VYAPAR ROZGAR SURAKSHA KRITI SAMITI

Tuesday, 18th December, 2007

In a daring action more then 10,000 mathadi workers ,Traders, Hawkers blocked the main avenue in sector 17, Navi Mumbai today at 4pm , this traffic intersection is also known as Arenja Chowk, completely paralysing the traffic in this satellite town of Mumbai.The effect of this blockade was felt for several hours and the Traffic upto Mumbai was severely affected.

The sight of the 10,000 strong procession as it wound its way gathering momentum like a river comming down a mountain shocked the onlookers policemen who had gathered in hundreds to stop the procession from going to the main Mumbai-Pune highway as announced by the samiti, the look on the policemen said it all, as they wondered that if this disciplined procession were to decide to break the cordon and move to the highway the policeforce gathered would not have been able to stop them.

The procession was led by a Truck on which a live D.J belted out songs and slogans from the professional sound system ( which is normally seen in Ganpati festivals and carnivals) was a first of its kind seen in any protest procession in the city. The leaders led by Shri Mohan Gurnani, Shri Narendra Patil, Shri Sharad Maru, Shri Ashok Baria gave slogans and kept the crowd going.

The procession went thru all the wholesale markets of vegetable, grain fruits which supply the entire agricultural supplies to the 1,30,00,000 population of Mumbai, all the markets closed down their shutters and for the first time both traders and their employees joined the procession in response to the joint appeals and slogans of the Traders and workers.

With every passing market the crowd grew, as it reached the Arenja chowk the procession was surrounded by the waiting policemen and state reserve police and the samiti was asked to stop their procession and not proceed towards the highway, fearing largescale violence the organisers decided that they would end the procession in the middle of the traffic intersection and have a meeting , in a quick conversion one of the busiest streets of Navi Mumbai bccame the open air venue of a protest meeting to demand the national policy to protect retail trade and livelihoods of the workers.

As leaders from the Samiti climbed on to the traffic island which became a temprorary dias the crowd of 10,000 settled down and squatted on the streets, all the overlooking commercial buildings stopped their activity as business came to a standstill, there were people standing on their balconies and terraces watching this gathering in the middle of the intersection.

All the speakers from the samiti and the supporting organisations condemned the State and Central government for not being able to protect the livelihoods and stop the entry of national corporations i.e Reliance, Subiksha, More etc and multinationals i.e Wallmart , Metro etc. into the retail trade. They warned the State government and the chief Minister that if they did not get a response within 8 days , the samiti would take millitant action and block traffic in diffrent places and move the protests at the doorsteps of the Corporations.

The protest ended peacefully with a call fom all organisations to take a delegation to meet the C.M and demand action in the next few days , the meeting which was well covered by the print and electronic media ended in slogans of " Go Back Wall-Mart" and " Corporations Quit Retail".

Dare To Struggle Dare To Win.

Vinod Shetty. India FDI Watch