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Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference 2002 For peace, global justice & solidarity with the Third World March 28-April 1, 2002. Sydney Boys High School, Surry Hills, Sydney, Australia Asia Pacific solidarity boosted by conference "Exhausting but absolutely exhilarating!" and "An incredible spirit of solidarity" were how some participants described the second Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference, held on March 29-April 1 at Sydney Boys High School. The conference attracted more than 750 people. Activists from more than 30 countries, mainly in the Asia-Pacific region, attended. Click here to read the full report in Green Left Weekly

Documents & reports from the conference

• A selection of papers now available
• The world since Seattle and September 11: A war to defeat, a world to win - By Dipankar Bhattacharya
• Globalisation and militarism in Asia - By Frank Pascual
• The anti-globalisation movement after September 11 - By Peter Boyle
• Building global solidarity - Towards a 2004 World Social Forum in India - By Max Lane
• Development of the socialist movement in Malaysia - Dr. Mohd Nasir Hashim
• Towards a socialist strategy for South Africa - By Dale T. McKinley
• Global solidarity action for refugees a great success (this link will take you to the Green Left Weekly report)
• Motion in solidarity with protesters and detainees at the Woomera refugee prison
• Motion in solidarity with the struggle against neoliberalism in Papua New Guinea
• Agenda
• The speakers who participated
• From the Asia-Pacific
• From Europe
• From Africa
• From North America
• From Latin America & the Caribbean
• Statement from the 2nd World Social Forum, Porto Alegre, Brazil
• A call to participate
• Contact the conference organising committee
• Links
• About the 1st Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference, 1998
• About the Asia Pacific Institute

Speakers who participated

Asia Pacific

Australia

• Alison Peters, Ken Davis from Workers Out! A workshop will be presented by a representative of this group of trade unionists campaigning for gay, lesbian, transgender and other sexual minority workers' rights
• Bec Conroy, cultural and media activist, will introduce a documentary of an Indonesian workers' theatre company and conduct an interactive cultural workshop
• Ben Reid, Lecturer in Development Studies, University of Newcastle, participant at Porto Alegre II. Reid will present a workshop on the Brazilian Workers Party's experiences with the Participatory Budget in the state government of Rio Grande do Sul.
• Carlene Wilson, Workers' Power Australia
• Chris Spindler, Organiser, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (Victoria)
• Committees in Solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean
• Craig Johnston, State Secretary, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (Victoria). Johnston is a leader of the rank-and-file Workers First group that is currently spearheading the AMWU and union fightbacks in Victoria.
• Doug Lorimer, Editor, Green Left Weekly
• Eric McCormack, Justice Press Releases, criminal justice activist for 33 years
• Graham McCulloch, National Secretary, National Tertiary Education Union
• International Socialist Organisation
• James Goodman, Mineral Policy Institute
• James Vassilopoulos, Green Left Weekly correspondent for Genoa anti-G8
• Jesse Wynhausen, PNG Solidarity Action, will speak about the upheavals against the rapacious IMF and World Bank policies in PNG, waged by students, workers and the poor.
• Jill Hickson, Director, Actively Radical TV, Sydney. Hickson has filmed numerous documentaries in both Australia and overseas, highlighting the struggles of ordinary people against the powers that be. She will present a couple of workshops with other media activists on the work of developing an alternative voice and media.
• Dr Jim Green, researcher and writer in nuclear issues
• John Percy, National Secretary, Democratic Socialist Party
• Jorge Jorquera, Melbourne M1 Alliance. Along with a talk on the development of the anti-corporate movement in Australia, Jorquera will conduct a fun and interactive activist workshop on "how to educate and agitate".
• Dr Kamala Emanuel, women's health and family planning doctor, a campaigner for women's right to choose
• Khaldoun Hajaj, activist in Palestine Solidarity, Sydney
• Kim Bullimore, Indigenous Students Network
• Lisa Macdonald, Free the Refugees Campaign
• Luis Almario, Colombian Solidarity Network
• Lynette Dumble, International Coordinator, Global Sisterhood Network
• Margarita Windisch, Democratic Socialist Party
• Max Lane, Chairperson, Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP)
• Max Watts, progressive journalist, specialising in Bougainville and resistance inside armies
• Meagen Phillipson, presenter of "Razor's Edge", 2SER
• Melita Grant, AID/WATCH, will present a critique of the "commercialisation of aid", examining how the profit motive distorts stated objectives of development and poverty reduction.
• Norm Dixon, journalist on southern African affairs, Green Left Weekly
• Nurcan Kiyak, Turkish-Australian refugee and women's rights activist
• Pamela Lentini, Amnesty International. Lentini is one of AI's many refugee rights activists and will detail the impact of the First World's "fortress" policies on the present application of international refugee conventions and covenants.
• Pat Brewer, Democratic Socialist Party
• Paula Abood, community development worker/advocate for refugee women. Abood has conducted extensive work among holders of Temporary Protection Visas and will bring to light their disastrous effects on refugees' lives.
• Peter Boyle, Democratic Socialist Party
• Pip Hinman, Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP). ASAP is building campaigns to strengthen people-to-people solidarity in the Asia Pacific and to oppose the intervention of Australian big business interests in the region.
• Progressive Young Hazaras
• Rafael Pacheco, El Salvadorean refugee and activist, Brisbane
• Ray Jackson, Indigenous Social Justice Association
• Sarah Stephen, journalist on refugee affairs, Green Left Weekly
• Simon Butler, National Coordinator, Resistance
• Socialist Alliance
• Stephen O'Brien, Democratic Socialist Party
• Thea Omerod, Jubilee 2000
• Tom Bramble, Socialist Alternative
• Vikki John, Bougaineville Freedom Movement
• Vivienne Porzsolt, Jewish peace activist
• Waratah/Rosemarie Gillespie

• Dita Sari, a leader of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) in Indonesia and Chairperson of the Indonesian National Front for Workers' Struggle (FNPBI). A former political prisoner and one of the foremost young militants in the budding Indonesian labour movement, Sari was recently detained while leading a strike of factory workers (See the article Dita Sari detained at strike in Green Left Weekly, November 14, 2001). For more details of Dita Sari's inspiring political background, click here.

• Kautsar, Chairperson, , Acehnese People's Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA)
• Erwanto, FPDRA

• Dr John Ondawame, a leader of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), member of the Papuan Council Presidium and Research Fellow at Sydney University's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (West Papua Project). For further information about the West Papuan struggle, visit the following sites: International Action for West Papua, West Papua Peoples and Organisations, West Papua News Online.

• Moses Havini, Bougainville Interim Government
• Marilyn Havini, Bougainville Women for Peace and Freedom

• Dr Susan Kauba, medical academic and activist

• Dave Colyer, Socialist Workers Organisation

• Farooq Tariq, General Secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan. The LPP is currently playing a leading part—especially in the mobilisation of workers—in the growing movement against the imperialist war on Afghanistan. In the process, they are also waging a courageous struggle against the religious fundamentalists, building towards a secular, democratic movement for a socialist Pakistan. See Pakistan: birth of a new peace movement in Green Left Weekly, November 14, 2001.
• The President of the Seraiki National Party, Abdul Majeed Kanjoo, from Pakistan

• Tahmmeena Faryal, senior spokesperson, Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA)

• Sonny Melencio, Chairperson of the Socialist Party of Labor, Philippines. See the interview with Melencio, a veteran Filipino revolutionary, in Philippines: left merger a great leap forward in Green Left Weekly, November 14, 2001.
• Victor Briz, President of BMP (Solidarity of Filipino Workers) union federation
• Frank Pascual, Executive Director, Resource Centre for People's Development
• Reihana Mohideen, Socialist Party of Labor

• Dr Nasir Hashim, Chairperson of the Malaysian Socialist Party

• Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). See the Green Left Weekly article, CPI-ML on the way forward for the Indian left, based on an interview with politburo member, Balasubramanian Sivaraman, in January 2000.
• Satya Sivaraman, radical Indian TV documentary producer
• Mathew Lawrence, Vice-President, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), India's main union confederation

• Badrul Alam, Krishok Federation, a mass organisation of rural workers and farmers, currently waging an extensive struggle of land occupations
• Abdul Quiyum, Krishok Federation

• Park Myoung-hye, Power of the Working Class. The PWC is an exciting new regroupment of many of South Korea's radical and Marxist activists based in the left wing of the independent union movement. Gathering together the rich and diverse experiences of these activists since the explosive entry of South Korea's now-famous independent unions in 1987, and especially since the inspiring general strike of the winter of 1996-7, the PWC aims to arm the labour movement with a capacity to go on the political offensive against a ceaseless storm of neoliberal attacks currently raging in that country. See the interview with Kwon, the PWC's international officer, in South Korean Marxists regroup (Green Left Weekly, March 1, 2000).
• Kim Jin, PWC
• Won Young-su, International Coordinator, Korean Institute for Labour Studies and Policy. The KILSP is a worker education centre that conducts theoretical and practical education, often involved in assisting grassroots labour struggles.
• Byun Jeong-pil, KILSP

• Francis Lau, Voice of Democracy

• Nelson Correia, Socialist Party of Timor (PST). The PST is at the forefront of organising resistance to the neoliberal and neocolonial attacks now facing independent East Timor. In the process, the party is winning influence among many workers, farmers and poor, reflected in its winning of a seat in the 88-member Constituent Assembly in the September 2001 national elections. See Fretilin wins, but no landslide and East Timor: thousands rally for socialism in Green Left Weekly, September 12, 2001.
• Tomas Freitas, activist for economic justice.

• The Worker Communist Party of Iraq

• The Worker Communist Party of Iran

France

• Pierre Rousset, European United Left/Nordic Green Left. Rousset is a veteran socialist who played an active part in the May-June 68 revolt and has, more recently, been involved in the movement against neoliberal globalisation. He participated in both World Social Forums at Porto Alegre and is responsible for East Asian issues for ATTAC-France's international working group. For a more recent evaluation of the LCR's work, see Left faces opportunities and difficulties in Green Left Weekly, March 21, 2001.

Britain

• Alex Callinicos, British Marxist intellectual, from the Socialist Workers Party of Britain. Callinicos is a leader of the International Socialist Tendency, the international grouping of affiliated parties led by the SWP, which includes the Australian International Socialist Organisation, among others. Callinicos's writings include Against Postmodernism : a Marxist Critique (Polity, 1989), Althusser's Marxism (Pluto Press, 1976) and Trotskyism (Open University Press, 1990).
• Stuart King, Workers' Power
• Martin Thomas, Workers' Liberty

• Eva Bjorklund, the Left Party of Sweden.

South Africa

• Dale T. McKinley, South African Marxist and activist. Formerly an activist in the South African Communist Party, McKinley was expelled for his criticisms of the SACP's accommodation to neoliberalism.
• Nina Benjamin, Khanya College. Khanya College is an activist education centre that services a range of social and labour movement organisations.

• Caroline Lund from Solidarity in the US
• Ahmed Shawki and Paul D'Amato, leaders of the US International Socialist Organisation. The US ISO, since its departure from the International Socialist Tendency in early 2001 has been seeking broader international links. This growing organisation of militants in the belly of the beast is an active force in the US anti-war movement. It is also deeply involved in the movements against racism, corporate globalisation and for women's rights.
• Michael Albert, founder of Z Magazine (ZNet online), and author of Looking Forward: Participatory Economics in the 21st Century (South End Press, 1991)

• Roberto Baggio, a founding leader of the Brazilian MST, the Landless Rural Workers Movement
• Amelia Franz, MST