AUSTRALIA
Protest calls on Rudd to condemn Honduran coup
Duncan Meerding, Hobart
4 July 2009
An emergency protest was held on June 29 in response to the military coup that ousted Honduras’ democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya the day before. The action targeted Labor MP Duncan Kerr’s office, and demanded the federal government condemn the coup.
The protest was organised by members of El Salvador’s Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) living in Australia and the Socialist Alliance.
“We would like to thank the Socialist Alliance for its fast response to this attack on democracy in Central America”, FMLN member Rene Aragon told Green Left Weekly.
Hobart Socialist Alliance member Linda Seaborn told GLW: “We absolutely believe the Rudd government must follow the lead of the Organisation of American States and immediately condemn the coup and call for the restoration of Zelaya. Any other call would be anti-democratic and will help sentence the people of Honduras to a military dictatorship.”
In Newcastle on July 3, Steve O’Brien reports, No War Collective activists collected signatures from passers-by in the busy suburb of Hamilton. The petition called on the federal government to refuse to recognise the illegitimate Honduran government installed by the coup and to support Zelaya’s reinstatement as president.
