Protests have once again erupted across Indonesia as students and workers confront rising living costs, austerity, militarisation, and the contradictions of the Prabowo government. This article examines the social and economic forces driving the unrest, situates them within the broader crisis of Indonesian and global capitalism, and argues that lasting change requires more than replacing governments. It makes the case for international working-class solidarity and the building of socialist organisations capable of transforming society.
Around 120 workers, the majority from Bangladesh, have raised collective grievances concerning unpaid wages, employment conditions, passports, recruitment-related debts, welfare, and immigration insecurity. Workers reported that they had not received wages for three months, while around 35 workers were affected by concerns over visa or PLKS renewal.
The harrowing rise of scam slavery in Southeast Asia, where hundreds of thousands are trafficked or baited into fortified compounds to conduct forced digital fraud under the threat of torture and death, is not a criminal anomaly, but a symptom of global capitalism in deep decay, fueled especially by a glut of Chinese capital and its intensifying exploitation of a growingly desperate surplus labor force from all over the world.
Tolak pengkambinghitaman berunsur perkauman terhadap pelarian Rohingya. Pertahankan golongan yang tiada warganegara dan tertindas, tuntut hak-hak undang-undang serta perlindungan, dan satukan pekerja Malaysia, pekerja migran dan pelarian dalam perjuangan menentang eksploitasi, perpecahan dan ketidaksamaan kapitalis.
Reject the racist scapegoating of Rohingya refugees. Defend the stateless and oppressed, demand legal rights and protection, and unite Malaysian, migrant and refugee workers against exploitation, division and capitalist inequality.
Kes Aerofoam tidak boleh dilihat sebagai sebuah kes yang terpencil, tetapi sebagai amaran tentang bentuk-bentuk penindasan yang bakal semakin mencengkam kelas pekerja dalam tempoh mendatang. Krisis kapitalisme yang semakin meruncing akan terus mendorong majikan untuk menekan kos buruh, mencuri upah, dan mengorbankan kebajikan pekerja demi mempertahankan keuntungan mereka.
Rundingan sememangnya boleh menghasilkan kemenangan dan perlindungan, namun terhad jika dijadikan strategi tunggal. Tanpa tekanan industri dari akar umbi pekerja, ia akan tergendala dan seringkali ditunggang oleh bos dan menteri. Maka aksi industri dan mobilisasi bebas daripada majikan dan kerajaan kekal sebagai alat perjuangan utama buat kelas pekerja.
CA CSB ke-6 adalah satu kemenangan sebenar. Ia meningkatkan gaji, memperluaskan perlindungan sosial, dan menyerlahkan kekuatan organisasi pekerja.
Namun ia juga mendedahkan had strategi dan taktik perjuangan sedia ada di bawah sistem kapitalisme. Kerajaan selalu akan berpihak kepada para pemodal. Konsesi hanya akan diperoleh susulan tekanan yang berlarutan.
Oleh itu, perjuangan ke hadapan tidak boleh berhenti di meja rundingan semata-mata. Kita harus memperkukuh organisasi akar umbi pekerja yang mampu merintis jalan perjuangan yang lebih mandiri dan militan.
A Marxist review of Jeyakumar Devaraj’s Malaysia at the Crossroads, examining PSM’s method, reformism, coalition politics, class independence, and the need for a revolutionary socialist alternative in Malaysia.
Socialist Alternative held its first public discussion at our new organising centre, examining Reformasi’s dead end and the urgent need to build an independent working-class alternative.
Bersama presents itself as a fresh alternative, but beneath its reformasi rhetoric lies the same capitalist politics that have failed workers and youth for decades. As Malaysia’s political crisis deepens, this article argues that only an independent socialist working-class movement can offer a genuine alternative.
