India FDI Watch and Commerce Ministry Facilitation
Nagarjuna IFP
Investment (FDI) in the retail sector in India. India FDI Watch is a
national coalition of labour unions, trade associations,
environmentalists, NGOs and academics that have formed to block
attempts to allow foreign direct investment in India’s retail markets.
FDI in retail will amount to job losses in the thousands as well as
thousands more small businesses and kiranas being forced to close. It
will continue the race to the bottom in wages and working conditions
that Wal-Mart and other multinational mega-retailers have spread
across the globe. Multinationals look at India, with its 1.2 billion
people, as a vast, untapped market, but we do not want to become the
next country to have our cultural traditions, worker's rights,
environment, and independence destroyed by Wal-Mart. Contact us for
more information.
IndiaFDI Watch - http://indiafdiwatch.org/index.php?id=47
For more information: download the India FDI Watch Brochure.
For more information, download the India FDI Watch Brochure (in
Hindi).
Thousands protested to oppose the Bharti-Walmart Joint Venture
On the heels of the announcement of the Bharti-Walmart joint venture,
thousands of traders, hawkers, farmers and workers protested across
India. Protesters also included a group of American students who
demanded that Wal-Mart not be allowed into India. Mass-based
organizations called on the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi to
immediately stop the Bharti-Walmart Joint Venture and not allow Wal-
Mart’s backdoor entry into India. There was also a strong united call
on all corporations—both foreign and domestic—to "Quit Retail". The
protests were timed to commemorate the start of the "Quit India"
movement, which started on August 9, 1942, with mass-based sections of
society drawing parallels to the East India Company and companies like
Wal-Mart, Bharti and Reliance.
Agitations took place in the metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore
and Kolkata along with other major cities including, Kalicut, Bhopal,
Jaipur, Ranchi, Balia, Meerath, Sonipat, Nagpur, Nasik, Pune and
Indore.
In Delhi, thousands of traders, hawkers, farmers and workers protested
in Chandni Chowk, a historical market, and burned effigies of Wal-
Mart, Bharti and Reliance. Dharmendra Kumar, Director of India FDI
Watch and national coordinator of the Vyapaar Aur Rozgaar Bachao
Andolan conducted the proceedings and told the agitators, "Both Sonia
Gandhi and Manmohan Singh have acknowledged the dangers of
corporations entering into the retail sector. The Govt. has
commissioned a report looking at the impact of the entire supply chain
on livelihoods after Sonia Gandhi had written a letter of caution.
Sonia Gandhi had also publicly refused to meet with Michael Duke, Wal-
Mart Vice-Chairman during his visit in February after public
demonstrations were held due to his arrival. However, both Sonia
Gandhi and the PMO have remained silent on the Bharti-Wal-Mart deal
and though they have publicly cautioned against corporations and
commissioned a study, they have taken no subsequent actions. He
demanded that the Wal-Mart Bharti joint venture should be immediately
revoked and all corporations should be stopped until thorough study
has been conducted by an independent special task force comprising of
stakeholders."
Shyam Bihari Mishra, President, Bhartiya Udyog Vyapar Mandal refered
back to the British Raj, stating, "The East India Company, the most
powerful company at the time, came to colonize India’s people and
domestic and international trade and now Wal-Mart, the world’s largest
company is trying to enter India to do the same. Mr. Mishra said India
has a history of resistance, our people threw out the British and
sixty years later if millions have their businesses and livelihoods
threatened we will do the same now. He announced that family members
of traders would boycott corporate stores." Praveen Khandelwal,
General Secretary, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said "The
livelihoods of retail traders are at stake. If big retail giants like
Wal-Mart and Reliance come into the country, small traders would be
finished." A mass campaign would be launched to strike back and make
corporations realise that we will not let them ruin our livelihoods,
he said.
Vandana Shiva, Director, Navdanya said "India is a land of retail
democracy- hundreds of thousands of weekly haats and bazaars are
located across the length and breadth of our country by people’s own
self-organizational capacities. In a country with large numbers of
people, and high levels of poverty, the existing model of retail
democracy is the most appropriate in terms of economic viability and
ecological sustainability.".
Shaktiman Ghosh, General Secretary, National Hawkers Federation warned
the government "about taking such strong stances against India’s
millions of hawkers and small shopkeepers in favor of only a few huge
corporations who seek to dominate the Indian retail market."
Mr. Indu Prakash of Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reform
revealed the nexus between judiciary and corporate retail which led to
the ceiling of shops of more than one hundred thousands of traders of
Delhi and still goes on.
Mr. Bhati of Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, Delhi, Harbhajan Singh Siddhu,
National Secretary, Hind Mazdoor Sabha, Sunil Kansal, Secretary,
Rashtriya Vyapar Mandal, Hakim Singh Rawat, General Secretary, Delhi
Hawkers Welfare Association, Banwari Lal Sharma, President, Aazadi
Bachaon Aandolan, R K Sharma, Secreatry, UTUC-Lenin Sarani and
Venkatesh of Lok Raj Sangathan also addressed the protesters in Delhi.
In Mumbai, thousands of retailers, hawkers, workers and cooperatives
participated in a one day trade bandh and a mass public event
organized by the Vyapaar Rozgaar Suraksha Kriti Samiti, a joint action
committee of trade associations, hawkers groups, trade unions and
others. Leaders of Federation of Associations of Maharastra (FAM),
Retail and Dispensing Chemists Association (RDCA), India FDI Watch,
Mumbai Mahanagar Vyapari Seva Parishad (MMVSP), Mumbai Vyapar Mahasang
(MVM), Apna Bazaar, National Hawkers Federation, Center of Indian
Trade Unions (CITU) and Hind Mazdoor Kisan Panchayat (HMKP) addressed
the protesters. Mohan Gurnani, Convener of the Mumbai based Vyapaar
Rozgaar Suraksha Kriti Samiti and President of the Federation of
Associations of Maharastra (FAM) said "organised retaling would leave
20 crore people without jobs. Let the government first come out with a
rehabilitation for these people and then it can open up FDI in
retail". Kishore Shah, President of the Mobile & Telecom Retailers and
Distributors Association (MTRDA), stated that around 12,000 retail
shop-keepers deal in SIM cards and recharge vouchers of Air-Tel in
Mumbai, generating business worth crores of rupees every day. Mr. Shah
said "We have already informed all our members, distributors and
wholesalers against selling any Airtel products". The Mumbai APMC—
wholesale— market remained closed, along with thousands of retail
shops across the city, including all chemists and druggists shops.
Apna Bazaar, Maharastra’s largest cooperative store also downed its
shutters and wholesale markets remained closed in Nasik and Pune.
At an evening event at Shanmukananda Hall in Mumbai mass-based groups
laid out a future course of action and adopted a charter of demands.
They called on the Center to immediately repeal the Wholesale Cash-n-
Carry Permission, and all licenses granted under the permission;
repeal the APMC Model Act, implement the National Policy on Street
Vendors, take measures against predatory pricing and formulate a
national policy on retail trade and small scale industries.
In Bangalore thousands protested at the town hall and burned effigies
of corporate retailers like Wal-Mart and Reliance. The protest
culminated in leaders presenting the Governor with a memorandum
calling on the state to repeal the recent passage of the APMC Model
Act. A Charter of Demands, same as was passed in Mumbai, was also
placed before the District Collector. Smaller protests were organized
throughout the state in different districts including Kodagu, Bijapur,
Gulbarga and Davangere districts.
In Jaipur fifty American students joined with hawkers demanding that
Wal-Mart leave India and demanding implementation of the National
Policy on Street Vendors. The American students and hawkers
demonstrated in the old city and held signs saying "Americans Oppose
Wal-Mart Everywhere". Ms. Cheryl, an American citizen, learning Hindi
at Jaipur said that Wal-Mart has a disastrous impact on small
shopkeepers and neighbourhood communities in America and called
Indians to learn from their experience and not to allow Wal-Mart to
operate in India. Ms. Cheryl said that the world is moving from
‘Corporate to Cooperative’ and Indians should not corporatize their
cooperatives.
In Kerala the Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Egono Samiti organized protest
marches in over 1000 places across the state. In Kalicut over 10,000
traders protested in front of the corporation’s office and submitted a
memorandum demanding that corporations keep out of retail and the
immediate halt to Wal-Mart’s backdoor entry and the repeal of the
Wholesale Cash-N-Carry permission.
In Kolkata the Federation of Trade Organizations (FTO) of West Bengal
organized protests in all the 12 districts of the city along with
protests across West Bengal, including in front of malls. Tens of
thousands traders participated in the protest. In the evening,
thousands of hawkers took out a protest march from the city museum.
In Ranchi, Uday Shankar Ojha who led the vegetable vendors before
Reliance Fresh in May and has only recently been released from Jail,
led thousands of hawkers and vegetable vendors at Albert Ekka Chowk in
Ranchi, demanding that Reliance Fresh and all other corporations leave
the retail sector and "withdraw their sinister plans to displace
millions of livelihoods".
In Bhopal there was a state-level protest meeting in the morning at
Gandhi Bhavan and traders sat on a dharna at Roshanara Chowk in the
afternoon and burn effigies of Wal-Mart, Bharti and Reliance. A call
for Bhopal Bandh was given for 21 August to oust corporate from retail
trade.
Similar protests were organized in other cities including Allahabad,
Lucknow, Meerut, Bagpat and Sonipat.