Forwarded from Christine Howes: Present also were Xanana Gusmao, reps from ET's emerging unions and the workers advocacy and resource group - LAIFET,Sharon Burrows -the new ACTU prez and TU officials from Australia, Portugal and ILO reps. ATSIC Chairman joins East Timor's First May Day Celebrations 30 April 2000 I will celebrate May Day in Dili at the invitation of the newly independent East Timorese community. This is a great opportunity for ATSIC, the national organisation of Indigenous Australians, to demonstrate solidarity with the East Timorese peoples fight for self-determination. I am promoting a 'peoples to peoples' relationship, where we can establish dialogue as neighbours with shared cultures. The Indigenous peoples of Australia and the East Timorese have traditional links which pre-date white settlement of Australia. Our cultural relationship still continues. Aboriginal groups in the Northern Territory including ATSIC offices are already offering assistance to the newly emerging nation of East Timor. There are many issues of common ground between the East Timorese and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, particularly the fight for self-determination, encompassing the challenges of overcoming unemployment, poor health and inadequate housing. Self determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is an issue which is not readily acknowledged by most Australians, but it is central to our argument to develop in our own way and at our own pace. The East Timorese, like us, face continuing struggles to win cultural, land and economic independence. Both of our peoples share significant economic challenges of the present and the future, such as outrageously high levels of unemployment.In Australia our unemployment rate is more than 50 per cent, including our people on the "work for the dole" Community Development Employment Projects. More than 90 per cent of East Timorese workers are without jobs following the devastation left by the Indonesian forces of occupation. In exercising self-determination, Indigenous representatives in East Timor and Australia are acutely aware of the links between economic reform and human rights outcomes such as, for example, the urgent need to create substantially more jobs to enable social development.They are also aware of how our peoples are prone to exploitation by foreign-owned companies. This is why we must encourage workers and the poor to organise through unions and their political structures. Our peoples must be given confidence to overcome oppression and seclusion. For many years the East Timorese and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been waging their struggles in parallel but in isolation. It is my intention to forge closer links, as peoples, so that we can share and benefit from our experiences and knowledge for the challenges ahead. There is no more fitting day than May Day - an international celebration of working people's achievements - to take the first steps in this shared journey. Geoff Clark ATSIC Chairman30 April 2000 ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
