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Taj Ali Profile picture
Taj Ali
@Taj_Ali1
Journalist and historian | @RSLiterature award-winning writer
Nov 18 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Remembering the formidable anti-racist campaigner Anwar Ditta.

A working-class Kashmiri woman, she was born in Birmingham and lived in Rochdale, sharing platforms with the likes of Tony Benn and Arthur Scargill and leading numerous anti-deportation campaigns. 🧵 Image In 1979, Anwar was told that her three Pakistan-born children would not be allowed to join her in the UK due to new stricter immigration laws; the Home Office said they didn’t believe Anwar’s children were hers. Image
Sep 11 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: The British Trades Union Congress, representing 48 affiliated unions with a total of about 5.5 million members have unanimously passed a motion demanding an end to all arms trading with
Israel over the genocide in Gaza. #TUC2024 The motion also accepted the call of Palestinian unions, made in October and reaffirmed in May, for international trade unions to end all complicity with Israel’s violations of international law and to make their unions apartheid free zones.
Sep 2 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: Five Independent MPs have come together to form the ‘Independent Alliance’ Parliamentary group, making them the joint fifth biggest grouping in the House of Commons.

@jeremycorbyn
@ShockatAdam
@iqbalmohamedMP
@AdnanHussainMP
@AyoubKhanMP As a Parliamentary grouping of five they are more likely to be allocated question and speaking slots by the Speaker on a regular basis, including being added to the rota reserved for ‘smaller parties’ to ask questions at PMQs.
Aug 29 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
On the 40th anniversary of the miners' strike, it is worth exploring the solidarity efforts of British South Asians.

There were street collections from Southall to Birmingham. The Asian Youth Movements and Indian Workers Associations also sent minibuses to the picket lines. 🧵 Image Just as Britain’s mining communities were built around industry, South Asian communities were built around the factories, mills and foundries that sought their labour after WW2. They found their collective political identity as a section of the working class in Britain. Image
Aug 7 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
🚨IMPORTANT

Experienced anti-racist organiser has said far-right are spreading misinformation in Luton, Birmingham and other areas with big Muslim communities to get us to turn out and cause trouble for police. This is a trusted source. If they attack, we are ready to defend. Work with the police. Listen to them. Keep your kids in check. We are monitoring and are on standby. We need vigilance and discipline.
Aug 7 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The BNP used to spread rumours about turning up to areas with big Muslim communities. In the end, we'd mobilise in big numbers and clash with the police. Social media misinformation has significantly amplified that risk. Verify things before spreading them. The police will have the best intelligence. We have monitoring groups in place. If there's no obvious far-right and we have strength in numbers, we need to keep our kids in check and not descend to their level. This is what they want.
Jul 26 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
EXCLUSIVE: Ten trade union general secretaries have written to Keir Starmer demanding the scrapping of the two-child limit and the 'immediate reinstatement' of 7 Labour MPs suspended for voting against one of the biggest drivers of child poverty.

tribunemag.co.uk/2024/07/union-… The letter, headed up by @TUCGinfo chair and General Secretary of @ucu @DrJoGrady, has been signed by leading figures, including the President of the Trades Union Congress, representing 48 affiliated trade unions with a total 5.5 million members.

tribunemag.co.uk/2024/07/union-…
Jul 5 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
There have been 4 pro-Gaza Independent candidates elected so far. The same number as Reform MPs. That's big and totally unexpected. It deserves coverage and analysis. Shockat Adam MP for Leicester South

Iqbal Mohammed MP for Dewsbury and Batley

Adnan Hussain MP for Blackburn

Jeremy Corbyn MP for Islington North

All 4 defeated Labour tonight as Independent Candidates.
Jun 27 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
EXCLUSIVE: An Asian BrewDog worker was sacked after raising concerns about the presence of the EDL on the day a far-right rally descended into violence.

tribunemag.co.uk/2024/06/asian-… In April, a far-right rally led by Tommy Robinson descended into violence with multiple arrests made.

As chaos raged in central London, Myriam*, an Asian woman, turned up to her job at BrewDog in Waterloo, completely unaware of the fracas taking place about a mile away.
Jun 19 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
BREAKING: The government’s decision to scrap key recommendations from the independent review into the Windrush scandal was unlawful, the High Court has ruled today. The court found Suella Braverman was “not justified” in breaking promises to create a migrants’ commissioner and boost the powers of the chief inspector for borders and immigration.
Jun 3 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: 7 Labour councillors in Slough have resigned, accusing the Labour party of institutional racism.

In their resignation letter, they cite the deselection of Faiza Shaheen and the treatment of Diane Abbott as well as censorship over Gaza. 'We must stay true to our values and conscience, even if the party we once believed in has abandoned them.'

1) Councillor Zafar Ajaib

2) Cllr Sabia Akram

3) Cllr Haqeeq Dar

4) Cllr Mohammed Nazir

5) Cllr Naveeda Waseem

6) Cllr Waqas Sabah

7) Cllr Jamila Sabah
May 25 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
NEW: @unitetheunion furious over new revisions to Labour's workers' rights policies.

@UniteSharon: 'The again revised New Deal for Working People has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. The number of caveats and get outs means it is in danger of becoming a bad bosses’ charter.' 'Working people expect Labour to be their voice. They need to know that Labour will not backdown to corporate profiteers determined to maintain the status quo of colossal profits at the expense of everyone else. The country desperately needs a Labour government, but...
May 18 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
This house in a leafy North London suburb was home to Indian revolutionaries from 1905-1910.

They published an anti-colonialist newspaper, smuggled weapons into India and brushed shoulders with Irish Republicans, suffragettes, Egyptian nationalists and communists.🧵 Image India House was founded in 1905 by the lawyer Shyamji Krishnavarma. It served as a student residence but was also home to many organisations such as the Indian Home Rule League. Scholarships were offered to Indian students on the basis they would refuse to work for the British.
May 8 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
🚨NEW: @unitetheunion say Labour's draft New Deal for Workers is “unrecognisable”, accusing the party of turning it into a charter for bad bosses.

Comes after the union, Labour's largest financial backer, threatened to withhold funds over the watering down of key pledges. @UniteSharon: “It looks like all the warnings Unite made earlier about the dangers of Labour rowing back on its pledges for the New Deal for Workers have been proved right. This new Labour document on the New Deal, issued to the unions on Monday, is a row back on a row back...
May 1 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Imperial Typewriters strike in Leicester. The strike mainly involved South Asian women who faced discrimination in the workplace.

They lacked union support and their picket lines were attacked by the National Front but they fought back.🧵 Image The workers walked out over unpaid bonuses, impossible targets, lack of promotion and the absence of Black and Asian shop stewards despite making up the majority of the workforce.

But more than anything else, this was a strike for respect and dignity in the workplace. Image
Apr 10 • 28 tweets • 7 min read
In 1981, 12 young men in Bradford were arrested for preparing to defend their community from fascists. 4 decades on, I spoke to them about their trial & the solidarity that helped secure their freedom. The Bradford 12 case was a pivotal moment in British legal history.🧵#Defiance Image Summer 1981 had brought real fears in Bradford. On 1 July, a firebomb attack killed a South Asian mother and her 3 children in Walthamstow. Then, rumours began that fascists were planning to march through Manningham on 11 July.

tribunemag.co.uk/2022/10/self-d…
Apr 3 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
NEW: 100 Manchester artists and their helpers have gathered to remove their works en masse from this year’s @HOME_mcr exhibition in protest at the cancellation of Palestinian event, ‘Voices of Resilience’

Comes after 1000 people protested outside the venue on Saturday.


Image
Image
Image
Image Many others plan to take down their art in the coming days.

In place of their now absent artworks, the creatives put up copies of a statement signed by over 150 of their colleagues calling for an apology from Home & the reinstatement of Voices of Resilience among other demands..
Mar 27 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: The Foreign Office will face a legal challenge over their decision to defund UNRWA.

The challenge has been launched by Bindmans LLP, on behalf of a British-Palestinian man in a desperate bid to protect his family in Gaza, who are UNRWA-registered refugees. The complaint alleges that the government’s decision may violate its international obligations, possibly making it complicit in Israel’s apparent breaches of the Genocide Convention and Common Article 1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Mar 12 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
A reminder of what the Forde report said about Diane Abbott's treatment within the Labour Party:

'The criticisms of Diane Abbott are...expressions of visceral disgust, drawing on racist tropes, and they bear little resemblance to the criticisms of white male MPs.' Very few journalists took this report seriously at the time. It uncovered widespread Islamophobia and anti-Black racism, accusing the Labour Party of 'operating a hierarchy of racism'
Mar 10 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
I've spent the past few months speaking to miners and British Pakistanis who supported them. I'll be sharing the stories of Pakistani taxi drivers and local mosques across Yorkshire who raised funds and Pakistanis from Sheffield who were there at the Battle of Orgreave.
Image A food collection leaflet in Urdu and Punjabi that was distributed across Birmingham.

Street collections on Soho Road in Handsworth were known to be amongst the best supported & miners squabbled over who got that 'patch.' Image
Dec 5, 2023 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
🚨BREAKING: Doctors in England to escalate strike action.

Full Walkout of 216 hours over 9 days.

20th December-23rd December

3rd January-9th January

@BMA_JuniorDocs say the Government has been unable to provide a credible offer. Comes after 5 weeks of talks between junior doctors in England and the Government.

This latest round of talks came after months of strike action, followed by weeks of delay by the Department of Health and Social Care in restarting the negotiations. A deal has not been reached.