Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Write a note, get someone out of jail
Behind the "Read more!" link you will find a very important, vital, and easy thing to do. Some workers in Indonesia are under arrest for attempting to organize the world's largest supplier of palm oil. These people need our help. Please take a look behind the link and help out. You'll feel good. I did.Nothing stays fresh forever. Not food, not news, and not online
campaigns.
Online campaigns have their own typical life spans. In the first few days, they often succeed in mobilizing large numbers of people to send off messages of protest. After that, support steadily diminishes. After a few weeks, only a trickle of messages -- if even that -- reaches the target employer or government. This sends the wrong message, we think.
That's why at LabourStart we tend to suspend campaigns that haven't reached a satisfactory end after 90 days. We don't want employers and governments to think that people have forgotten.
But this week, we're making an exception to our rule -- and we have a very special request to all of you.
Back in February we launched a campaign in support of six jailed trade union leaders in Indonesia. They were employed by a company called Musim Mas, the world's largest manufacturer of palm oil.
As always happens in these cases, the response -- initially quite large -- has dropped down considerably. Now only a trickle of messages are reaching the Indonesian government. Possibly, some bureaucrat there is telling his boss, "Don't worry -- we hardly hear any more about those jailed unionists. We can let them rot. The world has already forgotten them."
But we have not forgotten them. The union chairperson, Robin Kimbi, and the regional secretary, Masry Sebayang, got two years in prison. Fourteen months terms were given to union leaders Suyahman, Safrudin, Akhen Pane and Sruhas Towo.
Their "crime" was to exercise their mandate as union leaders. They are prisoners of conscience.
We have not forgotten them, and we will not let this issue drop.
Last week, Amnesty International called on its members around the world to raise their voices in protest against the jailing of the Musim Mas trade unionists.
And unions around the world are taking up the cause.
The Nestle European Works Council, representing 80,000 company employees, has written to the company to express concern over the possible presence of Musim Mas palm oil and oleochemicals in Nestle products.
The German Food and Allied Workers NGG and the Dutch FNV Bondgenoten have echoed the public call by the Unilever European Works Council for Unilever to distance itself from Musim Mas and publicly reveal its sources for the palm oil in company products.
And the global union federation representing food workers, the IUF (at whose request we launched our campaign) has now begun to raise money for the struggle through its International Musim Mas Defense Fund.
Momentum is growing again. A three-month old campaign, no longer "fresh", is attracting attention. The Indonesian government is going to have to start paying attention.
Please do these 3 simple things today:
1. Send off your message of protest by clicking here
2. Donate generously to the International Musim Mas Defense Fund by clicking over here
3. Spread the word in your workplace and union. Forward on this email
message!
In the international trade union movement we do not forget those who languish in prisons for our cause.
This campaign continues.
Solidarity forever!
Eric Lee
LabourStart.org
campaigns.
Online campaigns have their own typical life spans. In the first few days, they often succeed in mobilizing large numbers of people to send off messages of protest. After that, support steadily diminishes. After a few weeks, only a trickle of messages -- if even that -- reaches the target employer or government. This sends the wrong message, we think.
That's why at LabourStart we tend to suspend campaigns that haven't reached a satisfactory end after 90 days. We don't want employers and governments to think that people have forgotten.
But this week, we're making an exception to our rule -- and we have a very special request to all of you.
Back in February we launched a campaign in support of six jailed trade union leaders in Indonesia. They were employed by a company called Musim Mas, the world's largest manufacturer of palm oil.
As always happens in these cases, the response -- initially quite large -- has dropped down considerably. Now only a trickle of messages are reaching the Indonesian government. Possibly, some bureaucrat there is telling his boss, "Don't worry -- we hardly hear any more about those jailed unionists. We can let them rot. The world has already forgotten them."
But we have not forgotten them. The union chairperson, Robin Kimbi, and the regional secretary, Masry Sebayang, got two years in prison. Fourteen months terms were given to union leaders Suyahman, Safrudin, Akhen Pane and Sruhas Towo.
Their "crime" was to exercise their mandate as union leaders. They are prisoners of conscience.
We have not forgotten them, and we will not let this issue drop.
Last week, Amnesty International called on its members around the world to raise their voices in protest against the jailing of the Musim Mas trade unionists.
And unions around the world are taking up the cause.
The Nestle European Works Council, representing 80,000 company employees, has written to the company to express concern over the possible presence of Musim Mas palm oil and oleochemicals in Nestle products.
The German Food and Allied Workers NGG and the Dutch FNV Bondgenoten have echoed the public call by the Unilever European Works Council for Unilever to distance itself from Musim Mas and publicly reveal its sources for the palm oil in company products.
And the global union federation representing food workers, the IUF (at whose request we launched our campaign) has now begun to raise money for the struggle through its International Musim Mas Defense Fund.
Momentum is growing again. A three-month old campaign, no longer "fresh", is attracting attention. The Indonesian government is going to have to start paying attention.
Please do these 3 simple things today:
1. Send off your message of protest by clicking here
2. Donate generously to the International Musim Mas Defense Fund by clicking over here
3. Spread the word in your workplace and union. Forward on this email
message!
In the international trade union movement we do not forget those who languish in prisons for our cause.
This campaign continues.
Solidarity forever!
Eric Lee
LabourStart.org
// posted by Gregg Jocoy @ 1:56 AM 
