ASAAL 13th Convention Attracts a World Wide Audience with a promise to achieve greater heights! (Video)

UsaNewsOnline.Com, New York : The Alliance of South Asian American Labor (ASAAL) held it 13th annual convention on Saturday, December 12, 2020 from 3:00 PM through 10:00 PM. This was a first virtual convention,

The convention was conducted and broadcast from the ASAAL headquarters at 165-23 Hillside Avenue, Jamaica, NY 11432.

The Convention was broadcast Worldwide with an audience of over a million.

The Convention Chair was Professor Mohsin Patwary, Ph. D. the Dean of Science at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York (CUNY).

The Convention was produced and directed by National President and Founder Maf Misbah Uddin, National Secretary Karim Chowdhury, and Michigan Chapter President Dr. Md. Rabbie Alam.

The following individuals were honored at the convention:

President Gregory Floyd, Local 237 Teamsters; Vice President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) ; President John Hyslop of Local 1321 and Secretary of District Council 37 and Ambassador M. Osman Siddique a diplomat and a successful businessman.

The opening remarks were delivered by Founder and National President Maf Misbah Uddin who said, “It is not what the future brings to us. it is what ASAAL brings to the future.” Welcoming all ASAAL Chapter leaders and recognizing their hard work he said, “we should not be self-centered but we should be the center for those around us.” He then said we believe “It is ASAAL’s responsibility to represent the least, the lost and the last.”  President Uddin then declared, ASAAL supports the “Black Lives Matter” movement as we too fight for dignity!

Karim Chowdhury: “ASAAL has given the South Asian American a platform in which we all can flourish in mainstream politics. ASAAL is the bridge between our communities and mainstream politics!”

National Secretary Karim Chowdhury said “Winning the Presidency, House of Representatives and most likely the U. S Senate majority aren’t the end of our journey. The great tasks of uniting the severely divided nation, defeating the COVID -19 pandemic, rebuilding our totally broken economy, rebuild the broken trusts among Americans and our international coalition partners, re-establishing the American values, regaining the trust and respect we lost during last four years of the Trump rampage are the challenging tasks ahead of us. 

As the transition team started working to take control of the administration, ASAAL would like to see the following issues to be addressed which is what President elect Biden is already contemplating:

1. Uniting the nation: Our nation is deeply divided due to Trump’s views on the American economy, race, immigration and religious affiliations! We need to start a reconciliation and healing the wounds caused by the Trump administration immediately 

2. Covid-19 irradication  plan:                                                                                                                                                                                                                               We must do anything and everything to control the spread of Coronavirus. 
3. Emergency economic recovery: We need to Pass and deliver a comprehensive Economic Stimulus package to revive our broken economy and provide relief to small businesses, individuals & families. Government agencies are financially strapped. The Federal Government needs to provide financial support to overcome this budget crisis nationwide. 

4. Repeal and replace Trump’s unjustified tax policy that is hurting the middle class economic growth. Pro middle class tax policy for  a strong middle class is our commitment to the nation. 

5. Student loan forgiveness and tuition free college education (up to bachelor D egree) are the integral parts of middle class growth. 

6. Improve relationships among various races & religious groups. Discrimination based on race, religion and country of origin must be addressed for good. White supremacy must be addressed immediately.

7. Comprehensive immigration reform: We need to offer comprehensive immigration reform that can offer pathways to legalize 11 million plus undocumented aliens, DACA and TPS recipients. Immigration gridlock must be addressed so qualified immigrants can be a part of our economy before they get older. We want all future immigrants to be revenue generators instead of revenue consumers. 

8. Remove or amend  the existing federal public charge law:  The U.S Public Charge law is proven as unnecessary, conflicting with the core value of American constitution, immigration policy and the social justice. ASAAL plans to initiate a fight back strategy to amend or eliminate federal public charge law. We will do everything in our disposal to protect our people from the devastating impact of  the current public charge law on the first generation immigrants. 

9. Healthcare for all: We all agreed that healthcare is no longer a privilege but it is one of the most fundamental rights in modern time. We need to offer and provide an affordable healthcare plan for all residents of America”, and 

10. Employee Free Choice Act: Help us organize the unorganized everyehere, create union jobs that create middle class. Union is the backbone of this nation so to build back better we need union job everywhere!

Secretary Chowdhury then gave the introduction of the Chapters of ASAAL: Queens, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, New Jersey, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, NYS Capital Region, The U. S. Capital, Jackson Heights, Virginia, and Florida.

The Convention featured many amazing elected Officials from every branch of the Government. They said they are ready to work with and for ASAAL. : 

Hon. Thomas DiNapoli, New York State Comptroller; Hon. Letitia ‘Tish’ James, Attorney General of the State of New York; Hon. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, New York State Senate Majority Leader;Hon. Carl Heastie, Speaker of the NYS Assembly; Hon. Scott Stringer, Comptroller of the City of New York

Honorable Congressman Paul Tonko, and Hon. Max Rose and Congresswoman Hon. Grace Meng, Carolyn B. Maloney, and Yvette D. Clarke, 

Manhattan Borough President Hon. Gale A. Brewer, and newly elected Queens Borough President Hon. Donovan Richards.

NYS Senators Hon. Diane J. Savino, Hon. Roxanne Persaud, Hon. Luis Sepulveda, Hon. John Liu, Hon. Jamal Bailey, Hon. Robert Jackson, Hon. Brian A. Benjamin, Hon. Julia Salazar, and Hon. Kevin Thomas, 

Assembly People who spoke: Hon. David I. Weprin, Hon. Alicia L. Hyndman, Hon. Michael Cusick, Hon. Jeff Aubrey, Hon. Inez Dickens, Hon. Latrice Walker, 

Hon. Karines Reyes, Hon. Nathalia Fernandez, Hon. Ron Kim, Hon. Harvey Epstein, Hon. Charles D. Fall, Hon. Jennifer Rajkumar, Hon. Jessica Gonzalez Rojas, City Council Members who spoke: Hon. Benjamin Kallos, Hon. Venessa Gibson, Hon. Mark Levine, Hon. Ydanis Rodriguez, Hon. Brad Lander, Hon. Helen Rosenthal, Hon. Barry Grodenchik, Hon. I. Daneek Miller, Hon. Adrian Adams,  and Hon. Farah Louis.

Labor Leaders who spoke: Charles Jenkins President of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and Vice President of TWU Local 100,  Wayne Spence,President, NYS Public Employees Federation (PEF) and Shaun D. Francois. I, President Local 372 and President District Council 37.

Community leaders who spoke: Ibrahim Khan, Sheryl Fetik, Lastrice Cash, Simon Sayed, Helal Sheikh, Sandra Wong. Yudelka Tapia, Dr. Nita Jain, Dr. Dilip Nath, Jenny Low, and Koshy Thomas, 

ASAAL Leaders from all chapters spoke including Anis Ahmed, National Director Bangladeshis for Biden, Nurul Haque, Sahana Begum, Jamilla Uddin, Sultana Khanum, Adan Islam, Afroza Begum Rosey, and Shermin Sultana Taher from Queens; Syed Tahmeedul Haque and Md. Alauddin from Bronx, Dr. Mujibur Rahman and Khairul Hossain from Brooklyn; Irshad Sheikh, Reginald Rajajkaruna, and Abou Diakhate from Staten Island; Farook Hossain from NJ; Md. Ali Hossain, Syed Alam, and Dr. Rashis Malek; MD Rabbi Alam, Esq. and Ibrahim Aljahim; Shah Farid from Pennsylvania; Mizabur Rahman and Methu Aminul Bhuiyan from the NYS CapitalRegion; Sharafat Hussain and Mukit Rahmanfrom the US Capital; and National Trustee Aziz Ahmed.

There is no other convention in the entire world that features so many amazing speakers. Speaker after speaker thanked ASAAL for their outstanding work and organizing ability. They believe that never before were  South Asians  this powerful as everybody wants be part of this movement. Senate majority leader Andrea Stuart-Cousins said, “if ASAAL has an issue all they have to do is call my office to have a meeting and discuss the issue”. Others also expressed a similar sentiment during their speech.

National Corresponding Secretary Jed Matalon ended the gala event with a vote of thanks: We thank Maf Misbah Uddin the resident genius and Albert Einstein of ASAAL, Karim Chowduhry who is a giant in the union movement similar to his namesake Karim Abdul Jabbar, and MD Rabbi Alam who did a brilliant job of directing this convention. We thank Howlader Tutorial for giving us this room from which to broadcast this convention. We thank the Honorees, the elected officials, the labor leaders, and the community leaders who graced us with their presence tonight.

ASAAL is becoming a powerhouse in mainstream politics and with your help it will grow even more. Thank you for your participation. Thank you for being part of the audience. And thank you for bringing ASAAL to new heights. See you next year and God Bless all of you.

Everyone involved had a great time and all observers, including many media and political experts agreed that the 13^th annual ASAAL Convention and the first Virtual Convention of ASAAL was the best of all conventions and the one that will set the standard for all ASAAL Conventions in the future.

The convention ended at 10:00 P.M.