(Report Summary from the General Meeting in September 2025)

Indonesia is a transcontinental country between Southeast Asia and Oceania, a geographical area south of China and east of India, which includes eleven sovereign countries: Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Singapore, Thailand, East Timor, and Vietnam.

It is the largest archipelago nation in the world, consisting of over 17,500 islands, of which just over 2,300 are inhabited. With over 280 million inhabitants, it is the most populous country in the world, preceded by India, China, and the United States and ahead of Pakistan, Nigeria, and Brazil. The island of Java alone, the most populated on the planet and the geographical and economic center of the country, is home to over half the population, with approximately 150 million inhabitants. The large island covers 129 km², the same size as England, which, however, has only 56 million inhabitants.

The population of the archipelago is extremely diverse, with hundreds of ethnic groups and languages spoken. It includes the largest Muslim community in the world.

In the Increasingly Bitter Imperialist Struggle

“Gateway to the East” between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific and with a vast potential consumer market, Indonesia is a coveted target for the major imperialist powers. The United States and China are competing for it through a network of agreements and investments. Despite the increasingly significant weight of Chinese capital, the Indonesian bourgeoisie is, for now, maintaining a balance between the two forces.

The Indonesian president’s participation in the military parade for “Victory Day” in Beijing on September 3, which took place when the Indonesian capital was practically under siege, demonstrates a strategic rapprochement with the People’s Republic and with imperialist powers alternative to those of the West. In Beijing, the Indonesian president reportedly sought to strengthen bilateral cooperation on economic and security issues. However, the expansion of trade ties with China will not end the current relations with the United States and Russia, the main suppliers of weapons to the large archipelago.

In January 2025, Indonesia was admitted as a full member of BRICS, the first Southeast Asian nation to join the bloc.

At the same time, after almost a decade of negotiations, a free trade agreement was reached with the European Union, known as the EU-Indonesia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which provides for the elimination of over 98% of customs tariffs on bilateral trade.

In short, the Indonesian ruling class is trying not to align itself with or depend on any of the imperialist powers, so that it can reap the benefits, obviously at the expense of the sweat and blood of the working class.

The Formal and Informal Workforce

The workforce, both salaried and non-salaried, is estimated to number around 150 million. The unemployment rate over the last ten years has been generally stable, averaging 5%, except during Covid-19.

As in other countries in the region, the workforce is divided into two main categories. Informal workers account for about 60% of the total, and are therefore predominant. These include small farmers and artisans, as well as non-permanent ‘day’ or ‘contract’ workers. They are employed for specific tasks or on a temporary, daily, weekly, or monthly basis: construction workers, harvest laborers, transporters, such as motorcycle taxi drivers (ojek).

The predominance of the informal sector has always been a structural feature of the Indonesian economy, reflecting its rural and small business base.

Among the 60-65 million “formal” workers, salaried workers are clearly predominant, generally with regular contracts. About 3% of the workforce is employed in the public sector. Services employ over 45%, a broad category that includes commerce, finance, professional services, administration, and the public sector. Manufacturing accounts for 25-30% of the formal workforce and is the driving force behind Indonesian capitalism. Agriculture, although crucial to the country, accounts for less than 15% of salaried workers with contracts. Finally, 5-7% are employed in construction. The remaining percentage is distributed among mining, transport, and public utilities.

The trade union landscape is highly fragmented, although there are a few major confederations that represent the majority of organized workers. Unlike other countries in the region, their links with political parties are less close and formal and more related to temporary coalitions. The KSPI (Konfederasi Serikat Pekerja Indonesia) is one of the largest confederations, with an estimated 2 million members, mainly in mining and manufacturing. The KSPSI (Konfederasi Serikat Pekerja Seluruh Indonesia), one of the oldest confederations, has around 1.5 million members.

However, the vast majority of Indonesian workers, particularly in the huge informal sector, are not members of any union.

Industry and Trade

Indonesian industrial production is not comparable to that of the major global powers. However, its steady growth has made it a leading player among the capitalist economies of Southeast Asia.

Over the past five years, the manufacturing and mining sectors have experienced uneven growth due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but have shown strong resilience: after contracting in 2020, production has returned to growth, driven by domestic demand and foreign investment. Average industrial production growth over the past five years has been around 4.3%.

The industry is based in particular on the extraction and processing of nickel, of which Indonesia is the world’s leading producer, but other important sectors include textiles and clothing, which are strongly export-oriented, and other rapidly expanding sectors such as automobiles and electronics, supported by growing foreign investment.

The trade balance has recorded a surplus in recent years, largely due to exports of minerals and agricultural products: coal, palm oil, nickel and derivatives, and natural rubber. Manufactured products include electronic equipment, machinery, textiles, and clothing. Imports include capital goods, industrial machinery, vehicles, electronic equipment, and components; intermediate products such as chemicals and plastics; and consumer goods such as electronics, pharmaceuticals, and food.

China is the largest trading partner for both exports and imports. Major Chinese investments are directed toward infrastructure projects, such as the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway, and the mining sector, particularly nickel.

The United States follows, which is particularly important for exports. Japan purchases energy and mineral products. Singapore is an important hub for trade and investment.

The Indonesian Bourgeois Government and the Needs of Capital

The current government is led by President Prabowo Subianto, who took office on October 20, 2024, succeeding Joko Widodo, an entrepreneur in the furniture sector, who had served two terms. A former defense minister, Prabowo has ties to the army and the family of former “dictator” Suharto, under whom he commanded the special forces. Prabowo is now the leader of the Great Indonesia Movement Party, which is openly nationalist and conservative. But in the last presidential election, he secured a landslide victory by forming a broad parliamentary coalition, the Advanced Indonesia Coalition Plus, which includes almost all of the country’s political parties, including the Labor Party, controlling 470 of the 580 parliamentary seats.

Having failed to increase tax revenues, the government has announced a cut of almost 20% in spending. About half of these savings, $20 billion, will be used to add to a newly created sovereign wealth fund, Danantara, an investment vehicle launched by the Indonesian bourgeoisie to raise external financing. With its enormous asset base—about $900 billion—it is the fourth-largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, surpassing Saudi Arabia’s PIF and Singapore’s Temasek.

During his election campaign, Subianto promised to revive the economy and aim for 8% growth within five years. The goal is to attract investment and make Indonesia the largest economy in Southeast Asia. But the World Bank estimates that the Indonesian economy will grow at around 4.8% until 2027.

In addition, the recent 19% tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Indonesian products have hit key sectors such as electronics, textiles, and agribusiness hard, fueling the reluctance of potential investors.

Growing Proletarianization and Urbanization

In recent decades, Indonesia has seen a steady and significant flow of people from rural to urban areas. Most of these migrants are young people from small farming families who are abandoning the land because the plots, divided among siblings, are too small to support their families. Small farmers today are unable to compete with large-scale agriculture and cope with the costs of fertilizers and seeds. In addition, the prices of agricultural products (rice, coffee, and palm oil) are often volatile, making farmers’ incomes precarious.

Furthermore, rural areas, neglected by capitalism, often lack healthcare, basic services, access to education, and, not infrequently, drinking water.

A common dynamic in many countries in the area is therefore to migrate to the large ‘glittering’ metropolises in search of a fixed, albeit low and temporary, salary. The urban population is growing rapidly: in the 1950s, less than 15% of the Indonesian population lived in cities, today more than 50%, and the trend is growing. This reflects the evolution of Indonesia’s economic structure from self-sufficient production to mercantilism and the extraction of surplus value based on the sale of labor.

However, these cities offer expensive and precarious housing, shared with other proletarians. Not everyone manages to find formal employment, and many end up working, at best, in the vast informal sector: day laborers, delivery boys, street vendors, a huge mass of workers who, despite living on a wage, have no social protection or job security. Others return to the countryside, perhaps not far from the big cities, where they seek work in the fields as farmhands.

Anger Explodes in the Streets

It is against this backdrop that, for several years now, a diverse interclassist movement, made up of students, unemployed and precarious young people, has begun to oppose government policy. Disillusionment and resentment are brewing among these new generations who, despite economic growth, cannot find stable employment and instinctively understand that the world of capital has only misery, exploitation, and war to offer them.

The wave of protests, led by youth movements such as “Indonesia Gelap” (Dark Indonesia), began a year ago immediately after the new president took office. They complained about soaring taxes, job insecurity, nepotism, and police brutality. The protesters demanded an unspecified increase in wages, as well as protection for indigenous communities and greater transparency on officials’ salaries.

In February, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in the capital to protest against the government’s new austerity measures, which included severe cuts to the welfare state in the areas of education, health, and public services.

Since August 25, the demonstrations, which were previously held mainly in Jakarta, have spread to all regions of the country, turning into an unprecedented wave. They were triggered by the granting of a bonus of 50 million rupiah ($3,000) to 580 members of parliament to cover, it was said, their rental expenses, a bonus that was difficult to swallow for workers who receive an average salary of 4 million rupiah, or about $250.

In Jakarta, huge demonstrations marched through the city’s main thoroughfares. They were attacked by the police with water cannons and tear gas, but also with firearms. Protesters set fire to public buildings, including the parliament building.

On August 28, several trade unions called a general strike. It would be better to say they joined forces: in Indonesia, general strikes involve more than just salaried workers, but also other social classes.

Among the demands of the workers’ organizations was the withdrawal of the Omnibus Law on Labor (Job Creation Law), which, approved in 2020, facilitates layoffs and effectively lowers minimum wages. Strikes took place in Jakarta but also in important industrial areas such as Bekasi, Karawang, and Tangerang, where there is a high concentration of factories.

A few days later, Subianto was forced to revoke housing allowances and suspend foreign travel for members of parliament. However, he stated that he would not delay in addressing and punishing those responsible for the unrest.

On August 29, during a demonstration, a 20-year-old delivery rider was hit and killed by a police armored vehicle while at work. The video of the event, which was widely shared on social media, fueled national outrage. Social networks were used as a means of information and organization, with many workers denouncing their poor living and working conditions and calling for strikes and mobilizations. The government did not hesitate to restrict or disable the network.

In the days that followed, a wave of clashes with the police led to the deaths of other protesters. In Makassar, on the island of Sulawesi, an angry crowd set fire to the local parliament, killing three people inside. The parliaments of Pekalongan, in Central Java, and Cirebon, in West Java, were also set on fire and looted. Mobilizations even took place in the famous tourist destination of Bali, where the police headquarters was targeted.

The death toll quickly rose to eight. It is difficult to quantify the number of arrests, but several sources speak of thousands of detentions in Jakarta alone, for a total of over three thousand arrests.

The demonstrations continued for a few more days, then gradually subsided, bringing the country back to an apparent, temporary normality.

Communism as the Only Prospect

The protests are an expression of deep suffering and discontent due to the material conditions of the population. Although the economy continues to grow, workers are experiencing a deterioration in the purchasing power of their wages, while social inequalities are becoming more extreme.

More and more young workers are being super-exploited, deprived of any rights, indispensable pawns to ensure the flexibility and needs of young Indonesian capitalism. One million university graduates and 1.6 million vocational school graduates are unemployed. These young people, who are at the center of the recent demonstrations, have a general distrust of bourgeois politics and the regime’s trade unions and an increasingly marked disillusionment with the prospects of capitalist society.

In this scenario, fertile ground for communism and revolution, the working class must come to the fore, present in its formal organizations, explicitly engaged in a disciplined and centralized struggle against its own bourgeoisie. In Indonesia, too, many workers have participated in the uprising, often in an uncoordinated manner, and there have been strikes. But the trade union federations proved unequal to the task, passively following the interclassist movement and failing to call a general strike with heartfelt and shared class demands. In order to impose their defense, the workers will have to take over the leadership of these unions, or organize outside and against them if necessary, in order to wield their only truly effective weapon, the strike.

The workers’ movement, freed from opportunist parties and regime unions, will recognize its class program as expressed by the Communist Party. It will then take the leadership of its struggle without compromise into its own hands. It will thus be recognized by all the oppressed, including small farmers and precarious youth, as aiming for a tomorrow of revenge against the increasingly monstrous barbarism of the capitalist regime.