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INDONESIA
Indonesian workers demand cancellation of fuel hike

5 July 2008

Around 80 people demonstrated under the banner of the National front for Indonesian Workers Struggle (FNPBI) outside the headquarters of ExxonMobil and the national parliament building to demand that the government cancel the increase in the price of fuel.

Protesters also demanded the nationalisation of the mining industry and repudiation of the foreign debt. They called on the Indonesian people to not re-elect those political parties that are pro-foreign interests and supporters of the fuel-price rise.

FNPBI spokesperson Dedi Fauzi argued said that if the state took over the mining companies that are currently run by foreign interests, then there would be no difficulty in fulfilling the demands of the workers.

Katarina Pujiastuti, assistant head of the FNPBI, said that 85% of Indonesia’s mining sector is controlled by foreign interests and the protesters demanded that the parliamentary investigation committee into fuel-price rises (which was to be formed the next day) analyse the domination by foreign capital of the mining industry, because the energy crisis lies there.

On June 30, the Indonesian Students League (SMI) also held a 70-strong protest against the fuel increase. The protest was violently dispersed by police, who arrested 35 people.

[Reprinted from http://asia-pacific.org. Translated from Berdakiri by Rebecca Meckelberg.]