International

Jailed Unionist Freed

Global union voices delight at the release of Indonesian labour activist.

The ICFTU, the world's largest trade union organisation, has warmly welcomed the release on July 5 of labour activist Dita Sari, chairwoman of the Centre for Indonesian Workers Struggle.

She was arrested in April 1996, and sentenced to five years imprisonment in 1997 for 'subversion'.

Dita Sari was arrested after she organised two rallies, involving over 10,000 workers from factories in the Tandes industrial estate in East Java. The rallies which had demanded a rise in the minimum wage and two-day menstruation leave for female workers, ended violently after the military dispersed the protestors, most of whom were women.

In welcoming her release the ICFTU described her original detention and sentence as "a travesty of justice, designed to break trade union opposition to the government", and added that "we hope that she would now be free to resume legitimate trade union, political or personal activities."

The government had originally tried to barter her release against an agreement not to become involved in public activities or to travel abroad for two years.

The ICFTU said her detention had been arbitrary and illegitimate, and her trial rigged, as the charges against her had been significantly stepped up following anti-government riots in July 1996 (which took place while she was in prison).

While in prison she wasmaltreated and refused permission to attend the funeral of her mother who died in 1996.

The ICFTU, and its regional organisation for Asia, APRO, together with many Asian, European, and North American affiliates campaigned vigourously for Dita Sari's release. A resolution was taken at the ICFTU's Women's Conference in Brazil this May to strengthen the campaign to get her freed.

According to the ICFTU's report on trade union rights' violations released this June at the International Labour Conference in Geneva, despite the fall of President Suharto, the Indonesian government continues to clamp down on protests against the economic situation, often using rubber bullets and batons against protestors. A number of labour activists imprisoned under the Suharto regime still remain in prison.

Although Indonesia has recently ratified a number of key ILO Conventions on workers' rights, attempts to create unions at shop-floor level are still met with hostility by employers. Army officers still intervene in collective bargaining in industrial dispute.

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  Issue 21 contents

»	Aussies To Go For Gold in Foreign Uniforms?
»	Howard Warned: Time Ticking On Entitlements
»	Hotels Charge Triple Time - Now for the Workers
»	Air Attack - Qantas Telesales Under Fire
»	The Hills Are Alive - With the Sound of Pay Cuts
»	National Trust Places Green(back) Bans on Unions
»	Body Hire Campaign Hots Up
»	Attack of the Killer Skips Rocks City
»	A Holiday With a Social Consience
»	East Timor: Emergency Public Meeting Called

»	Guest Report
»	Sport
»	Trades Hall
»	Piers Watch

»	Conference to Heal Rifts in the Labour Movement
»	Fabians Scour Poll Ashes
»	Holiday Confusion

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