Nov 5
Speakers include members of the families affected by the decision, campaigners against extradition and community representatives
We very much welcome the decision not to extradite Gary McKinnon – we would not want his family to experience the pain, suffering and sense of betrayal which the family and friends of Babar and Talha have been enduring since they were extradited.
South Asia Solidarity Group condemns recent the attack on the Indian High Court and offers our deepest condolences to the families of those – mainly lawyers and witness due to appear in court -who lost their lives. Those who have dragged in Afzal Guru’s name and those in the Indian media who have eagerly followed are also to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Afzal Guru, who is a Kashmiri, was incarcerated as a consequence of a grave miscarriage of justice after an attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001. In that case the corruption of the police particularly those from the so-called Special Cell, and the bias of the media and the judiciary were fully exposed but ignored by the Indian government. Afzal Guru remains in jail with a death sentence hanging over him.
The following statements from Afzal himself and Afzal’s lawyer N.D. Pancholi are a response to the latest events.
Naeem Malik, revisits Hamza Alavi’s incisive analysis of the role of Pakistan’s military in the administration of the US Empire and discusses its relevance today
Writing in 1998 (Economic and Political Weekly June 20), Hamza Alavi, Read the rest of this entry »
by Ashley Smith, MRzine, October 27, 2009
Saadia Toor is an assistant professor at Staten Island College, author of a forthcoming book on Pakistan from Pluto Press, and part of the group Action for a Progressive Pakistan.
The Pakistani Army has launched a major offensive against Taliban forces in the province of Waziristan. What is behind this assault, and what impact will it have on the people there?
The Army had been warning ever since it attacked in Swat earlier this year that its next move would be inSouth Waziristan. This area is incredibly undeveloped and has become a stronghold of the Tehrik-e-TalibanPakistan(or TTP), which had been led by Baitullah Mehsud until he was killed in drone attack conducted by theU.S.earlier this year
A new study gives us the truest picture yet – in contrast to the CIA’s own account – of drones’ grim toll of ‘collateral damage’
An event in London marking the Bradford 12 thirtieth anniversary was a celebration and an education for resistance.
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Thirty years ago, on 10 July 1981, twelve young Asians were arrested and charged with conspiracy to cause explosions and to endanger life, after a crate of home-made milk-bottle petrol bombs was found. (In fact thirteen were arrested, but the thirteenth, the only woman, Shanaaz Ali, was released without charge.) A defence campaign was formed; thousands marched in Bradford and Leeds under the slogan ‘Whose conspiracy? Police conspiracy!’ and hundreds attended the trial each day. But the defence to the charges, not disclosed in advance of the trial so as to surprise the prosecution, was community self-defence. Yes, we made these petrol bombs, the young men said. We were forced to, to defend our communities from the threat of an invasion by the far-right National Front, against which we knew from previous experience there would be no police protection. The twelve and their legal team set out to educate the jury about the realities of racist violence for them, their families and for black people in Britain. The jury responded by acquitting them. Read the rest of this entry »
June 2002
Asian Women Unite! an umbrella group of Asian women’s organisations and many individuals in Britain are mobilising protest against the war under the banner of Asian Women United Against the War. We are women who have been at the forefront of fighting domestic violence, women engaged in struggles against racism, women from anti-imperialist organisations, women artists, writers and trade unionists. Read the rest of this entry »
23rd July, Khalili Theatre, SOAS, London WC1H 0XG
REGISTRATION: 10.30 am
SESSION 1 Legacies and lessons of the Bradford 12 11.00a Read the rest of this entry »
In July 1981, 12 young Asian men were arrested in dawn raids across Bradford and charged with conspiracy to make explosives and to cause explosions.
Almost a year later, following a trial which exposed the scale and intensity of everyday racist violence and the extent of police racism faced by their communities, they were all acquitted. Read the rest of this entry »
BRITISH SOUTH ASIAN GROUPS PROTEST CASTE AND GENDER VIOLENCE AND DEMAND JUSTICE FOR BANT SINGH!
A savage and barbaric assault by powerful Congress Party-backed Jat landlords has left Bant Singh, Dalit leader of the Mazdoor Mukti Morcha (All-India Agrarian Labour Association) in Mansa, Punjab, with both hands and one leg amputated. His ‘crime’ was his sustained resistance to upper caste power and violence, and in particular, his struggle to bring his minor daughter’s rapists to justice. This case is currently generating massive protests in Punjab.
The Aldwych
London WC1 (nearest tube: Holborn)
