Indonesian peasants rally against G20 Summit

The Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) proudly commends the members of Front Perjuangan Rakyat (FPR) - an Indonesian organization composed of militant groups from the peasant, worker and youth sector for leading a protest action themed “Junk G20” ("Bubarkan G-20!") in front of the US embassy in Jakarta , showing their strong opposition against the G20 summit held in Washington on November 15. Rallies were also held at the front offices of the US General Consulates in the cities of Medan , Surabaya , Makassar , and Denpasar. The Alliansi Gerakan Reforma Agrairia (AGRA), a member of Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) in Indonesia is one of the sponsoring organizations of the rally. Other progressive Indonesian NGOs were also present in the demonstrations.

According to Erpan Faryadi, AGRA Secretary-General and APC Vice-Chairperson for Internal Affairs, “the Indonesian people, together with the rest of the people from nine (9) member countries of APC, are against the G20 summit since it is an evil conspiracy between the US and its allied imperialist countries. They merely want to ‘solve’ the ongoing financial crisis through plans that would in the long term result in further exploitation, oppression and enslavement of the people from Third World countries.”

Furthermore, in the statement made by FPR regarding their stand on the G20 summit, they believe that “There is no plan in the G20 meeting to address wage increase for workers and to increase the purchasing power of people globally. There is also no plan to stop monopoly of land and productive resources for billions of people in rural areas across the world.”

The Indonesian government is perceived to be a puppet regime of US imperialist. Therefore, its policies are geared towards the interest of the US . “No matter how much they convince the people that the financial crisis will only affect us minimally, the present situation in our country shows the opposite”, adds Faryadi.

Meanwhile, the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) calls for the following:

• Denounce the G20 summit as a manifestation of the conspiracies of the imperialist countries.
• To end financial crisis, the government should take pro-people program and policies such as: (1) increase in wages, (2) implement genuine agrarian reform, and (3) providing employment for all workers.
• Abolition of foreign debt from imperialist countries
• End all forms of human rights violations, especially labor and agrarian conflicts.