Volume 2, No. 1, January 2001

— Our AP Correspondent

Adivasis of the East Region have a fighting tradition from the earliest times. They have a fighting history of 150 years. They fought and shook British Rule under the leadership of the great revolutionary, Alluri Seetharama Raju. Since then they have continuously struggled against the oppressive Indian state. They took up the call of Naxalbari and fought heroically in the Srikakulam Armed Peasant Rebellion of the ’70s. In view of the tribals’ longstanding fighting spirit, the frightened governments have given some concessions to Adivasis in the form of 1/70 Act (land transfer act). According to this Act, land transactions in the Adivasi areas should be confined only to the tribals. Outsiders cannot buy or sell land in these areas. Although the government passed the 1/70 Act, it has always tried to put the interests of adivasis in the dust bin. It always tried to support the interests of outsiders, mainly the landlord class and trading sections. Hence, the migration of the plains-rich class to the tribal areas continued unabated, resulting in the loss of all the fertile tribal lands to the outside landlords. As a result, the Adivasis eke out a starvation existance tilling the hill tracts while the non-tribal landlords have become wealthier and lead a lavish life. The landlords as well as government transformed some tribal leaders into their stooges by giving them bribes or putting them as tribal representatives in the elections.

The Adivasi agency areas are rich in minerals (including Bauxite). The Bauxite stock in the whole world is 40 billion tonnes. Of that, India itself has 71%. A major part, amounting to 2500 million tonnes deposits, are in the AP’s east coast and Orissa. Of this amount, the areas of Araku and Chintapalli itself have 570 million tonnes. In the Araku area (i.e., in Galikonda, Raktikonda, Chittamkonda) there are 55 million tonnes while the Chintapalli area (i.e., in Sapparla, Gudem and Katamraju hills) has 515 million tonnes of metallic Bauxite deposits. One tonne Aluminium can be extracted with 3 tonnes of Bauxite ore. So, the imperialists are trying their best to trample over these tribal lands.

Under the directions of the World Bank, the imperialist pet-dog Chandrababu Naidu, is trying his best to sell the rich mineral deposits to the imperialists by amending the 1/70 Act which prohibits any outsider’s infiltration.

To make his plan a success, Chandrababu Naidu has, for long, being doing propaganda, saying that this 1/70 Act has become a suicide rope for the non-adivasis. He also propagated that the development of the agency areas depended only on the extraction of Bauxite deposits, and that with the installation of an Aluminium plant, the lives of Adivasis will drastically change as they will get jobs. He also stated that the government was unable to construct the huge Rs. 4500-crore Aluminium Plant in the public sector, hence private capital was a must. Along with this propaganda, he appointed an Advisory Committee with 22 MLAs, under the chairmanship of tribal minister Manikumari, in order to know the feelings of the local people on the Aluminium Plant. The Advisory Committee without going into the agency area, gave a statement that they had visited the whole area of the Chintapalli and Araku and that the people, as a whole, were in favour of constructing the Aluminium Plant. The Advisory Committee had held only one meeting in the Gudem mandal centre with a heavy police force. In that meeting, police lathis answered the people who protested against the construction of the Aluminium plant. The government even suspended some teachers who were in the anti-Plant agitation accusing them of having links with the People’s War Party.

The Bauxite mines will displace nearly 177 Adivasi villages. The lives of Adivasis in these villages will be ruined. Hence, these Bauxite mines have become a question of life and death for the Adivasis. So, they are furiously rejecting it. Several democratic organisations and employees are also agitating against these mines. Some voluntary organisations and parliamentary bourgeois parties are trying to use the discontent of the Adivasis for their own selfish ends. Actually these parties act as though they are for Adivasi interests, but ultimately they serve the imperialists.

The CPI (ML)[People’s War] is also putting in effort to mobilise the masses against this Aluminium Plant. It is trying to organise all sections of the people including intellectuals, employees, youth and students against amending the 1/70 Act. It propagated that the forest wealth belongs to the Adivasis only. In every village it is forming 1/70 Act-protection committees and holding indoor meetings with the representatives of the Bauxite mining affected villages. Meetings and demonstrations were held in Paderu and other areas by forming a front with other democratic organisations. A campaign was taken under the PW Divisional Committee’s direction from July 28 to August 14. In this campaign several youth formed teams and campaigned in all the effected villages, propagating against the amending of the 1/70 Act. They also took a signature campaign against the Aluminium Plant. The divisional committee held classes on this issue. In the Korukonda LGS area, two seminars were held (with 30 and 60 members) for the youth of 15 villages on this issue, who were educated about the consequences resulting from construction of the Aluminium plant. Big propaganda with posters and pamphlets were organised in the local weekly fairs. In the Thandava LGS area, a one-day class was organised with 25 activists explaining about the 1/70 Act’s emergence, its prior history and the consequences of Bauxite mining. After the class, four propaganda units were formed, who widely propagated against the Bauxite mines, with posters, placards and banners. They also took a signature campaign.

On August 10 a big public meeting was organised in the Gudem mandal centre. Though there was torrential rain, the masses participated in large numbers in the August 10th rally and procession. More than 1000 people (150 women and 850 men) from Korukonda LGS Area and 200 people from the Thandava LGS area attended the August 10th rally. On August 13th the people burnt the effigy of the Advisory Committee member and local MLA MVV Satyanarayana. A total Agency Bundh was observed on August 15th, declaring it as a black day. The effigies of Chandrababu Naidu, Vajpayee were shot with bows and arrows by the Adivasis. A big meeting was organised in Shyamagadda village of Gudem mandal on August 15th. The meeting was addressed by the PW’s Korukonda Area committee member. He explained in his speech how the August 15th ‘independence’ was only for the feudal and comprador classes, and how the imperialists have intensified their exploitation after 1947 on the Indian people. He also said that even to this day, poverty and unemployment is increasing day by day and that the basic problems of the Adivasis have not been solved and that their condition is becoming more and more miserable. Other activists who spoke, explained how the central and state governments were stooges of the imperialists, and how they were implementing the economic policies directed by the World Bank. They said that, in AP., Chandrababu Naidu, by becoming a pet-dog of the World Bank and imperialists, was resorting to severe repression on the struggling people and totally selling the state to the imperialists. They also explained how the state government was trying to construct an Aluminium plant by amending the 1/70 Act to help the imperialists rob all the mineral resources of the region. The meeting concluded with resounding slogans against amending the 1/70 Act. The meeting framed the following demands and slogans for the future struggle:

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