Friski Riana, Jakarta – The Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions (KSPI) will not join other workers rallying in Jakarta during the commemoration of May Day or International Labour Day on May 1. KSPI President Said Iqbal says that the KSPI Labour Day participants will instead gather at the Senayan Indoor Tennis Field and hold a mass meeting.
“Thus there will be no gathering at the Horse State [in front of] Indosat or a long-march to the State Palace. All of the May Day participants from the KSPI will go directly to the Senayan Indoor Tennis [Field]”, said Iqbal in a press release on Tuesday April 30.
According to Iqbal, the commemoration of May Day will begin at 10.30 am. Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto is scheduled to attend and make a political speech to the workers.
Iqbal added that Prabowo also attended a May Day commemoration organised by the KSPI at the Istora Senayan in Central Jakarta last year.
The commemoration of May Day 2019 in Jakarta will be joined by some 50,000 workers from Greater Jakarta (Jabodetabek), Purwakarta in West Java, Serang and Cilegon in Banten province.
In addition to this, hundreds of thousands of workers will hold May Day actions in industrial areas across Indonesia including Bandung (West Java), Semarang, Jepara and Yogyakarta (Central Java), Gresik and Surabaya (East Java), Bogor, Tangerang, Cianjur, Sukabumi and Bekasi (West Java), Aceh, Medan (North Sumatra), Makassar (South Sulawesi), Palu (Central Sulawesi), Banjarmasin (South Kalimantan), Samarinda (East Kalimantan), Maluku, Lombok and West Papua.
Meanwhile the theme will be taken up at this year’s May Day is Labour Prosperity and Peaceful, Genuine Democracy. The issues that will be articulated include rejecting low wages and revoking Government Regulation Number 78/2015 on Wages, abolishing outsourcing and exploitative apprenticeships, improving healthcare and pensions, reducing electricity tariffs and the price of basic commodities, improving welfare and raising the income of teachers, honorary workers and on-line motorcycle taxi drivers.
Iqbal added that in commemorating Labour Day, the KSPI will also be calling on all workers to take part in monitoring C1 polling station tally forms in their respective areas.
Notes
On May Day last year, Said Iqbal and the KSPI officially declared their support for former Special Forces (Kopassus) commander retired General Prabowo Subianto in the 2019 presidential election. Prabowo – who now appears to have lost the election to incumbent President Joko Widodo – is continuing to claim victory, insisting that there was widespread election fraud and is calling on supporters to monitor the ongoing vote count.
In 2014 the KSPI also came behind Prabowo’s failed 2014 presidential bid and in 2017 they supported the Prabowo backed Anies Baswedan-Sandiaga Uno ticket in the religious and ethnically divisive Jakarta elections. This included taking part in protests by hard-line Islamic forces seeking to oust incumbent Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama – an ethnic Chinese Christian – who lost the election to Baswedan and was subsequently jailed on trumped up blasphemy charges.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “Hari Buruh, KSPI Tidak Akan Gelar Longmarch”.]
Source: https://nasional.tempo.co/read/1200879/hari-buruh-kspi-tidak-akan-gelar-longmarch
