(Photo: Labour Party)

The Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI) stands in strong solidarity with the working people of Indonesia and its youth who are taking to the streets to demand dignity, accountability, and decent work. Their courage and strength inspire the global labour movement.

We fully support the Indonesian working people’s right to protest. As such, the reported murder of Affan Kurniawan and other lives lost in recent protests is reprehensible. No worker, student, or citizen should be killed for exercising the fundamental right to have their voices heard. BWI demands a credible and independent investigation and justice for all victims.

President Prabowo Subianto's recent announcement to rescind privileges and allowances of all members of parliament, packaged as “reforms,” will not succeed in placating a frustrated public unless he addresses the deeper grievances of workers and the youth: low and unequal wages, precarious work, rising prices of goods and services, and austerity measures that take from basic services to raise funds for the political and economic elite. Indonesian workers are demanding real change; they are not interested in band-aid solutions to buy peace and order.

The anger on Indonesia’s streets is not a passing mood; it is the cumulative weight of exploitation and exclusion. Workers know this best in the construction, wood, and allied industries. While BWI is supportive of Indonesia’s aspirations for economic growth, it is meaningless without respect for labour rights, workplace safety, and meaningful representation.

Thus, together with our Indonesian affiliates, BWI calls on President Prabowo Subianto's government, parliament, employers, and state security forces to:

• Respect the right to life and to protest. Stop using excessive force, hold the perpetrators of violence accountable, and respect the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association (both offline and online).
• Stop cosmetic fixes. Permanently eliminate the privileges of the elite, and adequately address the acute causes of public anger: stagnant wages, precarious employment conditions, among others.
• Fix the wage system. Reopen terms of negotiations prior to the passage of the Omnibus Law on Job Creation, which removed the Labour Cluster, to scale up wages and restore the workers’ purchasing power.
• Involve trade unions in the deliberations on the proposed New Manpower Law, which is now in parliament.
• Stop the austerity measures that are starving the people. Reverse budget cuts, and fund housing, schools, healthcare, climate resilience, and public infrastructure that generate decent work in construction.

Restart the genuine fight against corruption. Return the integrity and independence of anti-corruption bodies to restore public resources to the people and not the privileged few.

The demands of Indonesia's workers and youth are rising and clear: equality, decent work, and democracy are non-negotiable. Prabowo's government must heed these demands, or face being on the wrong side of history. BWI and our affiliates will support this struggle until justice, accountability, and social progress have been meaningfully achieved.