MISSION, VALUES, AND OBJECTIVES

CORE OBJECTIVES OF SALAM

  • Articulate a South Asian left politics through supporting and politicizing the struggles of intergenerational working-class diasporas and migrants in the US.

  • Organize and grow a community around South Asian left politics.

  • Build a coalition of (1) South Asia-based, (2) diasporic, and (3) non-South Asian left internationalist organizations.

  • Build organizing infrastructure to connect struggles both in the diaspora and the South Asian region, between international and local movements in South Asia, and across South Asia.

  • Support and build organizations providing material support for everyday working-class issues in South Asia and the diaspora.

INTERNATIONALISTS

We identify as internationalists because we see capitalism as an international force, and therefore see our fight against it as one that unites workers from all around the world.

south asia

Whereas within South Asia, we organize with regional and often national formations, we ground our work in building political imaginaries of South Asia from the left.

For us, South Asia is a geographically strategic point of departure. We define it broadly as the region encompassing Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. This is not a line marking our solidarity, which extends beyond borders, but instead a broadly spoken center. While we recognize cultural ties between many of the peoples in the region, we do not claim nor intend to reproduce any cultural homogeneity of South Asia.

ORGANIZING IN THE DIASPORA

We see rising fascist and capitalist forces in South Asia and decreasing space for dissent, and that the majority of migrants in the U.S. from South Asia are disengaged, scattered and/or organized through the struggles for reforms under capitalism or with/through right wing forces from their home countries.

However, there is a rich history of progressive South Asian organizing in the US from the Ghadar Party to the rise of DRUM. Under current political conditions, we understand the diaspora as an important and central place where a cross-regional South Asian left politics can be built, and where we can:

  • Do political work within and beyond the national boundaries of South Asia.

  • Politicize South Asians in the US to build struggles led by racialized working-class migrants

  • Practice solidarity with international and local movements.

  • We see our work as:

  • Strengthening the struggles of working-class South Asians in the diaspora, and

  • Strengthening the broader American left; and

  • Supporting emancipatory and left movements within, across, and beyond South Asia.

We welcome people from the entire spectrum of progressive political tendencies, because we want to foster an environment within which we can collectively learn and deepen our understanding of capitalism, imperialism and other systems of exploitation.