BY RON POULSEN

SYDNEY, Australia - "I am proud to share the platform with such freedom fighters. In the decades of struggle ahead of us, working people around the world will need such fighters on their side." With these words, James Harris, Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. president, opened his address to a campaign meeting in Sydney August 21. Twenty two people attended. Speakers included Moses Havini, international representative of the Bougainville Interim Government; Eddy, a young Indonesian political activist; and Rahab Charida, a young woman who helped organize protests against the recent Israeli bombing of Lebanon.

"There is a little Vietnam war that has been kept secret from the world being waged by Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG)," Havini said, referring to the Pacific island of Bougainville. He was speaking for the independence movement on Bougainville fighting for separation from PNG. "As the region's most powerful country," he said, "Australia is providing the military supplies and financial assistance to sustain the PNG war on Bougainville."

Other speakers described the political upsurge against the military dictatorship of General Suharto in Indonesia and the impact in the Pacific of the Palestinian struggle for self- determination and against Israeli aggression in Lebanon.

"We take our campaign to where the fights and resistance are," Harris said in his presentation, "and that means internationally, across the barriers erected by our capitalist rulers."

Harris said that the 20,000-strong, union-sponsored rally he attended on August 19, in Canberra, "demonstrating for union rights and against the cutbacks, was like other struggles around the world from Bougainville to Indonesia, from the U.S. to Australia. The common thread is that for any struggle to be victorious, working people have to reach out."

He pointed out that "U.S. President Clinton is leading exactly the same type of cutbacks as are occurring here in Australia. In fact, they use the same language, `defending the family,' while throwing millions of children into poverty."

"We have nothing in common with the capitalist rulers," the U.S. presidential candidate said. "That is why we reach out across borders to fellow working people around the world and explain the commonality of our struggles. Some people say, `Maybe there is an American solution or an Australian solution to our problems,' or an Indonesian or a Haitian one. No, there is only the same working-class solution."

Harris pointed to the Cuban revolution "as an example for workers all over the world of how political change is made and how workers and farmers in power can fight to extend socialist revolution on a world scale. This is more important than any single social gain, the fact that workers in Cuba have shown that we can be victorious and push back imperialism."

The U.S. socialist also spoke at a meeting of about a dozen students at the University of Technology, Sydney. During his four-day stop in Australia, Harris had a chance to meet and exchange experiences with workers at two factory gates - at F. Muller, before workers boarded the buses for Canberra (see story on page 11), and later at Streets Ice Cream. In Canberra, he spoke to workers, students and Aboriginal activists during the labor rally. Supporters of his campaign who traveled by bus and train with workmates to Canberra reported numerous discussions and interest in the Socialist Workers tour.

The Canberra Times published an interview with Harris titled "Expect More Cuts: U.S. Visitor." He was also interviewed on Channel 7's 11AM program and by three national Australian Broadcasting Commission radio programs.  
 
 
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