Addi Mawahibun Idhom, Yogyakarta – Jalan Malioboro in Central Java city of Yogyakarta was the focus today for International Labour Day 2011 or May Day commemorations by six different groups of protesters voicing a number of different demands.
The first action was held by hundreds of protesters from the Yogyakarta Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) who held a long-march from the Yogyakarta Regional House of Representative (DPRD) building to the governor's office at the Gedung Agung building rejecting low wages and calling for the formation of a media trade union. A second group of protesters later joined the protest giving speeches and holding a theatrical action.
A second demonstration by the Yogyakarta Labour Alliance (ABY), which involved workers, domestic workers and students, demanded the immediate ratification of the Social Insurance Management Agency (SJSN) law and rejected contract labour systems.
Several meters south of the ABY and AJI protesters, was a demonstration by dozens of people from the Kulonprogo branch of the Volunteers of Democracy in Struggle (Repdem). In addition to giving speeches rejecting low wages and outsourcing, they also held a theatrical action involving five people chained to together and entirely covered with white paint.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people from the Yogyakarta Solidarity Committee Federation of Indonesian Independent Workers (KF SBII) held an action a short distance north of the ABY and AJI protest. They also held a long-march to the Yogyakarta DPRD. In a press release the KF SBII rejected the politics of low wages, demanded the abolition of outsourcing, called for criminal punishment of companies violating the 2003 labour law, demanded that Labour Office supervision reports be published and called for a regional regulation to protect Yogyakarta workers. Demonstrating in front of the Malioboro Mall, scores of protesters from the Carrefour Indonesia Trade Union (SPCI) and the Indonesian Trade Union Congress Alliance (KASBI) commemorated May Day by blockading the entire road. They also unfurled red-banners with demands such as "Reject outsourcing labour systems" and "Reject neoliberalism".
Meanwhile, scores of students commemorated May Day by holding a sit-in in front of the Yogyakarta provincial government offices in Kepatihan. The protesters, who came from the Yogyakarta Student Union (SMY) unfurled banners with demands rejecting low wages and calling for increases to the provincial minimum wage (UMP).
In an official announcement, the Yogyakarta regional police said they had enacted a state of high alert for Yogyakarta on May 1 and deployed 1,643 police officers to watch over the commemoration of May Day and at various entertainment spots and places of worship. It is estimated that 3,382 people will commemorate May Day throughout the Special Province of Yogyakarta today.
[Slightly abridged translation by James Balowski.]