
Issue No 10		23 April 1999

International

Labor Council Official to Dili Front Line

By Deirdre Mahoney

Labor Council's Chris Christodoulou will be one of the first foreign unionists to head to East Timor in the leadup to independence.


	Chris Christodoulou

Christodoulou will be part of a delegation composed of WA TLC and other ACTU delegates, offering support from Australian unionists via financial aid for health and education, as well as setting up trade union networks.

The visit was announced this week, following an address to Labor Council delegates by East Timor's only surgeon, Dr Sergio Lobo.

He told delegates that getting medical care to the East Timorese was difficult at the best of times, with only 67 medical centres scattered throughout the country, each normally staffed with a doctor, midwife and two nurses catering to 40,000 people.

But now, with most doctors gone from the country, most of the centres have shut down, only two are equipped for surgery and with the remaining nurses trained only to follow doctors' orders, not to diagnose and administer medicine themselves, the situation is desperate.

Dr Lobo was in Australia to attend the Strategic Planning Conference for a future independent East Timor. The conference, held in Melbourne recently, and supported by the department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which helped fund 33 passages from East Timor (150 East Timorese living in other countries like Australia, Mozambique, Portugal and New Zealand also attended the conference) was to plan ahead for education, health, and so on.

The main difficulty at the moment, Dr Lobo says, is getting medical supplies through. Although one load left Darwin recently for Timor, delays at the Timor end, coupled with inability to read English pharmaceutical covers, means the best way to support the East Timorese is for Australian unionists to contribute money to non-government organisations which will buy pharmaceuticals in Indonesia, and get them to Timor.

The drugs would be used to treat the most common diseases: malnutrition, malaria and tuberculosis (a TB eradication program began five years ago but has phased out because of a lack of supplies and lack of access to medical centres).

Dr Lobo launched an appeal by APHEDA - Union Aid Abroad, to raise funds - members wanting to donate should call APHEDA on 02-9264 9343. Australian unions will also be helping through an APHEDA program which will take two East Timorese nurses to the Thai/Burma border camps to study their community-based mobile medical camps. Later, we may also sponsor training for nurses.

Another visitor to Sydney after the Strategic Planning Conference was Maria Milou, who spoke to unions reps about the difficulties women face in East Timor. Maria spoke of her personal struggle, and of Fretilin's involvement in pushing issues of women's rights and literacy since 1974, when students left the final years of their schooling to go and organise people in the countryside. Interested members can also speak to Alison at APHEDA about contributing to a women's project in East Timor.

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  Issue 10 contents

Interview: Latham: Leading With The Chin
Labor's heretical voice talks about trade unions and how they'll survive in the land of the Third Way.

Unions: Nursing the Numbers
Active members are the key to recruitment for one of the state's strongest unions, the NSW Nurses Association. We talk to some of the star recruiters.

History: A Sense of Community
Historian Greg Patmore looks at labour-community coalitions in the Lithgow Valley between 1900 and 1932.

International: Labor Council Official to Dili Front Line
Labor Councilďż˝s Chris Christodoulou will be one of the first foreign unionists to head to East Timor in the leadup to independence.

Review: When Billy Met Lindsay
What happens when a British political popster meets with an Australian political thinker?

Legal: CyberPorn in the Workplace
A new protocol in the NSW public service is setting the benchmark for acceptable use of the internet.

» Vizard Offers Unions Cheap Computers, But Is It a Pup?

» Y2K Crashes Bank Holidays

» Carr Says Thank You To Union Movement

» Crew Saved by Message in a Bottle

» Unions to take on Qantas Over Foreign Jobs

» No Training on Coat-Hanger Sparks Job Fears

» Council's Hypocrisy Sparks Green Ban Call

» Shoddy Editor Sparks May Day Confusion

» STOP PRESS: Employers Bid to Scrap ANZAC Day Fails. For Now

» Guest Report

» Sport

» Trades Hall

» Piers Watch

» Not So Wild About Bragg

» Faction Talk Must Be Broader

» A Bouquet from the Bush

» Help a Student Pass!

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