The South Asian Peoples Forum is holding a 4 day conference from April 23-26, 2009, to address the crises facing our respective countries and how we can build unity across borders to jointly tackle the problems of sub-nationalism, militarism, conflict, and poverty. Speakers and activists from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal as well as from Canada, the US and the UK will discuss people’s common struggles against poverty, militarism, insecurity, and racism, and the women’s movements in the region.
The Opening will be on Thursday, April 23rd, at 6:30 pm at the University of Toronto, Law school, 78 Queens Park.
Abid Hassan Minto, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of Pakistan, and President of the National Workers Party, Pakistan will be the Featured Speaker, along with Dr Sherene Razack, Professor at OISE. There will be music and a reception that follows the lectures. The registration fee for the conference is $15 including the Opening Reception.
The panels from the 23-26th will cover Imperialism and South Asia, Violence and the South Asian State, a special discussion on the conflict in Sri Lanka, and Neo-liberalism and Resistance. The question we want to raise through this conference is, how can we, South Asian people, collectively join to develop an alternative view of our region which reflects our minds and hearts – for a region without conflict, wars, borders, insecurity, violence and poverty. We have brought together valuable thinkers and activists from the region and the diaspora to lead us in this discussion. We also recognize that the peoples of South Asia include a large number of progressive and Left-leaning people in the diaspora who left our countries for political and economic and sometimes family reasons but are deeply concerned with the political and economic situation of South Asia.
We intend that the impact of the conference will encourage isolated people to join our movement, create space for further South Asian Left ideas in the diaspora amongst multiple generations, and will strengthen our ability to counteract the existing religious and right wing networks that are bringing our region to destruction. The conference will generate a space for this multi-faceted dialogue.
There will also be a special international literary session on Sunday 26th at the Port Credit School, 70 Mineola Road East, Mississauga at 2:30 pm.
The conference will conclude on April 26th night with the 2nd annual Faiz Peace Festival held in coordination with the first International Festival of Poetry of Resistance, Toronto. This will be at 7:00 pm at the Port Credit School.
This conference is organized jointly by the South Asian Peoples Forum, the Ghadar Heritage Foundation, the Association of Indian Progressive Study Groups (AIPSG), and is co-sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Canada, and the South Asia Programs at York University and the University of Toronto, and with the support of many donors.
Please contact sara.abraham@sympatico.ca for a full program of the conference. Please contact 416-399-7602, or 416-856-7212 or bashani2000@yahoo.com for tickets for the Faiz Mela.