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Jakarta (12 November) The militant workers’ movement in Indonesia, the Federation of Independent Trade Union (or GSBI-Gabungan Serikat Buruh Independen), mobilized more than 3,000 members from Karawang, Tanggerang, Cikarang and Bekasi (industrial complex that surround Jakarta) in a mass demonstration that called for a wage increase for all Indonesian workers and the subsequent junking of the World Trade Organization, or WTO.
No less than 3,200 workers marched through the busy streets of Jakarta to the Presidential Palace and the Embassy of the United States of America to express their unified stance against the Indonesian government’s continued sellout of its own natural resources and people in its bid to host the WTO and further propagate the neoliberal policies that the WTO imposes.
Rudy HB Daman, chairperson of the GSBI, said: “What the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono-Budiono administration is applying is cheap labor politics that only attacks and violates the basic and sectoral rights of Indonesian workers.”
More than 30,000 workers in Sukabumi-West Java also participated in the said demonstration through their own action in Sukabumi.
Indonesian Peoples' Alliance (IPA) 