West Papua at Boiling Point: Strike at Freeport Mine

Workers at Freeport McMoran's Grasberg mine in West Papua, one of the world's biggest copper and gold mines, have been on strike since September 15th. Their immediate demand is a large wage increases to bring their salary into line with what the company pays its workers in other countries. The conflict has raged over the past six weeks with unremitting action and brutal repression, bringing the company to its knees at a time when Papua is in turmoil generally.

ATM Attacked in Yogyakarta. Two Still Held in Prison

On the night of the 6th-7th October, an ATM machine from BRI bank in Sleman, Yogyakarta was attacked with Molotov cocktails. An explosion was heard in the area, which police attributed to the effects of the heat on the screen. Three people were arrested in connection to the incident, and two are still in prison on suspicion of having carried out the attack.

The mainstream media widely reported what happened, and debated whether the action was an act of terrorism or a novel method of trying to steal the money inside the machine. Maybe it wasn't exactly either. National newspaper Kompas published the contents of a leaflet left on the scene which clearly explains some of the author's perspectives on capitalism, the state, and their solidarity with struggles taking place around Indonesia right now, as well as what terrorism really means:

News from Kulon Progo: Hunger Strike and Action + Free Tukijo

The resistance of Kulon Progo Farmers on Java's South Coast continues, fighting the mining plans of PT Jogja Magasa Iron and their Australian financers, Indo Mines. One of their community, Tukijo, is currently in prison, condemned to three years to satisfy the vengeful whims of the corporation. Their latest action was to occupy the provincial council building, after a 12-day hunger strike carried out by several community members and student activists in solidarity with their struggle.

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/]

We see Papua's problems as coming from a combination of problems with the state and corporations, military violence, ecological damage, genocide and extinction of indigenous cultures. The Papuan issue is also a national issue for Indonesia, and one which is not yet resolved. Many indigenous people are killed and tortured in order to legitimise the destruction of Papua's natural riches by the world's giant companies together with their closest partners: government.

Constitutional reasons, together with the logic of national unity and a narrow nationalist view of 'Indonesianness' are used to legitimise repression and oppression of the Papuan people and their land.

But amidst a climate of repression that doesn't seem to subside, the Papuan people struggle on, ever-bravely. To get to know the situation and viewpoint of the resistance movement in Papua, Kontinum interviewed Victor Yeimo, spokesperson of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), one of the people's organisations that continues the active struggle in the land of Papua:

Papuan Prisoner News: Buchtar Tabuni Freed, Filep Karma Refuses Remission

Each Indonesian Independence day, 17th August, a number of prisoners are granted remission as part of the celebrations. This year, the list included high-profile Papuan political prisoners Buchtar Tabuni and Filep Karma. This is a highly provocative act to Papuan activists, who equate the Indonesian presence in their land with continued repression.

THE PEOPLE WHO TOOK THE MATTERS IN THEIR OWN HANDS

A discussion with a Padarincang citizen, who fights Aqua-Danone

The resistance of the people of Padarincang has forced the Frenchmultinational,Danone, to abandon their plans to build a bottled water factory in the area, at least for now. Ovi, a student from the area, tells the story of the community's struggle, explaining how self-organisation, with no formal leadership structure, has contributed to their success.

Solidarity with Kulon Progo farmers in London

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.

People of Wera Resist Iron Sand Mining Corporations.

[For the past few years, people around Bima, the eastern part of the island of Sumbawa, have been forced to resist companies who seek to mine the metal-rich volcanic sands around the islands coasts. This article, focussing on Wera district, describes some of the impacts of mining being felt by communities and a few of the direct actions the people take when those who claim to be their representatives let them down. The actions mentioned here are only reflect a small fraction of the resistance and repression experienced in this ongoing conflict zone]

News from the Social War in Sulawesi

In recent weeks several acts of uncompromising solidarity with people's struggles around the Indonesian State have taken place on the island of Sulawesi,, from one end to another, in the cities of Makassar and Manado. Here is a short chronology of some ignited passions:

700 Special Police Force arrive at Kulon Progo

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!
Kulon Progo Self-organised Struggle Against Neoliberal Megaproject

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.

Latest News from Kulon Progo Solidarity Network

[this letter gives an analysis of the struggle in Kulon Progo in terms of the recent national debate about the status of the Sultanate of Jogja within Indonesia, as well as an update on the farmers' struggle including some recent actions and the attempts of local NGOs to cause divisions in the autonomous struggle]

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 still preserved inside the so called democratic state.

Since 2007 we have involved in creating solidarity with the peasant struggle in Kulon Progo which 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.

Letter from Papuan Political Prisoner Buchtar Tabuni

 LETTER OF COMPLAINT FROM BUCHTAR TABUNI TO THE CHIEF OF POLICE IN PAPUA

Police Isolation Cell, 18 January, 2011

To:
Police-General Bekto Suprapto,

With respect,

With regard to my detention in a police isolation cell for almost two months, I wish to raise the following problems with the Chief of Police in Papua:

1. Will the police in Papua explain what my status is, whether I am a detainee (tapol) or a convicted political prisoner (narapidana). If I am being held as a detainee in connection with the riot that occurred in Abepura Prison on 3 December 2010, I ask to be given an arrest warrant by the police for the period that I have been held in a police isolation cell . And whether what I myself did together with Filep Karma at the time of the riot was not in fact an attempt to calm things down while trying to be a link between the prison officers and the prisoners who were involved in the riot. If my status is that of a narapidana, I hereby ask to be transferred to Abepura Prison Class IIA. This is because being held in an isolation cell by the police in Papua has had the following very damaging consequences for me:

Go Down to the Woods Today: a Small Portrait of Indonesian Bureaucracy

Bureaucrats are killjoys the world over. Such as the other day in Bengo-Bengo near to Makassar. Our plan was to camp in the forest for a few days. We stopped at the outpost of the guard who works there just to check the way to the waterfall we wanted to visit. Unexpectedly (although not entirely surprisingly) he tells us there is a new arrangement where any group wishing to enter the forest, owned by a local university Universitas Hasanuddin must obtain a letter of permission from the university's forestry department first, accompanied by a payment of 200,000 rupiah.

We suppose that there is no reason for this bureaucracy other than the typical practice of public officials, in this case university staff, aiming to add a little extra to their salary. This small-scale corruption is so widespread in Indonesia that it almost becomes seen as legitimate, always taking advantage of positions of authority to impose an extra charge here and there. The final legitimacy, of course, comes from our obedience if we choose the easy life and pay up.

Papua's Burden: Chronology of Repression 2010.

In West Papua, the culture of violent repression of social movements continues in a way where it seems that little has changed since the Suharto era of 1965-1998. Here we present a short summary of some of the incidents which happened during 2010, with the aim of illustrating the spectrum  of tactics which the state uses to ensure continuing chaos and control. Killings are common, but repression also takes the forms of arrests and interrogation, forming front organisations with the aim of disruption, attacking demonstrations, banning books, banning foreign journalists and NGOs, harassing Papua journalists, cruel treatment of prisoners, excessive prison sentences, village burnings and sweeping operations which force the people to flee in terror.

The Fire of Resistance Burns Bright in Polongbangkeng.

On a small hill beneath a big tree, dozens of people have been waiting since morning. Their look is serious as they observe from afar and wait to see what will happen.

Their attention is focussed on Block D of state plantation company PT Perkebunan Nusantara PTPN XIV, at a distance of around 200 meters from the tree. That particular piece of land was seized from its owners, the community of Polongbangkeng, Takelar, South Sulawesi, 28 years ago, and they are still trying to take it back.

“If they try to work the land, we will block them”, explains a farmer who was participating in the watch last Saturday (13/11). Using his machete, he points out various places, to the west, south-east and south. At each of these points there are also other teams of people, keeping lookout from different angles. Guerrilla tactics in practice.

Hitch-hiking in West Papua

A journey towards understanding some of the everyday effects of Indonesian occupation.

For some time the idea of visiting West Papua had been stuck in our heads. Partly for adventure: this island is the third largest rainforest remaining in the world, but the primary motivation was to understand a little bit more about the conflict here, currently the longest running and most bitter in the territory claimed by Indonesia. Since the early 1960s the Papuans have been fighting back against the military might of the Indonesian state. Their cultural survival is ranged against high economic stakes including natural resources- timber, gas and especially the world's largest copper mine - and also vast expanse of their land which Indonesia uses to relieve the pressure on the more crowded islands of Java and Sulawesi.

There was a time when solidarity with West Papua was quite popular in radical ecological circles in the west - images of indigenous warriors fighting the might of a militarised state with their bows and arrows captivated the imagination of a lot of us at the time. I was inspired by this too, but I was also wary, because real solidarity cannot be built on romantic images alone; the reality of conflict situations is always complex and it doesn't do to ignore the inconvenient bits. In the end we felt it would be a good idea, as by now we could communicate in Indonesian, to take a look at what's going on there.

London Sumatra: the Myth of Sustainable Palm Oil

Surrounded on all sides by swathes of oil palm plantations lies a village of indomitable residents that have for many years waged an ongoing battle to regain the land that was stolen from them during the Suharto dictatorship and ended up in the hands of the plantation company, London Sumatra. The village, Pergulaan in the Indonesian province of North Sumatra is by no means unusual in that regard, cases of land seizure are ubiquitous in Sumatra, affecting 250,000 families in North Sumatra alone¹. Along with rainforest destruction, Indonesia's plantation industries are founded on the dispossession of peasant farmers.

Kulon Progo - The Government Forces us to Fight Back

THEY ARE STILL FIGHTING!

                                                                       

The plan to mine the ironsands along the southern coast of Kulon Progo (more exactly from Pantai Trisik to Pantai Glagah) continues to be resisted by Paguyaban Petani Lahan Pantai (PPLP - Association of Shoreline Farmers) . The demonstrations keep on coming, as do the efforts of the government and investors to make ensure that  Jogja Magasa Iron's plan to mine the ironsands will bring them profit. Why does PPLP continue to resist, scarcely leaving any space for negotiation? The following is KONDE's [local newspaper] interview with Widodo, one of the figureheads of PPLP in the past time.

Anarchy in Indonesia

This interview was published in German in the book Von Jakarta bis Johannesburg - Anarchismus weltweit, Sebastian Kalicha & Gabriel Kuhn (eds.) Unrast Verlag 2010

Can you tell us about the history of anarchism in Indonesia?

MT: As far as I know from my friends' stories and from what I’ve learned, the origin of anarchism in Indonesia came together with the arrival of punk music around 1998. At that time anarchy was synonymous with punk and some people in that community began to delve deeper into anarchic ideology and values. Since that time anarchist discourse began to develop amongst individuals or collectives in the punk / hardcore community, and later to a broader range of groups such as activists, students, workers; essentially reaching a wider public with different backgrounds.