[Marxism] Re: Australian and NZ intervention in East Timor

[Ben Courtice <benj2006@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Phil Ferguson wrote:
"My Australian DSP friends made a very serious error in campaigning for
Australian troops to go to East Timor back in 1999.  They are now paying
the price for this error, as they are unable to oppose the current
Australian-NZ intervention without throwing into doubt the wisdom of
their 1999 position. "

Well as a DSP member I neither retract the DSP's 1999 position calling
on the Australian government to send troops in to displace the TNI
forces in East Timor; nor do I have a problem calling for Australian
troops to get out of East Timor in the next month, week or hour.

It concerns me, though, that all the East Timorese political
organisations, including the left, have welcomed if not invited the
Australian/NZ (and others, e.g. Portuguese). While I suspect the
Australian government has designs on running East Timorese affairs in
the same way they run the Solomon Islands public service, it's not for
me to tell the East Timorese national movement what to do.

I think the task for Australian and NZ revolutionaries is certainly
"exposing the neo-colonialisation of East Timor that is taking
place" as Phil puts it, but this neo-colonialisation has been happening
for years, ever since the old-style colonialisation of the Indonesian
army ended and UN/Australian/etc imperialists and their associated
multinational corporations moved in. In fact the really surprising thing
is how the ET government has stood up to Australia in negotiations over
oil, refused IMF loans, been happy to invite Cuban doctors in -  despite
being a fragile and impoverished neo-colonial economy on the doorstep of
two major regional powers. So I'm happy to wait a little to see what the
Timorese organisations are trying to do. And I have to say I've been
following every report I can find but I still haven't heard a totally
convincing explanation of who is doing what in East Timor; but no doubt
it's only a matter of time.

Ben Courtice

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