All working people should oppose the intervention by Australian military and government forces on Bougainville, which sharply escalated in late April. Their presence is neither neutral nor benign, despite the stated purpose of "monitoring" the "permanent cease-fire" signed April 30. Their real goal is to use military, political, and financial means to block the aspirations of the Bougainvillean people to control their own destiny.

Working people should also oppose Canberra's arrogant campaign through the big-business media to label Bougainvilleans committed to independence and self- determination, such as Francis Ona, as "fanatics" and "potentially dangerous."...

Following the defeat of the Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) on Bougainville in 1996-97, imperialist military forces intervened in November 1997, as they did unsuccessfully in October 1990 and October 1994, to quell the independence struggle. These forces also stand as a deadly threat to working people in Papua New Guinea. Canberra was "invited" by the PNG government of William Skate to assume command from New Zealand of the four-nation "Peace Monitoring Group" after Wellington announced it was unable to financially sustain the level of its military forces. For the New Zealand military, which provided the command of the operation from November 1997 to the end of April, it was the largest overseas operation since the Vietnam War. The governments of New Zealand, Vanuatu, and Fiji will maintain small numbers on Bougainville....

Bougainville was incorporated into New Guinea in 1898 without the consent of its people. Until independence in 1975 Canberra ruled Papua New Guinea as a colony. Since then Australian corporations - particularly mining companies - have continued to profit from PNG's rich natural resources. The country is a neo-colony of Australian imperialism, and a key form this takes is the massive and unpayable debt owed to Australian and other imperialist banks. In March 1997 the PNG government of then Prime Minister Julius Chan was deeply shaken by a rebellion in its armed forces and mass mobilisations, which forced him to step aside. This upsurge blocked Chan's decision to employ foreign mercenaries in a new, last-ditch offensive on Bougainville. The conditions of austerity, social crisis, unemployment, hunger, and poverty that fueled the March rebellion remain today.

At the same time as Wellington and Canberra join forces to oppose these freedom fights, they clash with each other as competitors in the race for markets, raw materials, and sources of cheap labour in the region....

The toilers of Bougainville and Papua New Guinea have shaken the basis of imperialist domination with their rebellions. Working people, especially in New Zealand and Australia, have a real stake in their struggles, which further weaken our common enemy - the warmakers and exploiters in Canberra and Wellington. Miners in Australia, confronting a union-busting drive by Rio Tinto, the owner of the Panguna mine, can more easily identify with the aspirations of the people of Bougainville. Wharfies engaged in a battle to defend the right to belong to a trade union, have faced down mercenaries of the same ilk as those Chan tried to use....

Australian and New Zealand military intervention is also aimed at working people at home.... The rulers will use their interference on Bougainville to soften us up, to get us used to the idea that workers, farmers and youth should be sent to intervene militarily in the affairs of other peoples on behalf of Australian and New Zealand big business. But our interests don't lie with "our" governments or rulers....

Australian and other forces out of Bougainville and Papua New Guinea!

PNGDF forces off Bougainville!

Cancel PNG's foreign debt!

No intervention! Independence for Bougainville!  
 
 
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