Human rights activists in London may be interested in this important & impressive event next Saturday, May 21st. The Jaipur Literature Festival is a prestigious annual event in India which is holding an event in London sponsored by Vedanta. Because of Vedanta sponsorship, human rights activists are calling for writers & others to boycott the festival & will be holding a rally against it. It isn’t the festival that is impressive but the opposition to it.
Vedanta is a metal & mining company owned by an Indian billionaire & headquartered in London with operations in India, Australia, Zambia, & South Africa. It has been developing commercial power stations in India. According to a 2015 article in the NY Times, Vedanta is “known in some parts of the world for having left financial & environmental problems in their wake.” If you read the introduction to this event, you will see that is an understatement covering a multitude of labor & environmental crimes.
The activists organizing this event highlight how culture is used by multinational corporations to cover for their criminality & cultivate effete pretensions as a mask for thuggery. The BDS movement has also highlighted that regrettable truth that culture is not neutral in the struggle for social transformation against inequality & brutality.
Please consider joining these activists–who have brilliantly elaborated the relationship between plunder & cultural pretensions–in kicking Vedanta’s ass.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1133540536709596/?active_tab=highlights