02.07.1998

Indonesian call for workers’ party

Despite a relative period of calm since the toppling of president Suharto in May, mass spontaneous economic and political activity continues to send tremors through all layers of Indonesian society. The democratic movement demands and presses for real change - ‘total reformation’ - for elections, for the trial of Suharto and the confiscation of his plundered wealth.

Strikes are breaking out around the country. Peasants are demanding land. And the underground independence movement in Timor and West Papua is finding the courage to come out into the open. Also taking advantage of the new political space, recently released union leader Muchtar Pakpahan has called for the formation of a workers’ party. This can only be a positive development.

The pressures of change reached near boiling point in the capital, Jakarta, last week as the military, under Jakarta’s military commander, major general Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, prevented a mass workers’ demonstration going ahead. It had been organised by the recently legalised Indonesian Prosperity Labour Union (SBSI), which Pakpahan leads. The mobilisation, planned for June 24, was to demand the resignation of president Habibie.

The noises from the military in the lead-up to the demonstration were ominous. According to the Jakarta Post on June 23, the Jakarta military commander said that the army would break labour protests and strikes that were politically motivated. “I have warned them several times already. If they continue, I will cripple them,” he told reporters. Twenty-five thousand military personnel had been deployed in Jakarta during the week. “Anyone who wishes to disrupt security will confront my troops. I have given them orders to warn the protesters first, and then cripple them if they have to,” Sjafrie said.

While these words point to a potentially bloody situation, encouragingly for the mass democratic movement, they also point to ongoing divisions in ruling circles. The crackdown on the demonstration was in contradiction to the public pronouncements of president Habibie to allow street protests to go ahead. Habibie has been attempting to ensconce himself in the presidential role with the offer of limited reform, allowing the movement to let off steam, while fully cooperating with the IMF. But sections of the military have been pushing for a crackdown.

Recent killings of civilians by the military in East Timor, the former Portuguese colony brutally annexed by Indonesia in 1975, have sparked mass demonstrations in Jakarta and Dili, East Timor’s capital. These demonstrations, which would have been impossible under Suharto, are being tolerated in the present climate. The largest demonstration in Timor - 10,000 strong in a city of 120,000 - followed the shooting of an East Timorese man by Indonesian soldiers on June 16, near the village of Manatuto, 50 kilometres east of Dili. Herman Soares was collecting wood by the roadside when he was fired upon.

While making no real concessions to the self-determination movement, Habibie has met with East Timorese bishop Carlos Belo, and said he will release Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao, if his organisation (Fretilin), the United Nations and the international community recognise Indonesia’s annexation of the former colony. On June 10, Habibie made the extremely limited ‘offer’ of granting “special status” to East Timor. This was rejected by Fretilin.

Limited and cosmetic as these offers are, they seem too concessionary for some elements of the military. On the other hand, far from sating the hunger for change of the mass movement, every offer from Habibie can only spur on and raise the sights of the movement for democracy and self-determination.

Rumours of a conservative backlash are growing, including the unlikely suggestion of a Suharto comeback. Mysterious, well-made banners have appeared on Jakarta streets, warning people to stop criticising Suharto or risk bloodshed. And liberal Islamic ‘reformer’ Amien Rais has been met with counter-demonstrations in several towns. They are widely suspected of being orchestrated by the military.

Within the government party, Golkar, Suharto loyalists have headed an internal struggle that may well see the removal from its chair of Harmoko - among the first of the ‘insiders’ to move against Suharto. While speculation about a Suharto comeback is pure fantasy, it seems clear he and his cronies are organising to defend their power and colossal wealth. It also shows that there are those in the ruling circle preparing for a counterrevolution, should the masses become too threatening.

In an interview with the Australian Green Left Weekly (June 24), Max Lane, coordinator of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET), reported the words of radical novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Toer warned students that if they “stopped their protest actions and reduced the offensive against the regime, ‘they would all be massacred’.” He emphasised that the Indonesian military was “still murderous and that only mass pressure could fend them off”. The cost of stopping the revolution halfway could well be its bloody beheading. The lessons of the Iranian revolution of 1979-81 cannot be learned too thoroughly.

President Habibie himself has given the go-ahead for demonstrations and has been giving ‘encouraging’ words to moderate students. Habibie is happy to support the ‘responsible’, reform-minded students - while doing his utmost to prevent any link-up with a burgeoning economic and increasingly political strike movement.

The forced cancellation of the June 24 demonstration in Jakarta has occurred in a period of general industrial unrest across Indonesia. On top of this is the worsening economic crisis. The IMF has recently renegotiated the rescue package for the Indonesian economy and the World Bank’s director for Indonesia, Denis de Tray, has warned: “The conditions the people of Indonesia are facing are extremely serious. The real impact on the working class is just beginning.” He said urban Indonesians were facing the double burden of soaring prices and the collapse of the labour market, citing a 21% increase in unemployment in Jakarta last month alone (Sydney Morning Herald June 23).

A strike wave, spurred on by the desire for thoroughgoing political change, is sweeping key industrial centres. According to Reuters (June 25), in the second largest city, Surabaya, the army more than doubled its presence at a strike-hit factory complex last Thursday (June 25), as union protesters gathered around the local parliament.

Surabaya has been paralysed by a strike by dockworkers since June 17. The 6,000 dockers walked out demanding that their basic wage be increased from 7,000 rupiah to 15,000 rupiah an hour (about US$1 an hour at current exchange rates). Mobilising its troops, the army fears that the strike movement and the SBSI’s political campaign against the anti-union laws could merge. On June 22, 10,000 workers from another plant, the Kasogi shoe factory, descended on the main streets of Surabaya, further adding to the tension in the city.

Major strikes have also broken out in the factory belt surrounding Jakarta. In Karawang, 2,500 workers from PT Texmaco Perkasa Engineering walked out demanding a wage raise, and improvements in overtime pay, annual holidays and food allowances. Most of the 1,500 workers at the PT Kukdong factory were also on strike. Their demands included a reduction in the taxes deducted from their wages, more holiday money and allowances for food and transportation. Another strike hit the PT Sandang Mutiara Era Mulia factory, where most of the 1,200 workers walked out. Workers also staged a strike at the government’s main currency printing plant, protesting at excessive overtime and demanding higher pay and benefits.

While the demands being put forward around these strikes are economic in form, there is no doubt that they are being flamed by the ongoing democratic movement. The actions of the military show they fear the conscious unity of the political and economic movements which are gathering confidence throughout the archipelago.

Muchtar Pakpahan’s call for the formation of a workers’ party must be seen against this backdrop. However, according to the Indonesian paper Kompas (June 25), Pakpahan has asked former Indonesian Democratic Party leader Megawati Sukarnoputri to head the party. Sukarnoputri is the daughter of ex-president Sukarno and has presidential ambitions herself. Nevertheless, the call for a workers’ party by the country’s most prominent union leader promises to provide an excellent opportunity for revolutionaries to bring political consciousness to the democratic movement.

Max Lane recently visited Indonesia and met with members of the still banned Peoples Democratic Party (PRD), as well as student and union activists. In his interview with the Green Left Weekly he said:

“The success of the mass mobilisations in forcing an unwilling Suharto to resign and an unwilling New Order establishment to allow his resignation has emboldened many people. There is a very strong and sustained attack on Suharto and his family and this attack is steadily expanding to include Habibie. Almost every day there are declarations of new political parties, reflecting the long suppressed tradition in Indonesia of political party activity. I counted at least 15 new parties declared while I was in Jakarta and others have been declared since I left.”

This fluid political situation, where many of the most militant demands of the democratic movement are becoming widespread and popular, provides a perfect setting for the establishment and rapid growth of a workers’ party. It offers the working class the possibility of wresting the leadership of the revolutionary democratic movement from the wavering (and in the last analysis counterrevolutionary) elements such as Amien Rais and Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Many of the most militant demands firing the democratic movement have become the key elements in what is now referred to as the ‘total reformation’ movement. These include: the repeal of all the repressive political laws; the resignation of Habibie; the abolition of the MPR, the Suharto-imposed upper house; immediate elections; and the confiscation of the assets of the Suharto clan and the trial of the former president. According to ASIET, many student groups - not to mention pro-reform worker and urban poor groups - have moved into political action as a result of the influence of the PRD, whose platform has included many of these demands since its formation in 1996.

While ASIET and its backer, the Democratic Socialist Party in Australia, remain uncritical supporters of the PRD, the DSP leadership has good contacts with the underground movement and its observations carry weight. However, the DSP seems to be motivated more by the good, old-fashioned ‘diplomatic internationalism’ of the old ‘official communist’ parties than a healthy Leninist proletarian internationalism.

According to comrade Lane,

“The most impressive forces remain those organised underground through the PRD. The PRD is still banned, despite all Habibie’s noises about reform, and PRD leaders remain in jail, but the underground seems very strong.”

He continues:

“The organisation seems to have grown remarkably over the last period. It is quite clear that it remains the only force with a solid mass base, which is steadily growing. The PRD activists are still working under very difficult conditions because of the ban. While Budiman Sujatmiko, Dita Sari and other PRD leaders remain in jail, the PRD must assume that any of its members will be liable to arrest. At the same time, they are already testing out the regime’s ability to suppress the PRD if it surfaces.”

In the absence of any other conscious revolutionary forces, the role and the subsequent development of the PRD - including possible splits - assume the greatest importance. That the organisation is growing is not surprising in this period. Its reaction to Pakpahan’s call for a workers’ party and his invitation to Megawati Sukarnoputri will provide the PRD with an immediate test.

Marcus Larsen