South Asian Peoples Unity Conference 2009 - Toronto

Conference Objectives

South Asian Peoples Unity Conference: Unity against the Neoliberal World View (April 23 - 26 2009) We live in a world whose powerful players promote the doctrine of neoliberalism through the institutions of the IMF, World Bank and the WTO. They offer us a morally empty vision filled with hunger, poverty, environmental destruction, fundamentalism and ethnic division, militarism, and unequal economic development. But there is also a world in the minds and hearts of peoples all over the world which emerges in every struggle to challenge corporate globalism, the neoliberal doctrine, and the war mentality. To strengthen this we need the unity of working people across national borders which now serve to only weaken us in our separation through mutual ignorance, suspicion, and competition. How can we, South Asian people, collectively join to develop and promote an alternate world view within our region? The conference we propose for October 2008, in conjunction with the annual Ghadri Mela of the Greater Toronto Area, will bring together longstanding participants of this struggle to address this question, in part through the lens of the diaspora (those who no longer reside in South Asia) and in part through the necessities of the struggles in South Asia. Here we recognize that the peoples of South Asia include a large number of progressive and Left-leaning people in the diaspora (community-based + university-based as well as activist) who left our countries for political and economic reasons but are deeply concerned with the effects of neo-liberal agenda imposed forcibly on the masses. The participation in this conference of Left activists, party leaders, and intellectuals of social movements fighting on the front lines against the dominant neoliberal and military agenda will strengthen us in the diaspora to unite and in turn support the struggles in South Asia. The impact that we expect will encourage isolated progressive people to join our movement, create space for further growth of 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 dominate. Delegates from the US, UK or Europe will add to the consolidation of a space for discussion of diasporic issues as well as those of South Asian struggles. Hence, this conference will generate a multifaceted dialogue through Providing the space to talk and share across national borders, ideological lines, organizations, and issue-lines on ongoing strategies and struggles to challenge the entrenchment of a neoliberal and imperial military project in South Asia Providing a vigorous and politically realistic, Marxist, anti-imperialist and feminist intellectual and political space to think through the relevant issues Providing a space to link activists in the diaspora with struggles in South Asia Developing a sharpened understanding of the need to lower borders, and gaining clarity for a regional level framework to resolve particular issues. This in turn will allow us to think about long term strategies towards removing borders and uniting the people of South Asia. To participate or for more information, please email us at bashani2000@yahoo.com and sara.abraham@sympatico.ca  with your full affiliations and a short bio data