[Naxalite Maoist India] The Legend of Bhagat Singh - Watch Online

The Legend of Bhagat Singh is a 2002 Hindi historic biographical film about Bhagat Singh, a freedom fighter who fought for Indian independence. It was directed by Rajkumar Santoshi and starred Ajay Devgan, Sushant Singh, and Ian Davies. The film was released on 7 June 2002, and went on to win two National Film Awards, including the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi, and three Filmfare Awards, including the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie. The film shows in detail how Singh came to develop his views on the British Raj and his struggle for Indian independence. The film begins with scenes depicting how the British attempted to dispose of the body of Singh, so that he could not be made into a martyr, and then flashbacks to the past to tell his story. A historical feel in the film was created by using a sepia tint throughout the entire film. Duration : 2 Hrs 36 Minutes Language : Hindi with English Subtitles Click on the CC button to view the subtitles in English. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYaMEZHYkhA Know more about Bhagat Singh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagat_Singh

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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 3/31/2012 09:23:00 PM

[Naxalite Maoist India] India Burning - Jamphel Yeshi and Bhojya Naik

There are some who protest by Suicide Bombing and others by Self Immolation. India witnessed two such acts of Self Immolation this week but the Nation remains unmoved. 

Jamphel Yeshi

Before : 

 After : 

The End

Lunavath Bhojya Naik

Before : 

After : 

Both are dead. One died for Tibet and the other for the state of Telengana.

What will this single act of sacrifice fetch you or your cause ?

Related News :

Jamphel Yeshi

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_tibetan-who-set-himself-ablaze-breathes-his-last_1668382

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/tibetan-in-delhi-sets-self-alight-to-protest-chinese-leaders-visit/

MBA Student ends his life : 

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/victims-of-telangana-suicides-had-other-reasons-to-die-police/930307/0

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/andhra-pradesh/article3220600.ece

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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 3/31/2012 01:35:00 PM

[Naxalite Maoist India] Rupay Cards - A step in the right direction.

The RBI recently rolled out the Rupay Payment gateway. This payment system has been under development by the National Payments Corporation of India (www.npci.org.in) for quite sometime now.

This is a highly commendable effort by RBI and has been achieved by overcoming many obstacles over the past few years. It is a step in the right direction to break the monopoly of VISA and Mastercard who extort billions of rupees annually from Small Indian Businesses and Consumers in the form of exorbitant payment processing charges.

While Rupay does not pose any immediate threat to the hegemony of VISA / Mastercard it will be perceived as a long term threat by these giants. The battle has only began and VISA and Mastercard are yet engage their dirty tricks department on to this.The battle will get more dirty and ugly from here.

Rupay - Payment Gateway

RBI's RuPay can knock out payments giants Visa, MasterCard

March 29, 2012 08:27 AM |
Veeresh Malik

The press and the media have ignored RuPay, which can bring about a revolution in India. But the ordinary bank customer can help spread the good word

The press and the financial and business channels have strangely consigned a great achievement of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to the inside pages and the "also ran" mentions at the end of news bulletins. It is the official launch of India's RuPay payment gateway and card which, except China, no other country, not even the European Union (EU) and Japan, has been able to start successfully.

The press and the media have not fully understood the implications of starting RuPay. Most importantly, it spells the beginning of the end for yet another dependency by India. In this case, it is freedom from the combined services offered by Visa, MasterCard and American Express, as well as the highly secretive payment processing companies like First Data Corp, Total System Services and others.

This short article does not provide the space to fully explain the extremely intricate and often hyper-secretive details of the payment processing industry. Suffice it to say that this is the next logical step to what RBI and its wholly-owned subsidiary, the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has already done to establish control of ATM switches in India.

RuPay has, obviously, not amused the competition and here is why.

The payment processing industry had its roots in an attempt, soon after the Second World War, by governments, especially the US through the Federal Reserve, to exercise a greater control over their own economies. Very quickly, this became a focused attempt to control the economies of other countries too.

 Ensuring that everybody else's payment processing industry did not survive was and is par for the course. Eurocard and JCB are just a few that fell by the wayside, were swallowed up, or were not able to really prosper.

The first signs of an attempt to bring India into the ambit of the US-backed payment processing industry came around 2000 AD, a couple of decades after the arrival of cards like Diner's Club, Gold Pass and some others. Initially these were for very limited Indian rupee payment-only kind of transactions, to dovetail with the requirements of foreigners who required their plastic to work in India. In just a decade after that, the grip of the US-backed payment processing industry, could be seen all over India.

 Very soon, large segments of the Indian population, the swelling middle class and more, simply could not do without their plastic fix. Luckily, RBI saw the signs, and was able to control the ATM business before it grew too big. Today, our ATM business is Indian controlled and is setting benchmarks globally for technology. (Counterfeit currency is a separate issue.)

 Around 2000 AD, the small tech company that I founded got involved with the US payment processing industry; at that stage it was variously explained to me how global dominance was an integral part of any aspect of the payment processing industry in the US.

 I recall interviewing a best breed urbane youngsters in India with brilliant software skills around that time, who had no clue about plastic money, let alone possess plastic from their banks. Today, they are domain experts, and even a school student uses plastic.

This is not just a question of the few million dollars in fees that the payment processing industry collects. It is all about controlling the economy, controlling the float, by-passing the taxation system, keeping track of fiscal information of all sorts, and in short, running the money in somebody else's country.

It is Economics 101 for some, mystery for others, but dangerous all the same.

In addition, control over domestic and international transactions is where the real deep danger lies. All this, and more, was explained to us when we were working for the US payment processing industry.

 Some of this was obviously shared with the domestic market. It has been a convoluted decade, moving from this level of lack of knowledge on the subject, to the pre-eminent position where India now has RuPay.

Every trick in the book, and more,  was used to prevent India from developing RuPay—outright sabotage of efforts to go to RuPay (previously IndiaCard), co-opting those who would challenge RuPay (SBI Cards is just one example); even now attempting to portray the payment processing business as something that Indians cannot handle on their own.

Next door, the Chinese were moving ahead rapidly too. With China Union Pay (CUP), they extended their sphere of influence well past their domestic borders into the Pacific, the Central Asian countries, Africa and were on hand when the switch was pulled on Iran.

That CUP has a head-start of a few years on RuPay, and why, is something on which a book can be written—and which will make some of the multi-lakh scams look like so much loose change.

 It behooves you as an Indian to find out from your bankers about RuPay—and see how you can be part of it. A rapid build-up of critical mass of users will be essential and very soon; in months probably.

An increasing number of ATMs from some banks—SBI, BoI, UBI, Axis Bank, BoB amongst them—already transact RuPay. Point of Sale machines are already in position, and the number is increasing.

Go to your bank today and find out about their involvement with RuPay you owe this to your country, and to the sovereign strength of the Indian economy as a whole and the rupees in your wallets and purses.

I do not want to be melodramatic, but the roots of slavery are born out of external forces controlling your domestic economy: it is as simple as that. That is the bottomline as far as the global payment processing industry is concerned. And in today's India, the stakes are very high, and we need to be part of this shake-up.

You can do much more than what some short article tucked away in an inside page can probably manage. Spread the word on RuPay; go ask your bank manager today.

(Veeresh Malik had a long career in the Merchant Navy, which he left in 1983. He has qualifications in ship-broking and chartering, loves to travel, and has been in print and electronic media for over two decades. After starting and selling a couple of companies, is now back to his first love—writing.)

Source : http://www.moneylife.in/article/rbis-rupay-can-knock-out-payments-giants-visa-mastercard/24598.html

Related :

Financial embargo on Wikileaks by Visa and Mastercard
http://www.pcworld.com/article/242470/wikileaks_suspends_publication_because_of_financial_boycott.html

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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 3/31/2012 11:59:00 AM

[Naxalite Maoist India] There’s disunity, admits CPI (Maoist) leader

In this file photo, Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda (back to camera) speaks to journalists at a camp in an undisclosed location in Kandhamal district. Photo: Special Arrangement 

Sabyasachi Panda laments violence by southern cadres while hostage negations are underway

Speculation on the prevalence of a lack of unity and coordination among different divisions of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) in Odisha, it turns out, is not baseless.

Top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda admitted before newspersons that there was lack of unity among the division that he was heading and divisions that were at work in Malkangiri and Koraput districts in the southern parts of the State.

Mr. Panda, who operates from Kandhamal and Ganjam districts, said his cadres would not indulge in violent activities in the areas under his command till the hostage crisis was over.

Mr. Panda, who holds the position of secretary of the CPI(Maoist)'s State organising committee, lamented that the Maoists operating in the southern region of the State indulged in killing and kidnapping when the negotiation for the release of the two Italian nationals — Claudio Colangelo and Paolo Bosusco — was in progress.

Mr. Panda was speaking to the visiting newspersons while releasing Mr. Colangelo on Sunday.

According to intelligence sources, there were at least five divisions of the outlawed party working in different regions of the State.

This was one of the main hurdles facing the Naveen Patnaik government since the abduction of Jhina Hikaka, legislator of the ruling Biju Janata Dal, from Laxmipur early on Saturday.

After negotiations between three government officials and two interlocutors was abruptly stopped on Saturday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik asked the Maoists to name their new mediators to hold talks with the State government for the release of the abducted Italians and the MLA. However, there was no communication from any group of the Maoist kidnappers till Sunday night. It was also not clear whether the State government would resume the talks with the mediators, B.D. Sharma and Dandapani Mohanty.

The mediators had suggested suspension of the dialogue process, unhappy with both the Maoists and the government.

Meanwhile, the wife of the abducted legislator reiterated her appeal to the Maoists to release her husband safely.

On the other hand, agitating legislators of the Opposition Congress continued their dharna on the floor of the Assembly demanding imposition of President's rule in the State in view of the deteriorating law and order situation.

The legislators had stayed back in the House on Saturday when the proceedings were adjourned till Monday following disruption of the proceedings by the Opposition members, who demanded the resignation of Mr. Patnaik.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3223653.ece

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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 3/26/2012 11:20:00 AM

[Naxalite Maoist India] Yudh Abhyas 2012 - U.S. and Indian Army military exercise Trailer

Yudh Abhyas is an annual exercise between the Indian and U.S. armies. Yudh Abhyas 2012 took place in Mahajan training range, Rajasthan, India 70km from the Pakistan border. This is a short trailer showing some of the events of the military exercise. The units that took part were from U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) including the A troop 2-14 Cav 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division from Schofield Barracks, Hawaii and the 6th Engineer Battalion (Airborne), 2nd Engineer Brigade out of Ft. Richardson, Alaska. Produced and Shot by SSG Robert Ham. Cultural Advisor, SPC Mohan Pagonda. Music by Celldweller Song - ShutEmDown

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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 3/26/2012 11:09:00 AM

[Naxalite Maoist India] Capitalism as the arch-enemy of ecological societies

This speech was delivered at the conference "Challenging Capitalist Modernity–Alternative Concepts and the Kurdish Quest", which took place 3–5 February 2012 in Hamburg University .

The complete program as well as further texts and videos are available on the website http://networkaq.net

Felix Padel is Charles Darwin's great-great-grandson and author of two book on India's tribals :  Out of This Earth: East India Adivasis and Sacrificing People.

2.4 Capitalism as the arch-enemy of ecological societies

By Felix Padel

The Kurds represent one of the oldest cultures of Western Asia, and their struggle for justice and peace – even just basic recognition! - represents one of the world's most significant and least un - derstood movements. There are many other such peoples and movements, which we know little about due to media distortion, and its "Manufacturing of Consent".

The movements I have been most associated with are of India's indigenous people, known as trib - al people or Adivasis, who retreated long ago to India's most inaccessible regions, of mountains and forests and rivers, where they preserved their natural environment over centuries. These areas are now being invaded by literally hundreds of companies, damming the rivers, mining the min - erals from the mountains, cutting the forest, and promoting GM crops.

"Development" is often a mask for extracting resources in a way that destroys communities and ecosystems. You will all know about the Ilisu dam and the destruction it threatens in southwest Turkey. India has over 3,000 big dams. Some single dams have displaced more than 200,000 people – mainly Adivasis, along with field systems and forests they have always lived with. In the Himalaya regions where big rivers descend rapidly, several hundred new dams are being built. There are many movements to try and stop these dams, but the sheer scale of work and finance coming in makes this very difficult.

Apart from the huge destruction to ecosystems and communities that always depended on these rivers, about 70% of each project is financed through loans, and this burden of debt in effect mortgages the rivers, and privatizes their water, which had always been common property.

This use of debt in today's power structure needs to be understood more openly. The economic system promoted by the World Bank/IMF has plunged one country after another into unrepay - able debt. This debt is then used  as leverage to force these countries to open up their resources. Especially we have seen this with state governments in India, where some of the poorest states built up the most debt, paying for dams and coal mines – basically an infrastructure for the min - ing industry. This debt was then used to force these states to open up to foreign mining compan - ies, since these states – Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh – are the richest in minerals.

There is a close link, too little focused on, between big dams and metal-manufacture. Aluminium in particular needs vast amounts of electricity to smelt, and since the 1890s aluminium smelters have usually been built next to big dams to supply hydropower. Egypt's Aswan dam, Ghana's Akosombo dam, Tucurui in Brazil – these are some out of over 100 dams world-wide basically built to supply aluminium factories. Possibly Ilisu is another – the connection is usually not made explicit nowadays.

One reason that the aluminium industry  is so important is that it is a key metal for aerospace/de - fence – i.e. for the military industrial complex.

Many of the wars happening around the world are basically wars over resources – this probably includes the wars in Iraq and Libya, where huge amounts of oil are at stake, and perhaps even Afghanistan, where there are lots of minerals. Some of the African countries that have been en - gulfed by war, such as Congo, are very rich in minerals, which has fuelled the fighting.

In central India, hundreds of mining projects and metal factories are being promoted, many of them against strong local movements - some in Adivasi areas, others not. These resistance move - ments are among the world's strongest, though very little reported outside India.

Superimosed on this situation, a Maoist insurgency has taken off in the last ten years, formed out of the "Naxalite" movement and its "People's  War Group", active since the 1960s, combined with influence from the Nepali Maoists. In a few years, the Maoist insurgency has spread to over

100 districts, mainly in Eastern Central India. India's Prime Minister has called it India's biggest security threat. The exploitation, dispossession and injustice that Adivasis have faced have become so extreme that Adivasis are apparently joining the Maoists in large numbers, and 10,000s of armed police are deployed against them in "Operation Greenhunt".

Human rights groups have reported hundreds of hideous atrocities committed by men in uniform on Adivasi villagers, with no hope of getting justice. In several well-recorded  cases where Adivasi women and men have dared to bring cases against police for atrocities, the people bringing the cases have been imprisoned on "false cases" and apparently tortured, making them inaccessible to their lawyers and supporters.

There are many parallels between the Maoist movement in central India and the Kurdish strug - gle. Arundhati Roy wrote a piece in an Indian weekly magazine in March 2010 called "Walking with the Comrades" about visiting the Maoists in the forests of Chhattisgarh, central India, in which she interviewed and recorded the basic life stories of several young Adivasi Maoists – wom - en as well as men. Adivasi women who have seen their close friends and family members raped and killed are strongly motivated to join up. This is one of many similarities with the Kurdish movement.

Another is the extent of violence, and the state government's policy of recruiting Adivasis in large numbers as "SPOs" (Special Police Officers) to fight the Maoists – since the people they are being armed and trained to fight are mainly Adivasis, this is a recipe for civil war: hundreds of villages are in effect divided into Maoists and Government supporters, and it becomes very difficult to re - main neutral. This is similar to the "village guards" system in Turkey, and also similar to Colum - bia, where government militias have played a huge, destructive role in the fight against commu - nist insurgents.

There are differences though. For one thing, Turkey would never have allowed publication of a piece like Arundhati's. Turkey has one of the un-free-est of presses, while India has one of the free-est – even in the West, it's hard to imagine a major article being published "Walking with Al Qaeda" or "the Taliban" that gave a sympathetic view. This is not to say the situation in India is easy for journalists – media is often owned by the same conglomerates that own the mining com - panies, and journalists who try and bring out atrocities by the companies and security forces face a lot of pressure.

Also the Maoist leadership is not Adivasi, and Mao himself imposed steel production as ruthlessly as anyone in his "Great Leap Forward", causing the death of millions. Maoists are known to col - lect protection money from mining companies, and leaders refuse to spell out their policy on mining, though in Jharkhand state for example they have prevented numerous mining deals go - ing ahead on the ground.

What is happening in Central India, and in the Kurdish areas of Turkey, follows a pattern laid down by European capitalists centuries ago. America, in particular, is a country founded on the Genocide of its native inhabitants. A similar Genocide took place in Australia – in Tasmania all the native population was exterminated  in the early 19th century.

Britain's East India Company was one of the world's first "multinational companies". Britian had already played a major role in the slave trade, buying/capturing blacks from West Africa and ship - ping them to south America to work plantations. One of the main trades of the EIC was opium, which it forced farmers in India to grow, and China to buy – twice waging war on China to force it to buy opium.

Going over the records of the East India Company, a main concern was to increase the revenue from India – gradually most of India came under British rule. Several wars were fought to make tribal peoples accept British rule, and to suppress tribal rebellions, when British rule had vastly in - creased the people's exploitation and dispossession. But what is striking too is the concern with morality – the preoccupation in making British actions appear legitimate and just – "pacifying" and "civilizing"  "lawless areas". The "Government of India" was in origin a subsidiary of the EIC aimed at administering the territory and collecting revenue, which is why the head of a District is even today called a "Collector".

Another pattern laid down by the British,  as you probably know, was the bombing of Kurdish and Arab villages by the RAF during the 1920s, using mustard gas. Oil was the main motive then

– as often now.

The "War on Terror" is a complete contradiction in terms: when terror is used by security forces, on a far larger scale than "terrorists' " terror, why shouldn't the security forces be called terrorists? It is apparent that in Turkey, in India, and many other countries, the primary terror is the actions of security forces.

Other countries where this pattern is particularly evident include, of course, Israel. Further away, Indonesia  is a notorious example – West Papua was in effect betrayed by the UN when Indonesia took it over. Native peoples have been waging an insurgency ever since, and American/Australian mining companies have played a major role colluding with Indonesian security forces.

In Latin America, the Amazon regions of Ecuador, Peru and Columbia have been invaded by oil companies, with escalation violence and environmental devastation in recent years. Nigeria has also been witness to huge violence by the security  forces in collusion with Shell and other oil companies.

In India, a thousand or more police are often deployed to force construction of a project, with considerable violence, and a number of "police firings". Here too, the pattern goes back to the vi - olent years just after the First World War, when Colonel Dyer in the Punjab ordered his troops to fire on an unarmed crowd in Punjab, killing several hundred.

One of the biggest police firings in the last few years was at Kalinganagar in Orissa, where several major steel plants are being built, in particular by one of India's biggest companies, Tata. On 2 nd January 2006 Tata tried to start construction supported by lots of police – there was a fight and explosions from a trip wire. After a policeman was killed, police fired on Adivasi villagers for over an hour, killing 14 and wounding about 60. 


The irony in the name is that Kalinga were a people who resisted the emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BC when he was conquering most of India. They were a people without kings,  but  put  up  a strong  fight. Ashoka  erected inscriptions throughout India in which he expresses remorse of a kind, saying that 100,000 Kalinga were killed, 150,000 enslaved, and many times these numbers died from disease and famine. So in a way, the Kalinga war is one of the first recorded facts of Indian history, and its genocidal propor - tions are being repeated now. The numbers being actually killed may be relatively small (though the atrocities in "Operation Greenhunt" are not smallscale), but the communities being displaced from the land face Cultural Genocide – a destruction of everything they have valued, and an up - rooting of their bond with the land.

This is also evident in the Kurdish areas of Turkey, where several thousand  villages have reported - ly been destroyed, and 10,000s of villagers have come as refugees  to the cities, or left Turkey. Genocide arguably consists of two main processes – one is a physical extermination,  as was carried out against many American and Australian tribes, against Armenians in Turkey, and by the Nazis against Jews.

The other is the killing of cultures that are rooted to the land: this was another aspect in America and Australia, where missionaries were given the task of "detribalising" the children by taking them to boarding schools where they were forbidden to speak their own languages etc – a similar pattern to the forbidding of Kurdish in Turkey. Adivasis often say "Our blood may flow, but we won't leave our land" – knowing the condition of 10,000s of people who've  already been dis - placed, and suffer a "soul death".

In many ways, tribal societies, or "ecological societies" are the antithesis of capitalism.  As an Adi - vasi about to be displaced by the Narmada dam said in a statement that was published

You  take us to  be poor,  but we're not.  We live  in harmony  and co-operation  with each other…. We get good crops from Mother Earth…. Clouds give us water…. We produce many kinds of grains with our own efforts, and we don't need money. We use seeds produced  by us… In the spirit of Laha (communal labour) we produce a house in just one day….

You people live in separate houses. You don't bother about the joy or suffering of each other. But we live on the support of our kith and kin…. How does such fellow-feeling prevail in our villages? For we help each other. We enjoy equal standing. We've been born in our village. Our Nara (umbilical cord) is buried here). (Baba Mahariya 2001)

A Kond (Adivasi) elder asked a friend of mine "Where are the saints in your society? In this vil - lage we're all saints! We consume little, share what we have, and waste nothing." An American In -dia leader called Russell Means put this even more strongly in a speech in Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, in 1982:

Being  is a spiritual proposition. Gaining is a material act. Traditionally, American Indians have always attempted  to be the best people they could. Part of the process was, and is, to give away wealth – to discard wealth, in order not to gain. Material wealth is an indicator of false

status among traditional   People, while it's 'proof that the system works' to Europeans…. The European intellectual tradition  of despiritualizing the universe is very  similar to the mental process that goes into dehumanizing another person…. The mental process works so that it be - comes 'virtuous' to destroy the planet. Terms like 'progress' and 'development' are used as cover words here…. For example,  a real estate agent may  refer to 'developing' a parcel of ground by opening a gravel quarry. Development  here means total permanent destruction, with the earth itself removed. But the European logic has 'gained' a few tons of gravel, with which some more land can be 'developed' through the construction of road beds. Ultimately  the whole universe is open to  this kind of  insanity…… Mother Earth has been  abused. The powers have  been abused. And this cannot go on forever….  When I use the term 'European' I'm not referring to a skin colour or a particular genetic structure. What I'm referring to is a mindset, a world view that is a product of the development of European culture… the Death Culture.

Among the most striking differences that mark out Adivasi & other Ecological societies from mainstream society, are an emphasis on sharing as opposed to competition, which is a prime value in mainstream, capitalist society. This also applies to Law, where a traditional legal process aims at reconciling contestants in a dispute rather than making one right and the other wrong. Usually, both parties will be fined, even if one more than the other, and the fines will pay for a feast of re - conciliation.

Another main difference is that these societies lived in a sustainable relationship with their envi - ronment – sustainability is the essence of these cultures. This is also evident regarding Kurdish villages: living lightly on the land, without taking beyond a certain point. This is in marked con - trast to many projects justified under "Sustainable Development", when what is "sustainable" is primarily defined as what is profitable:  the "3 pillars of SD" are economy, society and environ - ment. But putting "economy" first makes a nonsense of the concept. All life depends on healthy ecosystems. Society also existed long before the economy and markets were separated off as a sep - arate category.

At the heart of capitalism,  since the 18th century, is the idea that if people follow their self-in - terest this will lead to the greatest common good – an idea we know has led to absurd levels of over-exploitation.

In many ways Neoliberal Economics is the most dangerous fundamentalism there has ever been. It is a set of dogma full of blatant contradictions – everyone knows that the rich countries got rich by protecting their markets, not by freeing them to competition. The economists running the IMF and World Bank, as well as Wall Street and the world's major banks, are out of control, in the sense that their loans, policies and deals have had devastating impacts on ecosystems and com- munities since the 1950s, for which they take no responsibility.

Unusually, a woman World Bank consultant visiting villages that would be impacted by the WB- funded Upper Indravati dams in Orissa, recorded a conversation with villagers:

You are a woman and we are women…. You are a literate person from a big country. You un- derstand these things are happening to us. So please, as a woman, help us…. The human soci- ety living in America must know what is going  on  in another human society living in India. And they are responsible  because  we're  all humans,  living  on earth. They can't escape,  you know. If I starve, you also bear a responsibility.

But taking responsibility is precisely what economists tend not to do. Not least for building the bubble of Debt. If any of you have seen Charles Fergusson's documentary Inside Job, this docu- ments the financiers and economists responsible for deregulating derivatives trading in the US, including Alan Greenspan and others, showing precisely how they were responsible for the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crash, in which thousands lost their homes.

When one explores the role of debt in modern finance, one gradually realises that the whole sys - tem is based on a monstrous bubble of debt. The capitalist system has been kept going through a number of artificies. The arms industry and war has played an important role. For one thing, wars have been a major cause of national debt, but also, arms industries are a main source of prof - it for the richer nations, and a main cause of the rising burden of debt of the poorer nations.

Economic theory doesn't adequately deal with this debt-basis of modern finance; nor does it show the central place that the arms industry plays in the modern economic system – let alone the key role it plays in spreading corruption. As The Times commented in 1926 when a motion brought in the League of Nations to ban the sale of arms for private profit was defeated thanks to US arms lobbyists "War is not only terrible – it is a terribly profitable thing."

In many ways, modern democracy  is a sham, because elections are funded by corporations, in - cluding arms companies, that elected parties are then reluctant to challenge. Elected politicians often appear as the characters on a stage, when the strings are being pulled by financial entities with little public visibility.

It is worth remembering the original model of democracy, formulated in Athens in the 5th centu - ry BC. Among its key features was banning professional politicians and judges – these roles had to be taken on by citizens in rotation.

The capitalist system  as we know it cannot continue for much longer without destroying the earth. If we're to survive as a species, a lot of relearning the principles of ecological lifestyles needs to be done, along with a sense of living as a community, sharing instead of allowing individuals to accumulate ridiculous amounts of private wealth.

This is in tune with the need for Justice, and much wider recognition, for the Kurds, and for In - dia's Adivasis, among many other Ecological Peoples. The injustice fuels war, polarization, mutu - al acts of terror, and accompanies an insane over-extraction of resources, that these peoples regard as Sources of Life. It's significant that in these two cultures, as in those of many other Ecological Peoples, Dancing plays a vital role in community life – peoples who still know how to dance!

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Posted By Abhay to Naxalite Maoist India at 3/26/2012 11:06:00 AM