Azadi Bachao Andolan A site to educate the public in general about a national movement in India to counter the onslaught of foreign

	Azadi Bachao Andolan

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	Burn Effigies of Clinton on Holi Why Clinton and his brigade of Corporate CEO’s need to be protested against ?
	New Delhi March 2000

	He comes to consolidate the strangle of corporate colonialism – being engineered through IMF, World Bank and the WTO. In spite of being the largest store-house of nuclear arsenal, and being the only country in the worls to have used it against humanity, America is pressurising Indian to sign the CTBT. A self appointed constable that U.S.A. is, it humiliated India by imposing sanctions immediately after its nuclear tests. The American arms industry is known to be at the root of several border-conflicts in the world. Clinton would not like the progress of Indian Science, and therefore imposed restrictions on the sale of cryogenic engines and super computers. The American Government would make judgements on Human Rights conditions, forgetting its own history of having annihilated a full race and being blind to the death of millions of children, and bringing misery of an unprecendented scale by imposition of structural adjustment programmes in Africa alone. Clinton’s manoeuvring in WTO caused humiliation to India, and surrendering abjectly to their evil designs, India ammended its Patent Laws and removed quantitative restrictions on thousands of goods. Threats of 301 and Super 301 are well-known. Clinton administration stopped the import of Indian skirt, fish and bidis on flimsy ground, and imposed heavy duty on Indian Steel. In the formation of the WTO and its subsequent working smaller countries are known to have been bullied by the U.S.A. Politicians and bureaucrats are bribed and made corrupt to sign treaties and contracts against the interest of their own country. This has brought us on the verge of debt-trap, our exchange rate falling from Rs.18/- in 1981 to Rs.45/- in 1999. Clinton symbolises the invasion by Pop-Pepsi-Bikini culture, an invasion of consumerist culture on the simplicity-loving people of India. Clinton does not believe in equality of mankind. Libya or Sudan, Haiti and Panama, Ethiopia and Kosavo are all bullied at will, by ‘sanctions’ if NOT by ‘arms’. Remember what the American leader Jesse Jackson says,`They no longer use rope and bullets. They now use World Bank, IMF and WTO.’ AND, SO JOIN US : In our protest demonstration at the American Embassy, New Delhi, 15^th March Burn effigies of Clinton on the Holi Day, 19^th March Seminar on related topics, 21^st and 22^nd March, 2000 Celebrating “Anti-Imperialist Day” on the occasion of the matyrdom of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, 23^rd March, 2000 Joint appeal by Azadi Bachao Andolan, Sarva Sewa Sangh, Lokayan, NAPM, Gandhi Yuva Biradari, Loktantrik Samajwadi Party, Forward Block, Sewagram Pahal etc. PEOPLE AGAINST GLOBALISATION: A SOLIDARITY CONVENTION Saturday, 11th March 2000 Proposed Programme 9.00 A.M.Morning Session - Songs Dr. Vandana Shiva Jayati Ghosh Dr. Anil Sadgopal Mr.B. K. Keayla Dr. Biplab Das Gupta David Korten Bill Christison Tony Clarke Tony Juniper Teddy Goldsmith 12.30 P.M.Afternoon Session - Consequences of Globalisation since 1991 Trade Unions - CITU, AITUC, HMS, BMS, INTUC Power - Shailendra Dubey Telecom - O.P.Gupta / Sanghal Insurance - N. M. Sundaram Banking - AIBOC, S. R. Sengupta Women - Amarjeet Kaur Farmers - Sunit Chopra Railway - Chaubey / Y. P. Anand Education - Manoj Tyagi / Raju Fish Workers - Tom Kocherry Lawyers - Indira Jaisingh/ Prashant HMKP - Ashim Roy NMPS - R. Geetha Handloom Workers - D. Ramakrishnan SSI Transport Tribals - Dr. B. D. Sharma 6.00 P.M.Evening Session - Beyond Globalisation and Corporate Rule:Movement for Economic Democracy Sidharaj Dutta Dr. Banwarilal Sharma John Cavanagh Colin Hines Mohd. Idris Justice Krishna Iyer Dr. Vandana Shiva Reading of Citizen's Resolve CITIZENS' RESOLVE FOR A NEW SOLIDARITY The democratic rights of citizens both in the North and the South are being undermined as corporate rule is established worldwide through the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the rich G7 countries. This dominant worldview puts global trade above all other economic activity, and places the market above society, and profits above people and the environment. Human lives are being rendered dispensable in the ruthless pursuit for limitless markets and limitless growth. There is a growing sense among citizens of diverse countries and cultures that globalisation is Americanisation and US is using free trade treaties to establish a new global empire in which it is not land which is colonised but markets and knowledge. Land is no more the basis of wealth creation in this era of globalisation where wealth has been detached from any connection with real resources and can be multiplied limitlessly in the financial casinos that drive world markets. Patents and intellectual property have replaced land as property for collection of rents and generation of revenues. The North-South inter-governmental relationships are being increasingly relationships between an empire and its colonies. The sovereign space of national governments especially those in the South is being invaded by the WTO, this is manifest in the distancing of the people of those nations from the decisionmaking processes on economic issues that take place both at the intra-governmental level and the inter-governmental level. International trade treaties should not be allowed to undermine our ability as members of democratic societies to participate in economic democracy by having security of livelihoods and the guarantee that our socio-economic needs will be met in accordance with our priorities, our cultural preferences and the limits of ecological sustainability. The WTO through its multiple agreements regulating international trade has only widened the gaps between the developing and developed countries. Instead of enhancing the creation of global wealth and prosperity and promoting the wellbeing of all people in all member-states, the WTO has in reality in the past five years contributed to the concentration of wealth in the hands of the rich few; increasing poverty for the majority of the world's population; and globalising the unsustainable patterns of production and consumption of the rich industrialised countries. The Uruguay Round Agreements have functioned principally to prise open national economies; workers, farmers and other peoples; and the environment. In addition, the WTO system, rules and procedures are undemocratic, non-transparent and non-accountable and have operated to marginalise the majority of the world's peoples that are in the countries of the South. All this has taken place in the context of increasing global economic instability, the collapse of national economies, increasing inequity both between and within nations and increasing environmental and social degradation, as a result of the acceleration of the process of globalisation. The governments of the North, which dominate the WTO and the TNCs which have benefited from the WTO system have refused to recognise and address these problems. Instead they are pushing for further liberalisation through the introduction of new issues for adoption in the WTO. This will lead to the exacerbation of the crisis associated with the process of globalisation and the WTO. It is a matter of a concern to us that the changing economic order under the WTO creates and heightens the divide between the people of the North and those of the South and between the rich and the poor within the North and the South. We will no longer allow the protection of our rights and freedoms to be labeled as trade protectionism. Trade ought only to be a means for achieving the just and sustainable development for people of the North and South equally rather than perpetrating inequalities at all levels. We commit ourselves towards forging a new solidarity amongst the peoples of our countries with due respect to the cultural, social and political diversities. Diverse Women for Diversity A-60 Hauz Khas New Delhi 110 016 India Tel: 91 11 656 1868 Fax: 91 11 656 2093 Top of the Page