Occupied, by the people for the people.
The 55 acres of land reclaimed by 3200 households in Mankhurd by the slum dwellers, Telephone company’s headquarter occupied by spainish workers and the squatted bank of UK by love activists for the homeless citizens represents the same oppression. The oppression of Unfree Mind.
With denial of basic housing rights to social protection to work with dignity, all the drains fl ow to the pipeline of surplus for few. Where from company CEO’s, builders and even the municipal corporation of the city are hand in hand working to SHIFT+ DELETE the urban poor by making them occupied with chores of daily survival.
The daily fight for water, sanitation and basic shelter to make ends meet keep the majority of the city’s population, urban poor in deep political apathy, which is sponsored by state. The occupation of free mind in the globalised world has resulted in the resistance by the communities in different ways where “direct action through occupation is one of them.”
The occupation of building of the banks bailed out by taxpayer’s money, the occupation of the peripheral city land by the most marginalised are few of the examples of these direct actions.
Love activists who occupied Liverpool bank for few weeks demanded basic human rights for the homeless.
In Spain, Movistar telephone technicians took matters in their own hands — and occupied their employer’s headquarters after their trade unions turned deaf ear to them, and the organization didn’t bother to hear them out.
The demands of the union include eight-hour day, forty-hour week, employer payment of working gear and protection, and for a dignifi ed ‘social’ salary which can support their families, together with four weeks’ holidays to enjoy the time away from work.
Eleven years of struggle of Mandala community when turned to the deaf ear of the administration, people themselves occupied the land and are still claiming their rights since last 22 days in the economic capital city of India.
Just a week before the reclamation of urban land, a group of landless farmers also occupied 100 acres of land in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra. The anger and frustration in the rural field to urban streets are changing into a expression of revolt, of popular collective power. At the same time the student movements are gaining strength from University occupation in Amsterdam, London to the Premier institutes of India against the state control of institutions and market penetration into the structures of freedom.
Are these voices like Maggie, which can be made in two minutes and can be quarantined and banned when contaminated in another two. Or, these expression can be turned into a permanent form, to a durable political base. Are students going to support the movement of workers ? Or the workers will support the struggles of students ? The way Swedish giant Maggie can penetrate the urban and rural with its masala noodles intertwined, can the humanitarian ground bring both on the same platform.
Atleast it did for Lalit Modi and Sushma Swaraj !
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