Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA)

ASATA formed in January of 2000 in direct response to the charges against Berkeley landlord, Lakireddy Bali Reddy, who was convicted of bringing 25-100 people from his village in India to work for little or no pay in his restaurants and businesses. He was also convicted of trafficking at least 3 girls, some minors, for forced sex. ASATA focused on reframing the issues in the case from immigration fraud and sex scandal to issues of sexual and labor trafficking and exploitation, and urged the South Asian community to hold Reddy accountable for his exploitative actions.

Our actions:

• Outreach to undocumented workers
• General community education through workshops and conferences
• Continual contact with the media through actions at all of the hearings
• Letter writing campaigns
• Vigil for victims

After September 11th, ASATA’s work involved combating the environment of hate inspired by the media, the United States government, and those spreading anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment. Our strategies involved education and awareness work, community outreach, media work, and working in solidarity with other social justice groups. ASATA organized and helped facilitate a training workshop for Bay Area high school students to train them on Berkeley High School students, “Unlearning Hate” presentation, which was created and successfully used at Berkeley High School to create a safe environment for students on campus. We also engaged in outreach to the South Asian American community to provide community members with hate crime/hate violence and Know Your Rights resources.

From April 2002 to May 2003, ASATA was part of the United Response Collaborative (URC), which consisted of five organizations serving the Bay Area Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities that provided direct assistance to and advocacy for victims of hate violence, with the intention of creating a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and coordinated approach that includes community organizing and empowerment, health education, strategic planning and organizational development.

Our actions:

• Education and awareness work (e.g. “Unlearning Hate” workshop for Bay Area high school students)
• Community outreach on hate crime/violence and civil rights (at Navaratri Garba-Raas, Durga Puja, Indo/Pak Independence Days, gurdwaras, mosques, and a host of other sites and events)
• Media contact to bring cases and issues to light
• Extensive coalition work with other social justice groups
• Member of the United Response Collaborative, a Bay Area multi-ethnic/religious alliance assisting victims, and doing education and organizing work in targeted communities.

Along with hate violence, targeted immigrant communities still continue to face an increase in profiling, questionings, raids, detentions, and deportations after 9/11, trends which have been difficult to track and evaluate because of a lack of institutional transparency. ASATA has worked to track and address these trends, doing extensive followup work on a large number of cases, to assist communities and increase public awareness of the conditions on the ground, and support the capacity of affected communities to know and exercise their rights.

Our actions:

• Information-gathering on post-9/11 detentions via community outreach and building a coalition of advocacy groups
• Information-gathering on Northern California detainee situation by community outreach
• Worked with organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Lawyer’s Guild (NLG), and the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) to attempt to run “Know Your Rights” presentations in INS facilities
• Worked with a wide array of groups to keep abreast of incidents affecting our communities
• Direct outreach, fact-finding, and resource-sharing with various affected communities
• Spoke out about what we found to the media and allies

Towards the end of 2002, the INS introduced Special Registration (NSEERS), a program requiring immigrant men and boys from primarily Muslim countries to register, get fingerprinted, interrogated and photographed at INS locations across the country. Thousands of immigrants were affected in the Bay Area, including men and boys from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Around this dangerous scenario for members of the community, ASATA engaged in a massive campaign to directly support affected communities, while working with advocates to campaign for immigrant rights, and successfully shut down the program.

Our actions:

• Developed broad-based coalitions with community and immigrant advocacy groups
• Kept abreast of a highly confusing, rapidly changing situation with the help of allies and community members
• Developed legal rights educational pamphlets, widely used by allies and community members
• Distributed legal rights educational pamphlets to a wide array of venues and organizations
• Held free legal clinics for those unable to afford an immigration attorney
• Conducted in-person outreach to apprise those affected of their rights, at community spaces, places of worship, etc.
• Monitored INS facilities in San Francisco and San Jose to maintain a log of special registrants, inform family members in cases of detentions, provide support and legal advice to those about to register, and observe INS officials during the process

ASATA has worked with in coalition with other South Asian and People of Color groups to speak out loudly for peace, and against neocolonial wars. We see linkages between the racism we see targeted against our communities domestically, histories of empire in South Asia, and the way that we engage in neocolonial wars in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine.

Our actions:

• Active involvement with local South Asian American anti-war groupings, including DESIst (2005-) and South Asians Against the War (2001-2004)
• Involvement with APICAW and other anti-war PoC coalitions
• Member, Justice in Palestine coalition
• Organizing South Asian community contingents at area peace marches
• Speakouts at anti-war events
• Media messaging about our issues

While our group is not primarily South Asia-focused, we see strong and explicit linkages between human rights issues in the United States, and those in South Asia. We stand with our allies for human rights and Indo-Pakistan peace, and against caste and communal oppressions, particularly in those areas where we are best able to leverage our position as South Asian Americans.

Our actions:

• Involvement in Indo-Pakistan peace events
• Organizing around a Bay Area rape case impacted by overtones of communal violence
• Support for Bhopal solidarity actions

ASATA mobilized the Concerned Desis Against 54 coalition to campaign against an October 2003 California ballot measure that would prevent state agencies from collecting race data, crucial for understanding hate crimes, job discrimination, race-specific health issues, etc. Although overshadowed by the gubernatorial race involving Arnold Schwarzenegger, ASATA and other communities of color were able to successfully mobilize to help in Proposition 54’s defeat. We mobilized on a variety of fronts, to increase community awareness of the issues involved.

Our actions:

• Created Northern California coalition of eight South Asian organizations against Proposition 54
• Engaged in direct outreach and education to community members in person and by phonebanking
• Advocated loudly against Proposition 54 in ethnic media