Rumpelstiltskin's Power Politics
by Polly Mann, WAMM
Arundhati Roy's essays in Power Politics both attract and frighten. The sheer pleasure of being led by such a perspicacious guide--her knowledge and her humor laced with indignation--keeps you gobbling up page after page despite your dismay at the information being imparted. Using examples from her native India to make the case, Roy presents a world on the verge of destruction resulting from corporate globalization. While there is a wealth of material by other authors concerning this economic upheaval, this passionate 102-page denunciation supplies a much-needed viewpoint of dissent.
In her first essay, Roy questions the corporate globalization of agriculture, the water supply, electricity, and essential commodities. She asks, is globalization "going to pull India out of the stagnant morass of poverty, illiteracy, and religious bigotry? Is the dismantling and auctioning off of elaborate public sector infrastructure, developed with public money over the last fifty years, really the way forward? Is globalization going to close the gap between the privileged and the underprivileged, between the upper castes and the lower castes, between the educated and the illiterate? Or is it going to give those who already have a centuries-old head start a friendly helping hand? Is globalization about 'eradication of world poverty,' or is it a mutant variety of colonialism, remote controlled and digitally operated?"
In a previous book, Roy discussed the building of dams in India. She again mentions these dams in an essay in which she names the United States as part of a cabal named Rumpelstiltskin: "Powerful, pitiless and armed to the teeth . . . His realm is raw capital, his conquests emerging markets, his prayers profits, his borders limitless, his weapons nuclear." Rumpelstiltskin promotes and builds ever bigger dams. Today there are more drought-prone and flood-prone areas in India than in 1947 and not a single river in the plains has potable water. Two hundred million Indians have no access to safe drinking water.
So why does the Indian government permit these ecological catastrophes which leave millions of Indians homeless, hungry, and without compensation for the loss of their land? Roy names responsible agencies and corporations, including the infamous Enron, to which the state of Maharashtra is obligated to pay $220 million annually for the next 20 years. The big-time losers in all this are, of course, the poor, and the poor of India are among the most poverty-stricken people in the world.
Generally, in democratic societies, the highest court can be relied upon to remedy such extreme injustice and corruption. However, in India their decisions have favored international monetary institutions. The court has issued indictments against those demonstrating against the dams. During one demonstration, 4,000 people walked for three hours to the site of the Maheshwar Dam to protest its construction. They were met by hundreds of armed police, beaten, humiliated, and arrested. Arundhati Roy was among them.
What does Arundhati Roy suggest as a response to the overwhelming catastrophe that threatens all? "It is the writers, the poets, the artists, the singers, the filmmakers who can make the connections, who can find ways of bringing it into the realm of common understanding. Who can translate cash-flow charts and scintillating boardroom speeches into real stories about real people with real lives. . . What we need to search for and find, what we need to hone and perfect into a magnificent, shining thing, is a new kind of politics. Not the politics of governance, but the politics of resistance. The politics of opposition. The politics of forcing accountability. The politics of slowing things down. The politics of joining hands across the world and preventing certain destruction."
Note: Power Politics by Arundhati Roy was published in 2001 by South End Press and is available at May Day Books in Minneapolis for $12.00.
WAMM Action!
A bill to reinstate the draft has been introduced in Congress by Rep. Nick Smith (Rep., MI) and Rep. Curt Weldon (Rep., PA). The short title of the bill is "Universal Military Training and Service Act of 2002."
The bill, if passed into law, would mandate all male U.S. citizens between the ages of 18 and 22 to receive "basic military training and education as a member of the armed forces."
Women would be allowed to participate in the program on a voluntary basis.
The bill states that, "A person who has obtained a high school diploma or its equivalent before January 1, 2003, shall not be subject to the obligation under section 3(a) to receive basic military training and education under this Act."
Conscientious objectors, under this bill, would be exempted only from training related to combat.
On December 20, 2001, the bill was referred to the House Committee on Armed Service. Currently, there are no Minnesota representatives on this committee. For a full list of committee members, go to www.house.gov/hasc/ or call the WAMM office at 612-827-5364.
It is difficult to gauge the level of support for this bill. Act now to send a clear message of opposition to the draft.
House Armed Services Committee
2120 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
202-225-4151 (phone)
www.house.gov/hasc/
United States House of Representatives
Washington D.C. 20515
202-224-3121 (phone)
202-225-1904 (TTY)
www.house.gov