Labour activists show that people’s movements are schools for critical thinking
Shiv Kumar is an activist fighting for labour rights in India and is the target of an escalating pattern of repression by the Modi government against opposition to its relentless pursuit of profits for the corporate sector. These policies have led to displacement, super-exploitation, and the loss of basic needs of survival. In response to movements by workers, farmers, Adivasis and other marginalized communities, the government is criminalizing dissent. Students, advocates, labor and human rights activists are arrested, tortured, and harassed in a bid to silence and terrify the movements they represent. The process itself is the punishment! It should be obvious that such a flagrant abuse of the law to punish dissent is a threat to democratic thinking everywhere. Academic freedom is the freedom to think, to question, and to strive for a just and equitable society. People’s movements are schools for critical thinking, thinking and acting going hand in hand as people strive to create the society they wish to live in. We strongly support the following statement by Campaign Against State Repression in support of Shiv Kumar and others who are facing the mighty power of the state at this time.