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all imperialist troops out of east timor!
We support the people of East Timor’s demand for independence as confirmed by the huge majority vote for it in the recent
referendum. This is despite the referendum having been sponsored by the UN. It should be patently obvious that the UN force
being led imperialist Australian and New Zealand troops with the full approval of the United States government will neither
defend the independence of the East Timor’s people nor defend the interests of the super-exploited and oppressed workers and
farmers of Indonesia.
On the contrary, the US, Australian and New Zealand governments, along with many others from the imperialist world, have
backed Indonesia’s barbaric takeover of East Timor beginning in 1975 – just as they gave full support to Suharto’s military
coup and massacre of up to one million leftist workers, farmers and others in Indonesia in 1965-66.
Unfortunately, many supporters of the struggle for the right to self-determination by the people of East Timor have “demanded”
UN military intervention. This is more than a mistake. It will prove very costly to both the struggle for independence by the
people of East Timor, as well as to the struggle by Indonesian workers for liberation from imperialist super-exploitation and
oppression.
The intervention by the UN in the name of defending the struggle for independence by the East Timorese people is being
planned, organized and executed by imperialist-controlled institutions, like the United Nations, to defend the interests of
Indonesian and world capitalism. This is only the latest in a long series of military assaults against the peoples of North Korea,
Vietnam, Iran, Iraq and Yugoslavia – to mention only a few – in an unending series of reactionary military assaults led and
orchestrated by the bipartisan government of American imperialism.
In fact, the invasion of East Timor in the name of imperialist “humanitarianism,” is designed, among other things, to “legitimatize”
a far more massive intervention sure to come in Indonesia. As the current drastic reduction of mass living standards imposed by
the IMF and other imperialist financial agencies continues to deepen, it will leave the worker and peasant masses with no choice
but to take the road of mass resistance and ultimately, the road to social revolution.
The above statement was issued by the Political Committee of Socialist Action, and is supported by Youth for Socialist Action.
