Indonesia

We are proud to announce the recent publication of the Indonesian edition of Reason in Revolt. The book was launched publicly on February 20th at the Gadja Mada University. Here we provide some background information and details of how to order the book in Indonesia.

May Day is not a holiday in Indonesia. Even if May 1 fell this year on a Saturday it is still a normal working day for most workers on the archipelago. Workers have to take a day off or go on strike to be present. Despite this and other obstacles thousands of workers hit the streets in the main industrial centres like Jakarta, Bandung and Surabaya on the island Java, Medan in Sumatra, Palu in Sulawesi and smaller places like Riau and Batam.

Mass strikes of public transportation drivers started on Monday, January 6, in a number of Indonesian cities. Street protests continue against the IMF sponsored cuts in subsidies which have provoked a price hike. Although still relatively small these protests could become more massive in the coming days. Particularly important is the call for a nation-wide strike for Thursday January 9 (today) by a front of 23 different trade unions which could halt industry in many parts of the country.

On October 12, two bombs ripped through a packed discotheque in Bali, killing more than 200 people and injuring some 300. Most of those who died were young people, many of them Australians. Marxists condemn this act of senseless killing. However, the declarations of Bush and Blair are full of the most disgusting hypocrisy. They are taking cynical advantage of the grief and anger at the latest terrorist atrocity for the purpose of drumming up support for their plans for war.

This article deals with the background and the consequences of the recent Bali blast from an Indonesian perspective. In a future article the author will deal with the economic situation in Indonesia, developments in the class struggle and the perspectives for the left.

Question: The factional infighting between the Indonesian parliament and the President has reached the point of a severe constitutional crisis. An impeachment procedure against him has now started and will culminate in a special session of the People Representative Assembly on the first of August. This may lead to the censuring of the President and his replacement 22 months after being the first democratically elected president. What are the underlying causes for this protracted crisis at the top of Indonesian society?

Why an education project for Indonesian socialists?

Over the last 2 years the youth (students, workers and urban poor) in Indonesia have waged a relentless struggle against the Suharto dictatorhsip and his clone Jusuf Habibie. They have manifested time and time again their willingness to free themselves from oppression and capitalist exploitation This has expressed itself in mass demonstrations, strikes, pitched street battles, and land occupations in open defiance of state military power and the Jakarta central oligarchy.

We publish here the first edition of a new Marxist paper in Indonesia. Cahaya, means "shining light" or "bright light" and has been produced by a group of young Marxists active in the Indonesian workers and student movement. It has the ambition to become the socialist voice of workers, poor peasants and young people. We hope that the policies explained in its pages will become the dominant ideas of the Indonesian left.A short presentation in English is also available.

Since the fall of Soeharto a lot has changed for the Indonesian labour movement. During the New Order era one "union" monopolised the organisation of workers, the yellow union FSPSI linked to the ruling clique's Golkar party. Instead of raising the consciousness of workers, the FSPSI was designed to depoliticise them.

The recent Global Alliance report (February 2001) on workers' rights (mostly dealing with young girls) in 9 Nike factories in Indonesia has once more brought to the fore the ruthless character of the regime in the factories belonging to this American multinational. If the claim made by a so-called 'surprised and disturbed management' is to be believed, then the conditions in the factories reviewed would be amongst the most "progressive in the country".

An important political development has taken place in the left movement in Indonesia with the split of the Democratic Socialist Faction from the PRD (Democratic People's Party) during the first few weeks of November 2000. Although small in numbers (some 22 national leaders and organisers based in the capital Jakarta) the political reasons behind this split relate to fundamental questions of revolutionary socialist strategy for Indonesia.

Since the fall of the dictator Suharto, the Indonesian working class has been in a constant struggle to build up its own organisations. But they are seriously hampered in this by the economic crisis and the resulting mass unemployment, even more than before. On top of that comes the ongoing repression by the employers, the government and the military.

Today, we the Democratic Socialist Faction, a faction inside the People's Democratic Party, declare to split from the People's Democratic Party (PRD). We do hope that this split will give a new way for strengthening revolutionary movement in Indonesia, considering the fact that the internal conflict in the PRD has lead to fundamental difference and accordingly irreconcilable.