The Socialist 7 December 2011

Con-Dems pile on the misery: ‘Enough is enough’

Con-Dems pile on the misery - 'Enough is enough'

Eurozone crisis - capitalists have no solution

Cuts and misery - it doesn't have to be like this

Socialist MEP supports public sector strike

"The genie is out of the bottle"

30 November strike: a historic day!

Building a fighting union - interview with Steve Hedley

Defend the JIB, victory to the sparks!

Reinstate Paul Kelly: Solidarity with Portsmouth RMT

Workplace news in brief

Climate change and extreme weather

Homes Crisis: Fund housing need - not fat cat greed!

Portugal: Build on the general strike action

Ireland: Resist latest austerity attacks

Tamil Solidarity: Gearing up for 2012

Brazilian socialists remember Socrates

Theatre review

When workers planned production: the Lucas Aerospace plan

PDFs for this issue




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Tamil Solidarity: Gearing up for 2012

Manny Thain, Tamil Solidarity national secretary

Tamil Solidarity in Britain took the opportunity on Sunday to take stock of the campaign's progress and outline a plan for the year ahead. International coordinator, Senan, introduced a far-ranging discussion on the geopolitical situation in South Asia, as well as tracing the development of Tamil Solidarity which has established itself as a well-respected campaign among Tamil activists.

We will continue to strengthen our links with activists in Tamil Nadu, southern India, which were made in a visit earlier in the year. A petition and finance appeal are being launched to help with that work.

The meeting highlighted the incredibly successful hearing in the European parliament, organised in June alongside Paul Murphy, MEP for the Socialist Party in Ireland, and the left/green GUE/NGL group of MEPs.

The downfall of Liam Fox, former Tory defence minister, was also good to see, given his close connections with the Sri Lankan regime which was responsible for the massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils in 2009. Over a long period of time, Tamil Solidarity had drawn attention to Fox - including hand-delivering thousands of leaflets to Fox's constituents months before he resigned.

Our 700-strong protest in September outside the Indian high commission against the death penalty was also a landmark, as was the participation at the National Shop Stewards Network conference - an important link with leading trade union activists.

Keerthikan gave a brief report of his visit to Sri Lanka and the extremely difficult conditions faced by Tamil-speaking people there, effectively living in militarised zones. He has also been responsible for developing model campaigning activity in the northwest of England, something we aim to spread further afield.