Price
rises are provoking revolt in yet another country. This time, it is
Indonesia, the price hike concerns fuel, and the revolt takes the form
of rallies and strike action. The unfolding events in Indonesia can be
seen as just a new round in a series of workers’ struggles for better
living standards, against a state and a capitalist class that tries to
make profits by keeping wages as low as possible, by destroying the
forest and undermining the livelihoods of the people.
The
current conflict broke out after the government raised fuel prices. The
cost of a liter of diesel shot up 22 percent and petrol by a dramatic
44 percent, as part of an attempt to contain the costs of subsidizing
fuel, a cost that takes about 13 percent of the government’s budget.
While fuel prices in Indonesia are very low, poor Indonesians are still
burdened by them. It was no surprise, then, that the rise was met with
immediate protest.
“The announcement
sparked clashes in the capital, Jakarta, where protesters blocked the
road and fought with police.” Students in Yogyakarta and Surabaya
rallied, police arrested several of them. There have been earlier
efforts to raise fuel prices, but, according to the BBC, “previous attempts have been derailed by violent protests.” In other words: fear of the rebellious multitude has been blocking the government’s road to neoliberal price reform — an encouraging sign.
The
recent wave of protests and strikes does not arise in isolation. The
country has seen wave after wave of workers’ rebellion in recent months
and years, mostly in response to multinational and local corporations
seeking to profit from extremely low wages. It is also a country where
workers have successfully used the political opening created by the fall
of dictator Suharto in 1998 to strengthen the labor movement: there are
lively trade unions, strikes, workers pushing for better living
standards — and quite successfully so, at times.
Recently, there have been a number of trade union demonstrations for a better minimum wage. In
February, “the government decided to raise minimum salaries by about 40
percent – to about $200.” The government had its reasons: “Massive
demonstrations by unions demanding a fairer share of the country’s
economic growth, which stands at more than 6 percent, led to the
national wage increase.” Capitalist success, gained on the back of
low-waged workers, led to resistance. And this resistance apparently
paid off for the workers.
The
story didn’t end there, however. Businesses and their organizations
warned that higher wages would bring about factory closures and the loss
of jobs. There was delay in the implementation of the new wage law,
leading to renewed protests. On Februariy 6, a day after the
government’s decision, there was more action: “Tens of thousands of
people are protesting in Indonesia against government plans to delay its
planned increase of the minimum wage.” And so it goes. Workers’
pressure; government concessions; government backtracking on its
concession; more workers’ pressure. Again, an encouraging sign: the
workers are not letting the government mess around with them!
On April 10, a trade union demonstration was held
in Jakarta “to protest against low wages and to demand than the
government implement health care coverage for Indonesians.” Thousands
participated. Workers’ strength was once again on display on Labor Day,
when “workers converged on Central Jakarta … halting public
transportation and closing down major arteries.” Massive it certainly
was: over 135.000 workers from three of the country’s largest unions
joined in. Workers protested outsourcing, a practice that the government
has already limited, but that the workers want abolished.
The
rise in fuel prices is merely the latest development in this ongoing
cycle of contestation. The government cannot say that it hasn’t been
warned. Already before the announcement of the price rises, major
protest rallies were held. On June 18, thousands marched nationwide
to protest the rice hike. Demonstrators threw Molotov cocktails, police
fired teargas and used water cannons. In Jakarta, a 3,000 strong-rally
took place near parliament. There is more to these protests than regular
trade union activity alone, even though the latter is clearly present
as well.
At
rock bottom, the protests are an indication of a growing class struggle
against neoliberal reform and capitalist exploitation of urban workers.
One of the founders of a 700.000-strong Peasant Union speaks of
“a new poverty” and a “crisis of landlessness and hunger,” before
adding that “human rights violations keep occurring around natural
resources in the country, and intimidation, forced evictions and torture
are common.” Neoliberalism in the cities means poverty, low wages and
price rises. Neoliberalism in the countryside often means hunger and
death. Neoliberalism in the countryside also means the destruction of
forests. While a moratorium has been announced on deforestation, there
are plenty of exemptions, loopholes and illegal business activities
allowing the destruction to continue, with all the ecological
destruction and human suffering it implies. Sumatra’s rainforests may
disappear in seven years, according to a Greenpeace campaigner.
Apparently,
even moderate workers’ organization within the law, and without any
anti-capitalist orientation, is too much for the bosses. We already saw
the bosses’ threats against wage rises: minimum wage rise means closures
and lay-offs. But a workers’ movement
that has already forced the government to raise the minimum wage, and
through earlier expressions of anger caused delay in the fuel price
rises, can be expected to take more encouraging steps in its fight
against neoliberal capitalist exploitation. Keep an eye out for
Indonesia, its striking workers, its protesting students and its
resisting peasant and indigenous communities. They may yet strike fear
in governments and factory owners, the powerful and the rich — and give
the rest of us a reason to rejoice.
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