The following is a statement by the Indonesian group Komunis Internasionalis Kolektif. A group sympathetic to the positions of the Communist Left. The contents of the statement don't necessarily reflect the politics of the ICT but we republish it here in the spirit of internationalism. The protest movement in Indonesia at the end of the last summer reflect the general social discontent which can be wittnessed around the globe. But if we aim to tackle the foundation giving rise to the discontent we need a working class movement not a civic movement. To do so it is necessary that communists today engage in the real work that will form the future world party of the working class.

For many years now, suppression against communists, anarchists, and labour organisations has been ramped up in Indonesia. A key turning point came with the decimation via mass arrests of the PPAS (Anarcho-Syndicalist Workers’ Fraternity) in 2020 to 2021. There have also been many other crackdowns of organisers and journalists, subjected to forced confessions and torture. This was especially the case during the protest against the 2020 Job Creation Act, which drastically watered down workers’ rights and wage protections, severely weakening the scope of action for labour and leftist organisations. The law was staunchly opposed by an alliance of labour organisations and environmental groups. There have also been many reports of sustained crackdowns on union organisers, student organisers, journalists, and the widespread criminalisation of dissent via surveillance.

The unrest and turmoil that is currently sweeping almost the entirety of Indonesia is, for lack of a better description, very intense, lurid, and dire. Police are acting outside the bounds of what is considered civilised and lawful, actions ranging from reckless use of tear gas to rubber bullets, unlawful kidnappings, and beatings. One incident that struck close to me is the death of a fellow comrade and protester, Rheza Sendy Pratama, shot and beaten to death by the police. Before Rheza’s death, there was also another vile crime perpetrated by police, the running over of a ride-hailing driver who was involved in demonstrations; he died in the hospital. The person’s name is Affan Kurniawan.

The unrest that has swept Indonesia since the week of 25th August to 9th September did not begin as a generalised “anti-government” protest as it has come to be. It opened with labour-led mobilisations around bread-and-butter issues like wages, outsourcing/contract labor, and job security. These demands broadened after the death of Affan Kurniawan, after which students and civil society groups joined demonstrations to challenge the privileges of government officials, police killing, and democratic backsliding.

On Thursday, 28th August, major labour confederations rallied in Jakarta (House of Representatives/Senayan and the Presidential Palace). Union spokespeople tabled six demands: revise the 2020 Job Creation Law, curb outsourcing, raise minimum wages, strengthen layoff protections, and reduce workers’ tax burdens. These are, at first, squarely labour issues.

Even before the unions’ 28th August action, students and progressive civil society groups had begun protesting a newly spotlighted Rp50 million/month (≈US$3,000) housing allowance and other perks for MPs, which is nearly an order of magnitude higher than Jakarta’s minimum wage. Such symbolism of elite insulation during a cost-of-living squeeze angered many people. After the news of the death of Affan Kurniawan, protests and riots spread to Makassar, Surabaya, Bandung, and lastly, my city, Yogyakarta, among others.

Across multiple cities, police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters. There are also multiple beatings and excessive use of force committed by officers against protesters and also bystanders who were just trying to go around and pass by. One of these bystanders is a student from UNY [Yogyakarta State University] who was beaten till his head was bleeding.

There are many instances of excessive violence used by the police. I myself have witnessed the consequences of this wave of police brutality, including seeing protestors with severe head injuries and seeing dozens of my own friends tear-gassed and beaten.

In Jakarta and other cities where the protests are happening, there are reports of mass detentions and even kidnappings of protesters by the police. The police have blocked legal representation, preventing many organisations such as the LBHI [Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation] from contacting arrested protestors or entering detention centres. These tactics have been commonly used by police in previous protests.

Police disproportionately deployed tear gas (including new reports alleging the use of expired tear gas munitions), water cannons, and armoured vehicles in crowded areas, endangering both demonstrators and bystanders. Hundreds of protesters have reportedly been detained in Jakarta, Makassar, and Surabaya. Many were held without clear charges and lack legal representation. Authorities also restricted real-time documentation of the protests by suspending TikTok live streams, limiting journalists’ and citizens’ ability to monitor police conduct; a deliberate and conscious effort by the police to silence people and attack freedom of speech.

There have also been instances of personnel from the intelligence department of the national police embedding themselves within the protest, those people we call “intel”. These intel personnel usually use covert measures, such as disguising themselves as delivery drivers to tail and get into the residences or homes of protesters. There have also been instances of them disguising themselves as students trying to find places to rent, seeking to get into the Kosan (share home flats for university students). Intel personnel have also used provocation tactics to bait action from the police themselves, becoming an agent provocateur.

Many protesters have been shot at by the police, some have been shot in the head, and some have been shot in the knee and also ankles, but many of the injuries appear to be head injuries resulting from beatings and rubber bullets. In the city of Yogyakarta, specifically in the Pakuwon area, the police are seen torching the vehicles that protesters used to get them there, mostly scooters and motorcycles, to limit the mobility and means of escape open to protesters. Even now, the situation is developing and uncertain, and things could change at the drop of a hat. At the time of writing, reports have just come in that the police are once again opening fire on protestors with rubber bullets and have cut off the electricity in areas that are affected. And up until now, the police are still conducting intensive monitoring and surveillance, and most recently have arrested hundreds of people and confiscated various radical books.

Political Statement on the Mass Spontaneity in Indonesia

On 1st of september 2025, during the protests across Indonesia, there emerged a popular protest demand: the “17+8 Demands from the People” (17+8 Tuntutan Rakyat). The 17 short-term demands were framed to be fulfilled within a week, calling for immediate measures such as withdrawing the military from civil law enforcement, canceling parliamentary allowance hikes, releasing detained protesters, and protecting labor rights. The eight long-term demands, intended for fulfillment within a year, pushed for structural change: a complete reform of the People’s Representative Council, stronger oversight on political parties, fairer tax regimes, passage of an Asset Seizure law, and deeper institutional reforms in policing and human rights institutions.

Yet the story of 17+8 also reveals how movements today walk a tightrope between grassroots energy and influencer-led framing. The demands were formally drafted by social media personalities—among them Jerome Polin and others—who packaged and publicized the 25 items, consolidating more than 200 original civil society and labor proposals. While this gave the movement somewhat of a coherence and viral visibility, critics pointed out that the process lacked consultation, and the influencer-led format risked sidelining deeper structural voices, not to mention that these demands are steeped in bourgeois morality and liberal demands. In practice, the reformist agenda was easier for elites and the state to engage with (or partially concede to), while more radical challenges—over class, dispossession, or deep systemic critique—were often left at the margins.

I cannot stress the volatility of this situation enough. It is our belief, however, that the proletariat in Indonesia must move now from spontaneous demonstrations to solid organisation – from populist outrage to real class struggle. Today’s opposition movement in Indonesia is divided between a mix of populist radicals with a vague notion of change and an anti-elitist movement without actual organisation, and various leftist factions that have been driven underground.

Besides serving as a vessel for the masses’ anger, protests can also become an arena for internal political struggles within the masses themselves. This is why many outside observers often respond cynically to claims that protesters are being “exploited” or “ridden” by certain actors, in order to demonize and delegitimize the agency of the masses. Such accusations may carry some truth — it’s possible that there are indeed parties deliberately provoking the masses to demoralize the movement. This is the context in which mass protests are deeply political and often infiltrated by opportunists. Take, for example, the demands put forth by a group identifying themselves as the 17+8 collective.

Influencers who joined and supported this mass movement and its demands came under scrutiny during the protest. They were accused of hijacking the movement to boost their own political reputation. For us, there is nothing inherently wrong with this, given that no one in a mass protest can act as a moral police. Therefore, the political agendas of each interest group are their own political responsibilities.

The question is: how should the working class respond to this? We must understand that not all demands put forward by these influencers can be accepted. The working class needs its own independent demands, even while marching alongside them in the streets. The working class must demonstrate that its political agenda is one that deserves to be fought for, and begin agitating for its political position among the masses. For this reason, it is crucial to have a political organization of the working class that fights for its own class interests.

This sort of movement risks burning out, and demands like opposing corruption or restoring democracy are not enough to prevent class violence and resist the continued decline of living standards. Whatever results flow from this current wave of protests, it is only long-term, diligent class organisation that will yield meaningful results in the struggle to oppose state brutality and capitalist exploitation. We must continue to lay the groundwork of a stronger proletarian movement that is independent from bourgeois politics and ready to confront capital head-on.

Therefore, we encourage that the process of organizing be carried out at the sites of production and reproduction—namely among formal labor workers, and especially among informal workers who are often overlooked, yet are daily subordinated and forced to work in ways that sustain capitalist exploitation within the production process.

The organization of the working class can manifest itself in the form of workers’ committees that collectively weave connections as some sort of cross-pollinations which, eventually and organically unite itself into class organs capable of transforming the totality of capitalist relations.

The wave of unrest and protests occurring around the world—in places like Nepal, the Philippines, France, India, and the unions of workers in Italy to intervene in Israel’s logistics amid its genocide of Palestine—demonstrates that class struggle is not a fragmented or isolated struggle confined by territorial boundaries.

Class struggle is an international struggle that goes beyond the authority of the states. Class struggle is international or it is nothing.