BY NIKKI ULASOWSKI
More than 200 organisations and individuals worldwide have signed a statement of solidarity with the struggle by students and workers in Papua New Guinea against an International Monetary Fund and World Bank-mandated economic restructuring plan.
The statement, circulated by the socialist youth group Resistance, calls for the reversal of the privatisation program and for the abolition of the IMF and World Bank.
It also calls on the Australian government to condemn the June 25 police killings of protesters in Port Moresby and for Canberra to massively boost unconditional aid for development to the impoverished nation.
Signatories include high-profile anti-debt campaigner Susan George, US academic James Petras, Malik Miah, an editor of the US socialist Against the Current magazine, prominent French socialist Daniel Bensaid, Manik Mukherjee, the vice-president of the All-India Anti-Imperialist Front and Chris Bambery, the national organiser of the British Socialist Workers Party.
Organisations which have also put their name to the statement include the Organisation for Workers Democracy (Cyprus), Participating Refugees in a Multicultural Europe, the International Socialist Organization (US) and the National Tertiary Education Union.
Actions in support of the PNG movement will continue in Australia, including a planned August 16 national day of solidarity with the struggles in Indonesia, Aceh and Papua New Guinea.
To add your name to the statement, phone (02) 9690 1230.