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East Timor

by George Pennefather

13 September 1999 22:28 UTC


Hi Folks,
 
I have been reading much of the post on the East Timorese situation with interest. However I am of the view that  neither of the main positions are tenable --support for intervention or support for the East Timorese independence movement.
 
Interventionism merely constitutes another form of imperialist action. The struggle for independence is a utopian petty bourgeois movement that merely leads to the exhaustion, demoralisation and defeat of the masses. And isnt this just what predictably happened --look at Dili.
 
It is the latter that I want to dwell on since the reactionary nature of the independence movement is a political characteristic that is less obvious to much of the radical left. There is no possibility of any independence movement, no matter how radical, being able to achieve an independent East Timorese republic. The weakness of the East Timorese bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie against the power of imperialism renders the success of such a movement impossible.The strategic importance of East Timor makes the imperialist powers all the more determined to ensure at all costs that East Timor remain integrated into any regional imperialist arrangement.
 
Consequently it is a reactionary policy that mobilises the East Timorese masses into a struggle for national independence. It can only lead to the kind of carnage that has been meted out to the East Timorese masses over many years.
 
The only way forward for the East Timorese masses is through the establishment of a mass revolutionary movement embracing the Indonesian and Timorese masses against imperialism. Consequently of much greater interest, in many ways, is how the masses conduct themselves within Indonesia and Australia. The only way that the mass popular self-determination of the East Timorese masses can be promoted is thought the masses of Indonesia and Australia mobilising support against the imperialist actions of their governments against the East Timorese masses. This means that the aim of revolutionary elements within both regions has to be the overthrow of their respective imperialist governments and states.
 
As I write the imperialist powers and their satellites hover like vultures over the East Timorese masses while deciding how to divide and consume their prey.
 
 
Warm regards
George Pennefather
 
Be free to check out our Communist Think-Tank web site at
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~beprepared/

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