Indonesian Communism

[godenas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Louis R. Godena)]

>From R Ruark, The Rise of Indonesian Communism (1973):

  From approximately 8 thousand members [in 1952], the PKI [Communist Party
of Indonesia] expanded to a phenomenal 3 million in just twelve years.  By
1965, the Party could, additionally, claim a youth organization [Pemuda
Rakjat] of three million, a federation of trade unions [SOBSI] of 3.5
million; a peasant organization [BTI] of 9 million, a woman's organization
[Gerwani] of three million; a cultural association, Lekra, of half million;
and a student movement, CGML, of nearly 100,000 members.

If this was the result of "Maoist" organization among the masses, send me a
barrel!

Most authors I have consulted (and, admittedly, I have only begun my
research into this area), do not Aidit (the General Secretary) as under
Mao's or the CPC's domination; although, of course, he was influenced by
them.  The PKI, in this view, was more a product of its own history
(including the abortive coup and ill-starred military campaign of 1948),
than a puppet of either Peking or Moscow.  The PKI, right up until
September, 1965, sought to walk a "middle road" on the Sino-Soviet dispute;
it actively assumed the role of peacemaker.  That it did not seriously plan
an armed struggle or protracted people's war was a deviation--a fatal one,
as it turned out--from the repertoire of Mao and the Chinese Communists.

                                 Louis Godena



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