Source: Build the PKI along the Marxist-Leninist line to the the People's Democratic Revolution in Indonesia. Published by the Delegation of the CC PKI, 1971. PDF Scan.
INTRODUCTION
The Self-Criticism of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee PKI (Communist Party of Indonesia) has most strongly criticized the opportunist and revisionist mistakes made by the Party leadership during the period between 1951 and 1965. The essence of the mistakes committed by the Party during this period was the failure to carry out the principle of Marxism-Leninism on revolution, namely the seizure of political power by armed forces.
The opportunist and revisionist mistake was reflected in the Party programme that was ratified by the Fifth Party Congress (1945) and, still more clearly, after the programme was revised by the Sixth Party Congress (1959) and the Seventh Party Congress (1962).
The programme ratified by the Fifth Party Congress spoke of the necessity “to replace the government of the feudal and comprador overlords, and to establish a people’s democratic government”. The programme pointed out that “parliamentary struggle alone is not enough to achieve the aim of establishing a people’s democratic government”, and that “the way out lies in changing the balance of forces between the imperialist, the landlords and the comprador-bourgeoisie on the one hand, and the forces of the people on the other. The way out lies in arousing, mobilizing and organising the masses in particular the workers and peasants”. However, the programme did not say a single word on the necessity to seize political power through armed struggle. Without armed struggle, it is impossible to change the balance of forces as stated in the programme, it is impossible to find a way out for the Indonesian people, and it is impossible to achieve a people’s democratic power.
The Sixth Party Congress aggravated the mistake by adopting the line of Khrushchovite modern revisionism, namely the line of "peaceful transition" in the programme of the Party. It was said in the programme that “the working class can fulfil its historical mission in a democratic state where parliament and other institutions are reformed, that means giving them a really democratic content and constituting them according to the wish of the people”, and that the peaceful road or parliamentary road “is a possibility, a possibility that we must persistently strive to transform into a reality”. The modern revisionist line had been further established in the Party programme by the Seventh Party Congress.
The old Party programme consisted of the “General Programme”, namely the programme for people’s democracy and the “Programme of Immediate Demands” which contained a series of demands that were considered possible to be implemented by certain bourgeois governments before the establishment of a people’s democratic government. The “Programme of Immediate Demands” was formulated on the basis of the view that “the PKI does not adopt one and the same attitude towards governments before the establishment of a people’s democratic government”, and that “in a certain situation the Party is in opposition to the government and calls on the masses to overthrow it, in another situation the Party participates in the government”. The programme ratified by the Sixth Party Congress also said: “the PKI considers that the Programme of Immediate Demands can the best implemented by a gotongroyong government (national coalition government – Politbureau) but, even when it is not yet a gotongroyong government, so long as it takes an anti-colonialist and progressive stand, it possesses the conditions to meet the urgent demands of the Indonesian people”.
From the viewpoint that was made the basis to formulate “the Programme of Immediate Demands” which constituted the integral part of the Party Programme can be clearly seen the opportunist political line with regard to the state power. All governments existing prior to the establishment of a people’s democratic government can be no other but bourgeois governments: they are organs of the rule of the bourgeois and feudal classes in exercising dictatorship over the working class and the rest of the working people. Such a political line had engendered the illusion among the people that bourgeois rule in the era of the general crisis of capitalism was still capable of improving the living conditions of the people. This opportunist political line hindered the growth of the consciousness among the working class and the rest of the working people on the necessity to replace bourgeois dictatorship with people’s dictatorship led by the working class, through violent revolution. On the contrary, it helped to maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie that was already facing economic and political crises.
It is clear the Party programme since the fifth Party Congress was an opportunist and revisionist programme. For this reason the Political Bureau has considered it necessary, in accordingly decided, to replace the old revisionist Party programme with a new Party programme, a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist programme.
The task of the Party at present is to mobilize the masses of the people to overthrow the Suharto-Nasution fascist dictatorship by forces of arms, and to establish a people’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class. In line with the task of the Party, the new programme, apart from showing the way to achieve people’s democracy through armed revolution, has omitted the so-called Programme of Immediate Demands. By abolishing the Programme of Immediate Demands is not meant that it is no longer necessary for the Party to lead the struggle for reforms waged by the different groups of the masses of the people. The Party will always include the struggle for reforms as a part of its revolutionary activities. However, the struggle for reforms will never liberate the masses of the people from oppression and exploitation. The way to achieve real improvement in the living conditions, the way leading to the fulfilment of the fundamental interests of the masses of the people such as political independence, food, clothing and housing, lies in the armed struggle to overthrow the rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, the concentrated form of which is the fascist military regime of Suharto-Nasution.
The Political Bureau presents this programme to the workers, peasants, revolutionary intellectuals, small businessmen, fishermen, patriotic national businessmen m other democratic groups to be used as a guide in their revolutionary struggle to liberate themselves from the oppression and exploitation by imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, and for overthrowing the fascist dictatorship of Suharto-Nasution.
The Political Bureau expects every Party member to be daring and preserving in propagating this programme as widely as possible among the masses of the people, so that the masses will regard this programme as their own and carry it out consistently. The Political Bureau calls on all Party members to become courageous, militant and conscious revolutionary fighters, and set an example among the people in carrying out this programme.
POLITICAL BUREAU OF THE CC PKI
November, 1967
In August 1945, the Indonesian people rose in revolution. The Indonesian people took up arms, wrested power from the hands of the Japanese fascist imperialist, and later launched a war of independence against the aggression by the Dutch imperialist who were supported by the British and U.S. imperialist. The 1945 August Revolution was a revolution carried out by the broad masses of the people to achieve a completely independent and democratic Indonesia.
The 1945 August Revolution, however, failed in attaining its objective aim, namely a completely independent and democratic Indonesia, an Indonesia based on people’s democracy as the transitional stage to a socialist in Indonesia. The August Revolution ended in failure due to the absence of working class leadership as well as to the betrayal by the Indonesian reactionary bourgeoisie.
The PKI, as the vanguard of the Indonesian working class which should bear the historical mission to lead the Indonesian revolution, was then still unable to fulfil its historical mission. The PKI entered the 1945 August Revolution in a state of serious weakness in the ideological, political and organizational fields. The PKI had not yet mastered Marxist-Leninist principles of revolution and seriously lacked the knowledge on the concrete conditions of the Indonesian society. The absence of working class leadership led to the failure of the August Revolution in carrying out the preliminary task that should have been accomplished, namely the complete destruction of the colonial state machine and the setting up of a revolutionary political power under the leadership of the working class. The power that was brought into being by the August Revolution was not a people’s democratic power but a bourgeois power. The participation of Communists in the government during the 1945-1947 period, and the formation of a coalition government led by a Communist in July 1947 that lasted until January 1948, did not lend a people’s democratic character to the Republic of Indonesia. This was because the PKI pursued an opportunist policy, because comprador elements still occupied key position in the government, and because the organs of colonial bureaucracy were not totally destroyed, to be replaced by completely new organs of power. Without establishing a people’s democratic power, the August Revolution was unable to liquidate the domination of imperialism and feudalism. The Revolution failed to carry out a radical agrarian reform that would liberate the peasantry from feudal oppression. For this reason, the peasantry which forms the main mass forces of the revolution could not be mobilized into an invincible bastion of the revolution.
The 1945 August Revolution met its decisive failure when the reactionary bourgeoisie led by Mohammad Hatta succeeded in completely seizing state power in 1948, and launched a white terror against Communists and other patriotic fighters upon the orders of U.S. imperialism. The reactionary clique led by Mohammad Hatta completely capitulated to the Dutch imperialists. On November 2, 1949, the reactionary Indonesian government headed by Mohammad Hatta signed the agreement of the Round Table Conference (RTC) which legalized once again the privileges enjoyed by the Dutch imperialist in the political, economic, military and cultural fields.
The rule of the reactionary bourgeoisie led by Mohammad Hatta had turned Indonesia into a new-type colony of the Dutch imperialism. And West Irian, one-fifth of Indonesian territory, was still completely occupied by the Dutch imperialists.
The Indonesian people continued the struggle for complete national independence and democratic reform. Thanks to the unyielding struggle of the Indonesian people, the reactionary governments of Hatta and of the Mayumi-PSI were overthrown. Subsequently, there came into existence bourgeois government which owing to the pressure of the people’s revolutionary movement were forced to pursue, to a certain extent, an anti-imperialist and rather democratic policy. The RTC Agreement were ultimately abrogated and the domination of Dutch imperialism was undermined.
But, since the state power was in the hands of the bourgeois and feudal classes, the Indonesian people remained under the imperialist and feudal oppression and exploitation. The Indonesian bourgeois government continued to give the imperialist the opportunity to plunder the wealth of Indonesia and to exploit the Indonesian people. Assisted by their lackeys in the state power of the Republic of Indonesia, the U.S. imperialist took over the position formerly occupied by the Dutch imperialist in Indonesia in the economic field.
The U.S. imperialist have, since a long time tried to control Indonesia which is very important for the investment of their monopoly capital, because Indonesia is rich in natural resources and raw materials and has cheap labour power, and as a market for their commodities. Besides, militarily the U.S. imperialists badly need Indonesia for pursuing their aggression against socialist China, the most reliable bastion of the world revolution.
The realize this sinister aim, the U.S. imperialists have unceasingly attempted to destroy the Indonesian revolutionary movement, to destroy the Communist Party of Indonesia, and to overthrow Indonesian governments which refused to bow completely to their orders.
This sinister aim of the U.S. imperialists was accomplished after the Indonesian counter-revolutionary forces headed by the Right-wing military clique of Suharto-Nasution, taking the “September 30th Affair” as a pretext, completely took over the state power. The Right-wing military clique of Suharto-Nasution, the running dog of U.S. imperialism, has established the most barbarous fascist dictatorship. The fascist dictatorship that represents the bureaucrat-capitalist, comprador and landlord classes is maintained by force of bayonet, and perpetrates the most atrocious large-scale and open terror against Communists and other patriotic fighters. The reign of the Suharto-Nasution fascist military regime is darkest period for the Indonesian nation during the past 22 years. The Indonesian people suffer from unprecedented oppression and exploitation.
I.e. the brief period since the coming into power of the Suharto-Nasution fascist military regime, Indonesia has been transformed into a new-type colony of U.S. imperialism. Imperialist enterprises that were taken over by the people have been returned to their owners. Laws have been made to provide special guarantees for the imperialists to plunder and drain the riches of Indonesia in a big way, and to exploit the Indonesian people mercilessly. All the natural resources and other riches of Indonesia such as petroleum, metals and other minerals, forestry products, plantations, marine fisheries, agricultural farms and heavy and light industries all have been handed over to the foreign monopoly capitalists, in particular the U.S., to be exploited. To facilitate the large-scale plunder of Indonesia’s riches, the foreign monopoly capitalists have been given the broadest opportunist to open the branches of their banks in Indonesia.
The U.S. imperialist control Indonesia’s economy and finance, not only through the investment of their capital in the different branches of industry, but also through the different forms of the so-called economic and financial assistance, both directly or through the so-called organization of international fund, international banks, and in particular the “International Monetary Fund”.
The Japanese imperialists, who take an exceedingly active and great part in the plunder of the riches of Indonesia, also serve as channels for U.S. imperialism in controlling Indonesia. The revenue of the Suharto-Nasution fascist military regime, besides depending in the various kinds of domestic taxes, also depends on the credits extended by the imperialist powers and the revisionist clique of the Soviet Union.
The Indonesia fascist regime which is dependent economically and financially on U.S. imperialism, faithfully follows a foreign and military policy catering to the global strategy of U.S. imperialism which is aimed at maintaining and intensifying colonial oppression of the peoples of various countries. Anti-people, anti-Communism and anti-China are the main features of this policy. In the framework of its anti-China policy, the Suharto-Nasution fascist regime has unleashed large-scale racist suppression and persecution against the overseas Chinese in Indonesia.
So long as Indonesia lies under the grip of imperialism, it will remain a backward country. Imperialism does not want Indonesia to become an advanced and self-reliant country. Therefore, imperialism is forever interested in the preservation of feudal relations of production in the countryside. Feudalism is the social basis of colonial-imperialism in carrying out its colonial oppression and exploitation in Indonesia.
The vestiges of feudalism in the countryside such as monopoly of lands by landlords, land-rent in the form of labour or in kind, debts that reduce the peasants into slaves of the usurers and landlords, corvee, “pologoro” (feudal duties), etc. still prevail in the countryside. In all the villages of Indonesia still prevails the autocratic and anti-democratic feudal political power, one that represents the landlords and protects the system of feudal oppression and exploitation of the peasants.
Apart from using the feudal system and the feudal landlord class as the pillar, the new-type colonial oppression of the Indonesian people by U.S. imperialism is carried out with the support of the comprador-and bureaucrat- bourgeoisie. The comprador-and bureaucrat- bourgeoisie which today holds political power in Indonesia and serves as the lackey of U.S. imperialism, consists mainly of Right-wing military officers’ clique which has, for years, by using military powers vested by the Law of State of War and Siege that has been enforced since 1958, usurped the power in the enterprises owned by the foreign monopoly capitalists that had been taken over by the people. Through military and bureaucratic powers, members of the clique have enriched themselves and built up an economic power. They have grown overnight into big capitalists, and together with the foreign monopoly capitalists control vital industrial and commercial enterprises. The bureaucrat-capitalist class represented by the fascist military clique of Suharto-Nasution which holds political power is the same time the comprador of U.S. imperialism. It is the lackey serving the interests of U.S. imperialism.
So long as Indonesia has not yet been liberated from imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, the Indonesian people will continue to live in poverty and backwardness, and to suffer from all kinds of inequalities. Though Indonesia is a fertile country, rich in natural resources and has an industrious people, the Indonesian people have nevertheless always suffered from the shortage of food, clothing and housing. The majority of the Indonesian people live in semi-starvation, and in many places of the countryside famine frequently takes place, causing the death of thousands and even tens of thousands of people.
Indonesia has continuously been in the grip of ever worsening economic and financial crises. Indonesian bourgeois governments came and went, and repeatedly took measures in what were alleged as improving the economic and preventing inflation. But not one Indonesian bourgeois government has succeeded in improving the economic and finance. All the measures taken have only resulted in new and greater difficulties for the people. The economic condition worsens from day to day, inflation continues to run rampant, prices of goods and tariffs continue to sky-rocket, the value of the rupiah steadily drops and the purchasing power of the people decreases daily. Under the reign of the Suharto-Nasution fascist military regime, a catastrophe greater than at any time in the past befalls the broad masses of the Indonesian people.
The real wages of the workers increasingly drop, and opportunist for jobs has narrowed due to the bankruptcy of domestic industries. Mass dismissals of the workers have been carried out in many enterprises and offices of the reactionary government. Consequently the ranks of the unemployed have swollen.
The lot of the peasants is worse than ever before. Ever greater numbers of peasants have lost their land. The gains the peasants got from their struggle which have relieved only a small fraction of their great sufferings, such as the implementation of the Law of Crop0Sharing and the bourgeois Land Reform Law, all have been taken back by the Suharto-Nasution fascist regime. In addition to the feudal oppression and exploitation, the peasants suffered new burdens in the form of strangling tax increases, different kinds of compulsory contributions, and the coercion of religious worship. The increasingly difficult conditions of the peasants’ life in the countryside have led to the migration of the rural population to the cities in greater number, in order to seek new means of living. But since in the cities jobs are getting scarce, as a result, the number of vagrants in the cities who have neither jobs nor dwellings has been steadily rising.
The petty bourgeoisie such as the artisans, small traders and the great number of the city poor also lead an increasingly difficult life. The scale of their business has shrunk, they are subjected to arbitrary treatment by the reactionary rulers and weighed down by all kinds of unbearable taxes. More and more of them have gone bankrupt.
An increasingly difficult life is also suffered by the fishery labourers and poor fishermen. They are still suffering from feudal relations of production maintained by the “juragan” (boat owners), and are exploited by the reactionary rulers. The same lot befalls the middle fishermen.
The national bourgeoisie is not only unable to develop its business but also unable to maintain its position in the face of the competition by the foreign monopoly capitalists who enjoy special protection from the Suharto-Nasution fascist regime, as well as of the various regulations which strangle the development of national industry.
The reign of the fascist military clique has also caused great damage in the field of education. The fascist terror which has resulted in the death of tens of thousands of teachers and revolutionary intellectuals has caused serious crises in the educational field. A shortage of teachers and school buildings has increased and, as a result, the number of children who are deprived of the opportunity to study has also increased. Children of the workers, peasants and other section of the working people are faced with still greater difficulties to study, because of increasingly high tuition fees and of the high prices of school equipment.
U.S. imperialist culture in the form of films, literature, music, etc. which is used as a means to corrupt the spirit of and demoralize the people, especially the younger generation, is imported on a large scale by Suharto-Nasution fascist regime to Indonesia.
Under the reign of the fascist regime, the revolutionary intellectuals, writers and artists are suffering from difficult material and spiritual life. They have not slightest freedom of creation and of developing their creative abilities.
Thus the Suharto-Nasution fascist military regime, the running dog of U.S. imperialism and the ally of the revisionist leading clique of the Soviet Union, has transformed Indonesia, a beautiful and fertile country of thousands of islands which is rich in raw material resources, into a vast hell for the Indonesian people. At the cost of sufferings of tens of millions of Indonesian people, a small handful of national betrayers and sellers of national interests such as the chieftains of the Suharto-Nasution fascist regime, bureaucrat-capitalists, compradors, feudal landlords, corrupt generals and civilian high officials, enjoy a life of luxury together with the foreign monopoly capitalists.
Which road must be taken by the Indonesian people to liberate themselves from oppression and exploitation?
The Suharto-Nasution fascist dictatorship is the political power of the bureaucrat-capitalists, comprador and landlord classes which is fully subservient to U.S. imperialism. Therefore, in order to realize the wish of the people to liberate themselves from the oppression and exploitation by imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, the Suharto-Nasution fascist dictatorship must be completely destroyed. This is the primary task of the Indonesian revolution at present.
The Indonesian revolution at the present stage is a bourgeois democratic revolution which forms a part of the world proletarian socialist revolution. It is a people’s democratic revolution. The objective of the revolution is to build an independent and democratic new Indonesia, an Indonesia based on people’s democracy as the transitional stage to socialist and communist society. The motive forces of the Indonesian revolution are the working class, the peasantry, the petty-bourgeois class and other democratic elements, with the working class as the leader of the revolution and the peasantry its main force.
The Indonesian revolution will succeed in reaching its objective aim only when the working class and its vanguard party, the Communist Party of Indonesia, can fulfil their mission as leader of the revolution. The experience of the 1945 August Revolution provided the lesson: since the working class and its vanguard party, the PKI, failed in fulfilling their mission as the leader of the revolution, leadership of the revolution fell into the hands of the bourgeoisie and the revolution met with failure.
In order to fulfil their mission to lead the revolution, the working class and the PKI must be good at leading the armed struggle. The experience of the Indonesian people during the 1945 August Revolution as well as in the seventeen years after the August Revolution failed, in particular during the past two years, has taught us the lesson that in order to overthrow the rule of imperialism, landlords, bureaucrat-capitalists and compradors, the people must wage armed struggle. The most vicious and bloody white terror which has been on the rampage during the last two years has aroused the consciousness of the Indonesian Communists and revolutionary people on the truth of the thesis of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tsetung Thought, that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”, and that “the seizure of power by armed force, the settlement of the issue by war, is the central task and the highest form of revolution”.
The Indonesian Right-wing military clique headed by Suharto-Nasution has through the barrel of the gun, seized political power, and set up fascist dictatorship with its incomparable brutalities. To defeat the armed suppression carried out by the fascist military dictatorship, the Indonesian people must armed struggle themselves, build a people’s war. Only through people’s war will the Indonesian people achieve their liberation.
The bloody experience in which hundreds of thousands of Communists and other patriotic fighters have been killed has provided the lesson which should never be forgotten the revisionist road of "peaceful transition" or the parliamentary road which is peddled by the revisionist leading clique of the Soviet Union, and which for fourteen years was followed by the former leadership of the Party, is a road leading to catastrophe for the Communists, the people and the revolution. The Indonesian Communists and revolutionary people must consistently rid their ranks of the poisonous weed of modern revisionism which has brought the Indonesian revolution to serious failure, and with the most resolute determination march courageously onwards along the road of armed revolution.
The armed struggle of the Indonesian people is essentially the armed struggle of the peasants under the leadership of the working class. Due to the uneven economic and political development in Indonesia as a neo-colonial and semi-feudal country, and since the peasantry constitutes the main force of the revolution and since the forces of counter-revolution are comparatively weak in the countryside, the Indonesian revolution will achieve its complete victory in the whole country through the winning of victories locality by locality, through the liberation of the countryside from feudal oppression, through the establishment of revolutionary political power in the countryside, through the encirclement of the cities by the countryside and finally liberating the cities, smashing the entire power of counter-revolution, and establishing nation-wide revolutionary political power. The liberation of the Indonesian people can never be achieved through military adventurism, i.e. putschism or military coup d’etat.
It is clear for every Communist and for every son and daughter of the Indonesian people who is aspiring for liberation that the main and urgent tasks of the revolution are to arouse organize, arm and mobilize the masses of the people, to build the backward Indonesian villages into advanced revolutionary bases, into powerful bastions of the revolution, consolidated in the political, military, economic and cultural fields.
In order to lead the Indonesian revolution, the working class and the PKI apart from being good at waging armed struggle, must also be good at establishing a united front of all revolutionary classes and groups against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism. Armed struggle and revolutionary united front are that two main weapons that must be wielded by the PKI. Without wielding these two main weapons, PKI will never be able to fulfil its mission to lead the revolution. The armed struggle under the leadership of the PKI might be isolated and defeated if a united front of all revolutionary classes and groups is not established. On the other hand, the united front will lose its meaning if it is not for carrying out armed struggle.
The working class first of all must establish an alliance with the peasantry, because the peasantry is the main force of the revolution and the most reliable ally of the working class. The alliance of the working class and the peasantry is the basis of the revolutionary united front. The establishment of the worker-peasant alliance under the leadership of the working class ensures the hegemony of the working class in the revolution, in ensures its victory. Nevertheless, the working class must still establish a united front with the petty bourgeois class other than the peasantry, and with other democratic elements. The petty- bourgeois class is a reliable ally of the working class.
Towards the national-bourgeois class, the working class must follow a policy of unity and struggle. So long as this class does not betray the revolution, the working class must forge a united front with it. At the same time, the working class must wage a firm struggle against the vacillating nature of the national bourgeoisie, against its tendency towards capitulation to the enemy, and against its attempts to undermine the ranks of the working class itself and the united front.
Such is the road of revolution that must be taken, and the conditions that must be fulfilled by the Indonesian people in order to liberate themselves from the oppression and exploitation by imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism.
In order to build an advanced, free and democratic new Indonesia, an Indonesia based on people’s democracy as the transitional stage to socialism, the PKI puts forward the main points of its programme as follows:
Politics
1. To destroy completely the entire state machine of the Suharto-Nasution fascist dictatorship, the general representative of U.S. imperialism, feudal landlord class, bureaucrat-capitalists and comprador-bourgeoisie, and to establish a people’s democratic dictatorship. The people’s democratic dictatorship in Indonesia shall be the joint power of the working class, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie, revolutionary intellectuals and other democratic groups, based on the worker-peasant alliance and under the leadership of the working class. The people’s democratic dictatorship in Indonesia shall be the instrument in the hands of the Indonesian people to protect their fundamental interests and to completely liquidate imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism, so as to build a free and democratic Indonesian society and leading towards socialism.
2. Every citizen, man or woman, irrespective of his or her nationality or descent, shall enjoy equal rights. The state shall give the broadest guarantee for the basic rights of the people, such as the right to organize, to hold meetings and demonstrations, to express opinions in writing or orally and to elect or be elected, and shall ensure freedom of religion. The State shall provide jobs and education for the people. Reactionary classes such as the landlords, the bureaucrat-capitalists, the comprador-capitalists and other national betrayers, shall not enjoy the same democratic liberties as the people. The State shall exercise dictatorship over all these enemies of the revolution. Public offices and the State apparatuses should not be occupied by reactionary elements.
3. Internal government shall be run on the principle that will ensure the consolidation of people’s power and the implementation of democratic centralism. The government shall rely in the masses of the people, and the people shall have the right to control the running of the government.
4. The relation between the central government and the regions shall be based on the principle of democratic centralism, broad rights of autonomy shall be given to the nationalities. The regional governments should strengthen the central government and the central government should assist and guide the regional governments.
5. The system of national defence shall be based on the principle of total popular defence. All people shall have the duty to defend the country and the people’s power from the threat of aggression by the imperialists and other counter-revolutionary elements. In addition to the standing army, the State shall armed struggle the people and organize people’s militia. The people’s army shall be the most important organ of the people’s democratic dictatorship, born from the people and should whole heartedly serve the people.
6. The government shall follow a consistent anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist and anti-neo-colonialist foreign policy, actively foster en international front against imperialism, colonialism and neo-colonialism, consistently support the liberation struggles of the peoples the world over, strengthen the friendship with the socialist countries and the world revolutionary peoples, abrogate all the agreements concluded by the Indonesian reactionary government with the imperialist countries which are detrimental to the interests of the Indonesian nation.
Economy
7. To liquidate the domination of foreign monopoly capital, feudal landlords, bureaucrat-capitalists and compradors in the economic field, and build a people’s democratic economy, namely economy in a transitional stage to socialism where there is no exploitation of man by man. All the sources of natural wealth shall be owned by the state. Foreign and indigenous monopoly enterprises, as well as enterprises which are too big to be managed privately such as the banks, the railways, telecommunication etc. shall be owned and managed by the State. Enterprises belonging to the U.S. imperialists and other imperialists who are directly hostile to the revolution, together with all their assets in Indonesia, as well as enterprises and assets owned by the bureaucrat-capitalists, compradors and other national betrayers shall be confiscated without any compensation and transformed into state-owned enterprises.
8. The State shall protect and assist the development of private national industry, within the limit that it will neither control the life of the people nor develop into monopoly
9. Feudal agrarian and agricultural relations shall be abolished. All lands owned by foreign and indigenous landlords shall be confiscated without any compensation, and distributed to the farm labourers and poor peasants free of charge, individually and to be their individual property. Plantations with modern technique and forests shall be owned by the State. Lands and other properties owned by rich peasants shall not be confiscated. Lands and other properties of the middle peasants shall be protected from infringement. Corvee, “pologoro” (feudal duties) and other feudal burdens shall be abolished. Village administrations shall be run democratically. All debts the peasants owe to usurers and landlords shall be cancelled. The State shall provide low-interest and long term credits for the peasants to build a develop agricultural cooperatives, and make efforts for the modernization and mechanization of agriculture, the State shall organize transmigration, and ensure the provision of lands to be the individual property of each transmigrant as well as of other necessary aid.
10. By using all the domestic funds and resources, and on the basis of the principle of self-reliance, to create the condition for the industrialization of the country as the basis of socialist society. To fix an appropriate minimum wage for the workers and civil servants. To adopt the labour system which protects the health of the workers working in the mines underground and in other health-affecting industries. To adopt the system of social securities at the cost of the State and the capitalists that will provide for illness, invalidism, unemployment and old age. To prohibit child labour. To abolish semi-feudal exploitation in labour relations such as apprenticeship, contractorship etc. To exercise strict control over the prices of commodities.
Culture
11. The culture of people’s democracy shall be an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal and anti-bureaucrat-capitalist new culture. Literature, art and science should serve the workers, peasants and soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army.
12. The system of education and teaching shall be based on the ideological revolutionization and foster the spirit love for the people, the country and labour. To integrate theoretical education with physical labour in the practice of production. To adopt the system of compulsory education for children, male and female, up to thirteen years of age, free of charge.
13. All the nationalities are entitled to use their own language in schools, courts and elsewhere, besides using the Indonesian language as the language of unity and the official language.
14. The State shall ensure public health, and wipe out public diseases and epidemics.
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Such are the main points of the programme that will be implemented by the people’s democratic dictatorship, as a result of the nation-wide victory in the revolution to overthrow the Suharto-Nasution fascist dictatorship.
In places where the revolution is already victorious and revolutionary political power established, the main points of the programme should be implemented in accordance with local concrete conditions and the level of consciousness of the people concerned.
The PKI is of the view that the only road leading to the liberation of the Indonesian people is that of armed revolution as stated in this programme. This is not an easy road, but a long one which is full of twists and turns, hardships and difficulties. But this is the only road leading to liberation. There is no other road, nor can there be.
The Suharto-Nasution fascist dictatorship is the rule of the most reactionary and rotten classes in the country which are heading for total collapse. U.S. imperialism, the master of the Suharto-Nasution fascist regime, and the revisionist clique of the Soviet Union, the loyal accomplice of U.S. imperialism, are also rotten forces and heading for total collapse. All the reactionary and dark forces are merely paper tigers. On the contrary, the working class, the peasantry, the revolutionary intellectuals, the urban petty bourgeoisie and other revolutionary forces, are powerful forces with a bright future ahead.
The Indonesian revolution has very broad allies throughout the world. The international proletariat and all revolutionary peoples who are fighting against oppression stand on the side of the Indonesian people. The Chinese proletariat and the great Chinese people who are armed with the invincible thought of Mao Tsetung and who have built the most reliable bastion of the world revolution, staunchly stand on the side of the Indonesian people, and consistently support the Indonesian revolution.
The Suharto-Nasution fascist military dictatorship and U.S. imperialism will certainly be defeated once and for all and the Indonesian people will certainly be victorious, because the road of the Indonesian revolution is illuminated by the guiding star of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tsetung Thought.
The Communist Party of Indonesia calls on the workers, peasants, revolutionary intellectuals, fishermen, small businessmen, patriotic national businessmen and all Indonesian of goodwill, men and women of all nationalities, to unite closely and wage armed revolution to overthrow the fascist military dictatorship, and thus pave the way towards a free and democratic new life, leading to socialism. This free and independent new life which is progressive, happy, prosperous and secure should be wrested through revolution, by force of arms.
People of Indonesia unite, and with the gun in hand march courageously onward to overthrow and destroy the Suharto-Nasution fascist dictatorship.