Kilusang Mayo Uno workers expressed solidarity with the Indonesian people’s protest against corruption in parliament, corporate greed, and state violence. Protests erupted in the country this August after exposures that parliament members were receiving allowances 20 times higher than the average Indonesian workers’ wages. This came on top of their already skyrocketing salaries.
Public outrage intensified when police ran over a worker on August 28 while he was travelling near the protest site. Gojek delivery rider Affan Kurniawan, 21, died on the spot after a police vehicle rammed into him near the Indonesian parliament compound. In response, protesters set fire to a five-story building near the police headquarters in the country’s capital Jakarta.
According to KMU, Indonesian workers face the same ordeal as those endured by Filipino workers. “Like in Indonesia, our officials also indulge in the wealth stolen from our daily labor. They also use the police and military forces against the people asserting their rights,” it said.
The group stressed that the Filipino and Indonesian people face the same enemy. “In Manila or Jakarta, the enemy is one and the same: the exploitative capitalists squeezing enormous profits from workers, and their fascist defenders.” They also called for justice for the slain Kurniawan.
