INDONESIA: PRD rejects Washington's imperialist war

BY
JAMES BALOWSKI

JAKARTA — On February 24, hundreds of demonstrators from
the People's Democratic Party (PRD) took action against US plans to attack
Iraq.

The demonstration began at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout in central
Jakarta then moved to the presidential palace via the British embassy,
the UN headquarters and the US embassy.

At the US embassy, PRD chairperson Haris Rusli Moti, PRD general secretary
Natalia Scholastika and the chairperson of the Indonesian National Front
for Workers' Struggle Dita Indah Sari presented a statement to an embassy
representative.

Speaking at the rally, Moti warned the Indonesian people to be on guard
against Western imperialism's policies of foreign debt and military aggression,
which are driven by the US. These policies are result in the privatisation
of state industries, cuts to price subsidies for the poor and the exploitation
of Indonesia's natural resources.

“They destroy countries with their theories of development, which are
used to drain wealth while building permanent economic dependence on the
imperialist countries”, Moti told the crowd. “After the targeted country
nation is trapped beneath massive foreign debts, the imperialist governments
force the victims to sell state assets and reduce subsidies to pay for
the interest on the debt.”

Moti went on to explain that when this process fails, the US resorts
to war. He described US plans to attack Iraq as “a war of capital ... The
US and its allies want to take over Iraq's [oil] wealth by using issues
of religion and terrorism”.

From Green Left Weekly, March 5, 2003.

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From GLW issue 528