By Max Lane
On May 13 more than 1500 people, mainly young people, rallied around Australia demanding independence for East Timor and an end to all Australian military ties with the Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia.
The National Day of Action was initiated by the socialist youth organisation Resistance. Fretilin helped to mobilise several hundreds of East Timorese in Sydney and Melbourne.
In almost all cities, the solidarity committees, such as the Australia East Timor Association in Sydney and Melbourne and Committee for an Independent East Timor in Adelaide, actively supported the event and helped get people out on the streets.
Trade unionists, Amnesty International representatives, Community Aid Abroad spokespersons, UDT representatives, Green Party parliamentarians all participated. Aksi — Indonesia Solidarity Action, a national organisation supporting both the Indonesian democratic and East Timorese struggles, also sponsored the protests.
Hundreds of people who had never joined an East Timor action participated. This augurs well for building a strong solidarity movement that can force a retreat by the ALP government from its support for the Suharto dictatorship and the illegal Indonesian occupation of East Timor.
Evans on defensive
The prospects for a more powerful movement are good. We can see this from the retreats that Gareth Evans — Australia's minister for propping up dictatorships — has already had to make at the level of rhetoric. The Melbourne Age of May 15 has the headline "Indons Oppressive: Evans".
Evans now says that there are more troops than necessary in East Timor, and this affects the prospects for "the kind of reconciliation we would all like to see". "Reconciliation" is the code word for East Timorese acceptance of integration into Indonesia.
Despite the fine words, there has been a massive increase in Australian military assistance to the Suharto dictatorship. In 1990-91 five Indonesian officers trained in Australia. This had increased to 120 by 1993-4 and is projected to reach 275 by the end of 1995-6. At the same time, almost 150 officers are to be trained by Australians in Indonesia.
ALP government support for the dictatorship has not been restricted to the military sphere. The government has also been channelling aid and assistance to the anti-worker puppet trade union, the All Indonesia Workers Union (SPSI) and the Ministry of Manpower, both of which help maintain political order in Indonesia at the expense of the democratic rights of independent worker groups.
But Evans is on the defensive as a result of the constant protests in Dili and Jakarta and the gradually escalating campaign in Australia. The question now is how to push the government's retreat beyond rhetorical concessions and tricky footwork — how to force it into a real policy retreat.
There is widespread sympathy with the East Timorese struggle. This is evident in the big success of petition campaigns — thousands have signed the Resistance petitions calling on Australia to get out of the Timor Gap and for an end to military aid. It is also evident in the big turnout for the John Pilger and Noam Chomsky meetings in December and January. The very need for Evans to employ fancier footwork in his dealings with East Timor issue is also a recognition of this public sentiment.
Range of actions
There has been a marked increase in organised initiatives in support of East Timor in 1995, including:
- the Resistance national day of action on May 13;
- the anti-Evans demonstration at Melbourne University organised by Student Supporters of East Timor;
- the anti-Evans demonstration at the Global Diversity conference in Sydney, organised by a coalition of Bougainville, West Papua, East Timor and democratic Indonesia supporters;
- an East Timor week in Darwin organised by Student Supporters of East Timor at Northern Territory University;
- the six-month educational campaign and proposed East Timor conference in Melbourne in August being organised by the East Timor Relief Association;
- the "Indonesian and Regional Conflict" conference being organised by Australians for a Free East Timor and others in Darwin;
- the launching of an education kit by Christians in Solidarity for East Timor;
- a conference at the Australian National University on July 10-12 on diplomatic solutions for East Timor;
- a national speaking tour for an Indonesian and an East Timorese activist, probably in July, being organised by Aksi and Resistance;
- the ongoing campaign to inform and galvanise people in support of East Timor being carried out by Green Left Weekly, which is now read regularly by close to 10,000 people every week.
The organised political groups among the East Timorese community, especially Fretilin, also have a range of commemorative events during the year which keep the issue alive in their communities. East Timor support committees have ongoing educational activities, such as the recent Information Day organised by Friends of East Timor in Perth.
Collaboration
It is extremely important that all these different organisations continue with their own initiatives, inviting support and participation by other groups. The more local church groups, trade unions, local Amnesty or Community Aid Abroad groups or other groups that take up campaigns demanding East Timorese independence and an end to Australian government support for Jakarta, the better. The broadest possible active participation in extending and deepening support for the East Timorese people and opposition to the Canberra-Jakarta alliance on the issue is what is needed to force Keating and Evans into a retreat.
At the same time, the movement still lacks a vehicle to bring together the increasing number of activist forces in united actions. None of the existing organisations can do this. Even the recently formed Australian Coalition for a Free East Timor (ACET) has not broadened its membership beyond local committees of East Timor solidarity activists.
In this respect, the model of the People for Nuclear Disarmament committees that mobilised tens of thousands of people during the early 1980s is a good one. These were broad coalitions of all groups — political parties, solidarity groups, church groups, suburban peace groups and so on — sharing the same aim and participating on an equal basis.
Perhaps we have not quite reached the time to start setting up such bodies. Perhaps existing bodies will expand and transform themselves into such coalitions. In Sydney, the November 12 committee, which organised the very successful 1994 Dili commemoration rally and which involved East Timorese community groups, was moving in that direction. Perhaps such broad committees might be tried out in other cities for 1995.
These are the trends we all need to encourage — more initiatives by more groups, and more and more cooperation between these groups on concrete projects.