Justice for Bhopal Art Action

On Sunday, December 1, volunteers with ASATA, Hindus for Human rights, and other local groups in solidarity painted a street mural in front of the Indian Consulate in San Francisco to call for justice on the 40th anniversary of the industrial disaster in Bhopal, India. 

Organizers like Farhana Sobhan from ASATA and Vivek Kembaiyan from HFHR brought together a coalition of organizations, activists, and artists to demonstrate solidarity with survivors using art with the support of longtime street muralist and organizer, David Solnit. The mural and accompanying banner was designed by artist Kamardip Singh by adapting and combining previous campaign art demanding justice for the survivors of the Bhopal disaster. The mural is anchored by two women who are survivors and movement leaders in Bhopal, in front of the still unpremeditated chemical plant and billowing clouds of lethal gas. This image was made by artist Alizarin Menninga-Fong, in collaboration with movement leaders in Bhopal, to serve as a logo commemorating the 40th anniversary. The 40th logo was also worn as screen printed patches by participants at the event. 

On December 3, 1984, a Union Carbide factory in Bhopal leaked deadly poison into the community, killing thousands and leading to long-lasting damage that continues today. Our San Francisco action amplified the demands of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, including for the American company Dow Chemical, of which Union Carbide is now a subsidiary, to pay for the death and destruction they wrought, and for the central and state governments of India and Madhya Pradesh to hold the perpetrators accountable and provide for the health and safety of the people of Bhopal (which they have totally failed to do).

It was a beautiful day, in which we painted, listened to the music of artists from Bhopal, and tied the destruction in Bhopal to the ways companies like Dow Chemical are killing Americans as well. We are grateful to artivists Esha, Priya, Sangeeta, Hafsa, Sabrina, Fernando for helping to execute the vision of the mural. Learn more about Bhopal at bhopal.net.

Photos by Nicholas Lea Bruno

Sumud: Resistance Until Liberation Mural

The SUMUD: Resistance Until Liberation mural project is a collaboration between artists and activists in the U.S. and Palestine that explores and confronts the deep interconnections between the brutal systems of imprisonment in the U.S. and Palestine. ASATA members collaborated on the concept, design, and painting of a section of this mural titled Internationalism + The Fight Against Empire. See more about the SUMUD mural project here.

Internationalism + The Fight Against Empire By Haiti Action Committee, GABRIELA Oakland, Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA), and BAYAN Norcal

ASATA members volunteered at the SUMUD Mural Community Launch event on October 13th celebrating joy and resistance.

Read the full artist statement below:

As organizations with a history of working with each other, we understand the interconnectedness of our movements for liberation internationally, especially across the Global South. We know that the liberation of one of our homelands contributes to the liberation of all of us. 

Our spoon was inspired by Handala, a 10-year-old Palestinian cartoon character created by the Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali. Handala’s age represents Naji al-Ali’s age in 1948 when he was forcibly displaced and became a refugee after the Nakba. Hence, Handala remains 10 years old, and he is depicted with bare feet, spiked hair, and tattered clothing, and always has his back turned to the viewer to represent the fight against empire. 

Our mural depicts Handala, hand in hand with a character robed in Lumud textiles of the indigenous communities in the Southern Philippines. This design is based off of a work by Cece Carpio, and for us in GABRIELA Oakland and BAYAN Norcal, resonates with our commitment as a movement to defend indigenous land against plunder and environmental degradation, from Palestine to the Philippines. On the far left, we also chose to include a peasant farmer. To this day, the Philippines remains a semi-feudal country, with peasants comprising the majority (75 percent) of the islands’ population. Our peasant figure represents the 500 year legacy of resistance among Filipinos, especially in the countryside, and the will of the landless class to take up the struggles for liberation and basic human rights.

On the other side of Handala, is a figure representing Haiti’s continuing resistance to colonialism, depicted by a boy similar in age to Handala, holding the flag of Haiti. The flag is a symbol of Haiti’s historic revolution and overthrow of slavery which gave birth to the first free Black nation in the Americas. Sculptural metal birds adorn both sides of the mural, and represent symbolic elements deeply rooted in Haitian spirituality and creative resistance. 

The figure wearing a sari has designs on the pleats of the sari inspired by different countries in South Asia, as well as a design that represent the South Asian descendants of indentured servitude. We also incorporated a design inspired by Kashmiri weavers to connect the occupation and resistance struggles of Kashmir and Palestine. The figure was intentionally designed to challenge the binary of masculinity vs. femininity that exists within most patriarchal cisheteronormative South Asian cultures, and to include the colors of the pride and trans flags to represent solidarity with queer and trans communities. The South Asian figure holds a farming tool to represent the farmers’ movement and uprising. 

Taking inspiration from Naji Al-Ali’s Handala, in which he wrote that the character stood as “the arrow of the compass, pointing steadily towards Palestine,” our figures stand before a landscape symbolizing a future of freedom and return. The image of a tree whose roots reach out to each figure, and whose branches touch the sky, is meant to symbolize the strength we draw from rootedness in ancestral lands, and in the interconnectedness of our struggles. 

From Bhopal to the Bay

Press Release at this link.

Come join us in Downtown Oakland on September 25th, 2024, at 6 PM. RSVP here (seats are limited).

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40 years ago, Bhopal, India, experienced the world’s worst-ever corporation-caused disaster, resulting in the deaths and disabling of hundreds of thousands of marginalized people over multiple generations. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, corporations have been exploiting, polluting, and appropriating land and people for over a century. How can we disrupt this corporation-enriching global extractive system that results in widespread injustice, poverty, hunger, climate change, and irreversible environmental destruction? Join changemakers, knowledge-holders, and innovators from Bhopal and the Bay, representing over 30 organizations and diverse perspectives, as they discuss how frontline/ indigenous communities and activists across the world are taking on what is the greatest challenge of our time. Participants will include organizers, community/ indigenous leaders, artists, lawyers, activists, musicians, reformers, and other changemakers from a diverse range of ethnicities and perspectives, including waste reduction, carceral reform, Indigenous rights, land sovereignty, social-environmental justice, climate change, human rights, food sovereignty, and corporate accountability.

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COVID protocols: 

As COVID rates are on the rise, we are implementing the following protocols:

• Testing: We recommend you do an antigen test 24 hours before attending this event.
• Masks: Masking is strongly recommended at all times.
• Precautions: If you show symptoms of COVID, we kindly request you stay home.

Accessibility: 

The event space is 100% wheelchair accessible. Gender neutral bathrooms are available. 

We are not able to provide food/drinks; however, you are welcome to bring your own snacks and reusable closed beverage bottle. We request that you minimize plastic and landfill waste/garbage.

Child Care: 

We are sorry that we are unable to offer child care services at this event. 

Stop the Genocide: Federal Court Appeal

June 10, 2024 — San Francisco

ASATA members rallied in front of the San Francisco Federal Building today to support the plaintiffs in the historic case to charge the U.S. Government with complicity in genocide. Vivek gave a speech highlighting how the Israeli government is exporting its apartheid legal tactics to the U.S. and to countries like India which have been used against our most vulnerable populations. ASATA continues to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine as we resist fascism in all its forms.

Watch the full speech here.

Photo courtesy of Vivek

The rally at the Federal Building was organized by Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Anti Police-Terror Project, Center for Political Education, Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, Bay Resistance, Jewish Voices for Peace, U.S. Palestinian Community Network, and International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.

ASATA Statement on the March 3, 2024 “Unity March against Anti-Semitism”

There will be a “Unity March against Anti-Semitism’’ in San Francisco tomorrow. However the last 147 days of  genocide in Palestine have made clear that this “unity march” is just a cover for Zionists advocating to continue bombing and starving Palestinians. 

The only non-Jewish speaker at the event is Pawan Deshpande from the Hindu American Foundation (HAF). HAF is a right wing Hindu Nationalist (Hindutva) hate group that started as an outgrowth of the core Hindu Nationalist group, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), associated with the current fascist BJP regime in India. These organizations advocate for Hindu Fascism at every level, both in the US and India. You can read more about the VHP in this recent report by Savera, a new, progressive South Asian coalition in the US. 

The presence of an HAF speaker at this Zionist march is a clear signal of the deep ideological and political alliance between Zionists and Hindu nationalists. Both ideologies are built on the belief of an ethnonationalist state only achieved through normalizing violence against minorities, ethnic cleansing, state repression, and cultural erasure. Zionists and Hindu nationalists have been increasingly working together on building power and strategy. This alliance is apparent in India being the largest purchaser of Israeli weapons, their use of Israeli technology and strategy in the ongoing occupation of Kashmir, and India’s recent sale of “killer” drones to Israel. 

Pawan Deshpande and the HAF don’t represent the diversity of the South Asian or Hindu communities in the Bay Area. ASATA stands with the majority of Americans in calling for a permanent ceasefire. Since October, we have joined our Palestinian and Arab comrades, along with people of conscience across the Bay Area, fighting for an end to US aid to Israel and a Free Palestine. 

We continue to call on South Asians and South Asian organizations in the United States to reject the continued co-option of our identities by organizations such as the HAF and to see clearly that the only “unity” perpetuated by this march is a unity in support of a fascist and genocidal regime that continues to invisibilize the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.

ASATA Statement on Palestine | October 2023

ASATA members joined hundreds of protesters in front of the Israeli consulate in San Francisco on October 8, 2023.

The Alliance of South Asians Taking Action stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine in the face of the current escalation of violence unfolding in Gaza and the West Bank. Over the last two weeks, ASATA members looked to the leadership of Palestinian activists in the San Francisco Bay Area who continue to lead protests that lift up the unrelenting resistance of those living under violent occupation. 

As we mobilized for direct actions and joined the call for Palestinian liberation, we also deepened our understanding of how the state of Israel’s settler colonial tactics are proliferated and being replicated in the Indian government’s violent occupation of Kashmir. As part of a diverse South Asian Diaspora, ASATA members clearly see the close relationship between Hindutva (Hindu Nationalism) and Zionist ideologies. As South Asians, we challenge all forms of imperialism. Thus, we oppose Zionism, a settler colonial project displacing indigenous Palestinians, resulting in the world’s largest diasporic refugee population. 

The current close relationship between India and Israel has enabled a security regime where India has adopted Israeli tactics of collective punishment (such as the arbitrary revocation of residency and citizenship rights, arbitrary detention, statewide suspension of internet, etc.) in its occupation of Kashmir.  The deployment of the Israeli hacking software Pegasus to spy on Indian journalists, lawyers, activists, academics, supreme court judges, opposition politicians, and many others must be seen in the context of the announcement by India and Israel that cyber security is a key area of cooperation between them. The NSO group, an Israeli firm that’s an expert in cyber surveillance, has in effect abetted the Indian government’s surveillance of its own citizens as it has done in a dozen other countries.  

The Israeli government’s alliance with and support of the BJP’s Hindutva agenda is part of a longer history where it has exported its violent policies and military tactics to South Asia in order to suppress resistance movements there. For example, The New York Times has reported that as early as the 1980s, Israeli intelligence agents trained their Sri Lankan counterparts in their fight against Tamil groups. Israeli human rights lawyer Eitay Mack has raised questions about Israel’s more recent role in war crimes committed during the Sri Lankan civil war, and has called for criminal investigations into the involvement of Israeli companies, officials, and individuals. 

India’s embrace of Israel is polarizing the Indian-American diaspora, and has exacerbated the islamophobia of those who subscribe to the toxic ideology of Hindutva. The US-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) is modeled after AIPAC and the AJC, and the Hindutva lobby’s use of the accusation of “Hinduphobia” to shut down critical discourse is inspired by the Zionist lobby’s success in silencing critics of Israel’s policies by weaponizing charges of anti-semitism.  

The BJP’s fearsome “IT Cell” is a massive disinformation machine that amplifies Hindutva propaganda through an army of paid employees and volunteers that flood social media with fake news, and through a large-scale use of bots that power harassment and trolling campaigns. Many accounts known to push Hindutva content are now being used to spread disinformation about Hamas while continuing their systematic spreading of islamophobic content. 

Indeed, as documented by BOOM, one of India’s most reputable fact-checking websites, India is now one of the largest sources for disinformation targeting Palestinians negatively. We call on fellow South Asians in the diaspora to condemn the demonization of Palestinians, and ensure we do not contribute to the spread of disinformation and anti-Muslim hate. 

We take inspiration from the women of India’s National Federation of Dalit Women (NFDW) who have declared their solidarity with Palestinians —  invoking the “historic oppression” and “systematic dehumanization” that both communities have faced. 

We are also in solidarity with the many anti-Zionist Jewish groups and individuals both within Israel and world-wide that are opposing the Israeli state’s attacks on Palestine, and its long standing policy of apartheid against the Palestinian people.  

We call on our fellow South Asians and South Asia- led organizations in the United States to reject the “both sides” argument that invisiblizes the experiences and dignity of the Palestinian people. We call for an immediate ceasefire and end to the ongoing siege and genocide in Gaza. We call on the US to stop arming the Israeli apartheid regime with billions’ of dollars worth of weaponry. And finally, We invite our communities to embrace the ways our histories of anti-imperialist struggles are connected so that we may build power and protect our communities against anti-Musilm hate violence and state-sponsored terrorism. Free Palestine.  

Domestic Workers’ Organizing in California: An ASATA Update

by ASATA Member Preeti Gamzeh

Over two million homes across California depend on the essential care provided by more than 300,000 domestic workers in the state – yet they remain without health and safety protections in the workplace. Care workers who ensure our economies have a healthy workforce, are ironically and sadly, marginalized and invisible-ized by intentional exclusion from worker protection laws. These exclusions are a remnant of the United States’ legacy of slavery and discrimination against Black and brown immigrant women workers that continue on in California state’s labor code today.

As a result, domestic workers are regularly exposed to health and safety threats. These include exposure to toxic products, heavy lifting leading to muscle tears, sprains, back  injuries and other long-term chronic conditions such as asthma, chronic cough, vision impairment, impacts on the reproductive system, and more.

To address this historic inequality, the California Domestic Workers Coalition (CDWC) worked with the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) to create SB 686, a bill that created the first ever health and safety guidelines for the domestic work industry. This bill was put together by an Advisory Committee of domestic workers, employers, and occupational health and safety experts with Cal/OSHA.

To push for the signing of this bill into law, the CDWC and the NDWA organized a historic rally of over 600 domestic workers in Sacramento,on August 29th. ASATA member Preeti Shekar got to interview Kimberly Alvarenga, the Executive Director of the California Domestic Workers Coalition, to discuss why SB 686 is important and how domestic worker organizing is one of the most important and feminist movement in the country. This discussion aired on KPFA 94.1 FM’s Women’s Magazine on Mon, Oct 9th.

Postscript: After this interview was recorded, Governor Newsom vetoed the bill, on October 2nd, on grounds that homes and businesses cannot be regulated by the same set of laws. The CDWC and the NDWA expressed their disappointment in this decision and are currently re-strategizing. While it is disappointing that this bill was outright vetoed, the organizing of domestic workers, who are largely from black and brown immigrant communities, is one of the brightest sparks of feminist movements in the United States, and is inspiring to organizing care work everywhere.

Learn more about the incredible strides domestic worker organizing in California has made by visiting their website at cadomesticworkers.org and following their updates on social media. 

Extra Links/Resources:

ASATA partnered with APEX Express, a weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community, to talk about Manipur’s Humanitarian Crisis. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Check it out below:

“We are a small group of people, and if we are annihilated the world won’t even miss us because most of the world doesn’t even know we exist.”

The Kuki-Zomi tribal community of Manipur, a small picturesque state in north-east India, has been witnessing violent ethnic conflict in which over 120 lives have been tragically lost and more than 50,000 individuals displaced from their ancestral homes since May 2023.

Hosts Miko Lee and Cheryl Truong are joined by Niang Hangzo and Sonny Gangte, both members of the impacted Kuki-Zomi and a part of the North American Manipur Tribal Association@namtaus. They unravel the complexities of Manipur’s crisis and the factors perpetuating this atrocious humanitarian violation against the Kuki people.

Also please check out Niang’s article for more information.

CONTENT WARNING:

Please be advised that the things we’re going to be talking about and what has been happening to the Kuki-Zomi people of Manipur is horrific. Tonight’s show handles sensitive topics, such as violence, genocide, gender based violence and sexual assault. Our show’s transcript will be available to read in our show notes for those who would like to process at their own pace.

Stay updated on the Manipur crisis and the incredible work by the North American Manipur Tribal Association by following their socials:

Instagram/Twitter/Facebook: @NamtaUS

namta.us and namta.us/donate

Want to learn more? Check out The Bay Native Circle, a weekly program that presents special guests and explores today’s Native issues, peoples, cultures, music & events with rotating hosts Morning Star Gali, Tony Gonzales, Eddie Madril and Janeen Antoine.

South Asian Therapist Collective

Many South Asians struggle with mental health, and those who try to work through it using therapy additionally struggle to find culturally competent care. Seeing this, a few therapists within ASATA’s membership, Farhana Sobhan and Ishita Pohoja, worked to start a therapy collective in hopes of addressing this need. The below is a quote from Farhana:

This directory was created with the intention of connecting South Asian therapists to South Asian clients. When I was looking for a therapist, I wanted to work with someone who understood some of my nuanced cultural experiences. Someone to whom I would not have to explain my collective understanding of relationships. Someone with whom I didn’t have to take time educating about my culture and how it impacts me. This directory was formed from the work of South Asian Therapist Collective (SATC) who formed during the lockdown of Covid-19. The collective has coalesced in order to examine the nuances of working with South Asian themes via consultation, to be in community with one another to lessen isolation, and to decolonize therapy through dialogue and being in community with one another. As a collective, we want to continue to create more visibility for South Asian therapists to link South Asian individuals to culturally informed care. And for us, as therapists to be in relationship to one another that tends to be isolative due to the nature of mental health work.  

If you’re interested in being part of this collective, please reach out to the southasiantherapists [at] gmail [dot] com.

Resisting Hindutva: Community Screening of BBC’s “India, the Modi Question”

On May 14, 2023 the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA) and Arwah Collective presented a screening of BBC’s documentary, India: The Modi Question. This documentary lays out the increasingly perilous conditions for Indian Muslims, specifically following the ascension of current Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Starting with his reign as chief minister of Gujarat, the documentary goes in-depth into Modi’s orchestration of the 2002 pogrom, the recent implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), the abrogation of Section 370 in Kashmir, the systemic stoking of communal violence targeting Indian Muslims, repression of protesters, and the dwindling freedom of press in the nation-state. 

Before the film began, organizers welcomed the audience and discussed why it was important to screen this documentary which has been banned by the India and censored by YouTube and Twitter in collusion with the Indian government. In brave defiance of this ban, several student groups in India organized screenings of this film and were met with violent state repression. ASATA organizers prepared the audience for the violent footage we were about to see and the BBC’s editorial decisions to give a platform to the political enablers of of Hindu fascism. Members of Arwah Collective lifted up the importance of international solidarity against all forms of fascism from Kashmir to Palestine with a grounding in the legacy of genocide of indigenous peoples in what is now the United States.

Arwah Collective also facilitated a decompression/healing space to support participants who needed a break from the content of this documentary to process, reflect, and calm our nerves. Participants were also able to connect with one another about ways we can build stronger movements in resistance to Hindutva and fascism in the subcontinent and diaspora.