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)