(This article is reprinted from the Tricontinental, organ of OSPAAL -

The Organization of the Solidarity of the Peoples of Africa, Asia and

Latin America.)

AKARTA, Indonesia (INS)--Even though the news from Indonesia does not

always get front page coverage in the newspapers, the situation that the

Indonesian people, oppressed by a fascist tyranny, continue to face, is

alarmingly dramatic.

The anti-Communist regime headed by General Suharto has continued its

policy of mass physical sectors of the country.

The number of persons--accused of membership in or collaboration with

the Communist Party--who have been assassinated has reached more than a

million.

Suharto, together with the reactionary general Nasution, assumed the

real power in Indonesia at the end of September, 1965, reducing the then

President Sukarno to a nominal role. Suharto has, since then, put into

practice a policy of open submission to U.S. imperialism.

In March, 1966, the militarist maneuver against Sukarno was consummated,

and he was removed from the positions he had held. Suharto, who became

President through reactionary means, stepped up the mass murders, the

abuses and the jailings, opened the ports to foreign monopolies and

returned to the landowners and national capitalists the property that

had been nationalized.

In Indonesia, imperialism, has reversed the objectives of the

nationalist government of Sukarno, converting the nation into a

beachhead against the people of Southeast Asia.

In payment for this, the Suharto regime has received $312 million in

"aid" this year, supplied by several capitalist governments, among them,

of course, the United States and West Germany.

In spite of this "aid," all the regime's development plans have failed

as a result of the embezzlement and misuse of public funds that has

brought economic chaos to Indonesia. The news agency, Antara, recently

reported that the number of unemployed workers in Indonesia, by the end

of the month of August, had reached 8,700,000 and pointed out that in

July alone 12,000 workers had been fired from state enterprises.

According to Antara, one of the causes of increasing unemployment, is

that the Indonesian market has been flooded with foreign products (which

the people cannot buy). About 80 percent of the textile mills have

closed down or cut back production, leaving 500,000 workers unemployed.

Regarding the situation in the countryside, where 80 percent of the

population lives, it is noteworthy that a great number of peasants are

constantly moving to the large cities in a vain attempt to find work to

mitigate their hunger. The flow to Jakarta is so great that the agency

describes it as "the world capital of vagabonds."

But while all this is happening, the vanguard in Indonesia is not

remaining idle. Guerilla movements organized by the Communist Party,

(other progressive movements have been invited to join) and are

operating in several areas of the country, including East Java, Sumatra,

Sulawesi, Ambon Ball, and West and Central Kalimantan.

For the 105 million inhabitants of the Pacific Islands that make up the

Indonesian archipelago, this is a time of suffering and hardship, but it

is also a time of sustained anti-imperialist struggle which has the

sympathy and support of the progressive forces of the world.