London protest against Modi’s racist law

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Sara Rajan, Tamil Solidarity

Tamil Solidarity called a London demonstration, involving various organisations, to protest the racist, anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) imposed by the Modi government in India.

Nearly 1,000 people participated in solidarity with the people who are protesting in the streets of India. There was a huge range of speakers.

But speaking from Tamil Solidarity, I was the only one to mention the 8 January 250 million-strong general strike in India. This showed the potential power of the working class.

I pointed out that this is the aggregated anger against Modi’s repressive policies. I also mentioned the need for a strong coalition of trade unions and left organisations to build a mass working-class movement. People cheered from the crowd on hearing this.

The Socialist Party also participated. The Socialist paper featured a report of the general strike and a strategy on how to defeat the racist law, written by New Socialist Alternative – the Socialist Party’s sister party in India – as well as a report of Tamil Solidarity’s annual general meeting. 25 people bought a copy.

From Downing Street, the protestors marched to the Indian High Commission. Our Tamil Solidarity contingent was energetic and loud.Our member Mathan grabbed the crowd’s attention with our demands and slogans.

Read ‘India: Huge general strike but a missed opportunity’ and ‘Building Tamil Solidarity with youth and the trade unions’ at socialistparty.org.uk