Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA)

ASATA, the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, is a San Francisco Bay Area all-volunteer group working to educate, organize, and empower the Bay Area South Asian communities to end violence, oppression, racism and exploitation within and against our diverse communities.

Because most folks aren't able to make the Education Circle meeting
scheduled for Monday, January 10th, we are going to reschedule it for a
later date. A new announcement will be posted soon.

ASATA was busy in 2010, but we'll be even busier this year :) Click the Continue button below for details.

Monday 1/10- TO BE RESCHEDULED
Education Circle meeting

Monday 1/10
Coalition for a Safe San Francisco (http://safesf.org/) meeting

Tuesday 1/11
Muslim Circle strategy meeting

Thursday 1/13
Classism + Class Privilege workshop planning meeting

Friday 1/14
AAPIP Arab Middle Eastern Muslim South Asian
Civic Engagement Fund Learning Circle Meeting

Tuesday 1/18
Study Circle meeting

Tuesday 1/25
National Day of Action Against FBI Raids and Grand Jury Subpoenas
(through Coalition for a Safe San Francisco)

Sunday 2/6
General meeting

Wednesday 2/9
Teach-in: FBI Raids and Grand Jury Subpoenas: Know Your Rights and
Defend Your Communities
(through Coalition for a Safe San Francisco)

Join ASATA, Arab Resource and Organizing Center and our allies at tomorrow's SF Human Rights Commission hearing:

A CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION HEARING: 'Community Concerns of Racial and Religious Profiling, Surveillance of Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian Communities and the Potential Reactivation of SFPD Intelligence Gathering.'

Thursday, September 23, 2010 6:00 PM SF City Hall, Room 416

1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, San Francisco, California, 94102

The hearing will address the SF Police Department's call to re-start its intelligence unit (a.k.a. spying program). ASATA is a an active member of the Coalition for a Safe San Francisco, a grassroots alliance that pushed for the hearing. ASATA allies, please come out tomorrow to help stop the rising tide of Islamophobic and hate-filled practices!

More info at http://www.safesf.org

Creating Safety in the Bay Area, Pakistan, and Around the World

May 13, 2010

Last week, Faisal Shahzad was arrested for allegedly trying to set off a car bomb in New York's Times Square. Local and federal branches of U.S. government have responded by spreading hateful messages that feed into a renewed fear of immigrants. These messages put immigrant communities at risk of being targeted by racist violence in the U.S. and our homelands.

Mainstream media and many progressive groups within the U.S. have been noticeably silent about what these messages mean for the safety of immigrant communities in America. The Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA) is responding to this silence and countering some of the dangerous statements put out by government officials. Additionally, ASATA shares some thoughts on building the long-term, broad-based, multi-issue alliances needed to counter violent government repression that is currently targeting Muslims, South Asians, Arabs and members of other immigrant communities.

In President Obama’s inauguration speech, he said: "We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." We agree with that message. But we’re seeing government agencies do the exact opposite.

Boycott Israel? Amitav Ghosh & the Dan David Prize

Dear Amitav Ghosh,

We wish to express our deep disappointment in your decision to accept the Dan David prize, administered by Tel Aviv University and to be awarded by the President of Israel. As a writer whose work has dwelled consistently on histories of colonialism and displacement, your refusal to take stance on the colonial question in the case of Israel and the occupation of Palestine has provoked deep dismay, frustration, and puzzlement among readers and fans of your work around the world. Many admired your principled stand, and respected your decision not to accept the Commonwealth Writers Prize in rejection of the colonialist framework it represented.

As scholars, writers, and activists of South Asian origin and those working on South Asia and on anti-racist, anti-colonial, anti-imperial politics at large, based largely in the United States like you, but also in South Asia, we think this is an important moment to consider the reasons why South Asians should take a principled stand, along with others, in refusing to legitimize a state guilty of war crimes and illegal occupation and instead joining the growing movement for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel.

The coordinators are restructuring ASATA general meetings to make them more exciting and useful for our members :)

Till then, members are welcome to plug into the Education Circle meetings (it meets 2x/month), ASATA's work for the US Social Forum, and our online conversations. We're also hard at work on our member survey, which will help shape the direction of ASATA.

The best place to keep up with all the meetings, events and discussions is our members-only ASATA-internal listserv.

There's also our (high-traffic) Yahoo! group, which has current events from the South Asian diaspora and a whole lot more. Click on the "Get Involved!" link at the top left of this page to sign up.

If you're a member but you're not on the listserv, or if you want to meet up with a coord to share feedback or ask a question, email us at asata_coords@asata.org.

love,

ASATA coords

From Arizona to Afghanistan, No One Is Illegal!

The Land Belongs to the People who Work It!

International Workers Day- Fruitvale Rally and March
Saturday, May 1st

1pm-2pm program at Fruitvale BART Plaza

2pm March to Federal Building

In the midst of national marches for immigration reform, attacks on immigrant communities and working class people still continue.

Please join the ASATA coords for the May Day march and rally for workers rights and immigrant rights: 1pm-2pm at Fruitvale BART Plaza.

An Open Letter to Our Communities
With Love and Solidarity
from The Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA)

We are saddened to learn about recent violent acts against members of our communities here in the Bay Area. We are equally saddened to learn about some proposed responses that will further attack our communities.

Quick Details:

A coalition of South Asian community members, agencies and allies is hosting a vigil to remember the life of Seetha Vemireddy. One of the many victims of Lakireddy Bali Reddy, she died of carbon monoxide poisoning on November 24, 1999.

November 20th Action
Time: Noon
Location: in front of Pasand Restaurant (2286 Shattuck Ave. near downtown berkeley BART station)

Action: The rally will gather for 20 minutes and then march to Bancroft to the building where Seetha (also referred to as Chanti) died, for a memorial and press conference. (please NOTE we will NOT be traveling to city hall)

A beautiful day, good people and a powerful rally. But, we certainly needed more South Asian representation ...

photo credit: Poonam from Design Action, Thanks!

We at ASATA oppose the continuing domestic “war on terrorism” and “war on immigrants”: movements that we understand as intricately linked.

For us, opposition to and mobilization around the various versions of HR4437 means showing our solidarity with other immigrant communities, particularly our Latino brothers and sisters, as they fight what is also our fight.

Immigration to this country does not denote positions of privilege, but of plight. The majority of us did not make a decision to migrate from our homes, families, and communities: we were forced here by the violent effects of global economic inequity. The U.S. government is using a double-edged sword as it coerces countries in the Majority World into Free Trade Agreements and then simultaneously criminalizes the people displaced by them.

We’re heartbroken. Birjinder Anant died last week in Oakland.

We knew him as a builder of activist movements, teller of bad jokes, reader of good books, connector of communities, tapper of shoulders, and a good friend to so many of us.

Birjinder has been the heart and soul of ASATA since his first meeting on September 18, 2001. His strength, commitment, and humility were an inspiration to many, and he was a driving force behind much Asian American and South Asian American activist work in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. His loss has truly shaken us. We offer our deepest condolences to others who knew and loved Birjinder as we did.