Since Monday 16th June a group of women farmers from Rembang in Central
Java, Indonesia, have been blockading the site of a where a state-owned
cement company is planning a new quarry and factory. They started their
action to coincide with the official laying of the first stone, and will
stay there for as long as it takes, until the plans are cancelled and
heavy equipment taken away from the site.
On the first day they were met with heavy police and military presence,
who forcibly dispersed the action, but the women were determined to stay
on in the area and have consolidated their presence in the days since.
The women are at the forefront of the resistance in this case, a
strategic decision by the whole community to make it harder for the
police to intervene violently to stop the action. The action is fully
organised by the community themselves - the people of the Kendeng
mountains have a strong tradition of autonomous resistance, which has
already managed to stop plans for cement works in the past.
One of the interesting things about this action is that it seems to be
part of a growing trend in Indonesia of self-organised peasant
resistance which is supported by grassroots solidarity from around the
country - spontaneous solidarity actions have already taken place in the
last few days in Semarang, Blora, Makassar, Bandung, Jakarta,
Jogjakarta, Purwokerto and Ternate... and messages of support flow in
over the
There are a few practical reasons for solidarity actions. Firstly to
bring energy to the women taking part in the blockade... Secondly, clear
opposition makes it harder for the state to try to split the community,
by claiming that some are pro-cement for example. Thirdly, people all
over Indonesia are facing similar situations from the government's
growth-focussed economic agenda that is heavily reliant on natural
resource extraction.
It would be really great if there could also be some solidarity with
these women (and their husbands as they look after the children) from
overseas. That's why I'm sending this email out to people who have spent
time in Indonesia,as wel a few of you who live here but have contacts
abroad you could maybe forward it to, plus a few people from my address
book who just have a strong sense of solidarity...
The main thing is some kind of message of support that can be sent back
to Rembang - obviously the best thing would be some kind of small demo
or action (the company, PT Semen Indonesia (meaning Indonesian Cement)
is a state-owned company, which doesn't leave many obvious targets
outside Indonesia apart from embassies, but you could use your
imagination for some suitable place to hang a banner etc.) Otherwise
maybe just some written message or that thing that people always do on
twitter - take a photo of themselves holding a message (if you're one of
those people, you can send it to #saverembang , if you're social media
phobic, send it to me and I'll pass it on offline!) We can translate
messages from your language, especially if they are short. Or use your
imagination!!
There's a couple of photos attached. For more info in English, there's
an article from the first day of the blockade here:
http://selamatkanbumi.com/en/
and a chronology of the first three days here:
http://selamatkanbumi.com/en/
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