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Indonesian Pro-democracy Movement and Maubere Peoples' Independence

A position paper prepared by Solidaritas Perjuangan Rakyat Indonesia untuk Maubere (SPRIM, Indonesian People's Solidarity Struggle with the Maubere People)

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the pro-democracy movement in Indonesian has succeeded in emerging and pressuring the New Order regime economically and politically. This movement, spearheaded by worker, student and peasant actions, has been successful in revealing the horror, brutality and injustice which has been experienced by the Indonesian people under the New Order regime. Thus, the Maubere peoples' struggle for independence, the Maubere peoples' agitation for the independence struggle, will have a positive basis of hope if it also rests on the pro-democracy movement -- primarily the labour, student and peasant movement -- which has the strength to deal a sure blow against the New Order regime.

Since the New Order seized power after slaughtering two million Indonesian people in 1965, Indonesia has pursued an economic development policy of promoting industrialisation through an invitation for the reentry of foreign capital and the accumulation of foreign debt. To protect and guarantee the interests of foreign capital, in 1967 the Foreign Investment Regulations were enacted. Moreover, in inviting the entry of foreign capital, the attraction was based upon natural resource wealth and a cheap and submissive labour force.

In the beginning, the strategy of industrialisation was an Import Substitution strategy. Because of a rapid drop in the price of oil on the world market and pressure to pay the foreign debt, the New Order regime was forced to change this industrialisation strategy to one of Export Orientated Industry. Following this, the middle manufacturing industries emerged whose products were exported to earn non-oil export based foreign exchange. The new industrial zones, which were established in cities such as Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang, Bekasi, -- together called JABOTABEK -- South, East and West Bandung, Gresik, Bangkalan, Mojokerto, Surabaya, Sidoarjo-Lamongan, Semarang, Medan and Ujung Padang, have all developed rapidly. The manufacturing industry's reserve army of labour was quite large. From data which was recorded in 1980, this sector employed 4.2 million workers; in 1985 this increased to 5.8 million; and by 1990 it had reached 8.2 million; while, by November 1993, there were 10.5 million workers employed in the manufacturing sector (Republika 20/12/93).

Labour strategic social sector

The strategic role of labour in the Indonesian economy is certainly not proportional to their standard of living. Workers' lives and conditions are not just very poor in the factories themselves but outside the workplace as well. The wages and allowances received are simply too low to live a normal life. Imagine, the minimum wage at the end of the 5th Five Year Development Plan only reached 73 percent of minimum physical needs, and that was only obtained by 62 percent of Indonesian workers. (Republika, 30/12/1993).

There are no guarantees of work safety and the safety conditions in factories mean workers constantly face the risk of injury or illness. To contain the cost of production, there is a tendency by many companies to not list their workers for workers compensation or medical insurance (Republika, 3/1/94). The recent changes in these schemes (from ASTEK to JAMSOSTEK) also clearly lowered workers' guarantees of health and safety. Frequently there are pressures to work continuous overtime which can damage the physical health of workers, as in the case of the experience of workers in a photographic framing factory in Cilengsi, Bogor. They were forced to work overtime without any time limits, and if they refused, the were forced to resign (Kompas, 1/2/93). At a factory in Kalideres, West Jakarta, the company did not prepare enough food for workers; imagine, a night-shift employee working from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. the next morning, and the company only provided a single slice of bread. The result is that workers must work with empty and painful stomachs (Kompas, 19/1/93). At an export canning company, P.T. Ganfa Guna Indonesia, many workers have lost fingers due to the poor safety conditions; in the printing section in a canning company for export in the Pluit industrial zone, many workers have had their lungs perforated; and the many other accidents just in this one factory.

The minimum wage forces workers to live in tiny quarters -- no more than two by three meters -- occupied by three to six workers, the streets are dirty and muddy, with insufficient facilities, particularly sanitation. In general, the quarters occupied by workers are old and unhealthy. The living areas located around the factories are often polluted with industrial waste. This pollution results from dumping of industrial waste in water channels, polluting springs and creating a putrid smell, or smoke and dust from factories (such as the environment surrounding the Cibinong cement factory) where air pollution is causing coughs or lung disease for workers and their families who live near the factory.

Siding with the companies is the SPSI (government controlled All Indonesian Workers Union) The SPSI Work Units more often than not acts in partnership with the company to oppress workers. The bad quality and integrity of SPSI has even been admitted to by the Secretary General of SPSI, W. Bokha, who said that many SPSI leaders originate from the civil service appointments and easily accept bribes (Kompas, 19/12/92). In reality, the New Order turned SPSI into the only labour organisation which may officially represent workers. The aim of making SPSI the only organisation which is "sanctioned" by the government is intended to prevent strikes, (Trisukses, No 8/1/ThVII, December 1992). In all the cases, the picture is one of Indonesian workers' suffering and this makes up the key issue at this time.

Workers' actions Departing from the above issues however, the objective conditions of the labour movement since the 1990s indicate a very encouraging development. Worker actions break out continuously, almost every day newspapers carry articles on strikes or worker demonstrations. An increase can be found both in the quantity and quality of these actions:

Qualitatively, since the 1990s, the number of strikes has jumped dramatically compared to previous years. In the years 1986 to 1990, there were 46 worker actions per year on average, in 1991, 114 cases occurred. While according to SPSI records, in four provinces in Java, in 1992, 344 strike occurred and in 1993, a total of 343 strike. The largest number of strikes occurred in the light manufacturing, although it has already begun to spread to other sectors, such as the service sectors -- hotels, banks and hospitals -- and the transport sector such as city transport strikes, buses, and even in the state shipping company P.T. PAL. The location of the strikes was initially restricted to the industrial zones around Jakarta, now they have broadened to industrial zones in other cities all across Indonesia.

In 1994, Indonesian workers held a total of 1,126 strikes. Totaling around 2.8 million lost hours, and at a cost of 240 billion Rupiah. The largest number of strikes, 581, occurred in West Java (in particular JABOTABEK) with East Java recording 200, North Sumatra 140, Jakarta 126, Central Java 54, Riau 5, West Kalimantan 3 and South Sumatra 1. This increased 350 percent on the previous year's total of 312.

Qualitatively, the development of the utilisation of different means of struggle to achieve labour demands can also be seen. The use of posters, banners, and distribution of written material has begun to be common place in labour actions; and these actions are no longer just restricted to factories but are involving large numbers of workers protesting to parliament and in marches and rallies through major streets leading to parliament, the Ministry of Labour offices, and Governor's offices; and some times actions beak out in several factories in the same industrial zone; rallies involving workers from a number of factories joining to achieve their demands; in Solo, 11,000 workers from P.T. Batik Karis, after a one day strike on February 1, 1994, held a rally at the Department of Labour. They were able to meet with the Ministry of Labour and blocked streets causing the Minister to be two hours late to the Indonesian Employers Association conference opening at the National Monument in Solo; at the same time strikes were held at 15 factories in the Berikat Nusantara zone, more than 50,000 workers from 23 factories in Medan took their protests to parliament and the Governor's office; furthermore, of late, workers have begun forming alliances with students in the same way as alliances have developed between peasants and students -- we have seen for example such student and worker alliances in Tangerang, Jakarta and Semarang.

More recent actions show an unusual militancy. In Tangerang, hundreds of P.T. Sangrox Indahwa workers marched to the local parliament in a rally stretching 15 kilometers long. P.T. CPS workers held a strike despite the recent killing of a work mate, Marsinah; in Medan, in the mist of violence by security personnel, thousands of workers continued to rally and demonstrate for around a week; the death of their comrades (like Patriono and Marsinah in East Java and Rusli in Medan) failed to frighten workers, and rather, it created a united worker solidarity.

The demands now being presented have also developed; no longer just focusing on "normative" demands, but including challenges against government policy and intervention and violence by the state, which had so far terrorised workers; as an example, the demands which were presented by the worker action in Medan included demands for a rise in the regional minimum wage, the withdrawal of Ministry of Labour Decree Number 01/1994, and an investigation into the death of Rusli which is widely believed to have been done by security forces; now, spearhead by PPBI (Centre for Working Class Struggle) workers' demands have become more political; aside from demanding a national minimum wage of 7,000 Rupiah, they have also demanded a free trade union, an end to military interference in industrial and labour affairs, along with the withdrawal of five politically repressive laws -- laws on mass organisations; political parties, general elections, parliamentary positions and regulations and referendums.

Broader struggle And, this positive development, caused by a growing momentum in the student movement, has begin to change the sectarian, campus orientated character to that of a broader political struggle. The student struggle has begun to change it's methods of propaganda work which previously, had been restricted to the limited to the sphere of students on campus, to mass propaganda work among workers, peasants and the urban poor. The development of the labour movement (strike actions) which was so marked in 1994, succeeded in capturing the sympathy of the progressive layers of the middle class (primarily students), and the result was that popular sentiment began to cut into the issues which had begun to be raised by the student movement; aside from this was the appearance of a qualitative development in workers' methods of struggle, due to the push from the developing student movement; that is, uniting workers and students, so that they were no longer alone in struggling for their rights and interests, but starting to work jointly in student-worker alliance actions. Solidaritas Mahasiswa Indonesia untuk Demokrasi (SMID -- Student Solidarity for Indonesian Democracy) is the most significant student and labour organisation which has taken the lead in developing the worker-student alliance within the democratic movement since the New Order seized power.

In a de facto manner, workers have already achieved an alternative trade union aside from SPSI. The sole trade union policy brought in by the regime, that is SPSI, to control and weaken labour resistance, has become increasingly difficult to implement. A number of independent trade unions outside of SPSI already exist which have not been able to be prohibited or disbanded by the regime: SBM (Free Trade Union Setiakawan), SBSI (Indonesian Trade Union for Prosperity), SBT (Transport Union), and finally PPBI (Centre for Indonesian Working Class Struggle). SBSI -- which was established without the regimes agreement, and which on a number of occasions has made demands for the freedom of workers to organise, a minimum wage of 7,000 Rupiah, and the acceptance of SPSI through a national strike and finally the strikes and demonstrations in Medan -- has not been able to be disbanded by the regime. Moreover, recently, and for the first time, the Department of Labour has been prepared to have negotiations with SBSI leaders. Similarly with PPBI, which just recently called for a national rally in Jakarta and Semarang -- in the framework, and for the first time in the history of the New Order regime, to commemorate May Day on May 1 -- with a national minimum wage demand of 7,000 Rupiah, freedom to organise, ending military intervention in industrial and labour affairs, and with the distributing a national leaflet to campaign for the above three demands, politically, the regime was not able to take any kind of action at all.

PPBI was initially established at a congress in Ambarawa, Central Java, on 22-23 October, 1994. Around 100 delegates attended representing workers from factory committees primarily from cities such as Jakarta, Tangerang, Bogor, Yogyakarta, Semarang, Solo, Salatiga, Surarabaya and Medan. This founding congress adopted the public slogan: "Resist Oppression, Advance Labour" (in the final development, after students and peasants alliance actions had become more concrete, PPBI then adopted the joint slogan:

"One Struggle, One Transformation"
Reduce Prices, Increase Wages"
"Withdraw Law 5"
"A National Wage of 7,000 Rupiah Now"
"A Free Trade Union"
"End Military Intervention"

The program of demands included the establishment of a national daily wage of 5,000 Rupiah (as mentioned above, now the campaign of PPBI is for a national daily wage of 7,000 Rupiah), a reevaluation of Ministry of Labour Regulation Number 01/84 which only permits one government yellow trade union, SPSI, a new progressive tax system which may only be applied for people who's monthly wage is above one million Rupiah, and regulations covering minimum redundancy payments. PPBI also demanded the formation of a democratic and independent justice system, which would provide explicit sanctions against companies who violate labour rights.

The process of building established factory committees had already been running for at least five years. Ex-students, and similarly young workers, initially worked to build labour support groups, and then to establish factory committees. These committees were able to lead factory struggles demanding wage improvements and the freedom to organise in separate factory for several years. PPBI is the forth independent trade union organisation which has been able to be established in Indonesia. It already has 300 leading organisers, and estimates it has between 10,000 and 15,000 active supporters, and this is now growing rapidly.

Student movement

History notes that the student movement under the New Order has experienced a number of revivals which in the end failed. The experience of the 1966, 1977 and 1978 student movements, provided valuable lessons on errors and about how to fulfill the material conditions so that the student movement can become the vanguard for the creation of a democratic society, so it can develop in the direction of a mass democratic movement. A high level of collaboration (self conciseness) between the political elite and the Indonesian military and the sectarian nature (self-isolation from the essence of democratic strength: workers, peasants and other oppressed social groups), along with a lack of experience in leading and organising the masses, was one of the characteristics of the student movement of the 1980s, and one of the roots of the failures and errors which were experienced by the student movement before the period of the 1980s.

Because of this, the lessons of the student movement's experience of errors and mistakes in the period before the 1980s, they have now regained a consciousness of their movement in the capacity to objectively understand the student movement within the broader context, that is, how to base their actions on the result of conclusions drawn from understanding the Indonesian social structure and the primary social problems of Indonesian society, along with understanding the essence of democratic strength which will become a partner in their struggle. Up until this time -- viewed from their development -- as a product of their new character, the student movement is now capable of obtaining broad social support and reaching the level of becoming a part of the total democratic movement.

SMID

Moving on from an analysis of the national political situation -- which draws the conclusion that with the "retaking" of a number of democratic aspects (although this can still be seized by the regime), moreover after a number of alternative legal organisations have been established without being able to be prevented by the regime, an opportunity for the movement exists to more broadly increase the consciousness and demands of democratic people -- thus in the middle of 1994, SMID took the decision to change the method of its struggle toward a legal, political method, as an open, mass movement.

The existence of SMID in the legal, political arena was initiated with the organisation of a Special Congress attended by around two hundred people from seven SMID branches, conducted on the 1st and 2nd of August 1994, in Puncak, Bogor (with harassment and arrests by local police) and then on August 3, at the offices of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute in Jakarta (LBH), SMID was able to legally declare itself and its political program, which had been decided on at the special congress.

From that time, SMID began to use open political methods. All of the organisations' activities, both in discussion and actions and mass campaigns, were carried out under SMID's flag and banner; the first open mass action carried out since SMID declared itself was an joint action with Kepuharjo, Sleman, Yogyakarta peasants, which took the form of a rally to the local parliament in Yogyakarta; this was followed by a hunger strike in the grounds of LBH Jakarta, to protest the muzzling of three national magazines (Tempo, Editor and DeTIK), in which 43 SMID activists from a number of branches were arrested by the police; As well as this, SMID was actively involved in the SIUPP alliance (Indonesian Solidarity for a Free Press), which organised mass actions and campaigns to protest the muzzling of the press by the government

Then a SMID alliance action with Ngawi peasants, who were demanding the return of their rights to use land which involved one thousand people, two hundred students and the remainder peasants, in occupying the grounds of the offices of the Ngawi Regent; followed by an action with peasants of Ramunia, Deli Serdang, Medan. Together with Ramunia peasants, SMID went to the parliament and held a free speech rally to demand the return of lands who's right of ownership was the peasants of Ramunia, which was controlled by PUSKOPAD Dam Bukit Barisan; and then a rally with P.T. GGI (Tangerang) workers to demand an increase in the minimum wage and food allowance, on January 10, 1995.

Together with PPBI, a May 1 commemorative rally, celebrated for the first time under the New Order regime. This rally resulted in the arrest and interrogation of fourteen SMID members and leaders. Together with SPRIM, SMID launched an action to the National Human Rights Commission to oppose and protest the arrest of East Timorese comrades arrested by the Central Jakarta Police on June 4, 1994. As well as this, many other mass actions have been carried out by SMID branches which have already been consolidated, among these: a mass action by the SMID Solo branch protesting against the muzzling of the Jember University literature faculty's magazine in Solo. Then a joint action by the Semarang branch with workers from P.T. Plastisindo in Semarang; a joint action by the Surabaya branch with Kediri peasants a the regional parliament in Surabaya; a joint action by the Jakarta branch with Ramunia peasants.

Asian Students Association By learning from more advanced student movements such as those in the Philippines, India and Nepal, which play an active role in a number of international forums to obtain and give international support to their people and anti-imperialism/colonialism, SMID sought to become members of the Asian Students Association (ASA) -- Fretilin was registered as an observer member -- and SMID was accepted as a member at the 12th general conference in New Dili in December 1992. ASA also allowed SMID to be present at Asia-Pacific student movement meetings. SMID utilised forums held by ASA by sending delegates to learn from more advanced movements.

In a general way ASA reflects the leadership of those elements of the student movements which were aligned with progressive political parties in their respective countries (at least 56 mass, national student organisations have become members of ASA). Furthermore, one of their members -- Kamal B, a member of the Network of Overseas Student Conference in Australia (NOSCA) who had been to Indonesia to observe and join with the Indonesian student movement -- was killed in the Dili massacre. And at this ASA general conference, SMID was accepted as the coordinator of the Southeast Asian Sub-Region.

Translated by James Balowski