From: "Margaret" <margaret-AT-rie.net.au>
Subject: AUT: Refugee ship crisis in Australia - union response
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 12:08:57 +1000


From: "LabourStart News" <ericlee-AT-labourstart.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 30, 2001 7:30 PM
Subject: Refugee ship crisis in Australia - union response


Building bridges
----------------
Many of you will have seen on your television news last night dramatic
footage of Australian elite forces boarding the Norwegian ship 'Tampa' which
is carrying hundreds of refugees.  For many of us, seeing Australian Prime
Minister John Howard on our TV screens, hearing him address the nation about
the need for Australia to defend its borders, was the first time (and
hopefully the last) that we've ever seen or heard him.  (Really, when was
the last time Australia lead the nighly news on the BBC?)

What we did NOT hear about was the other side of the story -- the reacion of
Australia's trade union movement to Howard's decision to expell the
Norwegian ship and its 460 Afghan refugees from Australian territorial
waters.  And that reaction could not have been clearer:

The Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) called on the Australian government to
respect human rights and international law, and denounced the Howard
government's hypocrisy.  Their statement may be found here:

http://mua.tcp.net.au/Pages/news.html#Anchor-Call-44867

The Norwegian unions learned about the MUA's statement and issued one of
their own -- giving due credit to LabourStart.  Their statement is in
Norwegian and can be found here:


http://www.lonytt.org/lo/web/LO_nettavis_publish.nsf/($All)/727E5D70F9292260
C1256AB7005D1EEF?OpenDocument

We'll keep tracking these developments on both our English and Norwegian
pages, and thank LabourStart correspondents Andrew Casey in Sydney and Espen
Loken in Oslo for their swift reaction to events.

Check out  http://www.globalworkplace.org/
--------------------
www.iww.org For A World Without Bosses.


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