AS WE reported in last week’s issue of the socialist, over 120,000 people, mainly from the Indian sub-continent and other Asian countries, attended the fourth World Social Forum in the Indian city of Mumbai.
Members of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI – the international organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated), have sent these reports and interviews with workers who attended.
THE ASIA Social Forum (ASF), held in Hyderabad, Andra Pradesh, India, from 2-8 January 2003, attracted over 15,000 delegates from all over India and there were around 400 foreign delegates. CWI members from India and Australia present at the Forum have sent the following report. We also publish the text of a CWI leaflet distributed at the Forum.
IN THE worst ever earthquake that India has seen in the last two centuries, Ahemadabad, Bhuj, Bhachau and the entire Kutch district have been devastated.
Ten days after the disaster the most conservative estimate puts the body count at 100,000. The final toll will be at least four times that number as the day of the earthquake was a holiday and people mostly remained home.
CORRUPTION CASES are nothing new to India. In recent times some cases have been pursued vigorously and quite a few have been indicted, but the judicial system gives the rich and powerful umpteen loopholes.
Bribery cases include former governments buying off opposition MPs to vote for the government on financial bills but nobody has been put behind bars.
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