Bagus Kurniawan, Yogyakarta – Dozens of students from the Indonesian Youth Front for Struggle (Front Perjuangan Pemuda Indonesia, FPPI) held an action supporting the Asia Africa Conference on Thursday April 21 but called on the conference not to become just a reunion or stage for nostalgia.

They called on the conference to smash neo-colonialism by canceling old debts and rejecting new debts for Third World countries.

The action started at 10am at the Yogyakarta Monument on Jalan Mangkubumi. Before holding a long-march, a number of student representatives gave speeches and handed out leaflets to passing drivers.

A three meter red banner was unfurled in front of the demonstration reading “Support Third World solidarity, resist neocolonialism”. Other posters read “Smash neocolonialism – Asia Africa is not for sale”, “Do away with the IMF, the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank”.

They also shouted “We’ll flatten America, we’ll pry Britain out, we’ll kick out Japan”1. They also held a happening art action which portrayed the oppression of Third World by western countries such as the US and Britain.

After giving speeches for 30 minutes, the demonstrators then continued the action with a long-march to the Yogyakarta provincial parliament on Jalan Malioboro where they continued to articulate their demands. (nrl)

Notes:

1. The verbs used in the chants were chosen because in Indonesian they rhyme with the country names and therefore appear strange when translated into English.

[Translated by James Balowski.]