Solidarity Appeal: Unite Against Capitalism and the Elite Elections

Solidarity greetings!

The current global capitalist crisis is already impacting upon the welfare of the working class in Indonesia.

Earlier this month, Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) said the economic downturn had already forced more than 237,000 people out of work, adding that this does not reflect the actual number of layoffs as it fails to include temporary or contract workers. Many dismissals are also not being officially reported.

Thousands of other workers are facing reduced working hours or have to accept less than the minimum wage. Large numbers of workers are also loosing their jobs to outsourcing while others are being forced to have their status changed to contact workers, meaning they can be dismissed arbitrarily without severance pay.

In addition to this, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers are also likely to loose their jobs, with an estimated 100,000 Indonesian laborers in Malaysia expected to be repatriated this year.

And this is expected to worsen. On March 17 economists and alumni from the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) warned that around 1.5 million Indonesian workers would lose their jobs this year, bringing the country's official open unemployment rate to around 10.4 million.

In the midst of the inability of the ‘yellow’ or pro-government trade unions to respond to these problems, the Solidarity Alliance for Labour Struggle (GSPB) and the Politics for the Poor-Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggle (FNPBI-PRM), are endeavoring to undertake consciousness building work and the mass organisation of workers in the Jakarta satellite city of Bekasi and surrounding areas.

This work has primarily been in the form of establishing labour struggle coordination posts in poor residential areas where workers live. The coordination posts are used to distribute leaflets, hold discussions and meetings, and for film showings and education seminars. To date, nine such labour struggle coordination posts have been established in Bekasi, and this continues to expand. In addition to having to confront the global financial crisis, Indonesian workers are also faced with the legislative elections on April 9, followed by the election for president and vice-president on June 9.

For Indonesia’s poor and working class, these elections can provide little hope for change – but rather more of the pro-capitalist and neoliberal policies that have been pursued by the parties elected in 2004 elections and are leading to the growing impoverishment of millions or ordinary Indonesians. Not one of the political parties participating in the elections has a track record of fighting for the interest of the working class and the poor.

On the contrary, many of these parties are remnants of Suharto’s New Order regime or have been formed by former New Order generals, human rights violators, corrupt government officials or business tycoons.

It is because of this therefore, that on April 5 the GSPB along with a number of other organisations active in the people’s movement such as the women’s organisation Perempuan Mahardhika, the Union for the Politics of the Poor (PPRM), the Jakarta Poor People’s Union (PRMJ), the Politics for the Poor-National Student League for Democracy (LMND-PRM) and the Indonesian Buskers Union (SPI), will be holding a joint mass rally in Jakarta as part of this consciousness building work under the theme "Let’s Unite Against Capitalism, Let’s Unite Against the Elite Elections". In addition to the meeting in Jakarta, similar mass meetings will also be held in other Indonesian cities.

The mass rally in Jakarta is planned to involve some 500 people and will be held at an indoor venue. The event will involve presentation by labour movement leaders – both those involved in initiating the rally plus other invited speakers. The rally will also include a people’s poetry reading and a choir singing of songs of struggle.

The mass meeting is intended as part of preparations in the lead up to massive demonstrations on May Day this year.