Day Three-London

We arrived in London this morning, looking forward to another successful day. Upon arrival we were greeted by the Tamil Students Association with open arms. We initially went into the campus believing that we would be granted permission to do a teach-in, as the school granted the T.S.A permission. Only later did we realize that none of this was possible because the lack of a student Union on campus. There were certain policies in place by the University that restricted many clubs on campus to their right to the freedom of expression, and speech. We were told we were not allowed to use the word genocide in our presentation. After knowing that, we ended up being very demoralized, as our goal seemed a little harder to obtain.

But during our stay the Tamil Students Association pre-planned a rally and asked CanadianHART to be the keynote speaker. We used this rally as an opportunity to voice our concerns, and this included building the activist network. During the rally, which consisted of a March all though out Campus, it started with only a few people, I think 5. But lone behold during the walk, people started to join in the rally. To my surprise, 50 plus people showed up at the rally, and at least 35 were of Non- Tamil Origin. What impressed me more was the Non-Tamils, were chanting “STOP THE GENOCIDE”. The word we were told not to use, was being used and Admin couldn’t do anything about it.

We were able to get a NON-Tamil to head the activist network in London.

We tried contacting the student campus life at the University, but failed , as they seemed unreceptive to what was happening. But on a plus note we met representatives of the Mp’s and dropped off our MP package, they seemed genuinely supportive and set up a meeting with the Tamil residents of London for a future date.

As the days go on, we gain more and more confidence, and seem to be winning more and more battles.

One more day to go, and I still don’t know what to expect.

Until then ……