Re: bougainville

[John Hutnyk <John.hutnyk@xxxxxxxxx>]

Bruce Lindsay wrote:
> Chris wrote:
> >[I have summarized a rather long e-mail on this situation in Papau New
> >Guinea against the Bougainville Revolutionary Army. E-mail me directly
> >red@xxxxxxx if you want the long version. --Chris]
>
> Hi Chris,
>
> I'd be interested in the email on PNG. I believe these reports from the
> Bougainville Freedom Movement here in Australia are regularly distributed
> on Leftlink here in Victoria.

Folks,

The Bougainville stuff can be found on their website:

http://www.magna.com.au/~sashab/

and you can sign up to get the reports delivered by email list. It is
well worthwhile, as this is an important political struggle, and far too
long ignored in mainstream Australia and elsehere.

The recruitment of mercenaries is only 'news' in one sense, since
Australian ex-military personnel have long been recruited to organise
the war on Bougainville. Eight years ago, after the Bougainville
Revolutionary Army had captured the CRA mine and liberated the Island,
Australia made what amounted to a formal declaration of war when
Attorney General Lionel Bowen said in the Parliament on 20 July 1989
that "it is in the interests of the defence of Australia to permit the
recruitment ... of persons to serve with the Papua New Guniea Defence
Force in any capacity for the purpose of facillitating the the use of
the Iriquios helecopters supplied" (Commonwealth Gazete 24 July 1989).
In the interests of the defence of RTZ/CRA profits, obviously.

So, most centrally, this issue involves our favourite multinational
miner RTZ/CRA (soon to change its name to merely Rio Tinto in honour of
its origins in the 'cloudy [or poisoned] river' of the Spanish tin mines
circa 1700s) and so there is extra special reason to draw attention to
this particular set of examples of super-exploitation of people, planet,
and power. [And where does all the copper which wires up this w.w.web
come from anyways?]

> in Melbourne (The Age) from a film-maker who was covertly
> in Bougainville and talked to BRA people. His conclusion was ...

Can someone send me this clipping. Who was the film maker, where is the
film? Or when with the film be?

> region, especially as there are very comparable struggles (over land,
> mining, multinational control, etc) in other parts of PNG (and even Oceania
> and northern Australia for that matter).

The main reason for these other examples is also that of RTZ/CRA being
the vehicle of neo-colonial resource extraction. I think it is worth
stressing the importance of the company because so often they manage to
keep their name out of the papers and press reports (ie which mention
Bougainville, the 'rebels', and maybe 'the largest copper mine in the
Southern hemisphere', but continually omit the fact that RTZ/CRA ripped
A$600million per year (1989 figure) out of  a mine operating since early
1970s). While RTZ/CRA might be the link in terms of operation of
Capital, it is clear that the 'circulation' of struggles does occur
amongst groups opposed to RTZ/CRA and there is a long history of this -
indeed, CRA seems to know nothing but conflict as a development
strategy, see Jan Roberts' book 'From Massacres to Mining' and Roger
Moody's 'Plunder', though this circulation does not happen just via, the
very fine, Partizans campaign group in the UK. Consider the OPM, the
Dyak peoples in Kalimantan, Northern Lands Council in Australia,
solidarities between peoples of Solomons and BRA, Union struggles
discussed on this list two years ago etc etc. The examples are many and
deserve more attention. I'd be interested in working with people on
collecting and distributing more on RTZ/CRA and Freeport mine in West
Irian (see H.Cleaver pages for stuff on this). CRA and Comalco on
Kalimantan in Indonesia, Comalco (they are a subsidiary of Rio Tinto
group) on Cape York in Australia and proposal to build a new aluminium
smelter to use power from the notorious Bakun hydroelectrical scheme in
Sarawak, Malaysia, the Century Mine, Argyle, Namibia, Horsham etc etc
you name it. This company and its scumbag directors who sit in 6 St
James Square London, must be subjected to the discipline of the
organised working classes and other oppositions.

JohnH
Manchester


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