29.08.1996

Call for International solidarity

I am writing this letter with a sense of urgency on behalf of the Indonesian comrades of the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) with a request for assistance. You would be aware of the Suharto regime’s crackdown on the pro-democracy movement focused on Megawati Sukarnoputri and the PDI, and the anti-communist witch hunt launched against the PRD.

So far the regime has arrested as many as 20 PRD members, including the president, Budiman Sujatmiko, secretary-general Petrus Hariyanto, and Dita Sari, president of the trade union organisation affiliated to the PRD.

From the viewpoint of the most basic working class solidarity, it is our urgent duty to do our utmost to defend the PRD and its members who have been captured by the regime. The arrested PRD comrades have been charged with subversion, which carries the death penalty. They are held by the same government that slaughtered more than a million workers, students and peasants in its bloodbath directed against the Indonesian Communist Party in 1965.

But these developments also indicate the potential for immense political change. This crucial struggle is at a vital turning point. All indications point to the increasing weakness and instability of Suharto, and there are divisions within the regime itself. There is an increasing polarisation between the obscene wealth of the ruling class and the poverty and degradation of the mass of the population. Imperialism is desperately looking for a supposed big new middle class, which would provide for a ‘democratic’ capitalist stabilisation.

The incredibly rapid growth of the PRD, the success with which it implemented its programme, and the ease with which its ideas and slogans were taken up by thousands of workers and students, shows the situation is ripe for rapid change. The PRD and the progressive forces associated with it are still functioning. But they need all the political and material support they can get.

We appeal to you to do all you can to organise international opposition to Suharto’s witch hunt. Depending on it are the lives of the young PRD activists, and the future of the struggle for democracy and popular power in Indonesia. Following are some suggested actions:

• Sign the international petition that has been initiated by ASIET (Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor). Circulate this petition or a similar call within your country and internationally. We want the call endorsed by the maximum number of respected organisations and individuals around the world. We are coordinating the solidarity campaign through ASIET.
• A focus within trade unions could be to campaign for the release of Dita Sari and Muchtar Pakpahan, the heads of the only two independent trade union organisations in Indonesia. Dita Sari of the PRD is president of the Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggles (PPBI), and Muchtar Pakpahan is the more moderate president of the Indonesian Prosperity Trade Union (SBSI).
• Encourage trade unions and other organisations to send messages of protest to the Indonesian government, to the Army Chief of Staff, the Minister of Justice, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
• Endorse the International Day of Protest for Democracy and Human Rights in Indonesia, on Monday October 28.
• Help with financial campaigns to raise money for the defence of the PRD. Any financial donations or other material assistance can be channelled through ASIET.
• Publicise the Indonesian events and the solidarity campaign in your organisation’s press, and in other progressive publications in your country.
• Help with an international tour by Nico Warouw, the International Officer of the PRD, and a member of their national executive. Nico will be available for international travel from mid-October to mid-December. Nico has been in Australia for a speaking tour for the last two months, with a brief to expand the international contacts of the PRD.

John Percy
Democratic Socialist Party (Australia) national secretary