Indonesian labor leader hits imperialist sweatshops
Dita Sari, chairperson of the National Front for
Indonesian Workers' Struggle, addressed the final plenary
session of the AFL-CIO's Working Women 2000 conference March
12 in Chicago.
Sari is a key leader of the newly emerging independent
labor movement in Indonesia. The U.S.-backed Indonesian
government sentenced her to five years in prison for
organizing and leading a strike. Thanks to the growing
strength of the workers' struggle, Sari was recently released
from prison after serving three years.
She opened by saying: "I was a political prisoner.
Speaking to you here today, this is the first time I'm
celebrating International Women's Day as a free person."
Sari described the devastating conditions currently facing
workers in Indonesia--especially women. Sari laid the blame
squarely on imperialism.
She said, "The economic crisis of the last two years in
Indonesia has created a crisis of U.S./IMF/World Bank/WTO
domination over the Indonesian economy."
According to Sari, of the 36 million people who have lost
their jobs during this crisis, 80 percent are women.
Sari issued a stirring call for solidarity--"not just a
slogan, but an action." She called the anti-WTO protests in
Seattle "a wake-up call," and said that "an express train" of
economic crisis leading to worker struggle is going to hit in
the United States "like it already has in Indonesia."
Concluding that "we want to teach the workers how to
fight," the courageous young labor leader closed on an
inspiring note. "We have survived repression, torture,
prison," she said. "But we are alive.
"Some of my comrades have been kidnapped, some of them may
be dead. But we are very optimistic about the future."
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