Tariq Ali is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual.
26 Facts About Tariq Ali
2.
Tariq Ali is a member of the editorial committee of the New Left Review and Sin Permiso, and contributes to The Guardian, CounterPunch, and the London Review of Books.
3.
Tariq Ali studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Exeter College, Oxford.
4.
Tariq Ali is the son of journalist Mazhar Ali Khan and activist Tahira Mazhar Ali Khan.
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Tariq Ali first became politically active in his teens, taking part in opposition to the military dictatorship of Pakistan.
6.
Tariq Ali was elected President of the Oxford Union in 1965.
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In 1967 Tariq Ali was one of 64 prominent figures, including the Beatles, who signed a petition calling for the legalisation of marijuana.
8.
Tariq Ali testified at the Russell Tribunal over US involvement in Vietnam.
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Tariq Ali was a vigorous opponent of American relations with Pakistan that tended to back military dictatorships over democracy.
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Tariq Ali was one of the marchers on the American embassy in London in 1968 in a demonstration against the Vietnam war.
11.
Tariq Ali inserted himself into politics through his involvement with The Black Dwarf newspaper.
12.
Tariq Ali was recruited to the leadership of the IMG and became a member of the International Executive Committee of the Fourth International.
13.
Tariq Ali befriended influential figures such as Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
14.
In 1967, Tariq Ali was in Camiri, Bolivia, not far from where Che Guevara was captured, to observe the trial of Regis Debray.
15.
Tariq Ali was accused of being a Cuban revolutionary by authorities.
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In 1981, Tariq Ali quit the IMG and joined the Labour Party to support Tony Benn in his bid to become deputy leader of the Labour Party.
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Tariq Ali defended denialist claims espoused by figures such as Diana Johnstone and Edward S Herman.
18.
Tariq Ali followed that with Bush in Babylon, which criticised the 2003 invasion of Iraq by American president George W Bush.
19.
Tariq Ali has remained a critic of modern neoliberal economics and was present at the 2005 World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where he was one of 19 to sign the Porto Alegre Manifesto.
20.
Tariq Ali has been described as "the alleged inspiration" for the Rolling Stones' song "Street Fighting Man", recorded in 1968.
21.
In 2020, Tariq Ali was a member of the Belmarsh Tribunal organized by Progressive International, investigating and evaluating the war crimes committed by the United States government in the 21st century.
22.
In November 2020, a British public inquiry into the work of undercover police officers was provided with evidence that Tariq Ali had been spied upon by at least 14 undercover police officers over a period of decades.
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The surveillance began in 1965 when he became president of the Oxford Union, and continued until at least 2003, when Tariq Ali was on the national committee of the Stop the War Coalition trying to prevent the invasion of Iraq.
24.
Tariq Ali said "It is incredible to think that after 35 years, in 2003, under the Tony Blair Labour government, that Special Branch were still engaging in the same anti-democratic activity as they had been at the outset".
25.
Tariq Ali has three children: Natasha from a previous relationship, and Chengiz and Aisha with Watkins.
26.
Tariq Ali grew up in a secular family that was more culturally Muslim than religious, and describes himself as an atheist.