Workers at Freeport McMoran's Grasberg mine in West Papua, one of the
world's biggest copper and gold mines, have been on strike since
September 15th. Their immediate demand is a large wage increases to
bring their salary into line with what the company pays its workers in
other countries. The conflict has raged over the past six weeks with
unremitting action and brutal repression, bringing the company to its
knees at a time when Papua is in turmoil generally.
Several people have already lost their lives around the mine, which has
been an ongoing source of tension in West Papua since the 1960s. On
Monday 10th October police opened fire on striking miners as they tried
to gain access to company premises. One man, Petrus Ayamseba was killed
in the incident. Several others were wounded, and one of these, Leo
Wandagau, died of his injuries five days later.
There have also been three incidences of shooting along the road that
leads to the Freeport mine. Three contract workers were killed in an
ambush on Friday 14th October, and then another three men were also
killed a week later. Three police officers from the mobile brigade
narrowly escaped when their vehicle was shot at on October 26. The
perpetrators and their connection with the strike remain unknown. Such
ambushes have happened on many occasions in the past in the area.
Security forces routinely blame the actions on OPM guerrillas who are
fighting for an independent West Papua. However as US-based solidarity
group West Papua Action Team explains, “In the past, similar assaults
against security and Freeport personnel have been attributed to
conflicts among police, military and Freeport security personnel who
have long feuded over the division of spoils from extortion practices
that target Freeport, as well as conflict over freelance gold-mining
efforts by local people.”
The struggle of workers, nevertheless, continues unabated: The strikers
have kept up a blockade of the road leading to the mine, with the result
that food and medicine supplies have run very low at the mine (although
reportedly the local Papuan community near the mine is also suffering
from this blockade). The company was also forced to shut production when
it discovered that the 60-mile long pipeline carrying gold and copper
concentrate from the mine to the port had been sabotaged in several
places. Freeport has claimed that it has been able to repair the pipe
and resume operations, although on 26th October it had to declare 'force
majure' meaning that it would not be able to meet its contractual
obligations to supply metal concentrates to its customers.
Aside from the shootings mentioned above there have been acts of
intimidation from the company. The chief negotiator of the All Indonesia
Workers Union (SPSI) which represents the striking workers, Sudiro, was
sitting on the verandah of his house when a shot from a silenced gun hit
a bowl on a table beside him. He understood this incident as a death
threat rather than a direct attempt on his life.
Anger and suspicion in the workers remains high. Duma Tato Sanda, a
journalist working for Cahaya Papua, told Papuan newspaper Jubi how he
was beaten by the striking workers when he was trying to research a
story about an action involving the burning of three Freeport trucks. 'I
said that I was a journalist but nevertheless they beat me and threw
stones at me. Luckily, someone came by on a motor-bike otherwise I could
have been killed from being beaten by so many people.' Apparently the
workers are reacting to the links which Freeport has made with other
journalists, and so see journalists as a threat.
Solidarity actions with the strike have taken place outside of Papua. On
the second day of 'Occupy Jakarta' protests, the Freeport building in
the Indonesian capital was chosen as a focus for the action, and in the
US city of Phoenix, activists planned to picket Freeport's global
headquarters on October 28th. In Yogyakarta on the 13th of Octob er and
Jakarta on the 26th October there were also demonstrations, but with the
demand that the Freeport mine be nationalised. This analysis might fit
uneasily with the wishes of many Papuans, who quite clearly identify the
Indonesian State as part of the oppression they face, just as much as
foreign corporations.
All this is taking place in a moment of intense turmoil for Papuans. At
the same time as the actions around Freeport, security forces violently
broke up the third Papuan People's Congress, being held outside
Jayapura. With the excuse that the meeting of many thousands of people
had decided to call for independence, troops dispersed the crowd using
live ammunition. Over the following days six bodies were found in the
area. Three-hundred people were arrested, six of which are currently
being charged with treason.
Then on the 24th of October, in Mulia in Puncak Jaya two men jumped on
the local police chief, Adj. Comr. Dominggus Oktavianus Awes at Mulia
airport and used his gun to shoot him dead. The remote Puncak Jaya
regency has been the scene of many of the state's most brutal operations
over the past several years, including village burnings, murder, rape
and sweeping operations that terrorise the whole community. The
Vanuatu-based international spokesperson of the Free Papua Movement
(OPM), John Otto Ondawame did not say whether or not this was the work
of the OPM, but did make the point that Dominggus had been one of “those
who must take responsibility for the series of crimes against humanity
in Puncak Jaya.”
Of course the links between the Freeport strike and the wider struggles
of the Papuan people for peace and self-determination are not
straightforward. But the climate of tension which has put Papua on edge
right at the moment surely has its effects on the mineworkers too, as
they struggle to make a decent living from this company whose presence
in Papua has long been one of the key reasons for the continued
militarisation across the whole island, as well as widespread ecological
destruction.
Freeport McMoran is a US company headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona,
US,although its Grasberg mine in Papua is operated in a joint venture
with UK-Australian Rio Tinto, which recieves 40% of the mine's profits.
http://hidupbiasa.blogspot.com/2011/10/west-papua-at-boiling-point-strike-at.html