South Asia Solidarity Group appeal
Appeal for Support for the Survivors of India’s Fascist Bulldozer Rule!
The British-owned JCB Bulldozer has become an instrument of fascist state violence in India. The spectacle of the bulldozing of homes and livelihoods in working class Muslim minority communities is used to whip up support for further genocidal violence by the Modi regime. It is no surprise that on his recent visit to India, Boris Johnson posed for photos on a JCB Bulldozer which has become a symbol of state ethnic cleansing.
Driven by the Islamophobic, anti-people politics of the ruling regime, JCB bulldozers were sent to Delhi’s Jahangirpuri in mid-April, targeting an area where migrant Muslim precarious workers and small shop/stall owners live. They were sent by the Municipal Development Corporation, controlled by Modi’s BJP, despite a Supreme Court order forbidding demolition.
Left activists stood with the community and took bold action, physically standing in front of the bulldozer and stopping it from demolishing further. But many vending carts, small shops and homes had already been demolished.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and other left parties immediately started a relief drive so that those who lost their livelihoods could survive, and have already supported a number of families whose lives were devastated. But the state’s violent bulldozer campaign continues. It targeted several other areas in Delhi like Shaheen Bagh (the site of the iconic mass peaceful resistance by Muslim women to India’s fascistic new Citizenship Laws in 2019/20), New Friends Colony, Madanpur Khader, Rohini, and Prem Nagar. The demolitions were directed at homes, shops, and vending carts of working class Muslim communities of the city.
Residents of Dhobighat in Jamia Nagar, another Muslim area in Delhi, have been facing repeated illegal demolition. The DDA demolished their homes first in 2020 in the name of constructing a BioDiversity park. The residents decided to fight the illegal demolition. They formed an anti-displacement platform and challenged the demolition in the Delhi High Court. Despite a Delhi High Court Stay Order on further demolition, the local people are facing regular harassment and intimidation from the police.
On 31st May, police threatened the residents with immediate demolition. The police forced them to vacate their homes in the scorching heat. All this was done completely illegally and in violation of a court order.
The All-India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) has been standing in solidarity with the Dhobighat residents from the initial days of their resistance against displacement. They now face impending demolition and the destruction of their livelihood and homes.
CPIML and AICCTU have been assisting the survivors of the Bulldozer regime from Jahangirpuri to Dhobighat. Their battle against the illegal demolitions and displacements continues, but the need to support and rehabilitate the people who have been displaced is urgent.
They have issued an appeal for help and solidarity.
Your contribution will support in re-building the lives of the families affected by demolition. The funds raised will be directly given to the affected families and details will be shared and updated.
You can donate direct via PayPal (southasiasolidaritygroup@gmail.com) or bank transfer to South Asia Solidarity Group, Account no.50673173, Sort Code 08-02-28.
Alternatively donate using this paypal button.