An early report on the situation in Indonesia, home to the Pacific’s first Communist Party, and for a number of years the largest in non-Soviet Asia.

‘The Labour Movement in the East Indies’ by Soedjammo from International Press Correspondence. Vol. 1 No. 10 November 22, 1921.

The East-Indies, a group of islands with a population of 60,000,000 people belongs to the Netherlands. Of the single islands, the small one of Java is now the most important, because it is capitalistically the most developed. The reason for Java’s rapid development is its very dense population of 41 million people on an area of 130,000 sq. km., or 315 people to the square kilometer. Java is very densely covered with a network oi railwaylines, whereas Sumatra is still busy building its lines. Borneo is the largest of the islands, but compared with Java and Sumatra it is the most backward one, because it is only thinly populated, although it is very rich in minerals. The petroleum industry is the only one that Borneo has. Celebes is on the same plane of development as Borneo and is rich in manganese.

The products of Java and Sumatra are mainly of an agricultural character. They are cane-sugar, tobacco, quinine, cocoa, tea, coffee and rubber. The most important of these is the cane-sugar industry. In Java, the petroleum industry has also assumed great importance.

The political and labor movements in the East Indies are very young. Organizations, in the European sense of the word, are almost unknown there. In the East Indies there were never any guilds or associations of which the present European labor unions are an outgrowth. There are many illiterates among Java’s population. Communal land-ownership is still in part the primitive basis of life. And when Java was drawn into the sphere of interest of European capital, its population became the involuntary object of exploitation by foreign capitalists. The first big impulse to increased political and trade-union activity was the increased cost of living during the war, when, due to the decrease of exports, the competition among the European capitalists was almost completely eliminated. Trade-unions were springing up everywhere and in 1919 they united into a central union. The leaders of this central union, which to-day comprises some 20 labor organizations, are communists. The Communist Party of the East Indies (P.C.I.) was organized in 1915 by Dutch socialists of both the reformist and revolutionary wings. It first called itself “The Indian Social-democratic Party”. At the outbreak of the revolution in 1917, the party leader, Sneevliet, declared his solidarity with the Russian comrades, thus causing the reformists to leave the party and establish a new wing which called itself the “Indian Socialist Democratic Party”, which is without any influence on the working masses. The revolutionary comrades under the leadership of Sneevliet came into contact with the masses by starting an intensive agitation among them, and soon succeeded in obtaining the attention of the suffering population of the East Indies. Even those natives, who were poisoned by the confusing nationalist propaganda, and who Hated the whites, began to consider their position, and slowly gained faith in the white-skinned Socialists. The task of the Communists was to gain influence in the loose organization then in existence, which was called “‘Sarikat Islam”, and included only Mohammedans.

The sympathies of many members of these organizations were won by the Communists through their principles of struggle and through education, so that in March of this year the program of “Sarikat Islam” was completely changed, and placed on a Communist basis. Soviets were recognized, and parliaments repudiated, although up to this very day, there is no such thing as a parliament in the East Indies. We have. repeatedly and bitterly attacked and unmasked the leaders of ”Sarikat Islam”, so that they are filled with hatred of the Communist movement. Having no actual weapons to defeat us with, they attempt at least to rouse the suspicion of the masses against us. When the Communist International for instance, issued its thesis on Panslavism, and we translated it into the Dutch language, it was falsely translated into the Malayan tongue to read that the Communists were forcibly to do away with the Mohammedan religion. The enemy is also trying to destroy the central union which is under the control of the Communists, by employing the same insinuations. They have not succeeded, however, in discrediting us with the masses.

On the 18-19th of June 1921, eighteen trade-unions were represented at the trade-union conference in Java, where they decided to name the central labor organization–“The Revolutionary Central Union”. The’ president of this “Revolutionary Central Union”, is comrade Semaoen, who is the leader of our party, the president of the railroad-union of the East Indies, and at the same time of “Sarikat Islam” in the district of Samarang. The frequent persecutions, arrests and exiles with which the government hopes to throttle the communist movement, only increase our influence with the population. That is self-understood. In the East Indies the people have no rights at all and are treated like cattle by the ruling class. The class divisions are more sharply drawn than in Europe, which means that the influence of the disenfranchised population is still smaller. In Europe the development of the labor-movement keeps step with the development of industry, so that the worker is better able to react to the consequences of capitalism. In the East Indies it is different. A totally backward population faces modern, organized Capitalism. While capital pockets from 100 to 1000 % profits, the working population is sinking lower and lower into misery. Through our fighting organization we will create the possibility of combatting these conditions. Although as already said, we revolutionized “Sarikat Islam”, it is impossible for us to remain in this organization, because there is an impassable gulf between our political views and those of some of the leaders of this movement; and it is also to be feared that they sabotage our program. This is the reason why we decided to leave this organization and to concentrate all our forces upon the strengthening of the party. The general attitude of the populace is good, their spirit not poisoned by party-struggle, and our agitation should therefore prove an easy task. Almost every strike which was declared between 1910 and 1920 ended with a victory for the workers, in spite of the fact that there were no labor organizations to speak of. Capitalism will in future also have to get used to give up a part of its enormous gains to the workers. We know quite well that these enormous profits will not last forever, that the world crisis will also reach the East Indies, and that such occurrences as wage reductions and various other attempts to annul the conquests of the working-class will also take place here. Then the already existing class differences will become still more sharpened.

It is the task of the European comrades, particularly of those countries which have colonial possessions, to pay more attention to the colonial movement than they have hitherto. For a strong revolutionary movement in the East may become the signal for the European Revolution. The present exploitation of the working-class in Europe would hardly have been possible had there been no backward Asia and no backward colonies. Every obstruction in the development of capitalism means at present a step nearer to the world revolution, because it tends to create a revolutionary situation in Europe.

Our task is to obstruct every road in the development of capitalism. Although we are unable to make the revolution, we are however in a certain sense able to accelerate it. Since Asia and India still offer great possibilities for a greater development of Capitalism, it would be a great mistake not to prosecute the revolutionary movement in these countries with greater care.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1921/v01n10-nov-22-1921-inprecor.pdf