Interview with Sherr Rinn from Indonesia

We live to see a raise of workers' fights in Indonesia since 2012. At 3th of october 150.000 workers went into the street for a nationwide strike. Starting point was the town Bekasi, Indonesia's most important industrial zone. A lot of workers organized themselves in the metal-workers' union. Against the Bosses' counterattack with paramilitars we built a „workers' house“, a protected zone open for workers. We organized every day up to thousand workers in the union.

How you got aware of the International Automotive Workers' Conference? What are you most interested in?

I see a big programmatical concordance with the conference. The metall union shifted to the right when a lot of their leading people stood close to the islamic „Prosperious Justice Party“, which is partly allied with religious fanatics. Therefore the foundation of a new union became necessary. When I was kicked-off the metall-union, we founded the „Federation of Popular Democratic Labour Union.“ We hold – like the conference – that the reduction of the working time with full compensation of the wages is the right answer due to the racy technological developpment.

What are you expecting of the conference?

I wish to come to the organization of international solidarity to bring forward our work. Especially the forum concerning the supplier to the automobile industry I'm interested in, because we work for example at the production company Nanbu, part of the supply-chain of Toyota. There we could organize some collegues by supporting them in their fight to shift from contract-jobs to regular jobs. I hope for commun actions, like a picket-line-campaign, for example.

Thank you for the interview and we wish you a successful conference.