I talked about how these group of left leaders seem to be molly coddling the left's heinous pogrom in Nandigram in West Bengal, India. The letter was literally pathetic, and I am quite disappointed but I guess the cynical bit in me was not surprised.
More sad is that the original signatories to the letter are now seeming to drop off. Here's an email from one of them. I guess that's all right, everybody makes mistakes. So now what? Will she now fight for the peasants? and fight against the CPIM? or what exactly is the solidarity for? in what shape would that show up? Now that she has more information, what is she planning to do? Sign another petition? Or is this it? Pitiful.
From: "Susan George"<susangeorge@free.fr>
To: sanhatiindia@sanhati.com
Dear Friends, thank you for getting in touch. Please see my response and feel free to distribute if you like,
All good wishes, solidarity,
Susan George
> -----
To my friends in India:
Without wishing to place responsibility on anyone but myself, I want
to apologise for having signed the common letter concerning Nandigram and hereby withdraw my signature. I signed because the statement seemed reasonable, recognised that the signatories “could not say anything definitive”, seemed compatible with principles like left unity and non-violence which I try to uphold and, above all, had been previously signed by people I greatly admire and respect. Due to a certain urgency, I gave my name without consulting friends in India, particularly the two Indian Fellows of the Transnational Institute, Praful Bidwai and Achin Vanaik, as I ought normally to have done.
Now I have received further information from Indians who have
regretted my signature and, while exercising great comradely restraint towards me personally, have pointed to the recent tragic events in Nandigram as unequivocally the responsibility of the CPI[M]. All the communications sent to me blame the government, but having consulted other signatories, I learn that some of them have received thanks and letters of support, also from India.
While my instinct is quite naturally to side with those who have
written to me personally, particularly my TNI comrades, I regret above all that I was presumptuous enough to comment, however mildly, on a situation I was not, and am not, in any position to judge. I hope my Indian friends will forgive this presumption and accept my regrets for having signed a letter which has been used politically in India in ways I cannot condone and do not approve.
In solidarity,
Susan George
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