Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s term is coming to an end in 2024. He wants to stop this at all costs by delaying elections or changing the constitution so that he may run for a third term. The Socialist Union has launched a campaign to warn the population of the impending coup.
Corrupt President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo seems to have the wind in his sails. After two terms in office, his party says there is widespread satisfaction with his presidency in society and parliament. His coalition, meanwhile, includes seven parties, representing a total of 81 percent of parliament.
But Jokowi’s second term is coming to an end, and the Indonesian constitution states that no president may serve more than two terms. Not content with this, Jokowi is using the widespread support he enjoys to either postpone elections or amend the constitution to allow for a third term.
Jokowi’s party has one main argument for this constitutional amendment: the COVID pandemic deprived Jokowi of a few years of governance, so to speak, that he should be able to make up for. There are still major projects awaiting completion, including the relocation of the Indonesian capital to East Kalimantan, due to begin in 2024. This, of course, must be done under the president’s supervision.
The Socialist Union (SU) knows that Jokowi’s support is mostly the fruit of corrupt deals and cronyism. For example, his ministers were shareholders in companies from which the Indonesian government bought PCR tests during the pandemic. According to the SU, Jokowi involves as many parties and politicians as possible in his projects so that the political class benefits from the president’s tenure.
Much of Jokowi’s argument rests on the fact that he would be very popular among the Indonesian people. The SU wants to show that none of that is true. They are organizing several mass demonstrations throughout the country. With the help of Het Actiefonds, they flyered and postered to warn of the upcoming coup.
The SU often struggles against the authoritarian tendencies of the Indonesian state. For example, this august they organized several demonstrations throughout the country to protest the criminalisation of communism by the government.
Jokowi announced three years ago that he would move the capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan in Borneo. The cost of the pharaonic project is modestly estimated by the government at $33 billion. The president wants to begin the move in 2024, which would require him to stay in power longer to oversee the operation.
The need to move comes mainly because of the great pressure on the capital, Jakarta. Ten million people now live in the city, plus another 20 million in its greater metropolitan area. Add to that the rising sea level and a water infrastructure that contributes to the sinking of the buildings, and you’re left with a ticking time bomb. Jakarta is slowly sinking into the ocean.
But that is not to say that moving the capital to Borneo is a logical solution. Indeed, it requires a colossal amount of housing construction to accommodate the one and a half million civil servants who must live there with their families. This puts even more pressure on the ecosystem on the already fledgling island, with no telling whether the plan will work. The amount of new housing will in all likelihood lead to a sink effect in East Kalimantan – just as is now the case in Jakarta.
But Jokowi can’t part with his pet project, and plans to bribe politicians and change the constitution to carry out his pharaonic project.
Limity jsme my (We Are the Limits) organized a climate camp in Ostrava, and successfully blocked the Svoboda coke plant with more than a hundred activists!
Climate Camp: for a just transition
Limity Jsme My organised many climate camps and direct actions in the past years, fighting against coal mines and fossil fuel plants in the Czech Republic. This year’s climate camp was focused not only on fossil fuels industries but also on just transition. In the Ostrava region, where the 5-day camp took place, the first coal mines recently closed, but with little justice for the locals during the transition process. Lots of mine workers lost their jobs and/or cheap energy supply, and most of the miner flats were privatized, resulting in social problems for local people. Addressing the social injustices, distraints and energy poverty in the region and its interconnected ecological and social consequences, Limity Jsme My wants to use the example of Ostrava to show what happens when these kinds of big transformations take place without public involvement. During the camp, talks, workshops and collaborations with locals were organized, set on the principles of non-hierarchy, mutual care and sustainability.
Direct Action: blocking the Svoboda coke plant
The direct action that followed the camp took place in the Svoboda coke plant, the perfect example of the importance of just transition that adresses both social and ecological problems and their global implications. After the decline of mining in the region, hard coal started to be imported from abroad to the coke plant. The produced coke does not stay in the region, and thus does not provide energy for local people, but is exported to the United States. On top of that, the coke production is so air polluting that it makes people move away to live in a healthier environment. The region around the Svoboda plant is one of the places where the highest concentration of highly carcinogenic benzo(a)npyrene was found. Keeping this plant open can not be part of a just transition! This is why over a hundred people successfully blocked the production and the export of coke from the coke plant area for a day! You can watch the video here and see the pictures here.
Limity jsme my
Limity Jsme My is a horizontally organized activist organization that wants to end the mining and burning of coal in the Czech Republic, and supporting instead a socially just transition to renewables. To achieve this, they organized five climate camps and several direct actions. They also cooperate with other social movements and environmental organizations, both on the local, national and international level, as they are part of a broader global movement for climate justice.
Het Actiefonds is very proud to have supported this action and to support the climate justice movement in general! Because we all deserve a healthy place to live, wherever we live.
Climate activists organized a successful skillshare camp to prepare forest occupations.
Everywhere in the Netherlands and Europe, old forests have to make way for the expansion of industrial areas and highways. A glaring example was the Sterrebos in Limburg, which was cut down this februari to allow the VDL Nedcar car factory to expand. After weeks of protest, the trees ultimately hit the ground.
Activists abroad often use forest occupations as a last resort when other campaigns have failed. For example, the Hambach forest has been the scene of a battle between climate activists and energy company RWE’s lignite mine for years. France’s various ZADs, most notably Notre-Dame-des-Landes, also show how a forest occupation can be an effective action strategy, even thwarting the construction of airports.
One may wonder how long it will take until there is a LelyZAD. In the Netherlands, the occupation of the Sterrebos was the first application of forest occupation on Dutch soil. And it won’t be the last. Consider, for example, Amelisweerd, a forest in Utrecht that is in danger of disappearing to allow the A27 to be widened. On ikgadeboomin.nl, you can already sign up to be a forest protector.
Climbers 4 Climate recently organized a skillshare camp in Germany with support from Het Actiefonds. For a week, 70 forest protectors trained with climbing, building tree houses, rescue operations and hanging banners among the trees. Other practical skills were also covered, such as building composting toilets and maintaining an action kitchen.
In addition, there was plenty of room for reflection during camp. Climbing actions often still elicit macho behavior, and privilege able-bodied cis-men. Hence, climbing trainings and other workshops were held without men, and there were plenty of moments to address the reproduction of social power structures within the climate movement. In this way, the group built a sustainable and reliable climate movement that doesn’t leave you hanging.
Want to join too? Go to ikgadeboomin.nl!
The very first LGBTQI+ Parade organized in Milicz was a big hit, and many more will follow!
In May 2022, over 250 people took to the streets of Milicz, Poland, for more tolerance towards the local LGBTQI+ community. In recent years, the Polish ruling party and the Polish president have been leading a campaign against the LGBTQI+ community, together with the Catholic Church. This resulted in an increase of hate speech, physical violence and even the establishment of so-called “NO LGBT-zones” in several Polish cities, and the increase of suicidal thoughts and tendencies among young LGBTQI+ people in Poland. Myślmy organised this first parade in Milicz to both show support to the local LGBTQI+ community and to strive for queer liberation in the region and the local government.
Myślmy – “Let’s Think” in English – is an association working on diverse topics, all having to do with human rights – from fighting against restricting abortion laws to the humanitarian disaster at the Polis-Bellarusian border. Not associated to any political party, they form an independent group of volunteers. With a strong belief in local change through local commitment, they organise workshops, cultural events, protests.
And now also this LGBTQI+ Parade that they plan to organise every year, because it was a big success. Under the banner of “Myślę-czuję-akcpetuję” (which means “I think, I feel, I accept”), the Parade brought together people from Milicz and other Polish cities. With the help of Het Actiefonds, the Parade was a fun and safe event. The speeches, the music, the samba band, the beautiful artwork and the extra safety guards made the Parade an event to look forward to every year, to celebrate the LGBTQI+ community in Milicz, Poland and throughout world. Watch the video of the event here, or read more about it here in Gay Times. Because everyone deserves to love and be in peace.
The housing crisis is affecting much of the Dutch population. But internationals are also struggling.
The University of Groningen (RUG) is so eager to build an international reputation that it is one of the biggest contributors to the ongoing housing crisis in the city. Every year we read reports about how students – especially international ones – are struggling to find a room. The university had even set up an emergency tent camp four years ago to stem some of the housing crisis, to no avail.
Meanwhile, a pandemic and a recession later, and the problem has simply gotten worse. The waiting time for social housing has risen to eight years. Homeless students occupied the RUG’s Academy building last year in protest. Indeed, between 2020 and 2021, the housing shortage increased by some 4,500 more homeless students (26,500 in total), not to mention the rents the lucky few have to cough up. Homeowners are eagerly taking advantage of the situation to make students pay exorbitant rents. After all, those students can borrow extra when they don’t have the money, right?
As dastard as this way of thinking is, it doesn’t even extend to the 9 thousand internationals who can’t simply borrow from their governments. They arrive in a university town that barely has room for them, without being noticed beforehand about the severity of the situation. On top of that, this group is not entitled to a free public transport, since these students are not Dutch citizens. As a result, even finding housing outside Groningen city is not an option for them because of the expensive commuting costs. After all, don’t forget that the Netherlands has the most expensive public transport in the EU!
The PvdA and the CU are proposing banning temporary rental contracts. This may seem like a good solution, since landlords like to use these contracts to systematically raise the rent. But permanent rental contracts also mean another obstacle for foreign students who only come for one semester or year. This way, internationals would still remain the brunt of the failing Dutch housing policy.
Woonstrijdkamp demands concrete solutions to the housing crisis in Groningen, such as affordable housing, free emergency accommodation and more housing on the university campus. In addition, the government should also grant free public transport to international students. With support from Het Actiefonds, students camped out in the Noorderplantsoen the weekend of Sept. 9-11 to call attention to the ongoing housing crisis, demonstrating for better housing rights.
Because houses are for people, not for profit.
Residents of Mbonjo and Souza (Cameroon) protect their cemeteries from Socapalm’s encroaching oil palm plantations.
It’s not the first time palm oil production has caused problems. It is well known that Indonesia and Malaysia cut down large parts of their tropical jungles to make way for oil palms, with major consequences for biodiversity and and the climate. But the residents of Mbonjo and Souza show how not only wildlife is suffering from the growing palm oil plantations.
Alphone Toko Sene, longtime resident of Mbonjo, can’t stand it anymore: when he walks to the cemetery to honor his aunt and uncle, he watches suspiciously as oil palms gain ground. The land is owned by Socapalm, a large Cameroonian agribusiness company, a subsidiary of Luxembourg-based Socfin. In 2010, Socapalm already managed nearly 80 thousand hectares of land in Cameroon, mostly in rural and remote areas, all of which are earmarked for palm oil production. Socapalm allows the inhabitants of Mbonjo to enter their cemetery for now, but in no way wants to cede the land under which the village’s ancestors are buried.
According to Socfin, Socapalm’s future is “inextricably linked to the sustainable development of local populations and economies.” Yet a different picture emerges when we listen to the residents of Mbonjo-Souza, namely that nature and residents must give way as much as possible to make way for the lucrative palm tree. Toko Sene: “Our loved ones are buried here. It is not normal for this place to be taken by the plantations of this agro-industrial company. We want them to respect our sacred places.”
Despite persistent complaints from Mbonjo-Souza, Socapalm even received the Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) label last year.
So time to move to action. With a 300-person demonstration and relatively high media coverage, residents in August managed to raise Socapalm’s hypocrisy, televise debates between village leaders and administrators, and sit down with Socapalm itself. The dialogue seems to have finally begun. Now it is to see if the residents manage to get their cemeteries back from the farm.
AAH sets up counter-surveillance technology in the Palestinan olive groves of Hebron H2.
Ever since the Oslo accords of 1993, The city of Hebron has been divided under two administrative areas. Hebron H1 spans the most part of the historic city and is inhabited by roughly 170.000 Palestinians. The second area, Hebron H2, falls under the jurisdiction of the Israeli army and is inhabited by 34.000 Palestinians and 700 Israeli settlers.
In the divided area of Hebron City H2 the Palestinian population is constantly monitored with surveillance technology such as camera- and radar surveillance, facial recognition and smartphone technology. In addition to living under military law, they face constant threats and acts of violence. For example, their more than 900-year-old olive groves are constantly being attacked and set on fire by settlers, who can do so without fearing arrest by the Israeli Defense Force.
The olive harvest in Palestine takes place every fall, making this a crucial time in the lives of the many Palestinian families who rely on it for their income. Between August of 2020 and 2021, more than 9,300 olive trees were destroyed in the West Bank. Since 1967, a total of 800,000 olive trees have been uprooted by Israeli authorities and settlers. Destroying olive trees is a known tactic of settlers tin order to uproot the Palestinians from their soil, since it takes years to replant olive trees that can produce the same yield as mature ones.
This is why AAH (Artists x Allies x Hebron) placed surveillance cameras throughout the olive groves of H2. These cameras will livestream footage of the trees, in order to register settler violence. This way, the cameras are staring back into the unending electronic gaze if the IDF by co-opting the same weaponized technology. AAH wants to help keep a vigilant eye on these trees and show solidarity by ensuring that the residents and their sumud (steadfastness) are not only surveilled but also seen.
Het Actiefonds is proud to support this action. Want to see the live footage? Click here!
Collectif Sensé is organising meetings and making a podcast by activist women and genderqueer people from the south and the north of the Mediterranean, gathering their struggles and strengths to challenge the mainstream narratives that feed into the border regime.
Capitalism, patriarchy and the border regime are leaving many people, in particular racialized women and genderqueer people, exposed to exploitation, violence and exclusion. Systematic racism and sexism silence their struggles, portraying them as victims and minimizing their political voices and actions. When it comes to migration and border crossing, women and genderqueer people experience specific difficulties that should be acknowledged and addressed.
This is why Collectif Sensé is uniting women from Mali, Mauritania and Senegal and women in France, most of them with a migration background. They are organising a weekend to share skills, discuss important issues and hold assemblies to organize future actions and events. They will also make a podcast and a radio program in different languages to address the realities of women within the current border regime. Topics that will be covered include the trafficking of women, feminist self-defence and transborder solidarity.
This project is a collaboration between Collectif Sensé, a group of women that met in a safe house in Marseille, and the AlarmPhone, a hotline for people crossing the Mediterranean Sea who are in distress. You can listen to their monthly radio program in French here.
Het Actiefonds is proud to support this project, because borders kill — every day.
Horeca United is taking action against Lodewijk K., an exploitative horeca owner in Amsterdam.
Lodewijk K. may own multiple horeca business in Amsterdam, his wealth doesn’t prevent him from refusing to pay two his workers their due. Horeca United won’t allow him to get away with this. They’ve organized multiple picket actions to pressure hem into paying.
For the time being, the picket actions seem to work. At first he did not even want to discuss the matter, but after two picketing actions where customers were informed of Lodewijks business practice, the exploitative employer agreed to sit down and negotiate. He has consistently tried to undercut offers of Horeca United and has offered insultingly low amounts to compensate his two former employees. Eventually he gave in to one of the two wage claims.
Obviously, this is not enough: the two workers won’t settle for less. So, they gave their ultimatum: pay up, or we are forced to take action. For now, this means action. Het Actiefonds is supporting their next picket actions. No boss should get away with refusing pay!
On September 18, Transzorg Nu demonstrates at the Grote Markt in Nijmegen for accessible and efficient trans care.
Transition is a positive step that brings trans people much happiness, because in this way they can take control of their own life. It is therefore all the more odd that trans people are dependent on health care institutions and psychiatrists, who often make them wait for years before they can continue with their transition. In the Netherlands it is still necessary to be diagnosed with ‘gender dysphoria’ by a gender team to get your transition insured. As a result, the total transition process now takes an average of 7.5 years.
The slow transition process causes a lot of unnecessary stress. This is why Transzorg NU is standing up for the self-determination of trans people. You should not have to get a diagnosis before you can get the care you deserve. Therefore, replace the psychiatric diagnosis ‘gender dysphoria’ from the DSM5 with the somatic-body diagnosis ‘gender incongruence’ from ICD11. Indeed, this diagnosis has no pathological focus on suffering or the stigmatizing psychiatric status. Instead, it places the enduring conviction of gender identity at the center. For all the requirements of Transzorg NU, please visit here.
Nijmegen is an important place for transition care in the Netherlands: besides Amsterdam UMC and Groningen UMC, Radboud UMC is the only academic hospital with a gender team. Meanwhile, even there the waiting time has increased to more than two years. That is why Het Actiefonds supports the new branch of Transzorg NU in Nijmegen.
On September 18, Transzorg NU plans to demonstrate in the afternoon at the Grote Markt in Nijmegen – right in the middle of the city center. They will use a combination of fiery and vulnerable speeches, and artistic performances. From a stage – provided with beautiful decor made by Nijmegen artist duo Naaistreek – substantive speeches will be made. Bappie Kortram, for example, will speak about how transition care is often denied to fat individuals. Others will speak from their own experience about, among other things, the intersection of trans and neurodiversity, the hard life as a trans person in Dutch asylum seekers’ centers, and the importance of quick help for young trans persons. And they will hand over their demands to the Radboud UMC. Furthermore, a group of non-binary dancers will give a performance. There will be singing, and their own Suus te Braak (aka ‘DJ Hizzle’) will play between performances.
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