Indonesia is a nation of slaves, slaves among nations,
slaves for other nations" (Pramoedya Ananta Toer)
"Without the workers' deft hands, Adidas wouldn't make 14 trillion of profit!"
This is how large and mid-sized cities in Asia look like.
In these cities, you will see wide roads,
flyovers, toll roads, apartments, and high-rise buildings.
In the last 30 years, Singapore, Hong Kong,
Seoul, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta
competed for becoming the economic capital of Asia.
The strange thing is, as those megacities in Asia grow,
so do the similarities among them.
Their business districts and busy shopping malls are always crowded.
Their shopping centres look similar.
And people shop for the same products ... from the same brands.
The roads are congested and polluted,
and the sky is constantly polluted, too.
Advertising billboards keep on persuading consumers
to buy cars and apartments, to travel and shop abroad,
and to keep on buying more and more consumer goods.
Welcome to Jakarta, the biggest metropolitan in Southeast Asia.
During the night, 10 million people inhabit this city.
But in the morning, on weekdays,
500,000 more rush in from surrounding areas.
Jakarta is rich,
rich and greedy... and spoiled.
To feed the people of this greedy city,
at least 2,000 tonnes of rice must be delivered every day.
To electrify its billboards, stadiums, offices, and apartments,
Jakarta needs 6,000 megawatts of power per day.
To support Jakarta and its luxurious life,
thousands of street vendors cater to those who work in high-rise buildings.
Jakarta depends on construction workers, waiters, street sweepers,
and all the working class people.
Come, investments, come!
Located on Jakarta's coast
it is the international trading port Tanjung Priuk,
the largest and busiest seaport in Indonesia.
Tanjung Priuk port was built in 1877,
and it is connected to Java's railways networks.
In colonial times, through this port,
produce from the plantations in Java's highlands
was shipped out to the world market.
From the rubber plantations in Java's interior,
renowned tyre producer Pirelli obtained its raw materials.
Today, Tanjung Priuk is still a valuable asset for Indonesia's economy.
Raw materials and machineries are imported through this vital port.
Also, from this port, garments, textiles, and footwear
manufactured in Indonesia are exported abroad.
The constant coming and going of ships through this port are a symbol
of Indonesia's two main economic policies:
attracting foreign investments and developing export-oriented industries.
But to have one international seaport was not enough.
To attract more investments,
the government of Indonesia built industrial estates
and established bonded zones and export processing zones.
In the late 1980s, 4 industrial estates were built along Jakarta's outskirts.
And what happened afterwards?
Jakarta's outskirts changed very rapidly and transformed into an industrial area.
Japanese and American car-makers
flocked the Pulogadung Industrial Estate in East Jakarta.
Before long, Taiwanese, Korean, and Singaporean investors
invested their capital in Indonesia,
opened garments and textiles factories in Cakung Bonded Zone in North Jakarta.
They were lured by tax exemptions and many other concessions.
Each of these industrial estates in the outskirts of Jakarta
enjoys easy access to the international seaport Tanjung Priuk.
As foreign capital poured into Indonesia,
Greater Jakarta became even more crowded with factories.
Soon, there was no more land available in Jakarta's industrial estates.
Manufacturing industries were badly in need of new land.
They began to eye the lowlands east of Jakarta.
Since then, in the cities east of Jakarta,
including Bekasi, Karawang, and Purwakarta,
rows upon rows of factories were built.
As a Jakartan, the automotive and the finance sector require you to be rich,
so you can afford to buy your own car.
Listen, they whisper: "Buy, buy...!"
"...apart from that you will experience the newest
safety feature of Honda, LaneWatch..."
In competition with other Asian cities,
in September 2014, Jakarta hosted the Indonesia International Motor Show again.
This international event serves as a showroom for Indonesia's auto industry.
But are you aware where these cars are manufactured?
This is the true face behind the show.
Factories supplying spare parts to Suzuki, Honda, and Toyota,
as well as Mattel, Samsung, Toshiba, and Panasonic,
are all located in the industrial areas east of Jakarta.
Up until today, stretching from Bekasi and Karawang down to Purwakarta,
there are at least 7 gigantic industrial estates
and warehousing facilities with access to toll roads and the Tanjung Priuk port.
These estates were all built through offshore investments
coming from Korea, Japan, and China.
Currently, Japanese investors are pressuring Indonesia's government
to speed up the construction of a new port in Cilamaya in North Karawang,
as they seek to send more commodities to the world market.
Indonesia will continue to build more industrial estates, toll roads and seaports
in order to attract foreign investments
and to meet the demands of Foxconn, Toyota, Unilever,
and other manufacturing firms.
The landscape you see east of Jakarta is not unique to Indonesia.
Bekasi and Karawang were developed with the dream
of competing with the industrial city of Shenzhen in China.
Countries in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia
must compete with one another by building and expanding industrial estates.
Industrial estates in Indonesia are in competition
with the same kind of estates in Eastern China,
in Mumbai, India, in Manila's neighbouring provinces in the Philippines,
the south of Bangkok, Thailand, and so on.
All Industrial estates aim to be the best place for manufacturing,
serving the transnational giants.
All estates rely on cheap labor down to the lowest cost possible.
"Hey workers! It's okay to protest, but if you disturb public order, we'll crush you!"
[Banner of a group of young people used as thugs to attack unions etc.]
Without a very strong reason, why would these young women
take a big risk every morning?
The risk to cross this toll road on foot to get to the factory?
They work for Pou Chen.
That is a Taiwanese company that supplies athletic shoes to Nike.
The company opened a factory in the small town of Serang in Banten Province.
In an industrial city like this, everywhere you go,
you will find young women who came from neighbouring towns and provinces.
Their wages are only slightly above the minimum wage.
About a quarter of their small wage is spent on renting a cramped room.
The rest is spent on food and other necessities.
If there is any money left, they send it to their family in the hometown.
Especially the industrial cities with garment factories,
textile factories and footwear factories appear to be the cities of the youth.
This is because factories prefer only those who are young.
Hundreds of kilometres from Serang,
in the Cakung Bonded Zone in North Jakarta, we see the same scene.
Thousands of young women
enter and leave the factories before and after every work shift.
Those who are not young enough or who are not able to find a job in a factory
try to make a living as small traders.
Others try their luck working abroad
as plantation or construction workers in Malaysia
or as domestic workers in Saudi Arabia.
Workers in Cakung Bonded Zone are lowly paid.
They constantly suffer from financial problems
and are easy prey for loan sharks.
After very long and tiring working hours,
on the way home, these women often rest
at a traditional herbal shop to relax their tired, sore muscles.
It is also widely known that many companies
in Cakung violate basic labour rights.
In a company supplying H&M
the management will fire you immediately if it finds out you are pregnant.
Most of workers here have only short-term contracts.
Many companies illegally and arbitrarily fire permanent workers.
You will be re-employed only if you accept the status as a contract worker.
This change of status is, strangely, described as:
"Pemutihan" = "bleaching" [here in the sense of "rebooting"]
As an export-oriented industrialized country,
and in order to compete with other countries in Asia for investors,
the government of Indonesia blatantly sells these young women as cheap labor...
... as a comparative advantage.
Meanwhile, the government ignores blatant and widespread union busting
while preaching to the workers about increasing productivity
and maintaining a harmonious relationship with employers.
Kokom and Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi and many other football stars are paid a lot of money
as Adidas or Nike's brand ambassadors.
But Messi has never met and does not know Kokom.
Until two years ago, Kokom used to work in PT Panarub Dwikarya Benoa.
"... who became the prime sponsor of the World Cup. How much profit did they get?"
PT Panarub Dwikarya Benoa supplies shoes for Adidas.
It is owned by Hendrik Sasmito, a well-connected Indonesian businessman
who once shook hands with President Susilo Yudhoyono.
In 2012, Kokom and 1,300 of her fellow workers lost their jobs.
They were fired illegally after establishing a union
and demanding the payment of their wages in accordance with the regulations.
While Lionel Messi was busy playing in Spain's football league every week
Kokom and her union were still demanding their rights.
Kokom is not alone.
Elsewhere, workers of state-owned toll road management company, PT Jasa Marga,
were also in a struggle for the protection of their rights.
Why wouldn't they?
The workers along this highway have worked for years
without any job security.
They have a 3-month employment contract
that gets renewed again and again and again.
"Hey you, head of Jasa Marga!" - Hey you, head of Jasa Marga!
Come down here! - Come down here!
Settle... the dispute... in your company... immediately...!"
Another labor protest was waged by the dock workers in Tanjung Priuk.
"... twelve working hours, from 8 am to 8 pm,
if you don't come to work, your wage will be cut by forty thousand rupiahs."
Thousands of kilometres from Tanjung Priuk
dock workers in Hong Kong protested against low wages and long working hours.
Imagine, they were able to sustain the strike for 40 days!
Also in Hong Kong, migrant workers from Indonesia, the Philippines,
Thailand, and other countries
firmly asserted that they are workers...
... and not slaves.
Thirty years after the enforcement of the export-oriented industrial policy,
Indonesia suffers from various crises, wave after wave of crisis.
The investment-friendly and export-oriented policy
as well as the extraction of natural resources
have made only a handful of the elite richer.
Throughout those years, farming villages gradually disappeared,
replaced by rows of factories, apartments, and shopping centres.
The people have been used as a cheap reserve army of labor.
Since the wave of industrialisation began,
the people of Bekasi have lived in a polluted city.
Floods and droughts come and go.
Once again, the whole story is typical not only for Indonesia.
Land grabbing, cheap labor policy,
short-term contracts, outsourcing practices and union busting,
all of this occurs in many Asian countries.
But in many places in Asia...
...there are also many nameless people who work tirelessly
to build democratic and strong trade unions
and to build workers' resistance.
"... this is a new phase for the labor movement!"
The workers united...
We can support the workers in the Phillippines, Indonesia, Vietnam,
in mainland China, or even in Latin America, everywhere!"
... can never be defeated!
"The workers united, can never be defeated!"
- "... and today, thousands of workers hold a rally..."
"It is happening now, thousands of workers have crippled the industrial estate.
They assemble at one point, at Lippo Cikarang Junction."
- "In Cikarang, West Java, workers crippled the Cikarang Industrial Estate
demanding the repeal of the outsourcing system."
- "Hold your left arm up!"
- "Long live the workers!"
- "If the workers in Bekasi move, workers in other places will also move."