Nation wide action for the freedom of political prisoners in Indonesia!

Mass protests of 2025

When in the summer of 2025, Indonesia’s government announced new economic measures and political maneuvers favouring elites and widening the social and economic inequality, people all over the country took to the streets. When the mass protests were met with violent repression and one protester was killed by a police car, the uprising turned into a larger denouncement of state violence.

While the mass protest was successful to the extent that some of the proposed measures were revoked, the Prabowo–Gibran regime intensified the repression of the protests, echoing authoritarian regimes of the past. Beyond the obvious measures of in-the-street violence by riot police, the repression took the lives of at least 10 people. A great number of activists disappeared, and some 6000 people were arrested. Legal aid was obstructed, and 1000 activists were criminalized. These number mark a turning point in Indonesia’s democratic era that started in 1998 with the ending of Suharto’s dictatorship.

Freeing political prisoners

In response, the ongoing struggle for the release of these political prisoners was met with renewed mass mobilization and strengthened solidarity among youth and oppressed communities. Perserikatan sosialis (the Socialist Union) knows that mass protests remain essential to expose the regime’s repressive character and broaden public awareness of systematic state violence. In early 2026, they set up a campaign to free the political prisoners. Their demands were clear:

1. Free our comrades!
2. Arrest, put on trials, and imprison all generals and military officers who abused human rights.
3. Repeal all anti-democratic, anti-people laws

After campaigning and mobilization in 11 cities across the country, workers, students and people from marginalized communities came together in Medan, Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Makassar on a national action day. Meanwhile they are continuing to build solidarity networks with all the ongoing trials against the activists of the summer of 2025. Because risking everything to stand up to state violence deserves unwavering support.

Perserikatan sosialis

Perserikatan Socialis, Indonesia’s Socialist Union, works tirelessly on overthrowing capitalism and establishing a socialist reality for all Indonesians. Class awareness and education are at the core of their activities, alongside the organization of mass actions. They publish as socialist newspaper, organize regular discussions on topics as sexual violence and anti-militarism, and socialist and political education sessions, and build a broad solidarity network across the country and internationally, with actions for Palestinian liberation.

Het Actiefonds is proud to have supported this action and will continue to stand in solidarity with the struggle for the liberation of all political prisoners, in Indonesia and worldwide! Because activism is essential for a just world – it belongs on the street, not behind bars!