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100 years of the women's struggle for liberation
Perempuan Mahardhika (Free Women) National Network Statement - March 8, 2010
The widespread inequality, oppression, domination, discrimination and the subordination of women, was developed and formalised by the private ownership of surplus production and the means of production (class). And this did not occur all at once (by nature or predestination). Injustice against women is a human creation because of class and patriarchy, so, it can also be changed by humanity itself.
Women (and men) have struggled for more than 100 years for equality and justice. The result, which we now enjoy, is that women have the right to vote, work, be active outside the home, attend school, their rights over their bodies and sexuality are acknowledged, have obtained legal protection against violence and so forth. The reality however is that most of these rights are unable to be enjoyed by all women under an economic and political system that serves the interest of capitalism. Only a handful of upper-class women (the rich) are able to enjoy these rights.
Women's enemies: Capitalism, imperialism and its puppet government
Capitalism, as a system build by the property owning class, is said to provide a basis for women to return to the productive arena. However this cannot be consistently implemented for humanity as a whole because life under capitalism is based on the exploitation between human beings (the prosperity of a handful of human beings is the result of the exploitation of many human beings). So capitalism will not, and cannot, have an interest in developing massive and productive job opportunities for humanity as a whole – including women within this.
It is because of private ownership that capitalism will continued experience internal contradictions, on the one hand driving down working class incomes for the sake of profit, and on the other hand, simultaneously driving up production through technological development, or accelerating the accumulation of profit through non-productive activities (speculation). It is this that is more prevalent at the moment, so productive job opportunities are becoming smaller, prices continue to rise, and ordinary people's incomes further decline. It is this that we refer to as the capitalist crisis, which occurs periodically within the capitalist system.
The capitalist crisis (or what is better known as neoliberalism), which has been occurring since 1997, and has reemerged in this latest global financial crisis, which has further driven back women's welfare. According to the United Nations, of the 1.3 billion poor in the world, 70 percent of them are women. The infant and maternal mortality rate in Indonesia is the highest in Asia. According to a 2008 Indonesian Health and Demography Survey the maternal mortality rate is 390 per 100,000 births. National Education Department data indicates that out of the 9.7 million people that are illiterate in Indonesia, 65 percent of them are women. According to a February 25, 2010 report in Republika newspaper online, 6.5 million women are still illiterate or around 64 of the illiterate population, which is twice the illiteracy rate among men. According to Women Development Survey data, as many as 111 million women live in poverty, and data from the Jakarta regional National Statistics Agency (BPS) indicates that female unemployment is as high as 88 of the total unemployment rate.
This is not to mention the impact of the Foreign Investment Law and what we will see when the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) comes into effect, with the number of dismissals certain to rise, and the majority of victims certain to be women, who are considered as non-skilled labour (simply as source of additional household income) who can be paid cheap wages. The rising cost of education is already pushing young and poor women (in huge numbers) out of schools, not to mention universities. They are the future workers who will fill the gap of non-productive and exploitative labor, such as domestic workers, migrant workers, sex workers, petty-street traders, vagrants, street-buskers and the like.
Capitalism, of course, has no interest in increasing Indonesia's human resources as a whole. They only have three interests: expanding markets, natural resources/raw materials and cheap labour. In this case, Indonesian women represent cheap labour that can more freely be exploited in the interest of capitalism. At the same time Indonesian women represent a potential consumer market for the purchase of capitalism's products. Women's bodies, from the tips of their hair to the toes on their feet are not exempt from capitalist exploitation in the form of the mythos of beauty. Advertisements for consumer products, Indonesian soap operas, fashion magazines, infotainment events and the like, are all means by which women become an important commodity for capitalism.
This is the real picture of the destruction of women's productive labour as a result of capitalism.
Fighting patriarchy and the obstacles to women's participation
The reform movement that began in 1998 was the basis for the broad development of women's organisations and groups. A number of women's organisations, from non-government groups to campus discussion groups, women's urban poor groups, rural women's business collectives and the like have emerged – although there are still many more women who are not yet organised. Meaning that democratic space opened the door for the women's liberation struggle.
With the opening up of democratic space, campaigns and guarantees of women's rights began to be realised, such as the law on domestic violence (KDRT) and the 30 percent political quota for women. On the other hand however, the number of policies that discriminate against women has in fact increased greatly at the regional level with the emergence of shariah (Islamic) based bylaws, Bible based bylaws in Manokwari (West Papua), regional anti-prostitution bylaws, the Anti-Pornography Law and the involvement of the Indonesian military (TNI) in family planning programs, which have all culminated in the criminalisation of women. The arrest and violence against women has been inevitable, such as rape of a woma in Aceh after being arrested by the shariah police. Now there is the draft law on prohibiting contract marriages (nikah siri) that is currently being deliberated and will also end in the criminalisation of women.
These laws and polices are a reflection of a patriarchal culture that obstructs women's advancement. As well as mirroring these discriminative policies, patriarchy is also reflected in the form of religious rulings (fatwa), which are issued by the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) and other fundamentalist groups. One example is the recent fatwa prohibiting hair-straightening and pre-wedding photographs issued by the leaders of East Java Islamic boarding schools. Prior to this, the MUI has issued rulings that intervene in women's rights and even threaten democracy such as the fatwa against pluralism, golput (not voting or failing to mark the ballot paper) and against the Ahmadiyah religious sect. To a degree religious leaders and fundamentalist groups still have an influence on society and reinforce the culture of patriarchy.
Building unity between women and the poor
We can no longer hang our hopes on those who make liberal promises (the rotten political parties) and only take advantage of the people and women’s sympathies during the elections; nor on the remnants of the New Order regime (the Golkar Party and the military) that closed off democratic space over the 32 years of former President Suharto’s rule; nor on the fake reformists who broke all their promises during the reform era; nor on the rotten political elite who are opportunist, greedy and are little more then brokers who perpetuate the capitalist system.
The only hope for the ordinary people and the women of Indonesia lies with mobilizing their own power, building unity between women and the poor as a whole. It is because of this therefore that there is no other choice but for women and the oppressed people to build their own independent political vehicles (including political parties); revolutionary political organisations that are built by the mobilisation of organised women, and by continuing to unite with other democratic movements, which have not been coopted or cooperate with the people’s enemies (imperialism, the imperialist puppet government, the remnants of the New Order, the fake reformist and the military).
It is time for women to emerge from domestic darkness, to unite their forces with the weapon of organisation and strategic mobilisations. Let us reawaken the hopes of millions of Indonesian women before the New Order seized power. Let us reawaken hope through the women's movement. Let us reawaken hope by clearly asserting that:
We DO NOT WANT to continue living under a capitalist system that impoverishes and discriminates against women. We want FUNDAMENTAL change, so that we, our mothers, and our successive generations can live in a better world – and provide opportunities to all women to develop and become a progressive productive force. The Perempuan Mahardhika (Free Women) National Network is therefore calling for:
The 15 urgent demands of Indonesian women
1. Education that is free,
scientific, democratic, feminist and pro-people
2. Healthcare that is free
and modern for all Indonesian people
3. Productive employment
opportunities for women
4. Wage increases, equality
and work safety for women
5. Revise or repeal all
legislation that is discriminative and oppresses women (the marriage law,
the anti-pornography law and sharia based bylaws).
6. A 50 percent quota for
women in all public positions
7. An end to the criminalisation
of prostitution
8. An end to polygamy
9. Bring down prices
10. Public housing, clean
water, mass transportation and energy that is affordable and healthy
11. The straightening out
of the history of the Indonesian women's movement
12. Children must be the
responsibility of the state; build playgrounds and childcare centres that
are affordable and of good quality
13. Fight discrimination
against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people
14. Land, capital and modern
technology for farmers in agricultural collectives
15. Stop pollution and rehabilitate
the environment
The solution for Indonesia's oppressed women
1. Fight the enemies of women
and the poor (the foreign colonialist agents in government, the remnants
of the New Order regime, the military and reactionary civil militia groups
and the fake reformists)
2. National industrialisation
by and for the people
3. Centralise domestic funding
for national industrialisation and the emergency needs of the poor and
women (repudiate the foreign debt until prosperity is achieved; seize the
assets of the corrupters from Suharto until now, a tax on speculative transactions)
4. Build an organisation
and women's movement for people's power with gender equality
5. Build a new culture that
is progressive, productive, modern and feminist
In order to realise all of the above demands, the one and only solution is:
Spokespersons: Sarinah, Linda Sudiono, Jumisih, Vivi Widyawati
Perempuan Mahardhika National Network (JNPM)
JNPM-Medan, JNPM-Yogyakarta, JNPM-Jakarta, JNPM-Ternate, Femme-Progressive Palu, the Makassar Free Women's Movement (GPMM), LISMI-Ternate, the Jakarta Cross-Factory Labour Forum (FBLP), the Bandung Association of Concerned Labour Youth (PPMP), University of Gajah Mada-Yogyakarta Mahardhika, KDPD-Yogyakarta and the Superstar National Development University Yogyakarta.
Supported by
The Politics for the Poor-National Student League for Democracy (LMND-PRM), the Union for the Politics of the Poor (PPRM), the Indonesian Labour Movement Union Preparatory Committee (KP-PPBI), the Political Committee of the Poor-Peoples Democratic Party (KPRM-PRD) and the Indonesian Cultural Society Union (SeBUMI).
[Translated by James Balowski.]
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