Ahmad Fikri, Bandung – A number of labour and peasant organisations in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung commemorated May Day by holding a protest action in front of the governor’s office.
“Today is the commemoration of May Day, commemorating the workers’ struggle to obtain the right to an eight hour working day, eight hours rest, and eight hours with the family”, said Sudaryanto, the West Java regional coordinator of Indonesian Trade Union Congress Alliance (KASBI) during a break in the action on Saturday May 1.
More than 1000 people spilled over into Jl. Diponegoro in front of the Gedung Sate building. In addition to banners and billboards, the protesters also brought a replica of a giant rat painted blue with the writing “The SBY-BDY [President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono-Vice President Boediono] regime has failed to bring prosperity to the people” in read letters.
Sudaryanto said they intentionally brought the replica rat because of the prohibition by police on bringing animals to protests. He added that protesters from KASBI throughout Indonesia had also been instructed to bring giant rats to the May Day demonstrations. The rat, symbolising the current administration, was then placed on the ground and smashed to pieces.
According to Sudaryanto workers are treated as if they have no value and the state is responsible for this due to the many anti-worker government policies such as the planned revisions to Law Number 13/2003 on Labour that will reduce severance pay levels.
A group of women workers at the demonstration also demanded equal treatment as their male colleagues. “Women workers are oppressed from two sides, by the patriarchal system as well as the capitalist system”, said Diah Septi Tresnati from the Indonesian Labour Movement Union Preparatory Committee (KP-PPBI).
Tresnati said that employers prefer to employ female workers by taking advantage of the patriarchal system that tends to position women as weak and docile creatures that are more easily exploited. Women workers tend to mostly be employed as casual or contract workers and do not receive the same benefits as male workers.
Prior to the KASBI action, group of around 20 journalists also commemorated May Day. “Journalists are also workers,” said Agus Rakasiwi, the chairperson of the Bandung City Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI).
During the action, in which representatives of different journalist organisation took turns in giving speeches, they focused on union busing practices within media companies. Rakasiwi said that according to AJI’s records, only 100 media workers were dismissed last year, but already this year there have been mass dismissals and suspension of labour activists with 217 workers being sackings by Indosiar TV, 144 by Berita Kota (City News) in Jakarta and 50 workers by the newspaper Suara Pembaruan. Rakasiwi added that many journalists are paid low wages and work without employment contracts or are paid according to the number of reports carried.
[Abridged translation by James Balowski.]
