BY ELLEN HAYWOOD AND HANK SCHEER
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Political rallies, strikes, and land occupations are taking place throughout the Indonesian archipelago, as the economic crisis in this country continues to spiral downward. The parliament building in this capital city was the site of daily gatherings during a brief visit here in September 21-24. On September 21, there was a student demonstration of 1,500. The next day, a delegation of bus drivers was sitting under a large banner in front of the building, while a smaller delegation inside demanded the government subsidize gas and spare parts. There was another protest of 1,000 students from 37 campuses September 23. And on the final day of the trip, farmers demonstrated along with their student supporters.

The gate is closed at the main entrance to the parliament building, where these rallies took place. Barbed wire spirals are sprawled across the road inside. Police with riot shields line the outside of the gate. When there are large demonstrations, truckloads of military forces arrive as reinforcements.

Both student demonstrations demanded President Jusuf Habibie resign and that the government subsidize nine basic necessities, including rice and cooking oil. The government admits that 17 million people are facing severe food shortages, out of a population of just over 200 million. Some 40 percent of the population is officially living in poverty. The currency has been devalued 80 percent since July 1997, and many factories have closed. It was the attempt to end fuel subsidies as part of an IMF-dictated austerity package that sparked an upsurge in protests by students and others against the regime of former President Suharto earlier this year. Under this pressure, Washington and a large layer of the Indonesian ruling class decided it was time to dump Suharto, who had ruled Indonesia with an iron fist since 1965. Habibie, Suharto's vice president, took over as president May 21 in an attempt to restore capitalist stability.

The watchword of the May protests, "reformasi" (reform) has been adopted by the government as an official slogan. Protesters now call for "reformasi total." A popular T-shirt says, "No Soeharto, No Habibie, No KKN," which stands for corruption, cronyism, and nepotism. The back reads, "Students for Total Reform."

Peasants demand return of land
The peasant demonstration, organized by the Indonesian Farmers Union Federation, attracted farmers from across the island of Java; the Sumatran provinces of Aceh and West Sumatra; and Bali. It was one of at least 10 nationally coordinated actions marking National Agrarian Day and the 38th anniversary of the Basic Agrarian Law. This law was passed in 1960 by the bourgeois nationalist regime of Sukarno as a result of pressure from peasants.

The law was supposed to guarantee two hectares of land to each peasant family. Its passage spurred widespread battles by peasant farmers, including land occupations that intensified in 1964 and early 1965. Many peasant leaders died in the 1965 coup led by then General Suharto and the subsequent massacre of more than 500,000 Indonesian toilers, and the land reform movement was crushed.

The central demand of this year's demonstrations was for the return of land that was confiscated under the Suharto regime to build tourist facilities, industrial complexes, and private estates for government officials. The farmers received little or no compensation. At the protest in Jakarta and another we attended in nearby Bogor, many farmers wore headbands reading "Agrarian Reform" and carried signs such as "Total Reform = Agrarian Reform." A farm leader at a protest in Central Java was quoted in the Jakarta Post explaining, "We just want the land, which we tilled for years, to be given back to us so we can grow crops to feed our families during the crisis."

At the Jakarta action, a farmer from West Sumatra was wearing a T-shirt from a farm organization in Aceh. He said T-shirt exchanges have occurred as farmers' coordination and unity has grown.

Students at the University of Indonesia (UI) organized buses and logistical aid in carrying out this demonstration. Afterward we rode one of the buses back to UI with farmers and students from Sumatra. There, a student took us to one of four large tents erected on campus and used to provide housing for farmers who had come long distances for the demonstration.

One of the farm leaders from East Java related a recent struggle there. Four weeks earlier, he said, a group of landless farmers organized themselves to legally plant crops on idle land. They informed the local authorities as required.

One day as they were working the police came, confiscated their tools, jailed a number of them, and drove the rest off the land. Two weeks later the jailed activists were released. The police said they had not been arrested, just kept for "guidance." The cops added that the land was not idle - it belongs to the national chief of police. The papers here report many other land occupations going on throughout Indonesia.  
 
 
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