Help Indonesian workers out with autonomous cultural space

Anarchist Group Amsterdam is collecting money to help out SBPS workers in Indonesia.

Serikat Buruh Progresif Sejahtera (SBPS) took one step forward by establishing a social center, Sanggar Budaya Merdeka (Freedom Cultural Workshop). In addition to being a space for organizing workers from several factories, they also wanted to expand it to a library, public kitchen, arts and cultural activities, and even anti-fascist organizing. Thus, their activities would reach more sectors of local society besides factory workers. [More info below]
Long live workers of the world!

HOW TO DONATE:

Anarchist Group Amsterdam bank details:
Stichting Chispa
IBAN : NL89 INGB 0104 9340 85
BIC / SWIFT CODE: INGBNL2A
Please add “SBPS” in description

Or you can donate directly to their PayPal: chitons@autistici.org

MORE INFO:

Serikat Buruh Progresif Sejahtera (SBPS) took one step forward by establishing a social center, Sanggar Budaya Merdeka (Freedom Cultural Workshop). In addition to being a space for organizing workers from several factories, they also wanted to expand it to a library, public kitchen, arts and cultural activities, and even anti-fascist organizing. Thus, their activities would reach more sectors of local society besides factory workers.
Long live workers of the world!

SBPS is one of the most influential medical equipment labour unions in Klaten, Central Java, Indonesia. On 2 December 2024, it went on strike due to unfair contracts, the dismissal of union officials and unpaid wages. As an emerging union, the inspiring success of the strike radicalised the labour movement in Indonesia. Although small, SBPS became a role model and its militants were involved in expanding worker organising in the surrounding garment and textile factories.

At the same time, Indonesia’s labour and anti-authoritarian movements are under threat from a civil-military dictatorship known as Neo-Orba. This is marked by the military expanding its authority beyond defence and increasingly interfering in schools, campuses, factories and plantations. SBPS militants are also being closely monitored. During Mayday 2025, the government arrested and imprisoned 25 demonstrators, including students and non-union workers, in cities such as Bandung, Jakarta and Semarang. Labeled “anarchists” by the police and the press, there have been widespread raids and repression against the anarchist movement in Indonesia for several years.

We continued to struggle. We established our social centre, Sanggar Budaya Merdeka (Freedom Cultural Workshop), to organise factory workers, provide a public kitchen and library, and host arts and cultural activities, as well as anti-fascist events. This way, our activities would reach more local society sectors.

Freedom Cultural Workshop is independent, anti-authoritarian and inclusive. It is not subject to the interests of certain powers, whether state, market or elite. The workshop provides a space for all voices, especially those marginalised, to be heard and appreciated. It is a social laboratory where art, thought and resistance meet.

This fundraising campaign is supported and sponsored by:

★ Perhimpunan Merdeka (@perhimpunanmerdeka ), an anarchist federation specifically in Indonesia, from its local in the Yogyakarta
★ AFFC, an anarcha-feminist collective based in Yogyakarta
★ Pustaka Catut (@pustakacatut), an anarchist book publisher in Indonesia