Manny Thain
Tamil Solidarity’s protest against the 2013 Commonwealth meeting, due to take place in November in Sri Lanka, received a boost from the London region executive council of the RMT transport workers union.
It took a unanimous decision to affiliate to Tamil Solidarity and to take up the protest, after hearing from Isai Priya, a member of the campaign’s national coordinating committee.
She expressed the outrage of the Tamil community at the decision to hold the meeting in Sri Lanka, as this will give a world stage to the authoritarian president, Mahinda Rajapaksa.
His regime stands accused of the most vicious war crimes, including the massacres of many tens of thousands of Tamil-speaking people in the first half of 2009.
Isai also condemned the decision to send Prime Minister David Cameron and Prince Charles to represent the British government and crown at the Commonwealth.
Tamil Solidarity has drawn up a protest letter – available at www.tamilsolidarity.org – for union branches, student and community groups to pass.
