Police persecution of trade union activists

In a recent communication to Federal Minister Brendon O’Connor I protested against the AFP abusing its power re Colombian trade union solidarity. My opening paragraphs were –

“I am writing to protest against a campaign being waged by the Australian Federal Police using counter-terrorism laws, against Mr Alejandro Rodriguez and other trade unionists who have been active in support of trade unions in Colombia in recent years.

Colombia is the worst country in the world for the political murders of trade union leaders. According to the International Trade Union Confederation, 49 were killed in 2008, and 838 killed between 2000 and 2008, and 95 per cent of the cases ‘unsolved’. Mr. Rodriguez and other Australian unionists who have been trying to give support to the Colombian unions deserve support and not political persecution by the Australian Federal Police.”

O’Connor’s reply to my concerns about the violation of the rights of an Australian citizen was “… I do not comment on AFP operational matters nor direct the AFP in its investigations” He then suggested I could make a complaint to the Ombudsman. This I have done and included the paragraphs quoted above and what follows.

Terrorism is politically-motivated violence against civilians and should be condemned. But to allow the use of Australian police to support the police persecution of trade union activists, in a country with the vile record mentioned briefly above is the opposite to acting against terrorism.

People were naturally frightened by the 9/11 attack and in 2003 the Howard Government gave the AFP and the spy agencies ASIO and ASIS free rein to go after alleged terrorists in Australia. When the laws were reviewed before their 3-year ‘sunset’, many people argued that they were too draconian, including the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. Several court cases have demonstrated that this is the case.

These laws were passed in the atmosphere created by the 9/11 attacks by a past Australian Government that strongly supported the now widely reviled Bush administration in the USA. In his 2003 Book “DUDE where’s my Country” the American popular public figure and campaigner for democratic procedures, Michael Moore, asked several as yet unanswered questions of then President Bush.

The first of these questions was — “Is it true that the bin Ladens have had business relations with you and your family off and on for 25 years? “ Another unanswered question, from Michael Moore of Bush, was “Why did you allow a private Saudi jet to fly around the US in the days after September 11 and pick up members of the bin Laden family and then fly them out of the country without a proper investigation by the FBI?”

Yes we need to do all possible to stop acts of terrorism but trade unionists organising to win decent standards of work and life are NOT terrorists.