indian car factory
SINGUR, India (AFP) - About 40,000 protesters on Sunday surrounded the Indian factory slated to produce the world's cheapest car, alleging land for the site was forcibly taken from local farmers, police said.
Demonstrators blocked main roads near the plant at Singur, 35 kilometres (20 miles) northwest of the state capital Kolkata, as riot police protected the factory premises, authorities said.
"Security has been tightened in and around Tata's small car project. More than 4,000 policemen have been deployed," Raj Kanojia, a senior police official of West Bengal state, told AFP.
The gates of the factory, which is still under construction, have been fenced off, Kanojia said, as an October deadline for the first 2,500-dollar Nano car to roll off the assembly line appeared under severe threat.
Kanojia put the number of protesters at 40,000, though activists said they expected as many as 200,000 to join the action in the coming days.
West Bengal opposition chief Mamata Banerjee, who called the protest, demanded that the land -- much of which has not been built on -- be returned to farmers.
"Our party will fight to the finish to get the land back," Banerjee said to thunderous applause on Sunday.
Our agitation will remain peaceful unless we are provoked.
On Friday, Ratan Tata, whose Tata Motors is India's top vehicle-maker, warned he would move the plant out of the state if the demonstrations kept up, although his company has already invested 350 million dollars in the project.
But activists at Singur say they will only call off protests if the government hands back 400 acres (160 hectares) forcibly taken from farmers, who have not accepted any compensation.
"The government acquired 997 acres of land for the project. The project needs about 600 acres," said Partha Chatterjee, a senior opposition politician.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, whose communist-controlled government brought the plant to the state, said the protests would fail.
"The project will be a reality," said Bhattacharjee late Saturday. "Nobody can obstruct it.
It is totally impractical to give back the land as demanded. Returning the 400 acres means scrapping the entire project.
Tensions were high across West Bengal, which has been at the forefront of recent battles over land rights in India.
The struggles have pitted the interests of farmers who say they will starve without their land against those of business and India's government, which say the country needs to industrialise rapidly.
For more than two years the Tata factory site has seen protests by activists and villagers who say many poor farmers were forced to part with their land.
Elsewhere in the state, at Nandigram village, where the state government acquired land for a petrochemical hub, police in March 2007 shot dead 14 farmers opposing the move.
Start here...
- Navigating the Basics
- Platform
- For Communism
- Introduction to Our History
- CWO Social Media
- IWG Social Media
- Klasbatalo Social Media
- Italian Communist Left
- Russian Communist Left
The Internationalist Communist Tendency consists of (unsurprisingly!) not-for-profit organisations. We have no so-called “professional revolutionaries”, nor paid officials. Our sole funding comes from the subscriptions and donations of members and supporters. Anyone wishing to donate can now do so safely using the Paypal buttons below.
ICT publications are not copyrighted and we only ask that those who reproduce them acknowledge the original source (author and website leftcom.org). Purchasing any of the publications listed (see catalogue) can be done in two ways:
- By emailing us at uk@leftcom.org, us@leftcom.org or ca@leftcom.org and asking for our banking details
- By donating the cost of the publications required via Paypal using the “Donate” buttons
The CWO also offers subscriptions to Revolutionary Perspectives (3 issues) and Aurora (at least 4 issues):
- UK £15 (€18)
- Europe £20 (€24)
- World £25 (€30, $30)
Take out a supporter’s sub by adding £10 (€12) to each sum. This will give you priority mailings of Aurora and other free pamphlets as they are produced.
ICT sections
Adverts
NYC Public Meeting
THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE CLASS STRUGGLE
PUBLIC MEETING AND DISCUSSION
Discussion on women's liberation and the modern role women have played in the class struggle. Open to all!
When: Sunday, May 19th at 3:30 PM.
Where: 876 Riverside Dr. & 160th St. New York, NY.
Link to register: withfriends.co
Internationalist Workers' Group
Recent publications
May 2024
Aurora is the broadsheet of the ICT for the interventions amongst the working class. It is published and distributed in several countries and languages. So far it has been distributed in UK, France, Italy, Canada, USA, Colombia.
March 2024
Mutiny is the bulletin of Klasbatalo. Mutinerie est le bulletin de Klasbatalo.
Out now!
Journal of the Communist Workers’ Organisation -- Why not subscribe to get the articles whilst they are still current and help the struggle for a society free from exploitation, war and misery? Joint subscriptions to Revolutionary Perspectives (3 issues) and Aurora (our agitational bulletin - 4 issues) are £15 in the UK, €24 in Europe and $30 in the rest of the World.
Written by Jock Dominie. £12, 276pp.
The Russian Revolution remains a landmark event in history. For the bourgeois historians, the October Revolution is thought to be a tragedy that set back the achievements of the “democratic” February Revolution, and allowed the Bolsheviks to wreak havoc on their citizens and the world. For the Stalinists, the events of 1917 paved the way for the birth of the USSR, which they point to as a prototypical example of “socialism in one country”. In reality, the February and October Revolutions were both part of the same proletarian revolution.
The book can be ordered by emailing us at uk@leftcom.org and asking for our banking details, or by donating the cost of the publications required via Paypal using the “Donate” button. Postage charges should be added. If in the UK, and paying direct to our bank account, first class postage is free. If via Paypal add £2. For Europe cost of a copy with postage is €20 (EUR), for Australia it is $42 (AUD) and for the USA and anywhere else in the world it is $27 (USD).
User login
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.