We support the people of East Timor's demand for independence as confirmed by the huge majority vote for it in the recent referendum. This is despite the referendum having been sponsored by the UN. It should be patently obvious that the UN force being led by imperialist Australian and New Zealand troops with the full approval of the United States government will neither defend the independence of the East Timor people, nor defend the interests of the super-exploited and oppressed workers and farmers of Indonesia.

On the contrary, the US, Australian and New Zealand governments, along with many others from the imperialist world, have backed Indonesia's barbaric takeover of East Timor beginning in 1975 - just as they gave full support to Suharto's military coup and massacre of up to one million leftist workers, farmers and others in Indonesia in 1965-66.

Unfortunately, many supporters of the struggle for the right to self-determination by the people of East Timor have "demanded" UN military intervention. This is more than a mistake. It will prove very costly to both the struggle for independence by the people of East Timor, as well as to the struggle by Indonesian workers for liberation from imperialist super-exploitation and oppression.

The intervention by the UN in the name of defending the struggle for independence by the East Timorese people is being planned, organized and executed by imperialist-controlled institutions, like the United Nations, to defend the interests of Indonesian and world capitalism. This is only the latest in a long series of military assaults against the peoples of North Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq and Yugoslavia - to mention only a few - in an unending series of reactionary military assaults led and orchestrated by the bipartisan government of American imperialism.

In fact, the invasion of East Timor in the name of imperialist "humanitarianism," is designed, among other things, to "legitimatize" a far more massive intervention sure to come in Indonesia. As the current drastic reduction of mass living standards imposed by the IMF and other imperialist financial agencies continues to deeped, it will leave the worker and peasant masses with no choice but to take the road of mass resistance and ultimately, the road to social revolution.

Twin Cities Socialist Action
P.O. Box 14087
Dinkeytown Station
Minneapolis, MN 55414

Email us: mnsocialist@excite.com

Twin Cities Socialist Action

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