On the Nightmare we see...

A Spectre is haunting JNU – The Spectre of Corporatisation.

It was sometime in the middle of March that the Nestle outlet began to show its ugly head in the campus. Pamphlets and posters were written and drawn exposing the ethical issues involved in allowing a giant Multi-National Corporation open its outlet in the campus. Most Student organizations from left to right exchanged angry pamphlets, made a lot of noise, signifying nothing. The polemics contained little or no substance, exposing nothing but the ideological and moral bankruptcy of the student organizations. While all this was happening, Nestle sat around and continued to churn the blood of millions of babies, workers and children into coffee. By the way if one thinks it is coffee that is being sold in that outlet, may be you haven’t tasted real coffee. In any case, even if it is real coffee, it is only right that an academic community looks into the politics behind that coffee.

Nestle, the big swiss food company whose criminal record gets covered up under all that gloss and colour. Nestle’s corporate crimes include violation of the marketing code introduced to regulate the marketing of breastmilk substitute, leading to malnourishment and death of large number of infants; violation of workers’ rights and violent suppression of workers’ unions especially in countries like Colombia, Philippines and Thailand; acquiring of cocoa for its chocolates from plantations in Ivory Coast and Indonesia where the work force comprises of children, who are treated more or less as slaves.

Even if our conscience is not disturbed by these facts, then we at least need to be concerned when our university administration signs a contract with such big corporate criminals. Products marketed by such corporate criminals are everywhere on campus and most times we are left with no choice but to consume them. However, when they come and make underhand dealings with the university administration, we are asking the Devil himself to come and live in our homes. And the Devil is not as naïve as us. He has his own plans and interests; after all he is out to make profits. The campus space is something that the JNU community cherishes. Its democratic and liberal character is something the students, faculty and karamcharis have enjoyed over the years. Now, this is being sold to satisfy the interests of the corporate powers like Nestle, Group 4-Falck (who is notorious for “maintaining security” in Israeli occupied Palestine) and Tata Indicom. This is only the beginning. Tomorrow many more of them will come and knock at the door. If we continue to let them in, the campus will no longer be ours. It will become yet another space colonized by corporate interests. When one lives under corporate rule, one will no longer have the democratic space to make any institution in the campus accountable. It is not we who decide what we need but some CEO sitting in some plush office, well hidden from the gaze of the public.

Keeping the corporates away from messing around with our lives doesn’t mean we don’t need places to drink coffee or to make phone calls. We do need those places but controlled by persons or institutions that are most deserving in our society and those who can be accountable to the JNU community. For example, a co-operative of small coffee cultivators or persons who are physically challenged can be given the space to do business, making their ends meet and satisfying our need for coffee and phone calls, instead of some huge corporations with too many criminal involvements.

Let it be said that the talk of corporate invasion is not the nightmare of a bunch of schizophrenics. But, this is a nightmare that many in the campus, across party and ideological lines, across student, faculty and karamchari divisions see. And one shouldn’t forget that this nightmare has become a reality in many university campuses around the world where from the topics and findings of academic research to the courses offered to the lifestyles lived, all are now determined by corporates and not by the students and faculties. Therefore, before it is too late it is important that the student community, especially the JNU Students’ Union take a clear stand against this corporatisation of our spaces and minds, and bring to light how the Nestle contract was signed and also the conditions of that contract. In a democratic structure it is the right of every student to know how and what decisions regarding their lives are taken. Nothing can be hidden away with the help of empty words and rhetoric.

“If injustice is the order of the day
then disorder is the beginning of justice”
- Romain Rolland

[Although posted now it was written on August 6, 2004]