Trade union solidarity with East Timor
By Neil EverleyBRISBANE — The Queensland branch of the Australian Council of Trade Unions organised a broad public meeting here on May 27 to support the right of East Timorese to a vote in the August autonomy referendum free of intimidation and violence. The meeting was attended by around 50 people and was part of the national day of solidarity with the people of East Timor, sponsored by the ACTU.
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The meeting was chaired by Queensland Teachers Union president Ian Mackie. Speakers included Nick Everett from Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET), Paul Tavatgas from Amnesty International and Joe Tscherra from the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT). The construction division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union brought delegates from building sites to the meeting.
Everett urged supporters of East Timorese independence to increase the pressure on the government “to press the UN to take a firmer stance on the conditions for the referendum”. He commended the action being taken by unionists around the country. Two weeks ago, the Northern Territory Trades and Labor Council called on all unions and the ACTU to immediately impose economic bans on all trade and commercial enterprises related to Indonesia. In Sydney, aircraft maintenance workers' delegates at the Qantas jet base agreed to hold stop-work meetings to consider a ban on the servicing of Indonesian aircraft.
Everett asked those present to take the solidarity campaign into their trade unions “as a matter of urgency”. “We can start to do this by organising speaking tours of solidarity activists to workplaces, to address meetings of members and delegates. The unions can put enormous pressure on the Australian government to withdraw all support for Indonesia's occupation of East Timor”, Everett said.
Tscherra explained the logistical challenge that confronts the East Timorese resistance in signing up voters for the referendum. He described the referendum as an opportunity for the East Timorese people to express their aspiration for an independent state after decades of “struggle in darkness”. He added that the assistance being provided by the United Nations was minimal considering the real possibility that people's aspirations for independence could be “drowned in blood” by the pro-Jakarta militia.
Tscherra urged unionists to give financial assistance to the voter registration campaign being led by CNRT and the humanitarian relief campaign being organised by APHEDA, the ACTU's aid agency.
Following the meeting, unionists distributed leaflets to shoppers in Queen Street Mall.
In Melbourne, Sarah Lantz reports, more than 300 workers, activists and migrant groups attended a rally in the city centre to mark the trade union day of solidarity.
Leigh Hubbard, secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council, reminded the demonstration that in 1975 the Australian government approved Indonesia's invasion of East Timor and has aided the Indonesian government ever since. ACTU president Jennie George launched APHEDA's humanitarian appeal. She said donations would buy urgently needed medical supplies and support literacy and health programs in a free East Timor.
Mari Alkatiri from Fretilin called on unions to put pressure on the Indonesian government by taking political and industrial action against Indonesian businesses and trade with Indonesia.
Shirley Shackleton, solidarity activist and wife of journalist Greg Shackleton who was murdered by Indonesian troops in 1975 in East Timor, asked the demonstrators to turn their words of solidarity into action.
Other speakers included Jacob Varghese, president of the National Union of Students, Catholic Bishop Hilton Deakin and Andrew Beswick from Amnesty International. The demonstration ended with a march to the Garuda airlines' office.
The NSW Trades and Labor Council and a coalition of solidarity organisations organised a lunchtime rally of 200 in Sydney's Martin Place, reports Janet Parker. The protest was addressed by Justice John Dowd from the International Commission of Jurists, actor Chris Haywood, Hazel Hawke, CNRT representative Estanislau da Silva, John Whelan, past-president of the NSW TLC, and Sister Josephine Mitchell of the Mary McKillop Institute for East Timorese Studies.
All speakers demanded that a peacekeeping force of 5000 UN troops be sent to East Timor to disarm the pro-Jakarta militias and ensure a free and democratic referendum. Dowd demanded that resistance leader Xanana Gusmao be freed to campaign in Timor.
Estanislau da Silva predicted that 99% of East Timor's people would
support an independent East Timor if a free ballot were allowed. A transitional
government could then be established to prepare for independence.
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