>
>Please forward the information below to LBO-Talk if someone hasn't
>posted it already. Thanks.
>
>Phil
>
>
>
>Dear friends,
>
>Below please find
>
>1. A NEW UPDATED AND SLIGHTLY REVISED Letter of Support for activists
>detained this weekend in Indonesia WITH ADDITIONAL SIGNATURES. Please
>circulate this statement widely and sign on at nodetention at hotmail.com
>
>2. A Press Release about the detentions that can be sent to local media.
>
>3. A solidarity letter from this weekend's rally in South Carolina signed
>by
>a number of prominent labor activists. Please also circulate this widely.
>
>
>1.
>
>
>We Protest the Arrest of Indonesian and International Activists
>
>We, the undersigned, would like to express our gravest concern over the
>forcible dispersal of the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference Against
>Neoliberalism in Jakarta, Indonesia, on the afternoon of June 8, 2001.
>
>The conference was organized by the Indonesian Center for Social Reform and
>Emancipation (INCREASE) and attended by participants from around the world.
>The conference was convened to discuss workers' rights and the impact of
>the
>Asia Pacific economic crisis.
>
>On June 8, at 2 p.m. Jakarta time, 300 police surrounded the conference
>venue and 100 armed police stormed the venue and shut down the conference.
>The police took 40 participants, including conference organizers and 32
>foreign attendees, by truck under arms to the Jakarta Regional Police
>Headquarters. Twenty-four hours later, 32 people representing 12 countries
>were still in police custody, including a four-year-old child.
>
>Following the police's closure of the conference and removal of foreign
>guests, civilian militias attacked the remaining participants as they were
>leaving the conference site. Two conference attendees were injured and one
>was hospitalized as a result. His or her condition is currently unclear.
>The
>timing of this vicious attack raises the possibility of police collusion
>with the gangs, a re-emergence of the sort of alliance between right wing
>terror groups and the military that we saw in the Indonesian army's support
>for the militias in East Timor.
>
>We consider the detention of conferences attendees and the violent attacks
>on Indonesian participants to be unlawful and a clear attack on free
>speech.
>the right to assemble, and labor rights. We are committed to defending
>workers rights wherever and whenever they are threatened.
>
>We therefore condemn the Indonesian police's closure of the conference and
>its suppression of democratic discussion.
>
>We furthermore demand that the Indonesian government: 1) immediately and
>unconditionally release all Indonesian and foreign detainees arrested at
>the
>conference; 2) ensure the safety of Indonesian activists organizing for
>workers' democratic rights in the Republic of Indonesia; and 3) sanction no
>reprisals against Indonesian participants involved in these activities.*
>
>Sincerely,
>
>To sign on to this statement e-mail nodetention at hotmail.com
>
>*NOTE: This will be faxed to the Indonesian Central Police Station, with a
>copy to the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and the Indonesian Embassy in
>Washington, D.C.
>
>--Kurt Biddle
><kurtbiddle at earthlink.net>
>Washington Coordinator Indonesia Human Rights Network
>1101 Pennsylvania Avenue SE
>Washington, DC 20003
>(202) 544-1211 phone
>(202) 544-6118 fax
>www.indonesianetwork.org
>
>--Anthony Arnove
><arnove at igc.org>
>Editor, South End Press
>National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981)
>7 Brookline Street #1
>Cambridge, MA 02139-4146
>(617) 547-4002 phone
>(617) 547-1333 fax
>www.southendpress.org
>
>--Ahmed Shawki
><isr at internationalsocialist.org>
>Editor, International Socialist Review
>National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981)
>PO Box 16085
>Chicago, IL 60616-0085
>(773) 583-5069 phone
>(773) 583-6144 fax
>www.internationalsocialist.org
>
>--Jeff Ballinger
>Coordinate, Press for Change
>E- 502
>75 Cambridge Parkway
>Cambridge, MA 02142
>(617) 496-6423
>
>--Graham Deline
>Senior Officer: International Soolidarity
>Canadian Union of Public Employees
>Ottawa, Ontario
>
>--Mike Prokosch, Director of Globalization Program
>United for a Fair Economy
>
>--United for a Fair Economy
>
>--Ernest Bennett, Vice President and National Organizing Director, Union of
>Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, (UNITE)
>
>--Soren Ambrose
>50 Years Is Enough Network
>Washington, DC USA
>
>--Hal Leyshon
>President, Washington-Orange Labor Council, AFL-CIO
>
>--Russ Davis
>Director of Massachusetts Jobs With Justice
>Boston, Massachusetts
>
>--Paul Babin
>Executive Board member of IUE Local 201
>Lynn, Massachusetts
>
>--William Peltz
>Capital District Labor-Religion Coalition
>Albany, New York
>
>--Gordon White
>County Secretary, Northamptonshire National Union of Teachers
>Former Parliamentary Candidate, Socialist Alliance
>
>--Larry Bradshaw
>Chief Steward
>Paramedic Chapter
>SEIU Local 790
>
>--Geoff Collier
>Vice President, Hull TUC
>
>--Tom Johnson
>United Steelworkers of America
>Chicago, Illinois
>
>--Wayne Heimbach
>Union Representative, SEIU Local 73
>Chicago, Illinois
>
>--Tom Lewis
>Professor
>Department of Spanish and Portuguese
>University of Iowa
>member, International Socialist Organization
>
>--Colin Barker
>Lecturer in Sociology, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
>
>--Einde O'Callaghan, Germany
>
>--Anthony Williams, President, Picture the Homeless
>
>--George Snedeker
>
>--
>
>2.
>
>PRESS RELEASE
>
>For Immediate Release:
>
>Indonesian Police Raid Academic Conference
>International Solidarity Campaign Underway
>Protests called in U.S. and Australia
>
>U.S. Contacts: Ahmed Shawki, director of Center for Economic Research and
>Social Change and editor of the International Socialist Review: (773)
>583-7884 or (847) 921-1917 and Lee Sustar:(773) 425-6684. Both are members
>of the National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981).
>
>JAKARTA, June 9--Police in Jakarta raided the Asia Pacific Solidarity
>Conference Against Neoliberalism on June 8 and forcibly detained 32 foreign
>participants for 24 hours while unknown assailants beat at least two
>Indonesian attendees who were later hospitalized.
>
>"Maybe 50 or 60 police stormed into the meeting room with guns, including
>rifles held in an offensive stance," said Max Lane, an Australian attending
>the conference.
>
>"This is a brutal and anti-democratic assault on human rights that
>threatens
>democracy everywhere," said Paul D'Amato, an American participant, by
>phone.
>
>Foreign attendees were stripped of their passports and charged with
>violating the terms of their visas, but lawyers aiding them deny any
>violations occurred.
>
>Indonesian officials have ordered the foreign nationals to report to police
>on Monday, June 11, at 10 a.m. where, according to an Australian news
>agency, they could be further interrogated and re-arrested, released, or
>deported.
>
>Several participants who had been released were re-imprisoned eight hours
>after their release, including a four-year-old child accompanying the
>national coordinator of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor,
>Pip Hinman.
>
>One of those arrested was Budiman Soedjatmiko, chair of the People's
>Democratic Party (PRD). The party has played an important role in the
>Indonesian labor movement, and Budiman has received death threats from an
>anti-communist group. His parent's home was recently firebombed.
>
>International labor and human rights groups are heeding the PRD's call for
>solidarity and organizing to prevent violence and any further human rights
>violations against Indonesian activists and foreigners.
>
>In the U.S., solidarity rallies will be held outside consulates at 8 a.m.
>local time, Monday, June 11, in New York City, Chicago, Boston, San
>Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
>
>
>
>3.
>
>STATEMENT FROM SOUTH CAROLINA RALLY
>
>We Protest the Arrest of Labor Rights Activists in Indonesia
>
>We, the undersigned, would like to express our gravest concern over
>the forcible dispersal of the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference
>Against Neoliberalism in Jakarta, Indonesia, on the afternoon of June
>8, 2001.
>
>The conference was convened to discuss workers' rights and social
>issues in Asia. According to Associated Press reports, subsequently
>confirmed by other media sources, some 40 participants at this
>conference were detained by the Jakarta police. They have been held at
>the Jakarta central police station crisis center for alleged visa
>violations -- the authorities claim conference participants entered
>the country as visitors, not to attend a conference.
>
>We consider this act to be unlawful and a clear attack on labor
>rights. As supporters of the campaign to defend the Charleston Five --
>South Carolina union dockworkers facing felony riot charges for
>defending their union -- we are committed to defending workers rights
>wherever and whenever they are threatened.
>
>We therefore demand the immediate and unconditional release of the
>Indonesian and foreign detainees arrested at the conference.*
>
>Sincerely,
>
>John Poulsen, Dockers Freeport, Copenhagen, Denmark
>
>Linda Chavez Thompson, Executive Vice President, AFL-CIO
>
>Cecil Roberts, President, United Mine Workers of America (UMWA)
>
>Yu Kwang Jun, Director of the Policy Planning Department, Daewoo Auto
>Workers Union, Korean Metal Workers' Federation, Korean Confederation
>of Trade Unions (KCTU)
>
>Kenneth Riley, President, International Longshoremen's Association,
>(ILA), Local 1422, Charleston, South Carolina
>
>James Spinosa, President, International Longshore and Warehouse Union
>(ILWU)
>
>Juan Velez, President, International Longshoremen's Association,
>(ILA), Local 1575, San Juan, Puerto Rico
>
>Donna DeWitt, President, South Carolina AFL-CIO
>
>Dr. Anne-Marie Johnson, National Chair of the EEOC of the Screen
>Actors Guild (SAG)
>
>Thom Crenshaw, President, Charleston Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO,
>Charleston, South Carolina
>
>Tony Mazzocchi, National Organizer, Labor Party
>
>Cecilia McCall, Secretary Progressive Staff Congress, City University
>of New York (CUNY), New York, New York
>
>Bob Ashton, President, International Longshore and Warehouse Union
>(ILWU), Local 500, Vancouver, British Columbia
>
>Don Simpson, Executive Board, International Longshore and Warehouse
>Union (ILWU). Local 500, Vancouver, British Columbia
>
>Roger Toussaint, President, Transport Workers' Union (TWU) Local 100,
>New York, New York
>
>Tim Schermerhorn, Vice President, Transport Workers' Union of America,
>(TWU) Local 100, New York, New York
>
>Richard L. Heiterer, Recording Secretary, International Longshoremen's
>Association, (ILA) Local 1771, Charleston, South Carolina
>
>Larry Adams, President, Laborers International Union, Local 300
>(National Postal Mail Handlers Union), New York, New York
>
>Ashaki Binta, Black Radical Congress, Atlanta, Georgia
>
>Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, President Emeritus, Southern Christian
>Leadership Conference (SCLC)
>
>ORGANIZATIONS FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES ONLY.
>
>*NOTE: This statement will be faxed to the Indonesian Central Police
>Station, with a copy to the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and in Washington,
>D.C.
>
>Feel free to use to fax to Indonesian and other appropriate
>consulates.
>
>For more information please call Lee Sustar at 773-583-7884 (work) or
>773-425-6684 (cell phone) or Ahmed Shawki 773-583-7884 (work) 847-921-
>1917 (cell phone).
>
>For copies of the original signed petitions please fax a request to
>773-583-6144, Attn: Lee or Ahmed.
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