Stop POSCO – Don’t Steal in the name of Steel
Popular People’s Resistance against South Korean Steel Giant POSCO
It is a matter of concern that President of the South Korean Republic, Mr. Lee Myung-bak as scheduled by the Union government will pay an official visit to the proposed area near Paradip (the natural port situated in Paradip is one of the Major Ports of India serving the Eastern and Central parts of the country. Its hinterland extends to the states of Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar). to lay the foundation stone for the proposed mega steel plant in the last week of January, 2010. The POSCO Pratirod Sangram Samiti (PPSS – anti POSCO struggle committee) has been conducting relentless resistance struggle since four and a half years against the setting up of the steel plant by the South Korean steel giant POSCO.
The militant mass democratic struggle of the PPSS has till date not allowed either the state government of Orissa or the multinational POSCO Company to acquire any land in the area. The government of Orissa led by Mr. Naveen Patnaik in its eagerness to “develop” the state has been in the mad spree of signing MoU’s with a dozen or more multinational and national companies to exploit the vast reserves of natural and mineral wealth of the state. The state government signed an anti people MoU with the South Korean POSCO on 22nd June, 2005, according to this the notorious MNC is to acquire 4004 acres of land and to set up a captive port in the height of Jatadhar which happens to be the natural sea mouth through which surplus water of the entire Jagatsinghpur district is drained to the sea.
Though the neo- liberal regime of India tom – toms that their system of capitalism will don a humane face, the social and human costs of this proposed venture is horrendous. On the one side, the local people will lose their profitable items of agriculture on the said land. While on the other hand, the fisherman community will be deprived of their livelihood if the POSCO port comes up on this site. The proposed acquisition is comprised of three categories of land: 2995 acres belongs to the forest category, 568 acres of land belongs to the state government and 437 acres of land is privately owned.
On the coast of Bay of Bengal, people do not have much of cultivable land which can grow paddy. But the ingenuity of the people of this area is that they have been growing the profitable items or export items of agriculture such as beetle vine, cashew nuts and are engaged in Pisciculture. The beetle vine is a cultivation of rare variety. This particular East coast is bestowed with sweet sand, sweet underground water which is conducive for beetle vine cultivation. Besides there are dense casuarina forests and sand dunes which makes this land uniquely fertile.
With scant disregard to the lives and livelihoods of the people, the state government has planned to lease out such a granary to the multinational corporation. But this indiscriminate industrialization at the cost of such a viable time tested and guaranteed agricultural economy is being opposed by the people under the banner of the PPSS. During these four and half years of people’s resistance, the POSCO Company in connivance with the government has attempted several times to resort to violence and divide this popular resistance movement. Many a times before, the hired goons of POSCO and the state police have attacked the people with bombs and lethal weapons. Despite all attempts to put down the movement, the people have shown exemplary resilience and take forward the struggle even as a dozen of PPSS leaders including its chairman, Abhay Sahoo were sent to jail for months and years by implicating them in many false cases, even cases have been registered against comrade Sahoo when he was in jail custody. Around six hundred villagers have been warranted by the police for their participation in this popular struggle. While the PPSS and its supporters have put barricades so that no goon or agents of the POSCO can enter the villages, police as a retaliation has resorted to arrest anybody and everybody including women and children who venture out of the barricaded area for medical help and social requirements, there is state of siege in this area.
Now the situation becomes more tense and sensitive at the proposed visit of the South Korean President to the area to lay the foundation stone. At this critical juncture, the PPSS in co-ordination and co-operation with other mass movements across the state and country has decided to go on a protest march (Padayatra) covering 140 Km between from 29th of November to 5th of December, 2009 from the proposed POSCO site at Dhinkia to the proposed Vedanta university area in Puri (VEDANTA the rechristened Sterlite group of companies of UK is another vulture MNC which is out to gobble up the rich mineral resources of Orissa and elsewhere in India, in the proposed VEDANTA university site the Orissa government is leasing out 6000 acres of fertile and multi crop land).
The crux of the padayatra is to combine both the resistance struggle against POSCO in particular and also to combine the various popular resistance movements against the land grab initiated by the Orissa government in the name of “development”. The padayatra will create awareness and seek mass support on the coast of Bay of Bengal which will ultimately lead to a popular struggle against the South Korean President’s proposed visit and the establishment of POSCO. Thousands of people from child to adult will stand united and will resist all attempts of force by the state government. The PPSS demands the government of Orissa and Union government to stop the proposed visit of the South Korean President, it unequivocally declares that POSCO or any other company is not welcome; PPSS has taken a challenge to see that not an inch of land is available to any capitalist marauder be it national or foreign.
(The article comes from an exclusive interview by comrade Abhay Sahoo the leader of the anti-Posco movement to the New Socialist Alternative)