#title Freedom for Tukijo and the Yogyakarta 3 rebels
#subtitle Indonesia 2011
#lang en
#cat detritus
#pubdate 2026-03-14
#cover i-a-indonesia-cover.png
#teaser The farmers and the people of Kulon Progo, Pandang Raya, West Papua, Bima and elsewhere, are appealing for international solidarity and complicity in their struggle alongside the anarchists and anti-capitalists, who are all against the violent terror of the Indonesian bosses, their paid murderers and corporate backers. Don’t let them fight alone!
#notes The present material was found in:
[[http://325.nostate.net/][http://325.nostate.net/]]
[[http://saksimelawan.blogspot.com]]
[[http://katalis.tk]]
[[http://petanimerdeka.wordpress.com]]
[[http://apokalips.org]]
[[http://jakarta.indymedia.org]]
Detritus: an accumulation of disintegrated material, the passion for
freedom captured in moments already lived, now thrown back into the
wilderness of life untamed.
Not quite random testimonies of great and small events in the
turmoil of projects, dreams and illusions, struggles for freedom and
the retaliation of the enemy faced with coherence and solidarity,
illuminated and inspired by the indomitable spirit of the
anarchists.
* * * * *
** Freedom for Tukijo and the Yogyakarta 3 rebels
Saturday, October 15th, 2011
October 7, 2011. At 2 am, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) ATM Bank in Sleman, Yogyakarta, is set on fire. The fire causes an explosion in the unit which destroys the premises. The sabotage is just one more instance of resistance in a country which is destroying it’s trees, mountains and coastlines for profit whilst oppressing its people.
Now 3 people are arrested. They are all accused of being involved in damaging the bank. We are not interested in finding out if the prisoners are “guilty” or not, nor of the extent of their “crime”. We will leave such speculation to the inquisitors and their servants in the press. We don’t need to know the details of the entire situation to know that as long as the state and the banks get rich from exploitation, there will always be those who will go against their power and refuse to collaborate. It is enough that these people are imprisoned, to wish that not just their prison, but every prison ceases to exist. “Crime” is no food on the table and the bosses taking the lion’s share. “Crime” is clear-cut forests and mining companies who beat and kill who they like with the help of the police. Freedom is fighting back and reclaiming your life from oppression.
What we know is that Indonesia is a regime which is propped up by western capitalists and militarists. It is a nation which tortures and massacres its opposition, like every state that can get away with it where it can.
Kulon Progo is a farming area near Yogyakarta, and in 2005 Jogja Magasa Mining and Indomines metal industries wanted to take the land for their industry. The farmers there didn’t give their land to the industrial company because they didn’t want nature to be destroyed by them. Many times the farmers tried to solve this without any riots, but it’s not working. Now they are ready to defend their lives.
It started when the company paid 300 people to destroy the houses of farmers and all the plants there.
It made all the farmers get angry and also lots of other people besides. Human dignity and nature just colonized by money, and there will never be any help to let the farmers survive. The police just covered up the people who were attacking the farmers because the company paid off the police. A typical story.
Tukijo was a farmer who was arrested and imprisoned just because he was vocal in the demonstrations against this situation. The people in Indonesia have made many activities around this matter : demonstrations, articles, movies, graffiti and property damage against the profiteering companies.
The farmers and the people of Kulon Progo, Pandang Raya, West Papua, Bima and elsewhere, are appealing for international solidarity and complicity in their struggle alongside the anarchists and anti-capitalists, who are all against the violent terror of the Indonesian bosses, their paid murderers and corporate backers. Don’t let them fight alone!
In accordance with the wishes of the farmers, we demand the land is given back to the farmers and freedom for our friends who are in prison because of this.
The State-Corporations-Military-Police are the Terrorists!
Freedom for Tukijo and those accused of attacking the BRI ATM Bank!
A few anarchists in solidarity.
** About the Kidnapping of Tukidjo by the Kulon Progo police
Chronology and Statement from PPLP Kulon Progo about the kidnapping of Tukidjo by the Kulon Progo Regional Police
PT JMI’s iron ore mining plans claim a victim again: Tukidjo.
Sunday, 1 May 2011 at 11.00 in the morning : 9 police officers arrived via a single car from the direction of PT JMI’s Pilot Project heading to Tukidjo’s farm in Gupit village in Kulon Progo. Three of them then exited the car and approached Tukidjo, who was taking a break from working on the farm. The police then said that the Head of the Kulon Progo Police Intelligence Force was waiting inside the car, and wanted to speak with him. The police said; “We only want to ask for information”. Out of curiosity and innocence, Tukidjo followed them to the car. When he was standing beside the car he was forced to get in, afterwards the windows were rolled up, and the car quickly sped away from the farm.
Tukidjo asked one of the police officers where they were taking him, the police responded that it was up to the Commandant. When the car was passing Trisik (the village next to Gubit), they showed him an arrest warrant with his name on it, charging him with: 1) taking over people’s freedom, and 2) unpleasant activity. Several things that Tukidjo asked were 1) why there was an arrest warrant for him as a suspect without any notification to appear as a witness in an investigation, according to the law, there must be a call for investigation, and an arrest warrant is only issued after failure to appear two times or more. 2) why they were not heading to Kulon Progo Regional Police Headquarters. Every question that Tukidjo asked was answered with the response that those things are technically up to the Commandant. Trapped inside the car, guarded by 9 police officers, Tukidjo felt confused and unable to do anything, even to ask for an explanation or give any news to his family. About 15 minutes after Tukidjo was put inside the Police car, Tukidjo’s wife noticed he was missing and began to worry why her husband was not on the farm field. Where he had been resting previously there was only his sandals that he wore to work on the farm. She looked around the other fields, but because she couldn’t find him anywhere she went home and asked relatives whether they knew where her husband was, but of course no one knew. Then one of Tukidjo’s relative contacted him via cell phone, and when the relative spoke to Tukidjo, he said that he was being taken to Regional Police Office of Jogjakarta Special Region, and was to arrive there in 15 minutes.
The news of his kidnapping soon spread throughout the Kulon Progo seashore community, but they were still confused on what charge Tukidjo was being arrested with that kind of trickery. One of the PPLP members who contacted Tukidjo found out that after he arrived in the Regional Police Office of Jogjakarta he immediately was investigated. At 13.00 all the PPLP members and Kulon Progo people gathered in Tukidjo relative’s house and waited for any development on information from Jogja, whether directly from Tukidjo or from the law firm which were contacted at 12.00, or any sympathizer who met him at the Jogjakarta Police Headquarters. The kidnapping began at 11.00 in the morning, the information was gathered at 13.00, and at 14.00 Tukidjo’s wife sent him clothes because when he was kidnapped, Tukidjo was not in decent clothes and not wearing shoes. She could only send it via courier with her greetings because she was not allowed to join him at the Headquarters. When the courier arrived at the Headquarters, the Police asked him to take the arrest letter with him, but the courier refused and said that it was not their duty as a civilian.
Even though the Police tried to continue with the legal process, PPLP still objected to the Police using deception to arrest Tukidjo, without any notification for him before the arrest nor to the family afterwards.
This arrest is a violation of the Law No 18 Year 1981. Article 17 states that: “The order of arresting is done to someone who is suspected of doing a criminal act, based on enough evidence.” Until this chronology is written down, there’s not any clear evidence from the police to justify their sudden arrest of Tukidjo.
Article 18 (1) states: The proper procedure of arrest is as follows. The Indonesian Republic state police officer shows the duty letter and gives the suspect an arrest warrant which states the identity of the suspect, and mentions the reason for arrest and describes briefly the criminal issue which he is suspected of, and also states the place where he was suspected of committing the crime.
It’s clear that when the Police were arresting Tukidjo they were violating article 18 (1); with not showing their duty letter to Tukidjo.
The Police didn’t even state their actual intent to Tukidjo and in fact, misled him by saying that they only want to have a talk, and to let him meet with the Head of Intelligence Force inside the car. After Tukidjo started to suspect something when the car was speeding away, and he asked what was their true intention, the police only said: “You will know why later anyway.” They finally showed him the arrest warrant only after Tukidjo kept insisting on an answer, which occured after they seized him and held him in the vehicle. All of this happened very suddenly and it made Tukidjo react personally confused and panicked. In this panicked state Tukidjo was terrorized psychologically, moreover because he was guarded by 9 police officers, who even though remained quiet, they dominated the situation inside the car just like any kind of planned kidnapping models towards an innocent peasant. In the situation of physical domination and shocked by the sudden terror done by the police officers for their one sided interest and purpose, they became the ones who took over Tukidjo’s personal freedom and committed a violation of Human Rights towards him.
Article 18 (3) states: A copy of an arrest warrant as mentioned in paragraph (1) has to be given to the family after the arrest is done.
A notification letter as mentioned in paragraph (3) was not given at all to the family until this chronology is done. This didn’t show any good intention from the police and clearly violated their own law. This attitude only clarifies their arrogance and planned intentions to kidnap Tukidjo and is fair to be suspected as an organized kidnapping ordered by certain people, because Tukidjo is a peasant who struggled very hard against the Iron Ore Mining Project on the land of Kulon Progo Seashore Peasant.
We condemn this Police arrogance and those who arrested Tukidjo with an organized kidnapping method, trapping him inside the car, domination by the amount of Police officers and psychological terror from the sudden arrest letter, and neglecting Tukidjo’s family without any ethics. All of these law violation methods were done by the Police only to put Tukidjo in jail as fast as they could, and make a marathon investigation afterwards, because it wasn’t easy to put evidence to their accusation.
Article 19 (1) states that: Arrest as mentioned in Article 17, can only be done for maximum one day.
If the arrest of Tukidjo is happening for more than 24 hours (counted since 11.00 in the morning, 1 may 2011), then the Police are supposed to let Tukidjo free, based on the law, because they didn’t have strong evidence for their accusation.
Based on their method of arrest, and the fact that they still don’t have any evidence (even as this chronology’s finished, Tukidjo’s still being investigated) Tukidjo, a peasant from Kulon Progo Seashore Community has to be LET FREE now.
If the accusation from PT JMI towards Tukidjo was linked up with the verbal social warning done by some Kulon Progo people to several workers of PT JMI, who had crossed the social law which has been agreed beforehand (wandering around the community houses); then the accusation of Tukidjo whom they have taken hostage, is absolutely wrong. Because there’s no act of taking over any workers of PT JMI. PT JMI itself is the one who keeps taking over the seashore peasants’ freedom with all of their efforts to criminalize the peasants and continuing their iron ore mining project.
Kulon Progo Seashore Peasant Collective
(Paguyuban Petani Lahan Pantai Kulon Prog
** Kulon Progo Self-organised Struggle Against Neoliberal Megaproject
We call for the strongest possible international solidarity with the fighting peasants of Kulon Progo, Indonesia. They are organising to defend their lives and the environment from the ruthless mining operations of the exploiting capitalists and their state backers, with an absolute rejection of leftism and political wrangling. Let’s internationalise the anti-capitalist resistance!-325 nostate
February 15th, 2011
Dear Comrades,
We are small loose collective (informal) in Yogyakarta, located in central Java, a region considered as “special territory” inside the democratic state due to its historical role as a Kingdom of Java, and for the same reason, some of the old feudal rules are still preserved inside the so called democratic state.
Since 2007 we have been involved in creating solidarity with the peasant struggle in Kulon Progo which is located inside Yogyakarta region. The struggle was about resisting iron mining which ARE a joint cooperation of Australian Kimberly Diamond (Indomines) and its local “puppet” branch company named “Jogja Magasa Iron (Mining)”. Jogja Magasa Iron are owned by the Sultan of Yogyakarta’s (Sri Sultan Hamengkubowono X) daughter, GKR Pembayun.
*** The Mega-Project
The planning of Iron mines are just a gateway for other mega-projects to come, that we recognise as a development proposal from Asian Development Bank. Kulon Progo territories are a crucial point in making further capitalist infrastructure in Java, that is to create alternative highways, international airport, and other industrial infrastructure that would be a pivotal role for other mining and industrial projects in surrounding area. These projects involved companies and investors from other countries include: Czech, Australia, and South Korea (some of the foreign investor that we already acknowledge).
*** Agrarian Conflict
Laws are easily made up by the ruling class. The former agrarian laws that protected peasants’ land after independence were threatened to change due to the political-economic interest of the elites:
In accordance with the original State laws, the peasants have the most legality to cultivate the land. But it is not really permanent since there is also a law that says “All natural resources are owned by the State”. Feuda land claims by the Sultan also create a mystification of “Special Territory” and its historical justification as a kingdom. Fortunately until now, no law officialy justied the Sultan’s need to officially own all of the land in Yogyakarta: Wonosari, Bantul, Sleman, Kulon Progo.
*** Political Atmosphere
Recently there has been a political “fight” between the pro’s and con’s of the democratic-State take-over of Yogyakarta since the Sultan wanted the government to approve his feudal inheritance of land (so that the mining project and other mega-projects would be smoothed by him and he himself would play the major role for other mega-projects planned in Yogyakarta). This creates an illusion of the democratic State versus the special territory of Yogyakarta. Some important point to be considered is that Yogyakarta accomodates intellectual life and the city received the highest reputation as a student city due to the existence of the best education and universities across Indonesia. For example, in urban areas of Yogyakarta, most of its inhabitants are students from all over Indonesia. This creates a multicultural relationship and a growing intellectual life and lively art scene. In the recent spectacle of opposition between Sultan and President, the Sultan was praised by the “bribed” progressive academics, the so-called “radical artists”, and the opportunist leftists, as more democratic, progressive, pluralist (and other nonsense) than the president on chair. This tendency was falsely seen by many “progressives” as a true fight against the regime and most of them were rallying in solidarity for the “ETERNAL” preservation of the special territory of Yogyakarta and the eternal authority of the Sultan’s blood to rule Yogyakarta inside the Indonesian democratic state and of course with some hidden from the public planned laws, that is: eternal ownership of the so-called Sultan and Paku alaman’s ground. From our point of view, as some of its inhabitants, if pluralism and multiculturalism, and also the freedom of expression were really to exist, it would have nothing to do with the Sultan. It is simply an urbanised life of students with various cultural backgrounds that made it possible, and in some cases for cultural and ethnic clashes also appear, just as in other major cities in Java. But since most of Yogyakarta’s inhabitants are students and not workers, it’s already explained that free-time can create a “special” atmosphere and not because of its feudalistic special territory where very low-wages were praised as dedication and loyalty to the Sultan.
*** The Struggle
(see “A Tale of Sand” , a brief history and struggle of Kulon Progo’s peasants)
Interview - A Tale of Sand
Approximately 10 thousand people will lose their land and home due to the feudal claiming of Sultan and Paku alaman ground. Ever since the issue of the mining project and its preliminary operation were conducted, the peasants of Kulon Progo were resisting very fiercely, these peasants notably came from several villages: Trisik, Karangwuni, Bugel, Pleret, Garongan, Karang Sewu. The mining projects threatened to make use of the land as much as 2987 – 3000 acres of land. The struggle which was started in 2007 created a peasant umbrella group named PPLP-KP (Coastal Farmers Association of Kulon Progo). PPLP-KP such as the daily organizing of the noted Kulon Progo’s village, though still had informal hierarchy (such as those who are considered elders), were very horizontal in nature. These villages have their tradition of consensual meetings where every village sends their delegates and were responsible back to its people, and this is not function as leader. Often, in some serious events, these informal leaders cannot do anything to calm down the peasants anger.
PPLP-KP have conducted lots of demonstrations, and in almost every demonstration, thousands of people have always showed up. These solid network of village people were pure and sterilized from outside interference such as NGOs, political parties, and leftist organisations. And the peasants’ council have made it clear that to maintain their solid unity, PPLP-KP and the struggle of Kulon Progo’s peasants should be controlled by the peasants themselves and not some organisation or other specialist. This strategy was seen as crucial so as to avoid any danger in the future of there being any hidden political interest in any political organisation that wants to interfere in the struggle. And in time it has been proven right, as the struggle has become more solid through the years and some of the political organisations have shown their true face. Also to be noted, since the struggles have emerged, local authority belonging to the local or central state ceased functioning as the villagers decided to take everything into their own hands.
*** Criminalisation and the so called “Independent Advocates” (LBH)
In recent cases of struggle, some incidents have occurred. Every night and day, men and women patrol their villages in case there’s any government or other institution responsible coming to their village without permission from the villagers. During December last year and January of this year, two incidents happened where investor’s car’s were damaged and some of the people inside the car were held hostage for three hours. The villagers have made their own laws, and according to them, if any institution wants to come to the area, especially those who are involved in the megaproject, they should face the community first, otherwise it would be an offense to the community law.
16 December 2010: six cars belonging to the investors are held hostage and damage is done to some of the cars.
17 December 2010: The outraged community destroy the mining office and make sure it can’t be operating again.
12 January 2011: Community destroy the company car of company researchers.
These actions carried out by villagers were criminalised and the company hired a well known lawyer in Indonesia to sue the community. Every time there’s a case such as this, the law aid institution officially named LBH (Lembaga Bantuan Hukum) try to convince the community that a successful struggle would be inside the law and further illegal acts should be stopped—although police only issue a warrant and are never able or dare to pick-up the suspect or witness, as the community would be the human shield if there are any individuals taken hostage of the State for defending their own rights.
LBH is a problem for the struggle, not only because they believe in political struggle in front of the court, and their firm attachment to the laws and State, but because most of the individual lawyers in that institution are involved in the network of institutional leftist and leftist-environmental organisations which historically have a bad reputation in the grassroots: political intrigues, corruption, dependency, etc. In recent cases they were trying to influence some of the community members to expel the small minority of anti-authoritarians who are deeply involved with the PPLP-KP but didn’t have any organisation whatsoever. Fortunately, the conversations were recorded by the community itself, and were heard in their internal meetings.
The LBH were trying to expel the small minority of anti-authoritarians because of their hostile position to every network of NGO’S and other institutional leftist that is so often in close connection with the elites and politicians. LBH were accusing the anarchists of provoking the villagers to conduct illegal actions, of which all of these accusations are based on lies, because most of these actions were conducted spontaneously and the community itself are already hot headed in their position against the mining and its people. LBH also wanted their network to infiltrate the struggle but were at pains because of the agreement of the PPLP-KP councils to not accept any interference of NGO’S or other political institution. LBH are problematic to the struggle, as its narrow political interest cannot be an independent help for the movement. It only can make intrigues within the whole movement and threathen its solid and self-organised struggle.
Global Solidarity
Considering these political implications and the revolutionary tendency of the peasant struggle, we urge for solid international solidarity. And on behalf of the peasants, we need input on how to challenge these laws on an international scale. We have made an infrastructure of struggle in the village: community radio and social center. And also there have twice been solidarity actions conducted by our comrades in Melbourne and Perth (due to the involvement of Australian Kimberly Diamond). We are in dire need of help to make this struggle successful without any interference from the leftist institution and its disgusting network. Please contact us for further collaboration and we will update you with a more extensive and comprehensive data of the struggle. This letter is not our own initiative but was a result of our meetings with the PPLP-KP.
On behalf of the peasants,
Kulon Progo Solidarity Network
S.A.K.S.I
website: [[http://petanimerdeka.tk/][http://petanimerdeka.tk]]
** Position Paper by Coastal Inhabitants of Kulon Progo
Monday, March 28th, 2011
Received from the PPLP-KP (Coastal Farmers Association of Kulon Progo). This is their release of a position paper in regard to the plan to mine iron from the coastal sands of Kulon Progo, Indonesia.
there is no peace without justice
and there is no justice without conscience
PPLP KP
Since 2006, we, the coastal inhabitants of Kulon Progo Regency, have struggled to defend our Human Rights (as guaranteed by UU [Undang-Undang = regulation] No 39 of 1999), Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (as guaranteed by UU No 11 of 2005), and Right to Land (as guaranteed by UU no 5 of 1960). The presence of these rights and the prospect that they will continue into the future are under threat, due to the policies of the Kulon Progo Regency Government to mine iron sands and build a steel factory in an area which is settled by, and provides a livelihood for, its inhabitants. Just as it was known that it would, this mine has triggered a conflict between the people and the government, with no end in sight.
A. Background to the Mining Project.
The Plan to mine iron sands in Kulon Progo Regency arose from the pressure put on the local
government by the family of the Sultanate/ Paku Alaman (who is the legal owner of Jogja Magasa
Mining). It has been easy to progress with the mining plansfor the following reasons:
1. The position of the Sultan HB X, who occupies the role of provincial Govenor and of king, as well as being a businessman. This position of sole authority brings with it the possibility of infringements of
the law. Indeed the effects of the law are hardly felt as the area is so deeply entrenched in feudal
culture.
2. The interests of the Kulon Progo Regency Government are convergent with those of the foreign investors and also those of local companies (the owner of PT JMM), namely the exploitation of Indonesia’s natural resources.
The coastal areas of Kulon Progo Regency have an environmental function and a socio-economic
function. The environmental function of this area is 1) as a buffer zone for biodiversity, 2) as a natural defence against a tsunami disaster, 3) as a source of fresh water, and 4) as a rare sand dune area (one of only 14 similar areas in the world).
The socio-economic functions of the area are 1) as a source of livelihood for local people, 2) as the backbone of basic foodstuffs for Java and Sumatra, 3) as an area that has created a counter-current to urbanisation since the 1990s and 4) as a place where local knowledge has been developed, such as techniques for farming on coastal lands, that have already spread to nearby areas (Samas, Trisik, Glagah etc.). Local people reject the planned mine for the following reasons:
1. The proposals for mining are based on private interests / those of the class that claim to act in the name of development. It can be shown that none of the principles of development are included in the process of producing this “policy”. For example, the interests of society, the rights of the environment, and human rights are all ignored.
2. The economic, social, cultural and environmental risks of this mining plan are greater than the
benefits. In other words there will be a greater benefit for the area if there would be no mining whatsoever1
3. This mining plan would endanger:
a. The destruction of the sand dune ecosystem
The coastal area of Kulon Progo Regency is part of the range of sand dunes that extends from
Parangtritis beach in Bantul regency, represents one of 14 coastal sand dune environments in the
world and has the environmental function of a natural defence against the threat of a tsunami disaster.
The plan to mine iron sand will cause the loss of the environmental services the area provides, due to 1) the infiltration of sea water to the land, 2) the erosion of the tsunami defences, and 3) the potential disappearance of rare sand dunes (Kompas, April 2008).
b. Eviction of horticultural land and settlements
Part of the sand dune environment has been modified by local inhabitants to become horticultural land without reducing its function as a buffer zone (Shiddieq et al, 2008 and Iman Rejo, 1996). This productive land has brought benefits both material and immaterial (services to the environment, institutional, and the development of the local society’s knowledge base2). The plan to mine iron sands will alter the function of all land within an area of 22 x 1.8km, which currently includes farmland and settlements (according to the information communicated by Mulyono, Vice Regency Leader [Wakil Bupati] of Kulon Progo 2006-2011).
c. Loss of jobs
This productive land provides work for local inhabitants as well as for those from other areas (such as harvest labour, traders and middlemen, suppliers of fertilizer and seeds) The planned iron mine will increase the unemployment figures of those of working age, both in the coastal zone and nearby (Kompas, April 2008).
d. Disturbance to the supply of basic needs
The land in question is able to provide 702 tons of chilli/ transaction which is equivalent to 17,548
tons per month (in 2008), which makes it a principal provider of chilli to Jakarta and Sumatra
(Shiddieq et al, 2008). The plan to mine iron sand will disturb the economical stability of the sector of basic everyday needs, i.e. chilli.
e. Marginalisation of society and environment
The plan to mine iron sands will pose social risks in the form of a reversal of the progress which local
people have obtained over the course of 30 years, in which local people have participated in a form of
development which doesn’t damage the principal function of the coastal lands, and also creates a
counter-current to urbanisation.f. Deliberate attempts of mining supporters to foment horizontal conflict.
Before the iron sand mining project was announced, we lived peaceably between all parties. This mining project has already produced a horizontal conflict that has been triggered by the government and PT JMI’s provocations towards local people living outside the mine concession area, or those who do not understand the negative impacts the mine would have for their own livelihoods
3. There is a minority of inhabitants who appear to be inclined towards becoming tools of the mining company such as 1) outsiders / not the native people who have lived for generations on the mining concession, 2) people who do not depend on the coast for their livelihood (state employees, private sector etc.), 3) people whose rationality can be toppled with simple economic logic - to be honest these are often those that are highly educated, but opportunistic at heart.
Read the full document here (PDF):
[[http://325.nostate.net/library/position-paper-summary.pdf]]
** To Rediscover our own History is to Unearth Hope
People on the left consider the anti-authoritarian movement, and especially the anarchists, as something that is childish or just imitating the west, the creation of people that do not yet understand their own identity. Their reasoning is straightforward, because there is no anti-authoritarian history in Indonesia. Indonesian society, we are told, is a feudal society that is not capable of acting without a command structure and an elite leadership; the actions that are glorified by adherents of anti-authoritarianism always refer to Western states. That’s because, they say, anti-authoritarianism and anarchism are absolutely irrelevant in the Indonesian context.
But let’s take a look just how these people on the left have only one talent: to lie.
Just as this world is the logical consequence of the accumulation of power in the hands of a select elite, so will it reap a ripe harvest of resistance everywhere and in many different forms. Of all this resistance, only a small amount is known about, mainly because dominant power is organised so that all resistance will be forgotten by history and wiped from the memories of the people. If there is something that is permitted to stay remembered, the design is such that it is only to be remembered for its failings, not for its victories.
Various media discuss popular uprisings and resistance in different areas, but without really giving much true understanding. ‘Militant’ media such as Rumah Kiri which is nowadays dominated by trotskyists actually occasionally publishes well-documented articles about the worker’s resistance that takes place directly despite all attempts to organise labour, such as that written by the Perhimpunan Rakyat Pekerja (PRP). But also unwittingly, by placing these next to other articles that are orientated towards power and the stability of the system, this becomes one more way to reintegrate those workers into the social order once more. In the same way that the binary opposites of the old world prove once more their ineffectiveness – or even intentionally fail to get to grips with the poverty of life at the most fundamental level – and what happens instead is that aspirations for a free life are buried.
In the informal organisations of classic resistance, in the early days of Indonesian independence, many “criminal” actions took place, which also formed a critique of centralised power. Similarly, nowadays, we see many actions which not infrequently bear the scent of violence, that are also often labelled as ‘criminal acts’. In both the above cases the significant thing is not their criminality nor their violence, it is the rebellion that has the potential to build up the positive hopes of those that crave a life that can be lived more fully. Purging the influence of the historical experts and professionals of social science, we can highlight a few examples of actions that simply cannot fit within the pigeonhole of standard protest actions: such actions as those marches with people clinging on to their banners and placards, walking to a government building, shouting with a megaphone, negotiating with representatives of power. And then going back home again, accompanied by the chant “we’ll be back again with even greater numbers!”.
Around 1945 in the area of Brebes-Tegal-Pemalang (Central Java) poor farmers, feeling let down and angry, urged on by local criminal personalities, started to attack the rural elite, shaming the nobility and in several cases killing them. When some of their prominent members were arrested by TKR (Indonesian military that the newly independent central government approved of), they formed their own commandos with the aim of freeing their friends. In the end they were destroyed by the military allied with moderate Islamic groups that were dominated by the middle class. Of those imprisoned, some were sentenced to death. The almost spontaneous explosion of action, although not well-organised, was nevertheless a rebellion that not only fought physical poverty, but also the poverty of living, and also showed how the central government power was irrelevant to the actual needs of the local people.
Several decades later in North Sumatra, in a place known as Porsea, a paper factory was forced to its knees thanks to the unabating wave of action set in motion by the local people. This popular action was not commanded by intellectuals, movement leaders or political activists, and truly involved all layers of society including mothers and their children, making blockades, that sometimes were sometimes merely their own bodies, facing down the company’s trucks. There were no moderate demands such as for nationalisation of the factory, they only desired one thing: that there would be no factory near to their homes. After the fall of Suharto and the talk of a ‘democratic era’, the factory started to operate again, but the people were not as militant as before. What had happened was that certain figures of the LSM and activist movement that had sprung up had managed to make the community of Porsea understand how to carry out ‘civil protests suitable for a democratic environment’. The result was that the factory could operate smoothly while the people’s representatives wasted time at the diplomatic table with no conclusion. The actions of the people of Porsea only show one thing, that only direct action brings results, not the democratic diplomacy supported by intellectuals.
In 2001 the government gave notice of a new labour law that would force the workers into a corner, as part of its efforts to ensure the ‘health’ of the national economy. Ignored by the intellectuals who were busy debating on television without producing any result, workers in Bandung went on strike. Regardless of whether or not they had the approval of the trade union in each factory, the workers took to the streets. Without many banners, flags or megaphones, when they came to the government buildings they didn’t negotiate but instead started hurling stones at the building, and overturning and burning cars that were parked in the building’s compound. When the police arrived firing tear gas, the angry workers would disperse. But they wouldn’t return home quietly however, they regrouped in small groups with no central command, leaving the government building to break shop windows and damage expensive cars along the routes they followed. On the second day, transport workers responded to the workers’ action by carrying out a mass strike. Any public transport vehicle that did not join the strike was held up and bombarded with stones by the strikers. Beset by the violent action of workers and the lack of public transport, the production and transportation of capital was forced to a halt. On the third day, the army was sent to transport terminals and forced the drivers to resume the service. Factories that had been meeting places for the workers were visited and the workers forced back to work. The movement leaders were arrested . A shocked media, before they really had a chance to think about it, spontaneously aired the news across the nation, which only helped to provoke similar actions in various other places. As workers’ revolts erupted in various cities without being able to be extinguished, the government let it be known that the new law would be cancelled.
In 2002 the government announced a rise in fuel prices and a fuel truck was sequestered by a group of students who made it known that they were going to hold it on their campus as a symbolic protest. But in the small city of Cimahi, a criminal motorbike gang arrived at a petrol station, and forced the workers to fill their tanks for free, threatening violence if they didn’t. As other people around were shocked by this sudden action, the gang members encouraged them all to fill their tanks for free under the gang’s protection. In a moment, the local people flooded the petrol station and took the fuel with nothing to stop them. Not long afterwards the gang left the pumps and dispersed, as did the local people. The police that arrived were not able to arrest anyone since everyone around had participated in the plunder. What can be indirectly taken from this event is how the action of one group finds its own way to link in with a wider social environment. In the eyes of the local people, there was nothing to condemn about a motorbike gang hijacking a petrol station.
At the beginning of 2009, a medium-sized cargo ship was sailing the Java Sea when it suddenly changed it’s course and started sailing towards the borders of Indonesia. An upheaval had occurred inside the ship. Originating from a loathing of the captain who always forced the crew to work harder than their physical limits could support, it reached its peak when the ship’s cook attacked the captain with a kitchen knife. The captain’s cries for help were responded to by the crew who instead of helping captured the captain and then threw him overboard with no life-jacket. Shocked at their own spontaneous action, they did not choose anyone to replace the captain. Together they decided to make decisions by consensus, as a replacement for the system where decisions were taken based on the wishes of only one leader. So the ship started to move away from Indonesian territory, when an Indonesian navy vessel intercepted them at the border of the Malacca Straits. The interesting point about this case is how consensus decision making comes about spontaneously without being aware that that is exactly the most revolutionary thing that the crew could do at that point, after they had effectively got rid of the dominant power.
Each of these cases, whether the assassination of nobility, blockading actions without compromise or the wish to be pacified, the violent action of factory workers, the holding-up of a petrol station and the takeover of a ship, can of course be regarded as a criminal action that disobeys the law, if it is removed from its actual context. But in each case, if we look a little deeper, we can also see the process of deconstruction of values. What was previously considered the right thing to do, actually does not take the side of the people and their everyday lives. When looked at in terms of morality and of right and wrong, are not all the above cases not simply responses to other actions which are far more clearly wrong, and because of that more immoral?
Providing a clear context for how to escape from the shackles of moral values and popular opinion about right and wrong is obviously something very important. Because of this it is something that will be resisted by the power elite or the established intellectual class, ie. the status quo. The means they will use are manipulating symbols and portraying all these actions as criminal acts, violations of the law that can only lead to more widespread chaos. Successful attempts at criminalisation are usually supported by those who take the role of intellectual figures such as experts in social studies, movement leaders, NGO campaigners, and the media, who all try to sever each action from its social context and instead shoehorn it into a choice of right or wrong, legal or illegal, violent or non-violent. The first step is always so, an attempt to make the public respond with antipathy. The next step is also significant, erasing it from history, or written history at least.
The powerful always try to remove from official history every action that does not have their blessing. Official history is history that only the winner writes. There is no place for those that lose, and if there is then it is only the story of how their failures; their successes, although they may be as minute as a drop of morning dew, are not highlighted. The lack of adequate history from the past shapes ways of thinking and methods of control in the present. An example, indeed the most striking example, is the absence of official history as taught in schools regarding human life before the birth of power into the hands of a small elite, about life in the old times when humans were fairly egalitarian with no government, specialists, army or police. This understanding eventually brings a sense of pessimism that reaches across modern society, especially in our surroundings, a pessimism about the possibility for a life that is egalitarian without the need for government, police or specialists to exist. It is unsurprising if the usual response when people hear anarchists’ proposals for a society without government is: “Is there is no government, how will we be able to live properly?”, or the more sarcastic comment “If there are no police, surely people will kill each other in the streets?”. These questions really are an expression of the result of the systematic erasing of history.
We could venture another question, about why protests nowadays are never more than a demonstration of people walking towards some government building, and culminating in some diplomatic negotiations that have never ever brought any results wherever they have arisen, other than maintaining the status quo. From the various responses we hear to this question, there is always some connection with the poverty of history: because there is no reference point for any other forms of protest that have ever taken place in this country. The post-independence history books only make note of the student protests in the 1960s – where not long afterwards the student leaders underwent a transformation and became part of the political elite. Therefore, in the mind of the public, this is one form of protest that can be carried out, because from what they see there have never actually been other forms of protest.
There is no path that can be better believed, or better understood, other than asserting our identity and the steps forward we take today by taking our references from those who have been in similar positions in the past. An understanding of the past tells us about who we are, and the choices of our predecessors, and also has relevance in drawing the map of the terrain on which we will play in the future. Exploring the past, without becoming trapped in it or idealising events that have happened in previous times, actually can make our present situation more concrete. We feel the connection more strongly and we become aware of the alienation that lurks in the places we dwell. To do this, we need to be able to find our lost history (or purposefully lost history), and evaluate it once again from our own points of view. In this way we can get a complete picture of our lives, an individual resurgence that resounds with the rhythm of the social need to discover the totality.
The history that is not included in the official historical dictionary is a tool we can use to build the structures for social war. Its documents can be found in unusual places, in the songs and stories of the people, or in oral history that has never been written down. Oral history especially is a different method of history, as it is more egalitarian. As Kuntowijoyo once said, oral history actually contributes a great deal to the development of the substance of history. Firstly, because of its contemporary character, oral history presents almost unlimited possibilities for unearthing history directly from those who made it. Secondly, oral history can include historical actors that official history leaves disregarded. This is because it is not an elitist image of reality: each and every person can become one of history’s figureheads. Thirdly, oral history makes possible an expansion of the scope of history, because history is not limited to that for which written documents exist. Now all that remains is for us to rediscover it within our own surroundings.
To define the poverty of our own lives, there must really also be a redefinition of what prosperity means. To redefine the shape of protest is also to redefine the meaning of right and wrong in our own lives, and of ideas about what is suitable for us to struggle against. No more is there a standard format that we should follow, no longer are there limits to a blueprint that has been given to us by movement figureheads that only see one possibility, no longer are possibilities closed off due to pessimism. Poor farmers of Mexico re-found their roots through a rediscovery of the meaning of the struggle of Emiliano Zapata at the start of the 20th century and transformed it into the Zapatista movement – maybe this is a wake-up call to remind us, not to become followers or idolizers of the Zapatistas, but to start rediscovering our own routes, on our own land, in order to find the successful methods for our own struggles.
Forget Spain 1936. Forget Budapest 1956. Paris 1968. Greece 2008. Let’s fight on our own land. Right now.
-translated from Amor Fati magazine number 4. Original title “Menakar Tanah di Negeri Sendiri dan Menggali Harapan”
** Warning to Paramilitary forces targeting Pandang Raya village
It is almost a month. Rumours about (paid) paramilitary who will attack the squatting village of Pandang Raya. They are people hired by Goman Waisa, a conglomerate who have land conflict with the squatting inhabitants. During daily basis the people have been terrorised by the planning of execution by using paid paramilitary to evict the people. This strategy is used to avoid police participation after a defeat (of the police force) a year ago during the eviction. At that time, small numbers of Pandang Raya inhabitants were successful in defending their land and attacking the police.
The Ruling class also wanted to create horizontal conflict between people. This one of their rotten plans. Now there’s already a legal security business and they are planning to recruit every possible “gangster” to attack Padang Raya. The amount of this paramilitary forces is about 200, on Makassar scale. While a year ago the amount of police forces that were sent to attack Pandang Raya was about 400-500 personnel. And the people have successfully fought back. Now the paramilitary organisation want to use at least 500 paramilitary force, and some of them have been identified as entering some “gangs” organisation in Makassar. We used to call them “Boys on the Alley”. But it is quite ineffective for them because some of the people and friends there have said to these “boys of the alley” not to get involved. For information, during the last year battle there’s about 100 “boys of the alley” behind the police barricades.
Pandang Raya people have identified some of them and ask them why they were there, they answered that they were being paid 50-100 thousand rupiah to clean up the water sewage system in Pandang Raya surroundings.
Their methods at this time, are to mobilise people from outside of the town to attack Pandang Raya. Telling lies about the issues in order for the people to join without knowing what the real conflict was about. In the conflict area, the internal condition, is that the people are aware all the time and ready to fight. At this time, traditional weapons have been prepared such as: machete, spears, arrows, and other traditional weapons, and not to forget Molotov cocktails. All of this are prepared if the police come to attack. But the use of Molotovs during paramilitary attack is not quite effective, because is not the same formation such as with the police.
May 16, 2011
Goman Wisan hired thugs were acting up again. On Monday 27 June 2011 about 5 p.m, three motorcycles were going around Jalan Pandang. Two people of Pandang starting their morning activity caught four Goman’s people throwing a molotov cocktail and stones lbig as an adult fist toward the residential area. This was apparently intended to burn the entire residence in Pandang Raya. Eyewitnesses said that one of the motorcycles used a red matic motorcycle. A moment after the attacks, those hired thugs rode their motorcycles to shopping complexes of Panakukang. Goman’s people went into a panic caused by people of Pandang who caught them in throwing action in early morning. Those two people from Pandang Raya tried to chase them but they were not strong enough because they rode the motorcycle very fast. One of the motorcyclists almost lost his balance and fell down because he did not see a big hole in the middle of the road. He almost lost his life.
** 700 Special Police Force arrive at Kulon Progo
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
The people of Kulon Progo call for your international solidarity as they resist corporate greed and ecological destruction, please spread this information and act. More info + links to follow.
Thursday Morning, 24 February, mining corporation wants to re-open its office and operational sites which already been closed and destroyed by the peasants December last year. Failed.
Monday, 28 February, media noted that Jogja Magasa Iron and some Japanese investors failed to come.
Wednesday, 2 March, 9 cars with heavy arms police guard came to the pilot project for only 10 minutes.
Yesterday Morning, 7 March, 31 Police truck, 700 special police force (called Mobile Brigade), water cannon, detention car, police dogs, tear-gas, and heavy weapons came to the village…
WE NEED IMMEDIATE SOLIDARITY NOW!
** Thousands of Kulon Progo Farmers Resist Corporate Evil, Fighting the Police.
This morning (Monday, 20th October 2009), around 2000 coastal farmers connected to PPLP (Paguyuban Petani Lahan Pantai = Shoreline Farmers’ Association), took to the street in front of the office of the mayor of Kulon Progo, in the town of Wates. Twenty-eight trucks full of farmers, who wanted to convey their wholehearted rejection of the planned project to mine iron sands, arrived to demonstrate at the public consultation event. They were in the mood for action, just as they had already carried out many times before.
Present at the public consultation were the mining company that instigated the project, PT. Jogja Magasa Iron (JMI) as well as government authorities, NGOs, village leaders and the public. Yet of the coastal inhabitants due to be affected by the project, at most 25 had been invited. What’s more, when they showed their invitations, several of them were refused entry to the meeting room. The committee claimed that their names did not appear in the guest book, despite the fact they held their invitations in their hands. There was a difficult conversation with the organising committee, because it was those people who were connected to PPLP that were being denied entry. Finally, only Supriyadi, the chair of PPLP, and a few others whose names were on the list managed to enter the glass building of the Kulon Progo Regency government.
Meanwhile outside the building, thousands of farmers were continuing with speeches, unfurling banners and placards, and performing a theatrical action about farmers fighting mining companies and bureaucrats in their suits and ties. The security was tight, with around 600 riot police deployed, along with a water cannon. It was possible to trick the police, and the people were able to penetrate the front line of cops and ended up against the second line. Those who had been up close to the front line managed to shift and then move out of the way the iron bars that formed the police barrier. They then swapped this barrier for one of their own in the shape of a banner which read “Coastal Inhabitants of Kulon Progo declare their resistance to iron sand mining and exploitation of the environment, until the last drop of our blood”.
Inside the building, Sutarman, the vice-chair of PPLP, interrupted the meeting which was being chaired by the vice-mayor of Kulon Progo, Mulyono. Sutarman read out the official statement of opinion from PPLP, in front of the General Director of PT. JMI, Philip Welten, the company’s commisioners: GKR Pembayun, GBPH Joyokkususmo, KPH Condrokusumoo, KPH Ariyo Seno, Lutfi Hayder, as well as the others who were attending the meeting. The statement of opinion which he brought made clear that “this iron sands mining project has the potential to destroy the social fabric of our communities, destroy the environment and the self-sufficient economy of the inhabitants. Therefore those who live in the coastal zone, as members of the PPLP (Paguyuban Petani Lahan Pantai) community, press the central government of Indonesia, Yogjakarta Province,and Kulon Progo Regency to swiftly cancel the plan to mine iron ore from Kulon Progo’s coastal fringe.”
Sutarman also said that the Kulon Progo Regency Government and PT. JMI should move to outside the building and meet directly with the people gathered there, in order to truly understand the aspirations of the community. However, after the statement had been read, Vice-Mayor Mulyono, as moderator of the public meeting declared “If anything happens that disrupts this event from proceeding in an orderly or secure fashion, we will hand over responsibility to the chief of police and his ranks. As such, when ladies or gentlemen arrive in an orderly fashion, with or without an invitation, we invite them to calmly follow the proceedings. However if they disrupt the progress of this meeting of course we will hand over full responsibility to the police chief of Kulon Progo”. This statement was judged to be too intimidating by Sutarman, and shortly afterwards 20 people connected to PPLP decided to leave the meeting. Supriyadi, the chair of PPLP made clear, “Our wish to enter and convey our aspirations has been blocked. The number of people affected inside is less than 20 percent. This event is not a public consultation forum, it is a forum to push through the environmental impact assessment of the iron ore mine.”
The action outside that was being blocked by the police had the firm desire that officials from JMI and the Kulon Progo government should meet the farmers. Sutarman returned to the meeting room to ask that the government and company would meet the people, but this request was catagorically denied by the government. While the masses waited they hear speeches and sung prayers. An example of one of the prayers can be roughly translated as follows “Shalatullah Shalaamullaah a’laa thaha rosullulliaah… it’s farmers that pay for the mayor, it’s farmers that pay for the local council, it’s farmers that pay for the police… careful you don’t want to end up dead”.
At around 11am the sun was already bright, the people were starting to get hot, and so they gathered together in one block. One participant was able to make a speech from the loudspeaker vehicle, stating “it seems our blood is redder than that of the investors. Because they don’t want to let loose their passions, while we are prepared to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the environment”. A moment later the farmers spontaneously started to move in towards the police barricade. Farmers began the attack, wanting to get to the various officials inside the building involved with the mining project. Speeches gave way to direct action, as the power of their initiative pushed through the line of police barricades.
Pushing started between the farmers and the police. The police were forced to move backwards by the strength of the peasant’s action. This attack made the first line of police barricades retreat to behind the second, whose shields were taller. The police fought back by hitting the farmers from behind the first barricades which the farmers’ action was at that moment pressing up against. The farmers withheld the attack to the best of their abilities, totally unarmed. Many younger farmers fought back with their bare hands, punching and kicking back at the police that were fully equipped with armoured uniforms, batons and shields.
The sound of shots, like explosions, was swiftly heard and at the same time a spontaneous attack from farmers, throwing stones that they found by the railway line. The southernmost end of the field of battle was within reach of the railway. The constant and intense rain of stones could not be avoided. The police were fighting back, also using stones as well as shooting tear gas. Although the sound of three shots had already been heard, the farmers held strong, continuing to attack and defending the space they created, as the police retreated. According to Widodo, a field co-ordinator of PPLP, “Police shot the tear gas,aiming in front of me. The tear gas cannister was fired, and I only just managed to dodge it as it passed 50cm in front of my head”. Five separate explosions of tear gas being fired were heard. The farmers’ attack continued but then they chose to withdraw from the discomfort of the tear gas, gathering in the town square where their trucks were parked.
The water cannon let loose its load and managed to hit the protester’s loudspeaker vehicle. Although the mass of people was already some distance from the local government building, tear gas continued to be fired, reaching into the centre of the square where the people were gathered. A woman from Karang Wuni village who didn’t wish her name to be revealed said ”the police are trying to kill the farmers. Take a look, we are going to remember what happened today.”
** South Sulawesi, Makassar: Civilians and Anarchists Fight Against Eviction
Friday, February 26th, 2010
Hundreds of civilians and anarchists attacked riot police during the eviction of land 4.900 m2 in Padang Raya, Makassar, South Sulawesi on Tuesday, 23. One person injured.
Molotov and stones were being throwned at the riot police and by their stupid mistakes, the tear gas that supposed to be targetted to the attacking-civilians who defended their neighbourhood, were blowed back by the wind and hit the police. The riot police retreated and the militant civilians wins. Up to this day, the blockade and struggle against eviction still happening.
VIDEO
Community resistance discussion against Mega Dam project (Philippines)
Roundtable Discussion : The Mindanao Looming Energy Needs: Mega Dams and the Escalating Community
A rountable discussion of local community resistance (The Menovu-Pulangiyen and Menovo-Dungguanen tribes of Southern Bukidnon) against proposed Pulangi V Hydro-Electric Project was held on Friday, February 12, 2010 in Kibawe, Southern Bukidnon, Mindanao.
Entitled “The Mindanao Looming Energy Needs : Mega Dams and the Escalating Community Resistance” the sucessful gathering envisioned further enhancement of community struggle for self-determination, linkaging network of resistance and defending tribal sacred land and culture against corporate intrusion and eco-profiteers.
The event was spearheaded by NATABUKFed, a federation of southern Menovu tribe in Bukidnon in the forefront of defending their land from development aggression.
Participated on the discussion includes council of elders from Natabuk Fed, tribal leaders-Datu’s and Bai from different communities living along Pulangi River that might be affected by the Megadam project, concerned networks of social and environmental organizations from different places and few media links.
The activity opened and ended by traditional tribal ritual.
The proposed Pulangi V Hydro dam is the biggest in Mindanao. The project is expected to kick-off by 2010 generated strong opposition from the indigenous peoples which would submerge their entire ancestral domain.
The Pulangi V Mega Dam in Damulog, Bukidnon will inundate vast tracts of land, including those the tribes consider as their ancestral domain. To be affected by biggest hydro-dam in Mindanao are the municipalities of Damulog, Kibawe, Dangcagan, Kitaotao, Quezonand Pres. Roxas of North Cotabato. The dam is expected to generate at least 300 megawatts and would inundate 22 barangays in seven municipalities of Bukidnon and Cotabato provinces.
Under the guise of looming energy crises, the FIBECO ( First Bukidnon Electric Cooperative) in partnership with Greenenergy Development Corporation (main proponents of the megadam project) is strengthening its campaign in the area to put up the said dam despite the strong opposition of the Manobo Tribe.
Few Datas: (Sources from Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center- CDO)
Mindanao Energy Needs :
- 60% hydro dependent
- 36 hydro projects (proposed plan)
- 12 are in Mindanao, 6 large and 6 mini hydros
- Bukidnon needs 30 MW
Mega Dam- Mega Structure :
- 142 meters- tallest in Mindanao
- reservoir will inundate 22 Barangays
- More than 60,000 hectares of forests and highly agri-land are affected
- Can generate 348 Megawatts
- Biggest Man-Lake in Mindanao
“IMPAMULANGI” Pulangi River :
- The biggest tributary to Rio Grande Mindanao
- Biggest watershed in Mindanao
- It is a sacred river to the tribe
- Most of the Southern Menovu tribe are living within the river
** How the Papuan people Continue to Unite in Resistance
Victor Yeimo Interview
This Interview with Papuan activist Victor Yeimo was published on the Kontinum website, because of a feeling that little information and perspectives from the Papuan struggle is available in Indonesia, and so people outside Papua are not aware of the what is actually going on there. The original, in Indonesian, can be found at [[http://kontinum.org/2011/08/wawancara_victor_papua/]]
Bearing in mind that there is very little and quite selective news about the Papuan situation and the people’s struggle in the media, could you explain for all our readers what is the latest situation in Papua?
Human rights violations of civilians by the Indonesian military and police are still taking place. Global investment has ballooned after the ACFTA agreement (ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement), where President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had given instructions to police and military commanders to use investment as a means of pacifying Papua (see Jurnal Nasional, 16 May 2011, page 10). China is the home of the majority of global investors, and the Papuan Provincial Body for Capital Investment (Badan Penanaman Modal) has reported that there has been a 28% increase in investment in Papua in the last 6 months.
There have also been cases of malpractice where Indonesia’s bureaucratic elite have interfered with the governance of Papua. Corruption, collusion and nepotism have increased due to the central government’s inconsistency around laws and regulations.
Aside from that, Freeport workers have risen up and have gone on strike (tabloidjubi.com will have news updates).
Illegal business from the police and military is also on the rise, such as illegal logging, ,gold panning, bringing sex workers from outside Papua, dealing in the wood of the eaglewood tree, and so on. Meanwhile military repression to silence the democracy movement has been getting more intense, and uses labels such as separatist, terrorist, trouble-maker and so on.
What do the Papua people think about these situations, and how have they reacted to them?
The people do not have much power, due to the military strength in Papua. Meanwhile the government is seducing the people with trillions of rupiah of foreign direct investment in their ancestral lands, and so in the end there are many people that do not want to join organised resistance movements.
The people continue to problematise the history of Papua’s integration in the unified Indonesian state, which has always been manipulated by the United States, Indonesia and the Netherlands. Because of that the people still continue to unite in resistance.
Apart from the problems of history and culture, what is making the Papuan people refuse Jakarta’s influence in their everyday lives and want self-determination?
Because Jakarta’s approach is militaristic, exploitative, deceitful and marginalising. From the beginning right up to the present day Jakarta has regarded Papuans as second-class people, people close to animals. And then the next thing they do is that they violate the arrangements that they themselves have made. They are just not consistent in their regulations and policy. Policy is also biassed in favour of incomers to Papua. So the people prefer to think about sorting things out for themselves. Many Papuans, as a result of all they have gone through, believe that Indonesia’s sole aim in West Papua is to wipe out the Papuan people and take control of the territory.
How have government, the bourgeoisie and Indonesian politicians viewed the Papuan people’s struggle, and what has been their reaction?
They continue to be suspicious of all civil activists that operate in a legal or democratic way. Indonesia also uses its military force and criminal law to kill off west Papua’s peaceful movement. They also use ‘divide and conquer’ techniques to destroy the unity and solidarity of the Papuan people’s resistance. Jakarta has poured a lot of money into the military, police and intelligence organisations in order to make Papua secure. Many Papuans have been recruited by enticing them with money to join the ranks of Barisan Merah Putih (Red and White Front: a militant Indonesian nationalist civil organisation). Many cases of abuse by members of the military police have not been brought to justice, and the perpetrators have even been rewarded with new jobs and promotions.
How have the Papuan people got involved in the struggle for freedom in Papua? What kinds of resistance have developed?
Papuans take a peaceful and dignified approach, organising demonstrations, prayer sessions, seminars, writing books or reporting repression on the Internet. There are also some traditional militant groups in the national Liberation army - Free Papua Movement (TPN-OPM) who refer to themselves as a West Papuan military. They continue to use guerilla tactics to chase the Indonesian army out of their areas.
What is the reaction of Papuan people towards the ‘separatist’ label that is put on every movement that emerges in Papua?
We’re aware that we aren’t separatists, because the people on the contrary consider Indonesia to be the separatists, as Indonesia arrived in 1962 whereas the Papuan state was given independence in 1961.
The people regard this label as one imposed by the people in power, who are anti-democratic and anti-human rights, as it is stated in the Indonesian basic law set down in 1945 that colonisation should be erased across the whole world. The people see this label as something imposed by the military, to promote their own interests of expanding the territory under military control in order to profit from securitization projects. In books, speeches seminars etc. the people continue to state that we are not separatists, because this land belongs to the Papuans, it dot belong to Indonesia, the US, Britain or any other country.
How do you see the general Indonesian population’s understanding of, and response to, the Papuan problem?
Much of Indonesian society doesn’t understand the problems of Papua. Maybe people have been influenced by the opinion of those in power, because of the propaganda they spread on TV and in newspapers, that Papuans are poor, and so on. But actually we’re rich, only Indonesia keeps marginalising the Papuan people’s rights. The Indonesian people, with their blinkered nationalism, see the Papuan movements as being against those in power. But they are also being treated in the same way by our exploitative, greedy, gun-crazed, corrupt and chauvinist leadership.
For the majority of the Indonesian population, there are very few who know just how the Indonesian leadership invaded, took over and then annexed Papua, which was granted independence in 1961, through agreements to establish Papua’s political status that were devised by the US, Britain and the Netherlands, without involving the Papuan people. Most people in Indonesia are still blind to the problems of Papua and still ignorant of how Papuans have suffered, and so still take the side of our cruel leaders.
Can you tell us about your organisation, KNPB?
West Papua National committee (KNPB) is a West Papuan people’s medium. KNPB exists in different places throuout the land of Papua, and also has consulates in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Manado. KNPB was set up in 2008 with Buchtar Tabuni as chair and Victor Yeimo as General Secretary. Towards the end of 2006 Buchtar was arrested and condemned to 3 years in prison and Victor undertook the everyday tasks. In August 2009 Victor was arrested and condemned to 3 years in prison. Now the organisation is operating with Mako Tabuni as Chair I of KNPB, Buchtar still as General Chair, and Victor Yeimo as International Spokesperson.
KNPB always encourages Papuans to see themselves as historically, culturally and geographically different to Indonesians. Can you explain what is the position of KNPB comrades regarding this?
We locate our struggle with the Papuan people. Whatever the people want, that’s what we fight for. The historical, geographical and cultural factors are actually like you said. We see that Indonesia’s involvement in West Papua is no more than a story of protracted repression. This territory is still like a protectorate. Whatever the people wish for, that’s what KNPB will mediate as a focus for the struggle, using sincere means.
What is KNPB’s vision of the “right to self-determination”, in connection with the Papuan struggle?
Papuans do not regard the test of public opinion that took place in 1969 as final. The people continue to demand the right to determine their own future. Many Papuans have died as a result of demanding these rights. Therefore KNPB fights for a referendum as a decisive solution to the Papuan conflict. This is so that the people can decide whether they want to continue as part of Indonesia, or if they want independence. In KNPB’s role as media, it continues to make demands to international bodies and also appeals to the will of Jakarta so that the people are given their democratic right to choose their future. Of course we need the reinforcement of international solidarity, and to this end there is a group of international lawyers working to investigate the status of Papua and resolve it through international law.
What sort of Papua do the Papuan people themselves want?
A Papua that is free of all forms of repression: Indonesian neocolonialism, neoliberalism/ global capitalism and militarism.
How do Freeport and the other corporations that have established themselves in the land of Papua react to the people’s struggle there?
Freeport collaborates with the Indonesian leadership. They both look after their economic and political interests in the same way. That means that they label anyone who doesn’t accept the presence of these corporations as separatists and terrorists. Freeport takes a line opposing the Papuan people’s struggle, because in their view it will harm their capital investments and vital assets.
What is their connection with the Indonesian government and bourgeoisie?
Freeport continues to deceive Indonesia and the Papuan people, but Freeport wants Indonesia to continue as guarddog of its assets. So Freeport keeps paying the military and Indonesian bourgeoisie to ensure guaranteed security and legal favour. Papuans get nothing meaningful from this arrangement.
What are the priority needs right now for friends involved in the struggle for freedom in Papua?
-We really need the solidarity of oppressed people wherever they might be, including people in Indonesia, to work together to chase all forms of repression out of Papua.
-We really need solidarity from friends in the national press to take the side of the Papuan people in their reportage.
-We really need consolidation at the national level to shape a definitive solution for the Papuan people.
-We need some means of production that can be used to protect ourselves against the ongoing siege of repression in the land of the bird of paradise.
What sort of solidarity do the Papuan people need? And what can friends from outside Papua do to help the Papuan people’s struggle?
-We would like it if the Papuan issue was regularly discussed by friends outside Papua.
-We would wish for some sort of national consolidation to discuss and establish strategy and tactics for a joint resistance.
-We also need advocacy, economic and political information and reading material that could help us be active in the field.
Thank-you, and respectful greetings to all Papuans in struggle.
** DANDELION INFOSHOP PROJECT BANDUNG, WEST JAVA
Bandung is a capital city of West Java, with about 2.771.138 inhabitants. Historically, it was a city built by the Netherland colonialist as the centre of shopping, resting place and entertainment for the colonials; and after the independence of Indonesia in 1945, Bandung becoming a tourist city because of the chilly weather, and geographically it’s placed in mountain area.
Ever since 1998, there’s a commercial fashion distros booming, therefore aside that Bandung is part of a student city, it is also a part of textile industries main production and distribution. Bandung’s government is now focusing on “creative industry” where people arecommodificating cultures into things they can buy. “Youth creativity” is transformed into merely mass clothing production, and ignorant consumerist culture where most people in Indonesia consider Bandung as the most progressive trendsetter, and therefore Bandung is a centre of cultural banalization.
Considering this depressive competitive atmosphere of the urban inhabitants, we think it’s crucial to raise consciousness about this. People don’t care anymore about the corporations’ victims in other areas in Indonesia, even though it’s very close to our city; since they’re too busy consuming their identity. This city, beside its alienating so-called-youth-centre, has a very great lack of information regarding political and cultural consciousness. And people all over Indonesia are taking this fake commercialized culture as the alternative culture they should follow.
The need arises for raising awareness that life is more than this and our neighboring cities need our support to fight against the neo-liberal development, that is why we think it’s very urgent to have a space for an infoshop that would also function as acommunity space where we can empower autonomy and self organization against the corporate culture.
The need to introduce our ideas and to counter this overvaluation of commodity society: to make a counter-value against bought and sold relationships, and to promote alternative relationships in which people can live their lives according to their own real needs and desires.
Moreover, this is good timing because lately, there’s been mushrooming of counter-cultural infrastructures in this city; such as Food Not Bombs, Really really free market (Lapak Gratis!), anarchist publications (Dandelion, Katarsis), D.I.Y music gigs, Media Activism for Grass Root Struggle (such as Jurnal Apokalips, Poros Api); but we have no safe place to gather and make a social thread between these counter culture infrastructure. Until now, we are only able to gather in side roads, parks, and some friend’s house. We have no special place for the information centre.
*** Vision and Goals
We have no permanent goals whatsoever; time will tell us what to do from our temporary activities. The most urgent step we want to achieve is finding a place, and build it into a community center from which we can operate. We need this place to distribute our own information and penetrate our ideas to people.
This place must have the capabilities to make change and raise awareness in people, from the various projects that we set up there. Considering the lack of reading culture (beside mainstream books and hipster’s clothing magazines), we are planning to open a bookshop and public library, for these kind of purposes. With various kinds of activities that we will ignite from that point, we believe we can slowly promote anti-authoritarian ideas in social relationships and inspire a critical society towards its own environment and ecological health.
By doing these projects we try to make people cooperate with each other without hierarchy, to distribute knowledge, to create a sense of community in this alienated society, and make a less violent environment by raising consciousness and a sense of needing each other as human beings.
Our vision is that this new world (dis)order problem, this ever ravaging system called neo-liberalism that has already become our local government policy, is the main problem we have to counter; By making wide privatization of public needs, and letting the corporate powers cut down our city forest to become condominium, malls, clothing stores, real estate apartments for upper middle class people, the problem of this imperial-capitalist economy and its contradiction to earth society appears. We want to create an awareness to people, as a response for this dying earth and the people living in it, about how this present progress of the so called “new world economy” is just another form of world domination by global ruling capital that tends to create more and more destruction to society and environment.
*** THE FORM OF THIS CENTER
The form of this center will be that of a bookshop, public library, autonomedia center and space for community activities. These are the activities we plan to create:
1. Various weekly discussion group:
- Anti-authoritarian discussion group: There will be a group discussion that we hold to introduce ideas and basic principles of anti-authoritarian society.
- Social problems discussion group: a discussion group for social issues and local problems on community scale or wider.
- Free discussion group: It can be imagined like a study group. This group will decide what things they should do with their discussion projects, whether it’s a book discussion, comic, zine, political subjects, movies, music, art, philosophy, contemporary culture, its up to them.
2. Workshop:
To provide a place for people and community to share their knowledge with each other for free such as: making zines, posters, websites, silk screen printing, learning and sharing other skills that might use full and needed.
3. Cultural Activities:
We want to maintain and expand our own folk culture such as D.I.Y music gigs, making Food Not Bombs cells, or Really Really Free Market cells. To empower people to make their own music, recording, cooperating with each other to make our own community thrive.
4. Food Not Bombs:
A project to distribute food for free regularly to homeless people and local community.
5. Really Really Free Market (or here known as Lapak Gratis!)
Free redistribution of things people need, where people redistribute their things freely for each other.
6. Movie Screening
Once a week there will be held a movie screening. The movies will be chosen by the members of the whole group. On some special projects we will show a certain movie for knowledge purposes such as anti-globalization movies and other education materials in movies. We also translate movie subtitles so the people who aren’t able to use English language can be able to understand the movie’s message too.
7. Knowledge distribution
We will distribute any kind of independent media and books as long as their free from any kind of racism, fascism, narrow religious thoughts, government propaganda, or anything commercial culture.
8. Social Center
We want to make this place a local center open to everyone and every problem faced by people in this society, not as an organization that will represent them, but with equal cooperation in a more horizontal relationship where we can discuss the problems and together find a solution for it. We also separate ourselves from other formal organizations such as the government, commercial corporations, any political parties, fundamentalist organizations, and other hierarchical organizations. We will cooperate with workers, students, individuals or society in general as long as they are not affiliated with the kind of organizations that we mention above.
9. Anarchist Literature Translating and Publications
We translate and publish anarchist literature that we find relevant and useful for the people’s empowerment, whether its about culture, politics, economy, anthropology, etc.
10. Bookshop and Public Library
We will also be making a bookshop so our infoshop will get some benefit, because we hope that this infoshop will be sustainable—so it needs to be able to pay its bills (such as water, electricity, rents, etc). Beside the bookshop, we will of course open a public library which display some wide range kind of books; from anarchist books, zines, or any kind of literature that relevant to people’s knowledge about life’s beside consumerism. In our bookshop and public library, we are hoping to be able to provide a photocopying machine, as an alternative choice for people who are not able to buy the books/zines, they can copy them.
11. Small Canteen
Still in an effort to be able to sustain our infoshop and pay the bills, we are planning to open a little canteen which provide cheap things such as coffee, tea, snacks, for people who come into our infoshop and use the public space; in case they feel like drinking or eating something.
These are the possible activities that we plan and some of which already exist such as the Food Not Bombs, Really Really Free Market (Lapak Gratis!), Anarchist Literature Translating and Publications (Dandelion Publications, Katarsis Publishing), and the local D.I.Y scene.
*** WHAT WE NEED
We need all kinds of donations that are related to our goals. We will gladly accept money, books, or other kinds of donations that you think would be useful for this center. In more specified terms of what we need, here’s the list:
A place: this place, we imagine, should consist of two spaces; first a space for the library and bookshop, and a second space for community activities. As far as we know, its quite hard to find an empty building that can be squatted here, because of immediate repression from the police and a lack of uninhabited houses, that’s why we are planning to rent this place.
Projector: movie projector for the movie screening.
Photocopy machine: for the people who need to copy things.
Books/zines/posters/literature/movies: Books/movies/posters/zines that are donated will be used in the library and not for the bookshop.
Or any kind of donation you might think relevant for our purposes.
*** WHO WE ARE
We (Dandelion Collective) consists of a small group of people, some of us are workers, some are students, and others unemployed. We form this collective to organize ourselves and carry out our vision in a more concrete way. We don’t have any certain ideology to proclaim for ourselves. We combine anarchy’s point of view, Marx’s economic theories, and other social theories that are relevant and useful for our present condition. Currently, our activity is taking place in a room of one of our collective member’s family house. In this house, we are sharing a place with other family members, so the place is not really secure, and the space is not enough to make an autonomous public space. But even so, our activities were already running. This house is the place where we publish our translated materials via internet, translating process, small discussion (this space’s capacity is approximately six or seven people), keeping logistics for the Really Really Free Market (Lapak Gratis!), etc.
We don’t want to be affiliated with certain ideologies or thoughts which we think only lead to other dogmatism and mediation of labels. We don’t proclaim ourselves to certain ideologies, but we believe in the basic principles of anarchism in terms of organization and how people should interact in human relations: we believe in direct-democracy, self-empowerment and other forms of social autonomy. We are affiliated with other collectives in other cities such as Kontinum in Makassar, Informal Katalis Networking, SAKSI (Solidarity Against Corporate Crime), Institut-A in Jakarta, Journal Amorfati.
*** OUTRO
However we imagine this project as a community center, we do not mean to create centralized activities or any kind of ‘centralism.’ This place only works as a place where people can meet and organize themselves and cooperate with each other in a direct way. The main goal is to distribute independent media and knowledge which we think we never before had a place for.
And therefore we think it’s important to establish a place that is focused on the community rather than creating profit and perpetuating capitalist ideas of human relations.
Contact:
meniup.dandelion@alphabetthreat.co.uk
and street address:
Dandelion Collective
Jalan Insinyur Haji Juanda
Gang Dago Elos I no.179
Bandung, 40135, West Java, Indonesia.
P.S : … links of our comrades/affiliation’s cyber contact (websites, blogs, emails, etc).
Institut-A- Infohouse & Community Center (Jakarta)
instituta@gmail.com / instituta@alphabetthreat.co.uk
http://picasaweb.google.co.id/institutA/INSTITUTA#
Food Not Bombs Bandung:
www.myspace.com/fnbbdg
Journal Amorfati:
jurnalamorfati@gmail.com
amorfatum.wordpress.com
Kontinum:
http://kontinum.blogspot.com/Katalis:
http://timkatalis.blogspot.com/
SAKSI (Solidarity Against Corporate Crime):
- http://kulonprogotolaktambangbesi.wordpress.com/
http://saksimelawan.blogspot.com/
Eco-Struggle in Kulon Progo – Solidarity Needed (Indonesia)
For more background on the community of Kulon Progo, Yogyakarta, Indonesia and their resistance to the planned Iron Mine on their land see: 325 #7
We hope that comrades from abroad can make a solidarity action for the farmers of Kulon Progo and make a presence to the nearest Indonesian Embassy regarding this case. Our dear comrades of Kulon Progo are in one spirit with us. They are our friends in struggle and daily lives. A recent statement from the Sultan of Yogyakarta dictates that they will continue this megaproject and so the consequences are more repression to come. But for sure, from recent gathering and since the beginning of resistance, the Kulon Progo’s peasants remained determined in their resistance and ready for the next social war. This is just a beginning.
** Call-out for financial solidarity with Infoshop-InstitutA (Indonesia)
Friday, July 2nd, 2010
Institut-A is a one year running anarchist infoshop in Jakarta, Indonesia. The space is an open space for anarchists and the like, plus also general public. Institut-a have been the main motor and the only infoshop in Jakarta that survived. Through times the space have been a place for d.i.y hc/punk/and even indiepop gigs in order to gain benefit for the existence of the space. Institut-a provide materials such as books concerning anarchism and other anti-authoritarian publications. Unfortunately, since Institut-a is a rented place, the time for contract is almost over.
Therefore we need solidarity by anarchists and the like whom share the same concern for this sort of project. You can contact the email below for further details.
And to see more of their activities with pics, please visit:
http://www.instituta.webs.com
Pics: http://instituta.webs.com/apps/photos/
Mailing address:
Jl. Arteri Permata Hijau No. 14. dekat dengan Gedung ITC Permata Hijau,
Jakarta Selatan, atau Beleza
Jakarta, Indonesia
Contacts: instituta(at)gmail.com
** Destructive youth attack against PTPN
28 January 2010
More than 50 youth with black hoodies attacked and destroyed PTPN central office in Makassar City, South Sulawesi. The action was conducted during the 100 days anniversary of SBY-Boediono’s corrupt government that was celebrated by large number of mass demonstration. Police with motorbikes come to chase the “black-hooded almamater” and no one got arrested. No communiques and statement was made by the group. PTPN (state-owned plantation companies) is a notorious institution since the Soeharto New-Order regime up to now. An institution who are responsible for taking over peasants land, destroying environment, and selling forest and land.
*** Insurrectional Attack with Greetings from Makassar
28 November 2010
“More than a dozen individuals in ‘motorcycle gang’ threw Molotov cocktails on Pizza Hut restaurant of Pettarani branch in city of Makassar. The action was conducted 04.30 in the morning. Door and windows were smashed and the Molotovs caused an enormous fire inside. The perpetrators also left an anti-capitalist message on the front of the door. Greetings of the coming insurrection.”
*** Molotov cocktails tossed at Makassar Police station
29 December 2010
From corporate media:
“A group of men threw Molotov cocktails at a Makassar Police post early Monday morning, one day after a local Pizza Hut restaurant was attacked.
The post was not occupied during the attack and no casualties were reported.”
*** Bank Central Asia attacked with Molotovs (Indonesia)
25 March 2011
“BANK CENTRAL ASIA ATM ATTACKED WITH FIREBOMBS DURING MIDNIGHT LASTNIGHT.
BRIEF COMMUNIQUE: ONGOING SOCIAL WAR AND SOLIDARITY WITH BIMA, KULON PROGO, AND ALL THE OPPRESSED BY THE STATE AND CAPITALISM.”
INDONESIANINTIFADA.WORDPRESS.COM – SOCIAL WAR / DISTURBANCE / INSURRECTION – Direct-Action Info Indonesia (more…)
*** Attack against multinational corporation in Makassar
22 March 2011
Last night some individuals with stones and bricks smashed every window and door of McDonald’s fast-food multinational in Perintis Kemerdekaan Road, Makassar, causing damages on the front of this multinational restaurant. They left a communique that said:
“We are aware of what you multinationals have done to the people of Kulon Progo, Takalar, Bima, and other places. We are angry and we’ll do more!”
*** Bank Central Asia attacked with Molotovs (Indonesia)
25 March 2011
“BANK CENTRAL ASIA ATM ATTACKED WITH FIREBOMBS DURING MIDNIGHT LASTNIGHT.
*** BRIEF COMMUNIQUE: ONGOING SOCIAL WAR AND SOLIDARITY WITH BIMA, KULON PROGO, AND ALL THE OPPRESSED BY THE STATE AND CAPITALISM.”
4 April 2011
‘International Conspiracy for Revenge’ (ICfR) have taken responsibility for burning another BCA (Bank Central Asia) ATM in Indonesia, in an action against the capitalist exploitation of Indonesian resources and state repression. BCA are handling finances for the industrial development of Kulon Progo. The actions are directly revindicated by flyers which were left at the scene which were the same as in a number of other incidents around the country.
The communique situates the actions in the context of revenge for the brutal oppression inflicted upon the people of Kulon Progo, Bima, Takalar, Padang Raya, Makassar, Jogja, Persil IV Medan, Buyat and Papua by the Indonesia state and multi-national corporations such as PT Indomines and BCA. The claim also denounced the role of the mainstream media, bureaucrats, police and the military.
The ATM was completely destroyed with the money inside, CCTV system burned out, and ATM unit gutted. There were no injuries reported and it was only witnessed when several people drove past the ATM noticing a fire.
*** Solidarity Molotov Attack against BNI Bank ATM in Bandung
30 June 2011
A significant molotov attack explodes the ATM BNI in Dipatiukur Street – Bandung. Perpetrators leaves message:
“The State and Capital is the real terrorist. Solidarity with Kulon Progo Peasant Struggle!”
*** Statement from Revolutionary Organisation – Informal Anarchist Federation, Indonesia Section
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
325 receives and transmits:
Bandung, Indonesia – Cells of International Conspiracy for Revenge, a few days ago, have claimed responsibility by spreading leaflets surrounding the ATM BNI firebombings. The leaflet is almost the same tone as in Makassar and Manado:
“PT Indomining (Bima) has been brutally repressing the local population, Jogja Magasa International wants to evict 30,000 farmers in Kulon Progo. Farmers in Takalar are facing the threat of land-grabbing. These actions are carried out in a brutal way, including shootings, terror, sexual harassment as well as the various forms of repression that we never hear about in the mainstream media.
That’s not surprising because these capitalist-bureaucratic companies do not care about anything except making their wallet thicker!”
“Our attacking of an ATM (bank) is an important target, because banks are always involved in financing natural resources and the repression of the people in the name of capital! We have no intention of injuring anyone, the destruction of property is not violence! No mercy for the forces of repression! No mercy for the State and Capitalism.”
May the Social War escalate and we forgot to mentioned comrades in Greece, Italy, or anywhere else but you all know our hearts are with you.
Got Ist Tot – Free Association of Individualist-Communists.
Salute to: Revolutionary Organisation – Conspiracy of Cells of Fire. The Revolutionary Struggle. The Chilean insurrectionists. Giannis Dimitrakis and Polykarpos Georgiades, our hearts are with you!
Long Live the Rebellion and stay free. And with this statement we claim to join the RO-FAI, Indonesian Section.
*We call for the strongest possible
international solidarity with the fighting
peasants of Kulon Progo, Indonesia.*
*They are organising to defend their
lives and the environment from the
ruthless mining operations of the
exploiting capitalists and their state
backers, with an absolute rejection of
leftism and political wrangling.*
*Let’s internationalise anti-capitalist
resistance!*
*We are not Victims - We are Fighters*
*International Conspiracy for Revenge*
*Soli-website Kulon Progo*
** Anarchists attack RBS in Bristol
24 March 2011
“In the framework of acting around the mass anti-cuts demo of 26th March 2011, we attacked RBS in Bristol during the night of 24th March 2011.
The main RBS building by Bristol Temple Meads was attacked by an anarchist affinity group armed with stones and glass bottles filled with paint, breaking windows and damaging staff vehicles. RBS, which was bailed out by the government, recently paid 780 million pounds in staff bonuses for the last year, plus 7.7million pounds bonus to RBS boss Stephen Hester. The government makes its money back by clawing it from the people at the base through the implementation of austerity measures and increased living costs, people who are already pushed to their limit.
We have acted outside the dimension of the mass demo on 26th March to make the point that, although some of us also attended there with the mass of the people on the streets of London, it is certain that our attack, solidarity and struggle demand of us that we act as well in our everyday lives and not just in the moment of spectacle. If the struggle stays at a certain level (essentially lobbying for the abolition of this or that law, the granting of certain rights, the manipulation of state finance, attending an ‘event’ etc), then the struggle will remain at a grotesque and unsatisfactory citizenism, perfectly in step with capital.
This action is dedicated to all those trapped in debt and struggling against the capitalist system on these islands, and it is also for those resisting corporate onslaughts abroad. We especially refer to those fighting against the Canadian Tar Sands mining project that RBS is funding, and to the peasants and allies fighting in Kulon Progo, Indonesia, against a similar project to extract iron from their coastline sands. The peasants in Kulon Progo specifically requested and appreciate attacks such as the one made against RBS on 24th March. The Indonesian state is not known for its record in human, animal and ecological welfare. Indonesia likes to hide behind the image of pleasurable modern tourism for rich Europeans and their university back-packer sons and daughters armed with gap-year money, mobile phones and laptops, whilst the reality on the ground is very different. British arms companies and banks have helped and continue to facilitate murderous deeds and carnage there.
Finally, we will never forget about the prisoners of the social war in Greece, where a sporadically strong anti-capitalist/anti-authoritarian/anarchist struggle has been happening now for years; this is for Simos Seisidis, who has a trial on 30th March 2011. We keep him in our hearts as an unknown friend and to him we extend our hugs; this is also for those prisoners of the Revolutionary Struggle – Nikos, Pola, and Kostas; for all the prisoners of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, those who take responsibility and those who are accused; this is for ALL of the comrades there, and also ALL the dignified prisoners here in the UK who do not bow their heads, outside or inside the walls… In these times if you don’t begin fighting, you are truly lost and deserve the contempt our enemies receive.”
Some Anarchists
** Nottingham supermarket smashed in solidarity with Kulon Progo
20 March 2011
“On Sunday night at 1:45am the Tesco’s on Hucknall Road was visited by some individuals. As a result of this visit it’s front door was smashed and ‘every little hurts’ was written on it’s wall. We did this because of hatred for the physical manifestation of capitalism that is Tesco’s.
We also did this as gesture of solidarity with the people of Kulon Progo in Indonesia who fight with beauty, rage and defiance against the capitalist forces which are trying to destroy their land. We know our efforts are slight, but they are sent with love for anyone who struggles against the systems of destruction and domination.
We know that capitalism is more than the bricks and mortar these building are made out of them, we know they are more than the companies which work out of these buildings. Capitalism lives in our interactions and our relationships, and we must constantly challenge it. The destruction of property will only ever be one form of this challenge, one tactic that we can use whenever we see fit. But it is one where we are able to share our affinity with one another, learn with one another, develop trust with one another, these acts enable us to temporarily penetrate our relationship with capitalism. Enabling us to prove that it is not infallible, that it has it’s weakness, and we can exploit them.
The expression of our anger against symbols of capitalism empowers us and deepens our desire to deform the control that capitalist society has over us. We will not just sit back and let companies like Tesco’s go unchallenged as they attempt to rip right through the communities of which we’re a part. Tesco’s are the epitomy of corporate exploitation and monopolization. Profiting from the commodification of our diets, our nourishment and our relationship with the earth.
The chain of commodities of which they’re apart is a chain where everything and everyone suffers. Well fuck you Tesco’s, fuck you corporate destroyers of the earth and everything living in it.
In glorious rage and with eternal love to all those who resist corporate exploitation.”
** Mitie van torched in Bristol
12 April 2011
“Let us be clear on something: we are not demanding anything. The libertarian world that we desire is here, in our beating hearts and clenched fists, not to be found through the concessions of our enemies, allegiance to this or that party/union/’social movement’. We have no dialogue to be made with the world we have discovered ourselves to be at war with, as it is at war with us. And we are not alone. Across the world the attacks multiply – some claimed clearly by comrades in the perspective of the struggle against State, Capital and Hierarchy in whatever forms, many, as always, a mute expression of the rage of stolen lives, broken hearts, trampled desires. Also made beautiful in their rebellion.
We are losing the fear cast over our lives by the powers that be and widespread social conformity and blind tranquility of the Western consumer world – the thin veneer that sugar-coats the exploitation and control that is our existence. More and more as we find the courage to pull back the veil, we realise that the system’s tools that mediate our slavery are all around us and within reach of our carefully aimed anger. Just one example of this is Mitie, merely one of many parasite companies that profit endlessly from the recession and misery of modern Britain – so just one of many blows to come we made last night in Staple Hill, Bristol, when we burned an unattended Mitie van.
To our unknown friends made prisoners in their path as social fighters – Luca Bernasconi, Silvia Guerini, Costa Ragusa, Giannis Dimitrakis, Alexei Gaskarov, Maxim Solopov; for those targetted in the police crackdown on the anti-authoritarians in Italy; for the Indonesian insurrectionists.”
To Farm or to Die, Resist the Iron Mine! Indonesian Embassy Visit (UK)
Thursday, April 28th, 2011
On the afternoon of Thursday the 21st of April 2011 we visited the Indonesian Embassy in London, UK to deliver a letter to the Indonesian Government in Jakarta. This was done in solidarity with the people of Kulon Progo, whose lives and land are threatened by the Iron Sands Mining Project being carried out by the Australian Mining Company PT Indomine and the Indonesian State. We also visited the London offices of the Anglo Pacific Group round the corner in Mayfair to deliver the same letter to be sent to Indonesia and Australia. Anglo Pacific Group holds royalties in PT Indomine.
The letter conveyed the demands of the local farmers and communities in the area that the mining project be immediately stopped. As they have recently explained: “At the local level, the source of conflict is the plan to mine iron sands, meaning that the cancellation of the project is the only way to achieve a peaceful solution to the matter… Whichever term is used: mediation, negotiation, compromise, win-win solution, we reject anything that is designed to result in the mining of iron sands.”
The military repression carried out, as part of the project, by the Indonesian state and security forces, along with the coercive methods utilized by national and local government, the foreign mining company, NGOs, businessmen and the like, were also denounced. The local people have been resisting this project since its inception. They have been fighting – both legally and physically – all the measures adopted by those that wish to impose this project. The continuation of the project would mean massive ecological and social destruction, and the displacement of local communities and at least 30,000 farmers from their traditional lands, with the resulting loss of farmland, food sources and income.
As they explained in February of this year: “Arising from government’s reluctance to be open with the people, and the shortfall of communication when dealing with the people (it should be dialogue, not monologue), this conflict has sharpened and spread as those who have an interest in mining the people’s land have carried out a series of excessive actions. The conflict has been triggered by government violence, whether physical violence (such as the clashes with the police that occurred on 20 October 2009), or violence which takes the form of the deception of the people through the engineering of law/policy. If the government permits or even nurtures this conflict, it is not impossible to imagine that the next step will be a massacre of the people by armed agents. If the government continues to impose its will, so we will fight the injustice, in whatever form that may take.”
Psychological and physical violence on the people, at the behest of the state and the mining company, continues. They ask for international support and solidarity to aid the struggle against the imposition of this project. It is still in its early stages and so support and expressions of solidarity of any kind is asked for and appreciated by the people of Kulon Progo.
For more information please see:
Background information: http://hidupbiasa.blogspot.com/2009/12/thousands-of-kulon-progo-farmers-resist.html
Mines and Communities: http://www.minesandcommunities.org/list.php?r=928
PT Indomine: http://www.indomines.com.au/
Anglo Pacific: http://www.anglopacificgroup.com/s/Home.asp
The Indonesian Embassy in London: 38 Grosvenor Square?London, W1K 2HW
Anglo Pacific Group: 17 Hill Street, Mayfair, London, W1Z 5NZ
** Incendiary attack against car dealership by Fire Cell / FAI
On the night of Monday 10 October 2011 we hit the bastard system again with more fiery anger. Two cars at the GP Motors dealership in Newnham, Cambridge, were arsoned – we hope the flames spread to the others, bringing a roaring inferno to the quiet leafy streets. No one was outside, the only sign of the middle class residents awake was the blue glow of TV screens from curtained windows! While the insurrectionary action cell had adrenaline pumping, joy in the heart, the moon shining bright above and the refreshing night air.
Shout out to the impatient and the bored shaking off passiveness and going on the attack against society!!
To the Greek uprizers and most especially the CCF, you fill us with strength, stay strong and stay unbowed!
And to the anarchists on the attack around the world, in Mexico, Chile, Spain, Indonesia, Russia, Argentina, Italy, and everywhere else – we are winning, winning against society’s cloying herd mentality and the meaningless lot set out for us in life.
As we know in our hearts, what we win is right here right now living with the head held high, the smile as we face a new day with dignity, the knowledge that whether or not the broader population upsurges against the imposed system and we have anything like the anarchist dream of a world of freedom and equality with no domination, we live without regrets as anarchists NOW.
Against the whole fucking disgusting cage of civilisation – wild destruction for total liberation!
Fire Cell / Informal Anarchist Federation