
Issue No 31		17 September 1999

Letters to the Editor

TWU Wrong on Union Bans

Tony Sheldon's view that Transport Workers Union bans on Garuda flights are "counter-productive" as a response to the East Timor crisis is way out of touch with the Australian people and his own members. He suggests that the bans are passion without thought.

On the one hand, he overestimates the impact of the bans, as if the Garuda bans would somehow loom larger in the mind of General Wiranto and his criminal mates than the looming UN military intervention in East Timor.

On the other hand, he underestimates the need to vigorously protest against a massive crime against humanity on our doorstep, committed against a people whom our government promised to protect.

TWU bans on Garuda, like MUA bans on sea cargo, and telecommunications bans, are all part of a powerful democratic response from the Australian people, which has had a measurable impact on our government and world opinion, and helped to get a UN military intervention now, belated as it is.

In fact, the MUA bans and TWU bans had a very positive moral effect of stimulating a very broad public movement for action, because the bans were tangible action at a time when our political leaders could barely come to grips with the crisis. So the union bans were passion plus smart thinking.

In this context, Tony Sheldon's comments in last week's issue, and John Allen's press release on September 16, which actually attacked other unions for their bans, have let us all down. In particular, they let down the East Timorese leadership who have been asking for the bans, and expressing huge gratitude when they have been placed.

On Friday September 10, when over 600 East Timorese, building workers, church activists and other unionists blocked the Garuda flight from boarding at Sydney Airport, the TWU members there also refused food and fuel to the aircraft. Perhaps Tony and John should listen to these members too.

Think back. Were people right to boycott German products after the Chrystalnacht in 1938? Was that boycott counterproductive? Were Australians right to boycott Japanese goods after the invasion of China in the 1937? Did those boycotts provoke Japanese aggression, or were they the right response from thinking people?

Think forward. Tony Sheldon is promoted as one of our most dynamic union leaders. Just where would he take us?

Peter Murphy

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Issue 31 contents

Interview: Sadly Vindicated
Labor�s foreign affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton has spent the past year warning that East Timor would explode without a UN peacekeeping force. Now he�s had to watch his predictions come true.

International: In the Bunker
One of the last reporters to leave East Timor, Workers Online's HT Lee remembers the week that Dili burned.

Republic: Tarred With the Same Brush
Neville Wran asks why it is that the most fervant monarchists are also the most eager union-bashers.

Unions: Hard Labour
Prisoner educators argue more attention needs to be given to rehabilitation through teaching, but they�re facing an uphill battle to convince authorities.

History: Labour and Community
A history conference in Wollongong next month will look at the changing role for labour into the next century.

Review: Bobbin' Up - 40 Years On
Forty years after its first publicaton and several European translations Bobbin Up, a classic of industrial fiction, is coming home.

Satire: East Timor Poll Triumph: Support for Jakarta Up 21 Per Cent
The Indonesian Government has declared that it is pleased with the result of the independence referendum in which 21% of East Timorese voted in support of maintaining links with Indonesia.

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