Veronica Smith, Washington – US and international labor union leaders will demonstrate Wednesday in front of Indonesia's embassy here to protest the imprisonment of an Indonesian labor leader, organizers said.
The American Federation of Labor and Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) said the demonstration would kick off an international campaign to free Muchtar Pakpanan, general secretary of the unofficial Indonesian Prosperity Trade Union (SBSI).
Pakpanan is facing execution under subversion charges.
His case, and Indonesia's crackdown last year on dissent, has sparked harsh international criticism, including from the United States and the European Union.
"Although the governments around the world have long overlooked the Suharto regime's violations of fundamental labor and human rights, the American labor movement will not turn its back on such injustices," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said in a statement.
Sweeney was to lead the demonstration and delegation to deliver messages to Indonesian Ambassador Arifin Siregar at the embassy.
The AFL-CIO has launched a campaign on behalf of Pakpahan's release and other labor activists in Indonesia. The Indonesian government only recognizes one trade union, the state-sponsored All Indonesia Workers' Union.
It considers all others illegal and has backed a harassment campaign against independent trade unionists.
Pakpahan was arrested last July and accused of inciting mass labor unrest that degenerated into anti-ethnic Chinese rioting. Sweeney met with Pakpahan in July 1996, before the SBSI leader was jailed, to express the support of American workers for the struggle of independent unions in Indonesia.
Labor and civil and human rights activists are expected to join the demonstration in support of Muchtar Pakpanan, said AFL-CIO spokeswoman Deborah Dion.
Scheduled to address the gathering are Bill Jordan, the British head of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), Sweeney, and Marcello Malentacchi, the Italian general secretary of the International Metalworkers Federation.
The ICFTU represent free labor organizations on all five continents, with a total membership of 127 million.
The AFL-CIO is the US national labor union formed in a 1955 merger of the country's two largest labor unions. The demonstration comes as the International Trade Secretariat, which groups national unions concerned with a particular trade, profession or industry, holds its annual meeting for the first time in Washington, Dion said. vs/cw