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Walls, Watchtowers and Resistance in Singur

Posted to the IUF website 29-May-2007

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The workers, small farmers and villagers of Singur, West Bengal continue their daily resistance despite completion of the brick wall enclosing 400 hectares of land for the Tata Motors small car project which will deprive 30,000 people of their land and livelihood. Multiple watchtowers designed to track villagers' movements have not stopped the struggle against the West Bengal "Left Front" government's forced land acquisitions. Camps have been set up in two locations close to the wall, permanently occupied by villagers and leaders of the Farmlands Protection Committee, with the support of the IUF-affiliated PBKMS. Daily rallies and meetings are convened to demonstrate the depths of local commitment to the struggle. On May 20, workers and farmers, accompanied by their Legislative Assembly representative, began a mass walk to the wall, where they were attacked by police armed with batons, shields and tear gas, sparking a day-long battle which left scores of village people injured. Police again attacked unarmed villagers the following day at a demonstration to protest police brutality.

According to PBKMS, 66 families in Dobandi, one of the villages near the acquired land, are suffering from malnutrition and are in urgent need of food and medicine. Dobandi's villagers formerly worked as labourers in the fields which Tata and the West Bengal government have seized and fenced off.

The wall is built but construction of the motor plant has not yet begun. There is still time to act!

Click here to send a message to the government of West Bengal and the Managing Directors of Tata Motors. Copies of your messages will be automatically forwarded to the IUF secretariat and to the PBKMS.