Demonstration Against Indian Facism

New York City, March 20, 2005

Demonstration Against Fascist Leader Narendra
Modi
Responsible for the Massacre of More than 2000 Indians
Madison Square Garden, March 20, 2005 4:30 pm

For more info: email: Coalition Against Genocide, or call: 917 232
8437, or visit coalitionagainstgenocide.org (Please also forward
this alert).

You may remember the massacre of more than 2000
Indians (mostly Muslim and Christian minorities) and
the brutal rapes of hundreds of women and young girls
in March 2002 in the western Indian state of Gujarat
by the forces of the Hindu extremist neo-fascist
movement in India (Hindutva) with full complicity and
support from the State government. Many of us saw that
event as a watershed event (paralleling in our minds,
Kristallnacht in Nazi Germany) in the emergence of
fascism in India. Over the last three years the left
in India have waged a struggle to halt the fascist
forces.

An important victory was the defeat of the fascists in
the 2004 national elections and for the first time,
the left parties won close to 12% of the seats in the
national assembly.

On Sunday, the Hindu right in the U.S. is honoring the
Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Narendra Modi — the
chief orchestrator of the 2002 Gujarat massacre. We
see this as an aggressive effort of the Hindutva
movement to legitimate the "Gujarat experiment" as a
model for the country, and Modi as their ideal leader.
As part of the Coalition Against Genocide, FOIL is
organizing a demonstration outside Madison Sq Gardens
where Modi will be honored. Our goal is simple — the
people outside protesting Mr. Modi must outweigh the
numbers inside listening to him. We need your support
and
active presence to ensure that we have large numbers
of people.Often, the politics of the "third world" remains at
some distance from those of us here in the United
States. It took decades for the Palestinian struggle
to become an international struggle. While opposition
to Israel's State terrorism is today strong, in the
decades that it took to make it an international
struggle, the Israeli State grew very powerful. In the
case of India, the anti-fascist politics must be
internationalized if we are to prevent it from
becoming mainstream. It is for this reason that we ask
you
to come out on Sunday — to provide the support that
the Indian left needs on this day as also to begin the
process of internationalization of this issue.

We are reaching out to you today to do the following:

1. Mark your date books for March 20 2005 Sunday from
4:30 to 6:30 PM for a demo at the Madison Sq Garden.
Hit the reply button to this message if you have an
extra minute to spare and confirm with us that you
will be there.

2. Forward this message to as many lists and friends
as is possible. We hope u will pass it on to at least
five friends.

3. Visit the coalition web site
here to learn more. A
detailed list of links are available at the site on
this issue.

4. If you have any additional resources — contacts
with the press, experience as a legal observer at
large demos or any other ideas please do contact me.

Sincerely in struggle,

Biju Mathew

Co-Coordinator, Forum of Inqulabi Leftists (FOIL)
Organizer, The New York Taxi Workers Alliance
Board Member, The Brecht Forum

[* "inqulabi" = "revolutionary".]