Having been General Secretary of UNISON since its formation five years ago, Rodney Bickerstaffe is standing down. No reasons have fe will continue in office until the next annual conference in june..
Although strong on rhetoric against poverty, Bickerstaffe has always steered the union away from taking action against government attacks and left branches to fight on their own, isolated even on a popular issue such as the minimum wage, he plotted, without success, to stop the Exit: Bickerstaffe 1998 conference from agreeing to call a demonstration.
Despite calling it in Newcastle, 15.000 UNSON members and other trade unionists eventually joined the march.
His attempts at keeping a distance lasa it Blair government have io: rious. here are no national campaigns, and UNISON's opposition to the Euro collapsed at the TUC when the delegation flouted conference policy and abstained on an AEEU ernment to join as soon as possible. His period in office will be remembered for opening a witchhunt on the left on a scale not seen recently in the labour moveNominations will open in Octo ber and voting will take place early in 2000. So far, Dave Prentice, current Deputy General Secretary.
has declared he will stand. He appears to be the bureaucracy's favourite candidate and also immediately picked up support from the Morning Star who claimed that he is not as bad as Bickerstaffe. A regional officer from Yorkshire & Humberside, and SLP supporter has declared her intention to stand. Malkiat Bilku, leader of the Hillingdon hospital strikers, is also throwing her hat into the ring.
he two best placed candidate in the left are Roger Bannister and Geoff Martin.
Bannister is an NEC member, and a supporter of the CFDU (the left caucus) and of the Socialist Party. When he stood against Bickerstalle in 1999. ne cocainto d very creditable 20% of the vote. 4.5%. Geoff Martin is currently London Region Convenor, writes regularly for Labour Left Briefing. and has spoken out loudly against the current witch-hunt. Given the political situation in the union. Geoff Martin would be the best candidate for the left as he would gather votes from a much wider spectrum of opinion in the union than Bannister could. Even the SWP has stated that it would not oppose Geoff should he stand. However, the election campaign for any left candidate must be used to prepare the ground for a left in the union that is broader than the CFDU currently is. Such a broad left would be necessary to ensure any victorious left wing candidate would be accountable to their supporters. A left general secretary would also need the support of a strong broad left to face up to what would be a hostile Millbank-controlled bureaucracy and the right wing NEC.
But this election campaign could also set a precedent - if the SWP. CFDU and others on the left manage to agree at least to co-operate when standing for NEC elections.
Is we go to press an A Australian led, multinational "peace keeping" force is poised to •go into East Timor under the authority of a unanimous vote of the Security Coun cil. But it was precisely tac actions of the UN which created the current barbarism in Bast The referendum on independence, under which the East Timorese people exercised their right of self-determination in such a decisive way, was organised and administered by the UN - with no provision to ensure the safety of the voters alterwards or the implementation of the outcome if it went for independence.
The referendum itself was a victory won directly out of the mag: nificent unfinished revolution which toppled the bloodthirsty regime of Suharto in May last year.
It was one of the concessions Suharto's appointed successor, BJ Habibie, had to make in order to try to stabilise the political situa tion after the uprising. But it was a concession which was openly opposed by the high command of the Indonesian army and by the bulk of the Indonesian bourgeoisie.
twas thus completely predictable that if the vote went for пасрепаслос (as il was aways going to), the Indonesian army, or forces controlled by it, would intervene to smash up the process, reverse it, and seek to keep East Timor as a part of Indonesia.
Not only that. The agreed framework for the referendum, negotiated by the UN, even had a provision for the result to be ratified by the Indonesian Parliament! What has it got to do with them, it might be asked? Yet this clause could now be the means by which the vote for an independent East Timor is set aside.
that detailed plans were laid by the Indonesian army high command how to respond to a vote for independence long before the referendum took place.
On the announcement of the results the death squads would be released, people would be slaughtered and terrorised. The bulk of the population, who volca for independence, would be driven out of the country, most of them into West limon Thousands of other people, opposed to the independence of East would then shipped in to replace them, completely altering the political geogTimorese trade snionists march for independence in Dili in August, before the militias toere unleashed East Timor Indonesian Parliament would tach cruse to taury the referen" dum result, and that would be the end of it.
The notion that the UN had no idea that such a situation might arise is just not credible - not least since a campaign of intimidation had been taking place by the terror gangs for months prior to the referendum vote.
Once again, so soon alter the Balkans conflict, it is necessary to point out that the UN is not an independent agency dedicated to defending the weak against the strong. It is an agency of imperialism, THOSE US imperialism, and can only act with its agreement.
While UN forces may in the short term case or halt the slaughter being carried out by the mili. tias, we can have no confidence that they will achieve any lasting solution in the interests of the East Timorese people.
On the contrary, the UN military presence will also serve to obstruct and prevent the neces sary arming of the Timorese liberation forces, which is essential if they are to be able to defend themselves without external assitance.
Only with arms in their own hands can the people of Bast Timor ensure that they achieve the independence they voted for so overwhelmingly in the referendum.
At the end of the day it is the agenda of imperialism which determines the actions of the UN and the actions carried out under its name. That agenda is to establish the necessary seo-politica. and military framework which will allow US global economic ambitions the best conditions to succeed.
In fact both the massive turnout in the referendum and the huge vote for independence were not only remarkable but unbelievably courageous. People were not prepared to give up their vote even under the threat of violence.
This was partly because many thought they were safe with the eferendum being conducted b he UN and partly because of the strength of feeling on the issue.
The lesson once again is that the UN cannot be relied upon to pro(ect national rights or anything else. T he East Timorese peoare being butchered by death squads who have been armed and trained by those same Western regimes who now weep crocodile tears at the butchery.
The Habibie regime continues the brutal policies of Suharto whose regime was established in the anti-Communist bloodshed of 1965 in which an estimated one million people were slaughtered.
This was also the regime which carried out the brutal invasion of East Timor in 1975, when an estimated 200,000 people were killed out of a population of 600,000. This makes the East Timorese one of the most persecuted peoDuring this whole time the western powers have not wavered in their support for a regime which has guaranteed their interests in the region. Australia, now vocal in its denunciation of the brutality taking place, routinely collaborated with the Suharto regime after the Indonesian invasion, whilst carving up the coun try's resources. Australia was one of very few to formally recognise Indonesian authority over Timor Britain has supplied the B small arms, armoured cars and aircraft used to suppress the people of east Timor (at the British taxpayers' expense) and the colonised regions of Aceh, western New Guinea (Irian Jaya), and north Borneo as well as the central Indonesia. Indonesian Government promises to use these weapons only for the defence have been cynical and transparent lies.
Britain has been prepared to turn a blind eye in order maintain markets. In fact, atal dalously, British arms sales to Indonesia have increased sharply since new Labour were elected and Robin Cook announced the "ethical dimension" to his foreign policy.
No one knows at the present time how many people have been sauchtered in last limor, he figure of 20,000 has been menhonca, out it could oc muca higher and it is still going up.
Apparently 200,000 people (a quarter of the population) have been transported into West Timor into camps controlled by the death squads. They are being threatened an intimidated under the eyes of the Indonesia army.
Another 150,000 people are said to be starving in the mountains inside cast Timor - pursued by the death squads. The towns and villages are being systematically torched, and it is hard to see what will be left by the time a UN. sponsored force arrives.
And the UN force which is poised to go in is to collaborate with the same Indonesian army which has perpetrated the crimes they are there to stop!
Although some are withdrawing, the elite forces, most responsible atrocities remaining. Yet ine inconcstan and the Indonesian state has no right at all in East Timor.
ancy nad no regat tacie crea before the referendum, when even according to UN resolutions regarded as being under illegal occupation by Indonesia. They have even less right now and should be forced to leave immediately.
The Australian government has been keen to put its own forces in command of the UN force which Is going in. it wants to casure is own interests in the region if the Indonesian forces are forced out. It has already signed a treaty with the Indonesian government dividing oil deposits in the Timor • the IRE suddenly faces a major, unexpected expense. Our permit to house students and lecturers in our 24 rooms has expired, and the Amsterdam fire inspectors have given us a list of additional safety measures we must take in order to have our permit renewed.
The list includes installing an alarm system covering the whole building and communicating directly with the fire department. The cost will be over 40.000 Dutch guilders (almost $20,000 US).
pants in our activities is very important to us.
hope now is that we will not have to finance this work by cutting back on our sessions or publications.
In the past many of you have helped generously to support our work. Can we count on you now to see us through this difficulty!
Your contributions can be made by bank transfer to Netherlands Postbank (giro) account no.2079557, IIRE, Amsterdam. Cheques should be made out to 'Center for Changes', earmarked Interna tional Fund - IIRE, and malled to us in Amsterdam.
dam, we look forward to giving you a personal guided tour of our • new aranm.system.
international Institute for Research and Education (JIRE)
[email protected] • 6717263. Fax 31 20 6732106 Gap, which lays between East Timor and Australia. hether the interW of the UN force will bring an end to only time will tell. It is hard not to sceptical. To a great extent the work of the death squads in killing and dispersing population has already been done: their aim will be to ensure that this reversed enough to allow the implementation of the referendum result. It is even less clear whether the UN will be able or prepared to ensure that the decision of the referendum is implemented. they are not, as the people of Kosova and Kurdistan can testify, an international protectorate no substitute for a genuine indeStop the genocide: Indonesian forces out of cast Timor now! Arm the liberation forces Immediate recognition of East Timor independent • Stop all arms sales to Indonesia. Urgent appeal from International Institute Of course we will do what the inspectors ask. The safety of particiIn any event, we have no choice; these are legal requirements. Our Thank you in advance for your help. When you're next in AmsterPostbus 53290. 1007 RG Amsterdam, The Netherlands Tel: 31 20
CIALIST OUTLOOK
: IRE must spend : thousands on fire :safety : JUST AS we were congratulating ourselves on our financal sablty.