A further march in support of the self-determination of Kashmiri’s against the human rights abuses inflicted by the Indian government is taking place in Birmingham tomorrow.
The protest follows a major march three weeks ago with speakers such as Unite’s Howard Beckett and Salma Yaqoob, which drew large crowds.
Speaking at tomorrow’s event will be well-known figures on the left, including Asif Mohammed, Melanie Dudley, Cllr Majid Mahmood, Gill Ogilivie, Aleesha , Cllr Ahmed Bostan, Cllr Mohammed Aikhlaq, Cllr Diane Donaldson, Unite’s Zahira Bashir and Stop the War representatives Abu Alamgir and Stuart Richardson.
The event will start from Victoria Square in Birmingham, starting at 3pm and running until around 5pm.
A further march takes place in London next Tuesday, 3 September at noon and will move from Hyde Park via Parliament Square to the Indian High Commission.
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Narendra Modi must be shaking in his boots in terror at this Birmingham event!
All the same, attending that gathering would be miles better than going on the Momentum Demonstration in Favour of Permanent Privatisation (i.e. in support of their beloved European Union and its immutable neoliberal law).
I know little about the situation but if self-determination is conceded by India must not Pakistan do the same – and must not each replace its ‘military assistance’ with the financial assistance Kashmir will need for the infrastructure to support independence – and jointly guarantee Kashmir’s security and freedom from occupation by either?
An optimist might hope that the two superpowers would then compete over the size and quality of their infrastructure contributions instead of competing militarily for influence.
Not sure marches in the UK will help anything.
Let’s hope greater tension between our Indian- and Pakistani-heritage brothers and sisters doesn’t result.
“Not sure marches in the UK will help anything”
I reckon you are probably right in practical terms. But, let’s face it – that’s true about most marches. Remember Iraq? And Palestine is still occupied and ethnically cleansed.
There is probably an issue about raising awareness in the longer term, however, and both of the above cases haven’t gone well for the image of the perpetrators.
Perhaps also, there’s a moral issue about owning up to British-assisted disasters.
As a P.S. : few now take Britain seriously on the world stage, anyway, and post-Brexit we’ll be licking India’s boots for some sort of trade deal.
“As a P.S. : few now take Britain seriously on the world stage, anyway,”
I see the term ‘perfidious albion’ is starting to make a bit of a come back.
UKs bombs, regime change support for terrorists, sanctions etc. are taken most seriously by those on the receiving end.
UK isn’t trusted diplomatically or in agreements and is catching up to the mistrust of US on that score… the main difference being the scale of assaults on the same countries and their people, economies, infrastructure and societies. Bombs used directly or by proxies, proxy terrorists and mercenaries and vicious propaganda and one sided narrative campaigns and omissions are on the rise in keeping support/minimising dissent along with a perverse rationale justifying such policies to domestic citizens and politicians.
Maria, when May’s ‘negotiators’ first hinted at a tax haven on the EU’s doorstep I saw it as a massively stupid D’OH! moment that would damage the UK’s chances of trade deals everywhere by reminding the world what a bully the british empire always was.
Smarmy Eton brat Johnson being PM just compounds the UK’s image problem.
David McNiven, the world is well aware that UK/Britain already runs a massive tax haven and money laundering operation with CoL as the hub, targetting the EU specifically I expect was a mixture of hubris, image projection (strong woman) and a possible further opportunity to siphon even more wealth to the tax avoiding wealthiest and major criminal enterprises on the planet.. Have you seen this documentary?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np_ylvc8Zj8
Prof Michael Hudson is worth looking up on this subject re how US took the lead from Britain/UK to avoid tax on it’s oil business and launder major criminal networks that deal in cash covertly.
It’s worth adding that the emphasis on the dodgy money industry is one of the major contributing factors to the raddled sf the economic structure of the country. It’s a downward spiral that allows the chancers who make up the ERG etc. to walk away from the general decline with fully filled boots.
The source of ‘Remain’ for many of us is not about unrealism about the EU, but rather a working economic knowledge of where Brexit is actually coming from – and why it compounds existing problems.