From Dhaka to Gaza, up the student intifada!
Join in solidarity with students fighting for liberation across the world
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Dear comrades
How is your heart? Can you send it some love?
How is your breath? Can you notice it?
How is your body? Can you find some part of it that feels good?
We know so many of you have been showing up in solidarity with peoples across the word, fighting those in power to cut ties with genocidal regimes, holding your government and institutions to account and putting your bodies on the line. We see you and we remind ourselves that our struggles are deeply connected. We recommit to our core strategies - revolt, organise and transform - and invite you to come along with us. Find out about our upcoming gatherings below.
As we continue to fight for liberation for Palestine, Congo, Sudan and across the world, the student movement sweeping across Bangladesh is demanding an end to the quota system. One thing is clear - the students united, will never be defeated! If you want to learn more about what’s happening, check out the resources below.
In Solidarity,
The Rights Collective
🎥 Community Film Screenings
Film Screening and Q&A - Walter Rodney: What They Don't Want You to Know
Walter Rodney: What They Don’t Want You to Know is an original 72-minute documentary featuring a murder, Cold War conspiracies, Black Power, the end of Empire, and how that connects to the policing, surveillance practices, and social movements of today. This is the first film where Walter’s widow reveals the personal impact on the family of Walter’s assassination. It feeds a growing global appetite for history from a different perspective, as we grapple with the legacy of empire and colonialism and its impact on the modern world. Contributors include Angela Davis, Gina Miller, former President of Guyana Donald Ramotar, Edward and Donald Rodney, and Walter’s wife Patricia Rodney, as well as prominent historians. The film premiered at the British Film Institute largest screen to a sell-out audience of 450, the BFI is Britain’s most prestigious film organisation.
The documentary uses declassified security service documents, revealing interviews and reconstruction to tell an important, yet little known story. Filmed with local crews in six countries in the Caribbean, US, Africa, and the UK detailing Rodney’s global influence.
Supported by The Walter Rodney Foundation & The Ameena Gafoor Institute
Community Film Screening & Panel: 'Keenie Meenie' & 'This Land Belongs to the Army'
To mark 41 years since the Black July anti-Tamil pogroms, join us for this community film screening and panel discussion. We will be highlighting British complicity in the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka as well as continued colonisation by the Sri Lankan state, linked to Israeli state practices.
We will be showing excerpts from the below films:
Keenie Meenie: Britain's Private Army (2020 - dir. Phil Miller), exposes the covert operations of the British mercenary group known as ‘Keanie Meanie Services’, and the significant role they played in the state violence and atrocities perpetrated against the Tamil people. Through interviews and rare archival footage the film uncovers secret diplomatic cables and meets insiders who reveal the British government’s covert support for Keenie Meenie – and the continuing cover-up.
This Land Belongs to the Army (2014 - dir. Maga Tamizh Prabhagaran), offers an unflinching look at the systematic militarisation of the Tamil homeland. The documentary follows the lives of Tamil families who have been forcibly displaced from their homes and lands, now occupied by the Sri Lankan military. This film connects these colonial practices, of land-grabs and ‘Sinhalisation’, to those used to subjugate Palestinians, mirrored by the Israeli state.
After the screening we will be holding a panel with Tamil academics and organisers to collectively explore these topics further.
In the spirit of transnational solidarity, we recognise the interconnectedness of liberation struggles worldwide. As we stand with the Tamil people in their fight for justice and self-determination, we draw parallels with the ongoing occupation and genocide in Palestine. Our shared struggles remind us of the urgent need for global solidarity in the face of state violence and colonialism.
Please note that this event has now sold out and we are operating a waiting list. If you’d like to join the waiting list, please click below.
Steward our South Asians 4 Palestine bloc! 🍉
We’re looking for stewards for our South Asians 4 Palestine bloc for the upcoming National March for Palestine. We need comrades to support us in the formation of the bloc and keeping each other safe. If this sounds like something you can do, please email us!
From Dhaka to Gaza…
For over three weeks now, students in Bangladesh have been out on the streets protesting against the quota system. They have been met by brutal force, often lethal, by government troops and are currently facing a nation-wide communications blackout.
There is a long history of student mobilisation against tyranny going back to the independence of Bangladesh. Students have been at the fore front of revolution against oppression and autocracies - and they need our continued support.
Some resources to start..
“What we are seeing right now is a complex interplay of government shortcomings, inequality and youth disenfranchisement and disenchantment with the government of Sheikh Hasina.” - Read on for more.
Nijjor Manush organised a rally in East London last weekend to show solidarity with the student uprisings. They also read out the 9 demands by the protestors. You can watch the video below.
Most of our spaces, workshops and events are free but if you feel called to contribute to the community and invest in sustaining our work, please donate here.