donesian authorities.
In November 1994, in Central Java, workers' committees set up the PPBI. The union organises 15,000 workers and puts bread and butter issues at the top of its list of demands. SignifiOver 60 trade unionists, students and peace campaigners attended a public meeting co-organised by Coventry Trades Council and Campaign Against the Arms Trade in early February. Earlier in the day demonstrators protested outside the Alvis plant on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Coventry. be kept out of industrial disputes.
The development of both these organisations points to a more militant attitude in the Indonesian working class. Between 1993 and 1994 strikes increased from 360 to 1,130 a The meeting was addressed by Jose Ramos Horta, the external representative of the CNRM, the East Timorese resistance. Ramos Horta had spoken to a meeting of 300 in London on the previous night. Both these meeting represent yet another increase in campaigning activity and interest in the campaign to stop arms deliveries to the Indonesian dictatorship.
In London, on March 7th, Alvis will be holding an AGM. CAAT and the British Coalition for East Timor are organising no fewer than three strikes a day.
It can only be a matter of time before the emergent democracy and trade unions movements be gin to challenge the Jakarta Dictatorship. a protest outside the AGM which will open at 12 noon at the Savoy Hotel on the Strand.
The Coventry meeting led to the creation of a Midlands campaign to stop the Alvis tank deal. Its first meeting will be on 22nd February. The aims to organised a broad campaign using diverse tactics to make sure that the Alvis tanks never leave the factory. Labour movement support for the campaign is vital • If you want to get involved contact Will at CAAT on 0171281-0297.
By Mathew Sutton A wave of terror has swept troubled East Timor in the first two weeks of February with hooded gangs roaming street stoning and burning houses and attacking locals opposed to Indonesian rule. The gangs are operating with the connivance of the Indonesian military Most observers believe that the death squads, comprised of East Timorese pro-integration forces dressed in black, are organised by the intelligence operation run by Labut Melo, an official believed to run the territories largest spy network.
Two death squad members were captured by the local population in mid-February in Dili. They claimed to have been recruited by the military an offered substantial payments for each night of the attacks on pro-independence activists.
The appearance of the death squads is an attempt by the Indonesians to divide and rule inside East Timor.
The development of the mass civil resistance against the Indonesian occupation has embarrassed Jakarta over the last few months with displays of courage in the face of overwhelming odds.