Featuring special guest speakers direct from India and Pakistan:

Achin Vanaik, author and leading Indian peace activist, just returned from fact-finding mission to Gujerat

Muhammad Tahseen, human rights and peace activist from Pakistan

(details on both speakers below)
The Unity Tour is a unique opportunity for people in Britain to hear first-hand reports and analysis on the unfolding South Asian crisis.

Achin Vanaik and Mohammed Tahseen will discuss:

The danger of war and the struggle for peace between India and Pakistan
How the US-led war against terrorism is fuelling violence across south Asia
The menace of communal violence in Gujerat and elsewhere

Our guests from India and Pakistan – an inspiring India-Pakistan alliance - will speak at public meetings up and down the country (details below), and will also be available for interview by the media. They will be the special guests at a Stop the War Coalition evening to celebrate international opposition to the war against terrorism on Saturday 20 April, in solidarity with that day’s major national anti-war demonstration in Washington DC.

The Unity Tour is being jointly organised by the Stop the War Coalition, the National Civil Rights Movement and the Socialist Alliance.



NOTES ON SPEAKERS:


Achin Vanaik is one of India’s leading political authors and activists. He has written ‘The Painful Transition’ (1990), ‘The Furies of Indian Communalism’ (1997), ‘New Nukes: India, Pakistan and Nuclear Disarmament’ (wirth Praful Bidwai, 2000), as well as numerous essays and articles on Indian foreign policy for newspapers and journals all over the world.

Vanaik is currently Visiting Professor at the Academy of Third World Study at Jamia Millia Islamia university in Delhi. He is a founding member of MIND (Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament) and sits on the coordinating committee of The Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (India). He is also a founding member of the Coalition for Peace and Democracy, set up in the wake of Sept 11 to oppose the war on Afghanistan, its extension elsewhere and the brinksmanship that India has practised against Pakistan after the 13 December attack on the Indian Parliament.

Vanaik has just returned from a fact-finding mission to Gujerat. He was one of four members of a team of inquiry which will submit an official report to an eminent public tribunal. The report, published on 9 April, indicts the Gujerat state government and its allies for complicity in an organised pogrom against Muslims. (For copies of the eye-opening 20,000 word report, contact Mike Marqusee at  mikemarqusee@aol.com)


Muhammad Tahseen is a founding member of the Citizen’s Peace Committee in Pakistan, and a long-time active champion of friendship between India and Pakistan. He was one of the organisers of the secular anti-war demonstrations held in Pakistan in recent months – demonstrations which have brought together activists for human and women’s rights, trades unionists, intellectuals, environmentalists and ordinary Pakistani citizens opposed to the US attack on Afghanistan and any prospect of war with India.

Tahseen is Director of the South Asia Partnership-Pakistan, a major independent NGO and proponent of sustainable and participatory grass-roots development. A veteran of numerous campaigns for human, women’s and minority rights and against war and dictatorship, he has spoken at forums on democracy and development around the world.





Unity Tour itinerary: 18 April-24 April




Thursday 18 April, 7:30 pm, Birmingham Sports Centre, 201 Balsall Heath Road (opposite Central Mosque), Birmingham. For more information contact Ger Francis 07949 028362.

Friday 19 April, 7:30pm, Sheffield Library Theatre, Sheffield. For more information contact Simon Nelson on 07752 627753.

Saturday 20 April, mid-day, the guest speakers will join Bruce Kent outside the US Embassy on Grosvenor Square, London, where he is holding a vigil in solidarity with the US anti-war demonstration in Washington DC. They will then address a private meeting of the CND National Council.

Saturday 20 April, 6-11pm, SOAS Student Union Common Room, School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh St, central London – an evening to celebrate international opposition to the war against terrorism, hosted by the Stop the War Coalition. Doors open at 6; speeches at 8pm; bar, food, music; live video link-up to protest in Washington DC. Entry: £5/£2. For more information call 07951 235 915.

Sunday 21 April, 3pm-7pm, Reception and Public Meeting at Featherstone High School, Montague Road, Southall. Organised by The Monitoring Group. For more information contact Suresh Grover 07903 931365.


Monday 22 April, 5pm: Public meeting (for staff, students, guests) at School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, central London.
Monday 22 April, 7pm, Media Workers Against the War public meeting; a chance to interrogate our two speakers in detail. 7pm, University of London Union, Malet Street, central London. For more information call Dave Crouch 07801 789297.

Tuesday 23 April, 7:30pm: North West England Public meeting, Unity Community Centre, Shepherd Street, Preston. For more information call Tony Reid 01772 732313/

Wednesday 24 April, 7:30 pm: Public meeting in Edinburgh: St. Colombus by the Castle, Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh. Orgnaised by the Edinburgh Stop the War Coaltion. Contact Sofia Mcleod at 07958 002591 or  edinburhgstw@blueyonder.co.uk





For more information about The Unity Tour or to arrange interviews or further meetings, please email  mikemarqusee@aol.com or tel. no. 0207 275 9399 or call John Fisher on 07733101588.