Dear friends,
Unfortunately the Belgian delegation that wanted to come to this meeting couldn’t make it. We tried to, but the huge cost to get a visa to enter Britain was too much to raise quickly. While war criminals like Rajapakse are welcomed with open arms by the British government, ordinary Tamil activists have to pay 170 euro to be able to enter Britain.
The Belgian Tamil Solidarity campaign sends its warmest greetings to this conference and hopes to benefit from the success from it. We need to organize ourselves politically to know where injustice comes from. Without this basis we are helpless in our fight against the dire consequences of injustices in the daily lives of ourselves, families and relatives.
Earlier this summer we organized a day of Tamil Solidarity in Belgium with about 100 present attending it. This was only possible because of the help we got from Keerthikan, Isay, Senan and others from Tamil Solidarity. We try to develop our political understanding and to link the struggle for Tamil rights with the Belgian workers movement and international solidarity. We participated in a joint delegation with Belgiansocialists and Kashmiri progressive activists on a protest against war in Gaza and are planning to participate in an informal committee of international solidarity with Kashmiri, Kurdish and other leftwing activists who are starting to come together. Building solidarity also means giving solidarity.
An important starting point is to strengthen our links with the struggle of the workers and youth in the country where we now work and live. We fully support the planned protests of Belgian youth against the planned fee hike in higher education and the unavoidable resistance of the workers movement against the provocations of the new rightwing government that is coming. A massive undermining of the living standard of ordinary people will strengthen division, racism and tensions. The only way to avoid this is by fighting together for a future without oppression, racism and war, a socialist future.
We will do all we can to participate in next years solidarity day. We wish you good luck with the rest of the day!
Tamil Solidarity Belgium