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Asif Ullah YouthPeace Coordinator, War Resisters League
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Objector Interview: Asif Ullah
YouthPeace Coordinator, War Resisters League
- Chris Lombardi
We caught up with Asif, the new coordinator of WRL's 5-year-old youth organizing initiative, on a day when New York City was finally cooling down after a record heat wave. "Oh, it's not so bad now," the Queens native said, expressing astonishment that in Northern California, in early August, it was necessary to turn on the heat.
What's clear is that Asif, who replaced the brilliant Malkia M'Buzi Moore at WRL just a few months ago, has no intention of turning down the heat himself. He'd also just returned from a National Committee meeting that devoted more attention and funding to his program than ever before.
Can you tell me about what sort of activism you were involved in before joining WRL?
I was one of the founding members of the Student Liberation Action Movement (SLAM!), when I was at Hunter College.
Protesting tuition hikes and such?
Oh, tuition hikes were just a start: we were protesting all sorts of anti-student, anti-poor-people actions. It all started in March 1995, when students from all over CUNY (City University of New York) organized a demo/rally at City Hall. Over 20,000 people showed up - high school students, college students, and workers from all over New York. SLAM! formed out of that energy. We didn't focus on conventional student issues; many of us had parents or were ourselves on public assistance, or were parents ourselves. We sort of gave student activism a new edge, more of a Third World style of organizing. I was editor of SLAM's newspaper, which was named as one of the best student papers by the Center for Campus Organizing. The group's in its fourth year now, and I still work with them.
I was also involved with the Taxi Worker's Alliance, protesting policies affecting cabdrivers. In New York City the driver population is mostly immigrants - South Asian, African. And unlike other cab systems, it's policed by Taxi/Limousine Commission, and there's a lot of xenophobia in the latter's policies. Almost all the work I did before I came to WRL can be embodied as protest of Giuliani's policies. I was also working against police brutality.
You were involved in those massive anti-police brutality protests, in the fall of 1998?
Yeah I was part of organizing the national Oct 22 effort. I was getting mothers of victims of police brutality to speak out, and to speak out, bridging gaps between communities. I was a leader in South Asians Against Police Brutality, and also involved in Asians for Mumia. All of this was allied with SLAM!
You still close with people there?
SLAM! is my family. A lot of us we still congregate on a weekly or biweekly basisa number have become notable in other ways, such as Suhar Hamad, author of Born Palestinian, Born Black.
How did you become involved in WRL?
I'd been familiar with their counter-recruitment efforts since college, though I can't say I benefited from them in high school. My high school, mainly students of color, had a strong military presence, and no one was countering it.
Where did you go to school?
The High School of Art and Design.
Really!
Yeah, amazing, considering we had some rebels - graffiti artists - they went after those promises of adventure, straight from graffiti bombing to actual bombing!
I didn't hear about WRL till college, it was word of mouth, from other activists. Then someone in SLAM! saw the website, saw they were hiringI was hired three months ago this week!
So what's your mission for YouthPeace?
To take over the world! (smile) I want to make WRL resources available to diverse populations, and to connect the issues: militarism to police brutality to bombings in Kosovo and Iraq! I also think an emphasis on children, WRL's approach to children and violence, is a good way to approach economic violence - workfare, housing, "jigits" [vouchers as public assistance, to be used for housing or food]. Keep the focus on local issues, in the big picture.
Can you make those connections explicit? Riff for me for a minute.
Okay here we go (deep breath) the U.S. military serves the interests of multinational corporations, which have interests all over the world, whether it's factories in India or real estate in Cambodia. To support this order, there has to be a class of exploited people, coerced into environments of hazardous work that needs doing, the dirty work to support the empire. And I'm not just talking about the third world - the United States has its own third world, in the South Bronx and Compton.
Any changes in the program since you came on board?
The YouthPeace task force just met to strategizewe agreed to work far more closely together; each of them now has direct connections to a specific program, whether it's Kate Donnelly, Patrick Sheehan, Bre Reiber, David Selgray, Sam Diener, Liz Roberts, or Bob Henschen. We're responsible to each other to make the program go.
We want more trainings on activism and nonviolence; Kate Donnelly's in charge of the War Toys campaign, Sam, Mario and Patrick are taking on counter-recruitment.
I'd like to bring to the fore issues of police brutality, the prison-industrial complex; I also need to keep developing connections and relationships Malkia has built. Right now we have three fairly autonomous YouthPeace groups: one in New York, one in Connecticut, and one in New Hampshire.
We'd like to see more such groups pop up around the country, and of course we're gearing up for the Day Without the Pentagon, when people all over the country are surrounding their recruiting offices and MEPS stations. [See "How to Help DEP Members Out."]
Aside from all that, I really am planning on taking over the world.¦ |