2. Cut and Paste it…
3. Email it to the University
JNU students have called for our solidarity so let’s give it to them!
THE LETTER:
We/I, ORGANIZATION/INDIVIDUAL NAME, support Students' Solidarity and the larger collective, Forum Against Coporatisation, in their fight to reclaim their campus space from big corporations like Nestle and hand it over to more deserving local entrepreneurs.
Previously local entrepreneurs and those from the socially deprived sections of the society were given preferential access to campus space, but increasingly small businesses are being driven out, and larger corporations welcomed in. Nestle is only one particularly bad example: the company has violated workers' rights and supported the violent suppression of workers' unions in countries like Colombia, Philippines and Thailand; acquired cocoa for its chocolates from plantations in Ivory Coast and Indonesia where the work force is made up of children, who are treated like slaves; and marketed infant formula to poor nations for years at the cost of thousands of infant lives.
We are deeply concerned about the increasing corporatisation of JNU, from academic research to the contracting out of basic services, as we do not believe this serves the interests of the students, the local community, or society at large. It only serves the interest of large corporations.
We support the demands of Students' Solidarity and the larger collective, Forum Against Corporatisation, and believe that the Campus Development Committee should scrap the contract with Nestle immediately.
Sincerely,
NAME AND CONTACT INFO
EMAIL IT TO:
studentsolidarity at rediffmail.com AND
gkchadha at mail.jnu.ac.in (Vice Chancellor of the Univeristy, G. K. Chadha);
rghosh at mail.jnu.ac.in, ghosh_r at vsnl.com (JNU Teachers' Association President, Rupamanjari Ghosh);
rohanxdsouza at yahoo.co.in (JNUTeachers' Association Joint Secretary)
rnmenon at mail.jnu.ac.in (Campus Development Committee Chairperson, R.N. Menon)
jnusu_campaigns at yahoo.co.in (JNU Students' Union President, Mona Das)
ahmar_bluez at yahoo.com (JNU Students' Union General Secretary, Muqbil Ahmar)
studentsolidarity at rediffmail.com, gkchadha at mail.jnu.ac.in, rghosh at mail.jnu.ac.in, ghosh_r at vsnl.com, rohanxdsouza at yahoo.co.in, rnmenon at mail.jnu.ac.in, jnusu_campaigns at yahoo.co.in, ahmar_bluez at yahoo.com
BACKGROUND:
- The campaign right now is to demand for the closure of the Nestle coffee outlet in campus. Nestle had signed a direct contract with the University administration. The contract comes up for review each year and the Campus Development Committee of the University has the choice to scrap the contract whenever it wants to.
- This year's review of the contract is happening at the Campus Development Committee meeting that is to be held sometime in the last days of this month. The Campus Development Committee comprises of members elected by the University administration. Although there are two representatives from the Teachers' Union and Students' Union who are invited to the Campus Development Committee meetings. If these four representatives put enough pressure in the CDC meeting, the contract could be scrapped.
- Student Solidarity (a platform that has been formed with the objective to campaign against the corporatisation of campus space) have been mounting pressure on the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student's Union to take the issue up with the administration. But the Students' Union, despite belonging to a mainstream left organisation, has been reluctant to do so. They have been reluctant because they as representatives of last year's Union had a major role in bringing Nestle into the campus in the first place. Now, even though they have realised the blunder they have committed, they have been trying to give justification for their actions to save face. The Students' Union president, belonging to another left organisation, has extended her support for the campaign but she is very much a minority voice within the Union.
- Although our immediate campaign is for the closure of the Nestle outlet in campus, our larger fight is against the increasing corporatisation of every sphere of University life. One can get an idea of the nature of our campaign and more details on what exactly has been happening in the campus from our blog:
http://studentsolidarity.blogspot.com. The blog basically contains the four main pamphlets we came out with on the issue. - We would really like to get some solidarity statements asap because enough pressure has to be put on the administration to scrap the contract at the meeting that is coming up at the end of this month. Pressure also needs to be put on the Students' Union and the Teachers' Union to take up the issue with the administration. The campus has been active in the last few days with many public meetings on the implications of corporatisation, numerous pamphlets being circulated, door to door campaigning etc.