INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

BUILDING PEOPLE’S UNITY TO SECURE SOUTH ASIA FOR THE PEOPLES OF SOUTH ASIA

April 23-26, 2009
University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

The current geopolitics of South Asia threatens a regional and global war that can devastate the countries and peoples of the region. This conference is being organized jointly by the South Asian Peoples Forum, the Ghadar Heritage Foundation and the Association of Indian Progressive Study Groups (AIPSG) to build the unity of the peoples across borders who alone can stop such wars. 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 in defense of their rights in all the countries and the ways to unite them for stopping the war and war preparations in the region.

The conference will discuss issues such as geopolitics of South Asia, divisions and violence in South Asia as well as the resistance struggles in all the countries. The movements of women in different countries and Canada-South Asia Labor solidarity will be addressed in separate panels. Special Discussions on Sri Lanka and Kashmir will take place during the conference.
Abid Hasan Minto, Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of Pakistan has been invited to be the featured speaker for the Opening.

The conference will conclude on April 26th with the SEcond Annual Faiz Peace Festival held in conjuction with the First International Festival of Poetry of Resistance in Toronto
The conference is being co-sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Canada, and the South Asia Programs at York University and the University of Toronto.

For more information please visit www.sapf.ca, www.geocities.com/aipsg, or call 416-856-7212.

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Second International Faiz Peace Festival

Second International Faiz Peace Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
25 February, 2009

TORONTO (ON) The second International Faiz Ahmed Faiz Peace Festival will take place in Toronto on April 26, 2009.Writers, poets and activists from the Greater Toronto Area and from around the world will gather to oppose the culture of war and violence and to promote in their stead, peace, democracy, and social justice. The gathering will include participants attending the concurrent First International Festival of Poetry of Resistance, Toronto, and the South Asian Peoples Unity Conference, Toronto. The Festival is being sponsored by the South Asian Peoples Forum.

The Festival programme includes poetry and paper readings, presentations, dance, and music. International and local personages expected to attend include Muneeza Hashmi, daughter of Faiz Ahmed Faiz from Pakistan, Nancy Morejon, Poet Laureate of Cuba, Allison Hedge Coke, the Reynolds Chair at the University of Nebraska, USA, Gary Geddes, Lieutenant-Governor Award winner in B.C., Canada, Marilyn Lerch, President of the New Brunswick Writers’ Federation, Canada, Jorge Etcheverry, Ambassador in Canada of Poetas del Mundo. Published poets from France, Brazil, and other countries will also attend. The South Asian writers and activists expected to attend include Hamid Akhtar, Muno Bhai, and Abid Hussain Minto from Pakistan and Soma Marik from India. Rekha Suria from India will be the lead singer along with local Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Indian artistes. Community and youth groups will participate through audio visual presentations and cultural performances.

The Festival will take place at the Port Credit Secondary School Auditorium, in Mississauga, from 6 pm. Around 600 people are expected to attend.

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Oppose War and War Preparations in South Asia!

Oppose War and War Preparations in South Asia!

Joint statement by the South Asian People’s Forum, Ghadar Heritage Foundation and the Association of Indian Progressive Study Groups (AIPSG)

The question in the first decade of the 21st century has emerged as how to avert the war that the big powers are preparing in South Asia. The new U.S. administration has articulated a militarist agenda for South Asia. Under the pretext of hunting for terrorists, the Americans plan to mobilize NATO and other allies to deepen their occupation of Afghanistan and enter Pakistan. It is up to the people of the world and the people of South Asia in particular to stop such intervention and bring an end to the current occupation. The times require the building of a movement against war and war-aims to also ensure that war does not become the means for the big powers to emerge out of the current economic, political and military crises engulfing the world.

An occupation army in Afghanistan is already killing innocent people; and Pakistan’s territory is being bombed everyday by the US. The secret agencies of the US and allied countries are roaming through South Asia under the pretext of capturing terrorists. Their fore-most aim in these countries is to secure a strategic advantage and lay hands on the resources and markets. War will provide them with the best opportunity to accomplish those aims. People in all the countries of South Asia are already waging resistance struggles against the neoliberal offensive and violation of rights and they can avert the march to war through their united opposition.
India and other countries of South Asia have been building their military machines and linking their military with the U.S. and other big powers for some time. Occupation and aggression from abroad can become the occasion for war amongst the countries of South Asia to settle old scores and pursue their own ambitions. We have a duty to support the people’s struggles being waged in the countries of South Asia through our struggles for the same aims, irrespective of where we live.

Please participate in the conference and help build this movement against war as our contribution to world peace in the 21st century!

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