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	Australasian Spartacist No. 199	Spring 2007

Partisan Defence Committee

Down With "War on Terror" Repression!

Drop the Charges Against Tamil Activists!

SEPTEMBER 15—On 14 June the Partisan Defence Committee sent the following letter to Attorney-General Philip Ruddock protesting the arrest and detention in May of Aruran Vinayagamoorthy and Sivarajah Yathavan, both of Sri Lankan Tamil background. The two men were detained under the “anti-terror” laws, accused of diverting tsunami relief funds to a “terrorist” organisation after they raised money for Tamil victims of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Sri Lanka. On 10 July a third man, Arumugam Rajeevan, was arrested in Sydney and extradited to Melbourne on similar charges. All three have since been released on bail pending the outcome of committal hearings now underway.

The three men are also charged with “belonging to a terrorist organisation”—to wit the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)—even though the LTTE is not “listed” as a proscribed organisation (despite legal preparations reportedly underway and awaiting the nod from the federal government). Tamil organisations like the LTTE have been targeted for suppression by the Australian and other imperialist governments, including through raids and arrests here in November 2005. These latest charges come in the context of stepped up military actions by the Sinhala-chauvinist Sri Lankan government to drive the LTTE from its strongholds in the largely Tamil areas in the northeast of Sri Lanka and to increase repression against Tamils in Colombo.

While our Marxist views are opposed to the nationalist politics of the LTTE we stand in their defence against the Sri Lankan army and government, which has massacred tens of thousands of Tamils and forced hundreds of thousands more into exile since the 1980s. We stand for the right of self-determination of the Tamil people, for the right of an independent Tamil Eelam!

Using the criminal attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001 and the Bali bombings as a pretext, the capitalist rulers in Australia and around the world have seized the opportunity to jack up state repression at home and wage colonial-style wars of repression in Afghanistan and Iraq. The intent of augmented police powers is to accustom people to the restriction of their democratic rights and to create a climate of fear aimed at quashing in advance any social struggle against the bloated capitalist profit system that consigns the working class and oppressed to increased exploitation and oppression.

Under the “anti-terror” laws introduced by the Howard government and enforced by ALP state governments the definition of “terrorism” is so sweeping and vague it can be used against almost anyone on any pretext. To be targeted, you don’t even have to be actively opposed to the Australian government or actually do anything at all. The raft of laws target, in the first instance, immigrant organisations, but ultimately are aimed at all opponents of Australian imperialism, the entire workers movement and the left. The targeting of Tamil activists highlights how these measures are really about political suppression. It is in the interest of the working class to come to their defence. The working class has the social power to fight the “anti-terror” laws, but is hamstrung by the Laborite pro-capitalist leadership in the unions. For a class-struggle fight against the “anti-terror” and anti-union laws! Drop the charges against Aruran Vinayagamoorthy, Sivarajah Yathavan, Arumugam Rajeevan now!

* * *

To: Philip Ruddock MP

We protest the arrest and detention of two men of Sri Lankan Tamil background on 1 May 2007 in Melbourne by the Australian federal and Victorian police. Aruran Vinayagamoorthy and Sivarajah Yathavan were charged under the “anti-terror” laws with diverting tsunami relief funds to a “terrorist organisation” because they reportedly raised money for victims of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. The two are accused of being members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

This follows the arrest of members of the Tamil Co-ordinating Committee which were carried out at the behest of the Sinhala-chauvinist Sri Lankan government simply because the committee allegedly collected monies for tsunami-stricken regions of Lanka controlled by the LTTE. The Sri Lankan government has used international tsunami relief as a weapon of war against the oppressed Tamil population, reportedly stopping it getting to Tamil areas. Amid widespread speculation that more arrests could follow we demand the federal and state police and ASIO keep their hands off the Tamil community! The targeting of Tamil activists highlights how the “anti-terror” measures are being wielded as a tool of political suppression. We note the federal government currently has plans to outlaw the LTTE as “terrorists.”

The PDC is a class-struggle, non-sectarian legal and social defence organisation which champions cases and causes in the interests of the whole of the working people. We condemn these arrests as a racist attempt to demonise the Tamil population and engender patriotic xenophobia in order to divide the working class, while strengthening the arsenal of state repression. Free Aruran Vinayagamoorthy and Sivarajah Yathavan and all those charged under the “anti-terror” laws! Drop the charges!