Instead of seeking to address the grievances of the peoples of these regions, the regime in Jakarta has resorted to force, trying to hold together the heterogeneous territories that make up the Indonesian state. It has deployed thousands of army troops in West Papua that have opened fire on independence supporters. In Aceh, police have brutally suppressed independence celebrations, in a continuation of the decades-long occupation and war waged by the Indonesian military.

Big-business politicians in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and other imperialist countries often cry crocodile tears over the violent actions of the Indonesian military, as they did to justify imperialist military intervention in East Timor under the United Nations flag. Liberal, social-democratic, and Stalinist forces echo their arguments. They fail to point out the role and responsibility of the imperialist powers themselves--both in the origin of the crisis and in backing the capitalist regime today.

The governments in the imperialist countries and some of the biggest capitalist corporations have big stakes tied up in Indonesia, a country with huge mineral and agricultural resources and plentiful labor power that employers exploit to reap superprofits.

The biggest concern of Washington and its cohorts is maintaining stability to enable their plunder of the country's riches to continue undisturbed, for which they rely on the Indonesian regime. When Jakarta proves incapable of doing the job, they sometimes send in their own military, as they did in East Timor. Class-conscious workers opposed that intervention and called for the withdrawal of all the occupation forces.

Indonesia took shape historically as the Dutch East Indies, part of the carve-up of Southeast Asia by the colonial powers. In spite of the powerful independence movement that finally forced the Dutch colonialists to withdraw in 1949, a cohesive modern nation-state was never fully consolidated. In the 30 years of Suharto's rule, it was held together by force, a situation that Washington backed and profited from.

Suharto himself came to power through a bloodbath in 1965-66 unleashed against the labor and peasant movements that had grown during and after the independence fight. Washington and other imperialist powers backed the regime as it slaughtered up to a million workers and peasants, whose potential power had been politically demobilized by the Stalinist-dominated misleadership. The imperialist powers continued to back Suharto during the three decades of his "New Order" regime.

As the Suharto regime weakened, especially after the onset of the economic crisis in 1997, and was eventually forced to resign, the national conflicts that had been suppressed inevitably reemerged. The disparities along class and regional lines that fuel the unrest, rooted in the normal workings of capitalist exploitation in the country, are deepened by the government's attempts to impose austerity measures in order to meet the demands of the International Monetary Fund and other imperialist creditors.

Those fighting against inequality and the callous suppression of their national aspirations are now pressing their demands more openly. The peoples of Aceh, West Papua, and throughout Indonesia, whatever the different conditions they face, have a common enemy--the imperialist powers, together with the Indonesian capitalists and landlords.
 
 
Related article:
National conflicts erupt in Indonesia  
 
 
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