In recent times Multi-national companies like to portray themselves as ‘ethical’ i.e. they take the conditions of their workers worldwide seriously. Working and importing goods made in cheap labor economies with a poor record on labor relations has made them sensitive to charges of ‘exploitation’.

The definition of ethical however includes ‘pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principles of morality; pertaining to right and wrong in conduct’. Even were we to believe that their workers were not being [...]

British Prime Minister David Cameron will Monday be handed a memorandum on behalf of UK’s Tamil community urging his government to support an international probe into war crimes in Sri Lanka, and to pressure the Colombo government to resettle in their homes tens of thousands of Tamils still languishing in refugee camps, and allow international access to thousands held in its prisoner-of-war camps. The UK is also being urged to boycott Sri Lanka till Colombo complies with international law. The [...]

After the success of the anti-GSP+campaign, to persuade the European Union (EU) to withdraw their generous tax concession to Sri Lanka (worth over £150 million), European importers are reconsidering their relationship with Sri Lanka.

The loss of the tax concession will add around 6% to the previously protected products making many of them more expensive than similar competitive items from countries such as Bangladesh. This is the reason why NEXT are considering pulling out of Sri Lanka (due to the loss [...]

Mullivaikal Remembrance Day – London

War Crimes Against Eelam Tamils

Tuesday, 18 May 2010 at Parliament Square

Time: 4pm-8pm

Please come in black to pay your respects to the victims and pledge to attain justice against war crimes.

For further information please contact 020 8808 0465

www.tamilsforum.com

Kolathur T. S. Mani, president of Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, during a conference at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi titled "Unspoken Genocide: Convention on War Crimes and Genocide in Sri Lanka," held at the Speaker Hall, Constitution Club on Thursday , said that Sri Lanka has presented to the world a viable model of genocide by successfully killing "hundreds of thousands of civilians without any witness" and not eliciting international or national censure or condemnation. Rajinder Sachar, former chief [...]

Members of the drum and bass band Dub Mafia joined the Act Now Boycott (of Sri Lankan products) campaign at the weekend in Bristol to show solidarity with the Tamil civilians suffering in detention camps in Sri Lanka and to raise awareness of the ‘Blood Garment’ industry.

The Band have pledged their support to Act Now and will be doing a fundraiser at the beginning of next month (2nd April) at the Inspiral Lounge, Camden, London to raise money to [...]

Dear Friend

The great victory achieved in persuading the EU in ‘temporarily’ withdrawing the GSP+ tax-concession must now be followed up by building Act Now’s Boycott campaign.

The fact that a body such as the EU have taken action because of Sri Lanka’s failure to protect human rights on the Island presents us with a great PR opportunity for the campaign. The arrest of ex-General Sarath Fonseka and the talk of War Crimes trials paints in the public mind a very [...]

Robert Evans, former Member of European Parliament from Britain and Labour politician, urged the diaspora Tamils in UK to participate in the referendum this weekend, saying that the message should go to Mr. Rajapaksa and the Colombo government should know what the diaspora thinks. Meanwhile, Conservative Parliamentary candidate Andrew Charalambous, strongly supporting the referendum, said: "If I had a chance to vote or I were a Tamil, I would be the first to vote." He called for loud expression [...]

ACT NOW JOINS HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS ACROSS THE GLOBE IN LAUNCHING AN INTERNATIONAL BOYCOTT CAMPAIGN AGAINST SRI LANKAN PRODUCTS AND TOURISM

UK based Human rights Group Act Now joined forces at the weekend with other organisations around the globe to launch an international  boycott  against the Sri Lankan textile and tourism industries. The tourism and textile industries have helped fund a Government which has carried out  indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas in a civil war which killed over 20,000 innocent [...]

Eezham Tamils in Canada will vote on the question of independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam at 31 polling centres using 52 voting machines across the country this Saturday between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m., said Coalition for Tamil Elections Canada, an independent body organizing the referendum. It is a historic opportunity never to be missed by the large number of Eezham Tamils in Canada, said Siva Vimalachandran, spokesperson for the coalition and chairperson for the York University Student Centre [...]

31,148 eligible Eezham Tamil diaspora voters over 18 in France participated this weekend in the referendum to say yes or no to independent and sovereign Tamil Eelam and 30,936 of them have said yes. The postal votes permitted to interior areas of France are yet to be counted and the number is expected to be between 2,000 and 3,000. In the absence of any official statistics, police estimates earlier placed the number of adult Eezham Tamils in France between 25,000 [...]

07 December 2009 – Hindu and Tamil organisations from across the UK are to hold a candle-lit vigil in front of the House of Parliament to highlight the humanitarian crisis facing the Tamil community in Sri Lanka .

The vigil will take place between 18.30 to 19.30 on Wednesday 9 December, 2009 on Parliament Square .

Up to a third of a million people have lost their homes and other moorings and forced to live in appalling, inhuman conditions in [...]

Stores Boycott

The nationwide expansion of the boycott campaign is beginning to get noticed. Besides the Tamil media a number of local papers covered our groups in action. The main aim must be consistency i.e. regular turnouts which will increase awareness amongst the media and general public.

This coming Weekend (5th and 6th December) campaign groups will gather outside various M&S stores and we need your help. We are presently concentrating on M&S due to their high media profile in the [...]

more photos on our facebook page

Over a 150 people marched through the streets of Sydney on Sunday calling upon the federal government to abolish its harsh stance on refugees and grant asylum to hundreds of Tamil refugees currently being detained in Indonesia at Australia’s request. Citing persecution faced by Tamils at the hands of the Sri Lankan Government, protestors labelled Prime Minister Rudd’s “Indonesian Solution” as “racist” and called for the closure of the Christmas Island offshore detention centre, currently housing hundreds of Tamils.

Organized [...]