Youth groups from across India and Australia will launch a global Week of Action against Adani from January 27th - February 2nd, highlighting Adani's destruction of local communities, the environment and global climate. The Australian-based #StopAdani movement stands in solidarity with young people across India and Australia who are working to stop Adani destroying their future. Below is a press release from Youth Action to Stop Adani (YAStA).

PRESS STATEMENT – Youth Action to Stop Adani (YAStA)

Indian, Australian Youth Groups Launch Global Week of Action Targeting Adani

Even as opposition to Adani’s megaport proposal in Kattupalli is building up, more than 25 youth groups, including from Tamil Nadu, have launched a global call for a week of action targeting Adani.

16 January, 2021 – YAStA is a call to action by youth groups from around the world to Stop Adani from subverting democracies, suppressing community voices, harassing its critics, taking over lands belonging and used by aboriginal, indigenous, farming and fishing communities, degrading the environment, aggravating the climate crisis, endangering our future, eroding livelihoods and obliterating cultures and identities. Inspired by global efforts to #StopAdani, YAStA is calling for a Global Week of Action to Stop Adani from 27th January 2021 to 2nd February 2021 (World Wetlands Day).

The farmers' protest outside Delhi highlights the depths to which corporate control the Indian government. Adani, which added $19 billion to its wealth during the COVID lockdown, is considered one of the big beneficiaries of the Farm Laws. In every location where local communities are fighting Adani's business ventures, the campaign is also to reclaim their own governments to work for the electorate rather than for Adani.

Adani's businesses and proposals have dangerous ramifications for the environment. By taking over farmlands, commons, wetlands, seascapes and lands sacred to Aboriginal and Indigenous communities for mega ports, coal mines and carbon-intensive industries, Adani’s proposals end up impoverishing communities and aggravating the climate crisis. Adani's response to community campaigns has also been vicious. By branding dissenting communities as anti-development and anti-national, it goads democratically elected governments to turn against their own citizens. It must be said that Adani is not the only corporation to behave in this manner. However, as the experience of communities from India and Australia suggests, Adani symbolises the dangers of untrammelled corporate power.

As youth from across the world, we are very concerned for our future. We are convinced that a world under corporations will only enrich shareholders by robbing the environment, communities and generations to come. We extend our solidarity to the farmers protesting outside Delhi for fair prices for their produce and for more control over their own destinies. We also stand shoulder to shoulder with the communities challenging corporate power, particularly in places like:

• Australia where citizens and aboriginal communities are challenging Adani's coal mine and port proposals;
• Vizhinjam, Kerala, where communities are faced with loss of land due to erosion triggered by Adani’s container port;
• Goa where villagers are fighting a government hell-bent on favouring Adani, Vedanta and Jindal by double-tracking a railway line through forests, farmlands and villages;
• Godda, Jharkhand where communities are being evicted from their lands to make way for a Adani power plant
• Kattupalli island, Tamil Nadu, where fisher folk and Chennai residents are fighting Adani plans to construct a mega port by converting 2000 acres of sea into land
• Hasdeo Arand, Chattisgarh, and Hazaribagh, Jharkhand, where Adivasi and other farming communities are fighting to protect their farmlands and forests from coal mining.

The Global Week of Action will feature actions highlighting the problems caused by Adani’s business plans. We invite you to be part of the global movement to reclaim democracy, expose crony capitalism and challenge corporate power.

Youth groups in solidarity with Youth Action to Stop Adani: Chennai Climate Action Group, Dynamic Action Group Kerala, Extinction Rebellion India, FFF India, Goyant Kollso Naka, LetIndiaBreathe, Muse Foundation, National Alliance for People’s Movement Keralam, Poovulagin Nanbargal Youth, Vibgyor Film Collective, Young People for Politics, Yugma Network, Adivasi Lives Matter, Campus front of india (Tamilnadu), Dulkal Library, Green EIA movement, Jaladarsha Collective, Life on Land, Lokayat, Makkal Pathai, SAPACC Youth, School Strike for Climate (Australia), Sirar Kalam, Youth for Climate India, Youth4Swaraj, Yuva Safar - Jan Awaaz, Zenith Tuition Centre