Submitted by Civically Engaged on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:34am
Konar spoke w/ us at the Stand Up For Ohio festival on Aug. 20 He said struggles for the rights of workers and the poor in the United States link w/ similar struggles in India.
“ The basic problem or crisis that we’re facing is that of capitalism. So, that stays constant across countries. Even in India, there’s been a lot of state oppression and people have stood up. There’s been a lot of fragmented resistance going on in different parts of the country.”
Konar said many of India’s poor are resisting the takeover of their land, water, and other resources by multi-national corporations.
“These are poor people who have access to no resources…all they have is access to common property and resources like the forests, the rivers, or the land on which they live, or water.”
Konar said the Indian government is allowing this so multinational corporations can mine bauxite and aluminum.
“But the people from which the government is taking away land, they do not stand to benefit at all. If you have industry, it’s going to benefit the rich and the middle class--the middle class who are going to get professional jobs like engineers.”
Konar said the mass media in India is part of the process of overlooking the interests of poor people there.
“If you turn on a TV channel , these (middle class professionals) are the people who speak in English that you see. And that’s the way that the whole (resistance) movement is being highlighted, as if these Maoists or these people are all terrorists, and they do not want development, or they’re Luddites. That’s not the true picture.”
Submitted by Civically Engaged on Tue, 08/30/2011 - 12:35am
Steele has worked w/ Greenpeace and served as Outreach Director at Jennifer Brunner For Senate. She is currently an organizer w/ Columbus Jobs With Justice. She spoke w/ us at the Stand Up For Ohio festival on Aug. 20.
A ‘disorientation guide’ for incoming OSU freshmen (and freshwomen)
She is helping Ohio State University students form a chapter of the Progressive Student Coalition.
“We just sort of need more progressive groups coming together. The Progressive Student Coalition is the feminists, the environmentalists, the worker rights student groups coming together to get more bang for our activism energy.”
Those students did an event at OSU on May 5 of this year called Live Against Five, at which they gathered about 300 signatures to add to the petition drive that put the repeal of Ohio House Bill 5 up to a vote this fall.
The OSU Progressive Student Alliance currently is working on the ‘Disorientation Guide’ to give to incoming freshman.
“It’s about the realities of the politics of the city we live in and the reality of Gordon Gee acting pretty cushy w/ corporations.”
Privatizing our land grant university ?
“There are murmurs of him wanting to privatize Ohio State University in the near future,” said Steele.
She said there is currently money going to charter universities that should be going to public universities.
