According to a new report, in Indonesia, „land conflicts“ increased massively in 2020, because palm oil and pulpwood companies were taking advantage of movement restrictions to expand even more aggressively. Also, government infrastructure operations were leading to the expropriation of peasants land.
„In its year-end report, the KPA [Consortium for Agrarian Produce] recorded 138 land conflicts between April and September 2020, up from 133 in the same period in 2019. The 2019 cases occurred during a strong economy, when GDP grew by 5.01%, while the 2020 cases were recorded during Indonesia’s first recession in two decades, when the economy shrank by 4.4%.“ writes the news report. This is noticeable, because in recession, normally, land conflicts decrease with imperialist expansion. „For the whole of 2020, the KPA recorded 241 land conflicts involving 359 villages and spanning a combined area of 624,272 hectares (1.54 million acres). In 2008, during the last global recession, the KPA identified only 24 land conflicts across Indonesia“.
The reason for this development: the agricultural monopolies take advantage of the measures against the Corona-Pandemic. Because of these regulations, demonstrations and large gatherings are prohibited. This goes along with the repression of the government, it is but one more example of the Corona-Measures, instead of bringing social measures in the struggle for an increase in public health, are cutting the democratic rights of the people in order to let the imperialist monopolies lay their cirisis on the shoulders of the peoples and the oppressed nations. The people have nothing to loose when such „hygienic measures“ are abolished.
Against national oppression by Imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism, the people‘s righteous rebellion will bring waters to the mills for new democratic revolution.
