BY SUE BOLTON
In line with its perspective that the Socialist Alliance needs to give support to extra-parliamentary campaigns, the conference voted to support the protests being organised against the Commonwealth Business Forum in Melbourne and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Brisbane in October, as well as the anti-Nike protests in Melbourne, Perth and other cities.
The conference voted to support the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union's Victorian branch officials and members, known as the Skilled Six, who have recently been charged with damage to private property. It condemned the trial by media that they have been subjected to. The conference noted that the media witchhunt against the Skilled Six is a result of the AMWU's militant defence of its members' rights and its support for S11, M1, anti-Nike actions, the Refugee Action Collective, International Women's Day and solidarity with East Timor.
Melbourne Socialist Alliance members will be supporting a benefit night to raise money for a defence campaign for the Skilled Six.
The conference voted to support the West Papuan and Acehnese peoples' right of national self-determination by supporting their demands for the Indonesian military to withdraw from these terrorities and for a democratically organised referendum which includes the option of independence from Indonesia. It called for the Australian government to end all ties with the Indonesian military.
The conference also voted to support the right of the Palestinian people to fight for their national self-determination and condemned Israel's colonial occupation of Palestine and its violence against the Palestinian people. It called on the Australian government to immediately withdraw all financial and political support for the Israeli government.
The conference voted to recommend that Socialist Alliance branches around the country hold protests outside the Northern Territory tourism offices to coincide with a rally in Darwin against the police-state approach of the NT Country-Liberal Party government, particularly its public order and mandatory sentencing laws.