A-Infos (en) Australia, Ancomfed: Picket Line - Never forget: Indonesia, 1965 (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

On the eve of 30 September 1965, the Communist Party of Indonesia was 
one of the largest in the world. 25 million people participated in mass 
organisations aligned to the Communist Party. Twelve short months later 
it was all but destroyed. ---- In 1965-66 the Indonesian military 
embarked on the mass murder of a popular movement. If the victims had 
been a religious or racial group, it would be called a genocide. A 
million communists, trade unionists, women' s organisers, and minority 
groups were slaughtered. This was a mass killing cheered on, encouraged, 
and supported by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. 
To understand why, we need to know something about the Indonesian 
Revolution.

Indonesia was colonised by the Netherlands from the 17th Century and 
then occupied by Japan during the Second World War. As the Japanese 
Empire collapsed, Indonesia declared independence. The Netherlands 
responded by waging a brutal four year war to reimpose colonial rule, 
before recognising an independent Indonesia in 1949.

Independence was not all it seemed. The Netherlands handed sovereignty 
to the so-called United States of Indonesia, intended as a collection of 
puppet states to facilitate continuing Dutch domination. This attempt at 
political control failed. In 1950 all of the states of the United States 
of Indonesia dissolved themselves. A political revolution had taken 
place: Dutch direct rule had ended, but economic domination remained. 
Dutch and other Western controlled companies controlled Indonesia's 
major plantations, mines, and factories. Indonesia's social revolution 
was unfinished business.

In the aftermath of independence, different power blocs fought for 
competing and incompatible visions for the future of Indonesia. Broadly 
liberal democratic forces embraced capitalism and the west, Indonesia's 
post-independence President Sukarno expounded an increasingly anti- 
imperialist nationalist movement within the new Third World (which was 
not at the time a pejorative), and the Islamic parties ranged from 
conservative to socialist. The Indonesian Communist Party (Partai 
Komunis Indonesia, PKI) was initially repressed by the new state in 
1948, but soon rebuilt. The PKI polled 16% of the national vote in 1955, 
and claimed 2 million members by the 1960s.

Post independence governments were unstable. After a CIA backed military 
rebellion in 1957, Sukarno declared martial law and later announced what 
he called "guided democracy". Sukarno established increasingly 
autocratic rule, an enlarged role for the military in government and the 
economy, and popular support built on mass mobilisation.

From 1956-57 onwards, workers and peasants occupied and took control of 
Dutch owned companies, factories, mines and plantations. The PKI led 
campaigns for land reform that seized land, challenged the traditional 
landlords and threatened the old feudal structures. The state 
nationalised industries and land seized by the popular movement. 
Military officers were quickly appointed to manage increasing sections 
of the economy.

Despite the independence struggle, much of the military high command had 
its roots in the former Dutch colonial army. Military Chief of Staff 
Abdul Haris Nasution was originally an officer in the Royal Netherlands 
East Indies Army. Future dictator Suharto had been a sergeant. With 
nationalisation, the military high command quickly became capitalists in 
control of the most developed sectors of the economy. The military 
became a leading political force representing and supported by 
landowning and business interests. The military established its own 
quasi-party organisation, the so-called functional groups (GOLKAR) which 
prepared to establish martial law and repress communism.

He built and empowered the military that would ultimately destroy him.

The basis of Sukarno's rule was contradictory. He sought to balance and 
play Islamist, Communist, and military forces off against each other, 
whilst mobilising mass popular support through rhetorical campaigns 
against imperialism and neo- colonialism. The Communist Party grew 
rapidly. By 1965, a mass movement of tens of millions was mobilised 
behind demands for worker control of nationalised industries, land 
reform, further nationalisation, and deeper cooperation with the 
non-aligned movement. These demands would, if realised, abolish the 
privileged position of landlords and capitalists both in and out of uniform.

The military became a leading political force representing and supported 
by landowning and business interests.

30 September 1965
The events of 30 September 1965 remain unclear fifty years later. What 
is known is that late on 30 September (or in early hours of 1 October), 
Lieutenant Colonel Untung, a commander in the Presidential guard, sent 
soldiers to kidnap seven senior generals in the military high command.

Three were killed in their homes, three were captured and taken to Halim 
Airforce Base. One, Nasution, the Minister of Defence, escaped.

At 7am, a radio broadcast announced that Untung was the leader of the 30 
September Movement (G30S), an internal armed forces group that had acted 
to prevent a CIA sponsored coup against the President.

At 9am, President Sukarno arrived at Halim Airforce Base to meet Untung. 
At some point, D. N. Aidit, leader of the Communist Party, also arrived 
at the Airforce Base. Sukarno left the Airforce base on 1 October, and 
soldiers loyal to General Suharto seized the base by 2 October.

On 3 October, the bodies of the three captured generals were found in a 
shallow grave.

Counter Revolution
It is important to say what happened, because it is clear what did not 
happen.

In the aftermath of 30 September, General Suharto claimed there had been 
a Communist coup attempt. Indonesia's heroic Generals had supposedly 
been killed in a depraved demonic ritual. Members of Gerwani, the 
Communist women's movement, had danced naked whilst women mutilated and 
tortured the generals, cutting off their genitals and gouging out their 
eyes, before murdering them. The Communists had been found with long 
lists of people they planned to kill, and mass graves had been prepared 
across the country. Only the courageous General Suharto had saved the 
nation from imminent destruction.

No satisfactory explanation has ever been offered for the fact that the 
source of all this information, General Suharto, met with one of the 
plotters twice before 30 September. As Suharto was left off the kidnap 
list, despite being commander of the critical rapid reaction force, he 
was able to quickly crush the "communist coup".

On 5 October-armed forces day, Nasution gave a speech condemning the 
treachery of the Communist Party. It was a signal for an accelerating 
campaign of detention and murder targeting the left.

Military commanders raised the slogan "crush the PKI" and "down to the 
roots". Communists, farmers organisations, peasants, women's 
organisations, Chinese Indonesians, minority groups, and trade unionists 
were targeted. The military outsourced many killings to Islamic and 
nationalist militias, and often criminal gangs. People were decapitated, 
disembowelled, dragged behind trucks and strangled. Often, entire 
villages were conscripted to assist. This ensured millions of people had 
a vested interest in the military's story.

Estimates vary wildly. Somewhere between 500,000 and 2 million people 
were killed. Tens of thousands more were held in arbitrary detention for 
months before being released. Some 12,000 were sent to military prison 
camps on Buru Island for over a decade. Almost all teachers, and tens of 
thousands of civil servants and railway employees were dismissed from 
their jobs and persecuted for years to come.

Role of Australia and the United States
Australia, the United States, and Britain were hostile to Sukarno and 
Indonesia. Indonesia was a founding member of the non- aligned movement, 
refused to join either the Soviet or American blocs in the Cold War, and 
opposed the creation of Malaysia. But more offensively, Indonesia had 
seized colonial era companies from the Dutch in 1957, and from the 
British in 1964.

The CIA armed and financed military conspiracies and uprisings against 
Sukarno as early as 1958. By 1964 Indonesia was the target of a full 
blown propaganda and destabilisation campaign. CIA and MI6 files from 
this period remain sealed. In May 1965, the US ambassador to Indonesia 
advised that their best option was to provoke a premature PKI coup, 
which would then trigger military repression. The problem, as the CIA 
noted, was the PKI had no interest in a coup, limited capacity to carry 
one out, feared provoking a military response, and supported Sukarno as 
President.

Then 30 September happened.

US Embassy cables reveal that US policy was to "covertly indicate to key 
people in the army ... our desire to be of assistance wherever we can" 
and "spread the story of the PKIs guilt, treachery, and brutality".

By October, US Embassy cables noted that the PKI "had suffered some 
damage to its organisational strength", but feared the military would 
relent in its campaign of killings. The US sought to encourage the army 
to continue its "war on the PKI", and the CIA provided arms for use by 
militias and death squads.

There is no doubt that a social revolution was possible in Indonesia in 
1965.

Australia, Britain and the United States provided diplomatic support for 
the Indonesian military, and used the BBC, Voice of America and Radio 
Australia to spread Indonesian military talking points. And they 
provided kill lists. The Australian government supported the US 
government in compiling and providing intelligence on communists, trade 
unionists and leftists they wanted killed.

Political leaders in Australia, the United States and Britain were 
briefed on the killings, provided support for the killings, and publicly 
celebrated the resulting mass slaughter.

Failings of the Communist Party and lessons for today
The mass killings of 1965-66 are one of the great crimes perpetrated 
against the global working class. Indonesian workers and peasants led 
the way in a struggle against imperialism and neo-colonialism. There is 
no doubt that a social revolution was possible in Indonesia in 1965. The 
military saw this threat and moved to murder that movement-"down to the 
roots".

The Communist Party of Indonesia operated with Stalinist delusions about 
the state. The PKI embraced Sukarno as a progressive leader, and assumed 
that by supporting his government they could inherit power once he died. 
When it came to the state, the PKI claimed that the Indonesian state was 
a progressive institution, with a dual character. They claimed that the 
state contained "pro-people" and "anti-people" elements, and that the 
task of the PKI was to back Sukarno and the "pro people" elements.

This analysis was deadly nonsense. Sukarno maintained power by balancing 
contradictory forces. He built and empowered the military that would 
ultimately destroy him, whilst playing them off against the PKI. The PKI 
would not inherit the state, and the armed capitalists of the military 
would not sit by and allow themselves to be disinherited.

There is no compromise. The state, its military and its repressive 
apparatus are always enemies of the working class and socialist 
revolution. They must be destroyed.

Indonesian workers fought and died for a better world. We must remember 
the dead, and fight like hell for the future.

https://ancomfed.org/2025/09/never-forget-indonesia-1965/
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