Lynn Walsh: Army Takes Over as Thousands of Communists Murdered in Indonesia

[Militant No. 15, April 1966, p. 3]

By Lynn Walsh

Sukarno, the almost comical demagogue who shouted so loudly about the struggle against imperialism while he wallowed in the luxury and comfort provided by the desperately poor workers and peasants of Indonesia, has now been impatiently pushed to one side by the Army. With this development the Indonesian Revolution moves into a new phase.

The situation in Indonesia has been extremely confused ever since the abortive coup of September 30th last year. After the coup the P.K.I. masses, betrayed by their leadership and its Chinese mentors, were savagely attacked by the reactionary Army officers and the incensed Muslim gangs. The unprepared C.P. masses were caught completely by surprise. This was because of their policy of “national unity” with the non-existent “progressive national bourgeoisie,” instead of basing themselves on the struggle of the workers and poor peasantry.

At least 100,000 Murdered

However, although the fighting spread rapidly, and was extremely bitter, the successful campaign against the Sugar Workers Union gave the first indication that the army was going to be able to crush the uncoordinated desperate struggle of the P.K.I. masses. The spearhead of the army drive was the towns, where thousands of P.K,I. members were arrested or shot. Deprived of any leadership the P.K.I. may have been able to give them, the militant workers of the towns were able to achieve little. By the middle of November a house-to-house search in Jakarta the capital, had effectively stifled resistance. Although some 7,000 weapons were believed to be still hidden in the poor part of the city, the military were in command, and the huge anti-Chinese, anti-P.K.I. demonstrations of the Moslem mobs during November met with no opposition of P.K.I. members and supporters were purged from the administrative machinery of state. The battle in the countryside was more protracted, but by the end of December fighting on a large scale was at an end, to be replaced by wholesale butchering of Communists. By the end of January of this year it was estimated that at least 100,000 supporters had been murdered. The defeat is an indictment in view of the mass support previously enjoyed by the P.K.I. but flows directly from the policy of the P.K.I. leadership and the Chinese Stalinists. Aidit and Co Iiterally cut their own throats with their class collaborationist policies. And the masses have of course been called upon to pay with their lives and terrible suffering for these policies.

Enormous Price Increases

However as Suharto and the army generals are to learn. the smashing of the P.K.I. solves very little as far as the economy is concerned The economic crisis remains, and indeed has greatly worsened. The murdering of revolutionares does pot feed the population. The past months have seen a series of unbelievable price increases. The price of petrol went up 60 times overnight in December, and again by 400 per cent in January, causing an almost immediate price increase of 150 per cent for essential commodities. Gas and electricity prices went up by 150-200 times in a month. The new military circles have been forced to take desperate measures to curb interest; businessmen have been paraded through the streets with shaved heads, speculators have been shot, a government austerity drive has been announced, and anyone has been offered the position of Minister for reducing prices – and do so or be shot.

But none of these measures of the new regime can solve the long term problems of Indonesia. It is impossible for Indonesia or any backward country to solve its problems on a capitalist basis. The relative and absolute living standard of the masses in these countries continue relentlessly to fall, in comparison to the advanced industrial countries. The terms of trade, the difference between the prices of their raw materials exported and the finished manufactured goods they receive back,

has worsened disastrously their economic position. The basic reason for the growth of the P.K.I. was to be found in the grinding poverty and oppressive landlordism which, the workers and peasants suffer. If the army leadership proceeds on a capitalist basis, although financial aid from the US. might shore up the economy temporarily, it is possible that the workers and peasants will launch along the road of guerilla war.