Socialists found committee in Java

Socialists found committee in Java

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Activists from various groups representing
laborers, peasants, fishermen and youths have launched a new
organization called the All-Jawa Socialist Movement Committee.

The Committee was established following a two-day gathering
which ended on Monday.

"This movement is the factual form of new socialism and this
organization does not have any links with previous socialist
groupings. We have a different ideological base," Raziku Amin,
chief of the socialist movement, said without elaborating on the
differences.

The organization is the second to be formed in the country,
following the establishment of a Socialist Movement in Parapat in
North Sumatra on Aug. 1, 2000.

The two-day meeting appointed several executives of the
committee, namely Raziku and Iranda Yudhatama for Yogyakarta, Eko
Sulistyo and Asih Nur Chandra for Surakarta in Central Java; Andy
Hendraswanto for Jember in East Java; and Muhammad Alfandi for
Malang, East Java.

"A socialist movement is different from communism, since
communism is anti-democratic in nature and lacks respect for
humanity," Raziku asserted.

The new group is also different from the previous Indonesian
Socialist Party (PSI), he said.

The PSI was established on Feb. 12, 1948 and banned on Aug.
17, 1960 by the country's first president Sukarno.

"PSI was not firm in making its stance against capitalism.
They think that the current form of capitalism is no longer
'greedy' like in the past. We think the opposite," Raziku added,
while asserting that capitalism is the source of unfair treatment
and exploitation in the world.

"Capitalism is also responsible for all kinds of crises and
poverty, in Indonesia and all over the world," the group's
secretary general Iranda Yudhatama said.

Yudhatama further revealed that regional committees for
socialist movements will be established in Kalimantan and
Sulawesi. (23/edt)