Vol. 77/No. 20      May 27, 2013

The largest union mobilization was in Jakarta, capital of the nation of more than 240 million people. “About 100,000 workers came together to make a protest to the government about low wages, working conditions, and outsourcing,” wrote Hegel Terome, organizational deputy of Kalyanamitra, a women’s rights center in Indonesia, in response to questions from the Militant. Outsourcing refers to the employers’ widespread practice of filling formerly permanent jobs with workers hired on short-term contracts.

“Workers rallied in front of the presidential place, the offices of the ministries of labor and immigration, and other department offices,” Terome said.

Among the unions leading the action was the Indonesian Confederation of Trade Unions. Also involved was the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Union (KSPI), which called a general strike Oct. 3 last year. The KSPI is involved in organizing a mass protest against planned fuel price increases this coming August.

Opposition to the price hikes was one demand at the May Day actions, said Rini Kusnadi, head of the women’s department of the National Union Confederation (KSN), in a May 7 phone interview. “Many companies and bosses complained of the loss of income because their factory entrances were blocked by workers.”

Rena Herdiyani, Kalyanamitra’s executive director, told the Militant that a contingent of women had protested before the main rally to “raise issues about the discrimination that women face, like the fact that we don’t have equal pay.” The women called for day care centers to be set up in workplaces and for action against sexual harassment at work, she said. “We demonstrated for two or three hours, hearing speeches, and then joined in the labor demonstration.”

Among the most significant social changes in the country, women have been drawn into the workforce in unprecedented numbers to fill the bosses’ demand for labor. Industrial production and development have been expanding for years with the large influx of foreign capital attracted to relatively low wages and other conditions favorable for profit.

“As Indonesia’s trillion-dollar economy grows at a rate of 6% annually, many workers feel they aren’t getting a big enough cut of the country’s evidently rising fortunes,” stated the Wall Street Journal in a May 2 piece reporting on the mobilization in Jakarta.

Protests occurred in other cities as well. Some 50,000 workers gathered in Surabaya, Indonesia’s biggest city after Jakarta. In Yogyakarta, a city of nearly 400,000 people in Central Java, “150 workers had raised demands on political issues and democratic reforms, including the right to organize their own independent unions,” said Mahendra, a worker for the Congress of Indonesian Unions Alliance (KASBI).

On the same day indigenous people in West Papua demanded self-determination for the region at demonstrations marking the 50th anniversary of the seizure of the territory by the Indonesian government.

The Free West Papua Campaign website reported that in the West Papua capital Jayapura, “Five hundred West Papuan activists … sang, cried out ‘Free Papua’ and carried banners denouncing fifty years of occupation by the Indonesian military.”

Police arrested six people in the Biak regency for raising the Morning Star flag of the pro-independence Free Papua Organization, reported the Jakarta Post. Protests were also staged in Fak-Fak, Paniai, and Timika, according to the West Papua Media.

In Sorong, Abner Malagawak and Thomas Blesia, both 22, were killed April 30 when Indonesian security forces opened fire on supporters of self-determination preparing for the demonstration the next day.  

 
 
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