People's Democracy

International Solidarity With The Andhra Land Struggle

Jamal Juma, Coordinator of the grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign in Palestine, sent the following solidarity message to CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and to Sitaram Yechury, Polit Bureau member and head of the CPI(M)’s International Department on August 4 .

WE have learned with dismay about the cold-blooded killings of eight people struggling for their right to land in Andhra Pradesh, and mourn with you the martyrs.

When in Andhra Pradesh the government refuses to redistribute even state land to the hundreds of thousands of landless people who rightfully claim the land, and when the state represses the masses with violence and murder, it impinges upon the humanity of all of us.

We extend to you our solidarity from the Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, which represents over 50 popular committees struggling all over the West Bank for their land and freedom.

Over the last 60 years, a majority of our people have been driven out from our lands, to live as refugees dispersed all over the world. Our lands have been confiscated and colonised. Now we are struggling against the monstrous Apartheid Wall which is being built to imprison us on just a one-eighth part of the land that belongs to the Palestinian people.

As two peoples struggling for justice, we need to stand together wherever our rights are trampled upon and to gear up the determination of the people to challenge the powerful. It is the same interests --- imperialism and capital --- that deny land to the people of Andhra Pradesh and that colonise and steal our land in Palestine.

At a time global capital aims to subsume the remaining lands into its system, land struggles have taken on a global dimension. At the centre is the people’s struggle to gain back their lands, to live on them in freedom and with dignity, and to cultivate them according to their needs.

The growing land struggle led by the CPI(M) and hundreds of local organisations and movements in Andhra Pradesh gives us hope that soon, together, we can take back our lands and liberate our people.

Greece Party Condems Killng

Dimitris Koutsoumpas, member of the Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) has sent a message to the Central Committee of CPI(M) on August 1condemning the killing of six people in police firing in Andhra Pradesh. The Greek Party has also condemned the arrest of the CPI(M) and CPI leaders in this connection.

The KKE has expressed concern at the repressive measures being adopted by the Andhra Pradesh government to suppress this legitimate movement demanding land and house sites for the poor. Demanding immediate release of all arrested comrades it has called for meting out severe punishment to the police officers responsible for committing the atrocities.

The Communist Party of Greece has conveyed its full solidarity and expressed its desire to build international solidarity on the issue. INN