Vale Brother Hanafi Rustandi

Nation­al Sec­re­tary Pad­dy Crum­lin and Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of MUNZ Joe Fleet­wood sad­ly report that friend and com­rade of the MUA, MUNZ and the ITF and long term leader of the Indone­sian Sea­far­ers Union and ITF Asia Pacif­ic chair Hanafi Rus­tan­di has passed away sud­den­ly in Tokyo where the ITF Dock­ers and Sea­far­ers nego­ti­at­ing team is meet­ing with Inter­na­tion­al shipown­ers to final­ize the IBF inter­na­tion­al agree­ment. 

Broth­er Hanafi was found by MUNZ Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Joe Fleet­wood who was in the next room at the hotel and he and com­rade Crum­lin were in atten­dance for the attempt to revive him over the next hour.

Hanafi was a reg­u­lar attendee of the MUA Nation­al Coun­cil, Qua­dren­ni­al Con­fer­ence of mem­bers and Branch Con­fer­ences par­tic­u­lar­ly in West­ern Aus­tralia along with atten­dance at MUNZ exec­u­tives and con­fer­ences.

He was a fierce sup­port­er of Aus­tralian and NZ Sea­far­ers right to work and in par­tic­u­lar inter­vened on a num­ber of occa­sions to ensure off­shore ves­sels work­ing out of Indone­sia in Aus­tralian waters were manned by Aus­tralian crews. He firm­ly reject­ed any attempt by off­shore oper­a­tors to replace Aus­tralian crews with his or any oth­er nations sea­far­ers. He worked close­ly with Com­rade Fleet­wood and MUNZ in fight­ing the wage slav­ery in the inter­na­tion­al fish­ing indus­try, par­tic­u­lar­ly in NZ.

A long time union offi­cial, his shout of Fight from the Front was well known around the world. He was well rec­og­niz­able every­where in his MUA T‑shirt mak­ing that call dur­ing the Your Rights at Work  cam­paign against the Howard gov­ern­ment.

The Nation­al Sec­re­tary and Pres­i­dent of the ITF, togeth­er with MUNZ Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Joe Fleet­wood and ITF Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Steve Cot­ton have extend­ed their, the unions and ITF offi­cers staff and affil­i­ates deep­est sym­pa­thies to his wife and fam­i­ly and the offi­cers staff and mem­bers of the KPI as well as his many broth­ers and sis­ters world wide, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the ITF.

Vale Broth­er Hanafi, small in stature and giant at heart. Sea­far­er, trade union­ist, labor leader and internationalist.Much loved. Man of humour, deep faith and fam­i­ly. Now at rest after Fight­ing from the Front to his last.