The Communist Party of Indonesia (Indonesian: Partai Komunis Indonesia, , PKI, ) was a Marxist-Leninist and Maoist communist party in the Dutch East Indies and later Indonesia. It was founded in 1914 as the Indies Social Democratic Association, became the Communist Union of the Indies in 1920, and adopted the name PKI in 1924. The Dutch colonial government banned the party after failed uprisings in 1926 and 1927, but it re-emerged during the Indonesian National Revolution after the Japanese surrender in 1945.
Under D. N. Aidit, the PKI grew rapidly during the 1950s. It finished fourth in the 1955 Indonesian legislative election, receiving 16.35% of the vote and winning 39 out of 257 seats. By the mid-1960s, it had about three million members and was supported by large labour, peasant, youth, women's, and cultural organizations. The party supported President Sukarno's system of Guided Democracy and became the communist element in his Nasakom political formula. At its height, it was one of the largest communist parties outside China and the Soviet Union.
After the 30 September Movement in 1965, in which six senior army generals were killed, the army accused the PKI of organizing an attempted coup. Some PKI leaders, including its leader D.N. Aidit and sympathizers were involved in the movement, but the extent of the party's responsibility remains disputed. Under General Suharto, the army and allied groups carried out a nationwide anti-communist purge in which at least 500,000 people are estimated to have been killed, including PKI members, alleged sympathizers, and others. The party's leadership and organization were destroyed, and the PKI was banned in 1966.
History Forerunners
The Indies Social Democratic Association (Dutch: Indische Sociaal-Democratische Vereeniging, ISDV) was founded in 1914 by Dutch socialist Henk Sneevliet and fellow Indies socialist. The 85-member ISDV was a merger of the two Dutch socialist parties (the SDAP and the Socialist Party of the Netherlands), which would become the Communist Party of the Netherlands under Dutch East Indies leadership. The Dutch members of the ISDV introduced communist ideas to educated Indonesians looking for ways to oppose colonial rule.
The ISDV began a Dutch-language publication, Het Vrije Woord (The Free Word, edited by Adolf Baars), in October 1915.The Netherlands Indies and the Great War 1914–1918, Cornelis Dijk, Kees van Dijk, KITLV Press, 2007, page 481 It did not demand independence when the ISDV was formed. At this point, the association had about 100 members; only three were Indonesians, and it rapidly took a radically anti-capitalist direction. When Sneevliet moved the ISDV's headquarters from Surabaya to Semarang, the ISDV began attracting many Indonesians from like-minded movements which had been growing throughout the Dutch Indies since 1900. The ISDV became increasingly incompatible with the SDAP leadership in the Netherlands, who distanced themselves from the association and began to equate them with Volksraad (People's Council). A reformist faction of the ISDV broke away and formed the Indies Social Democratic Party in 1917. The ISDV began Soeara Merdeka (The Voice of Freedom), its first Indonesian-language publication, that year.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Sneevliet's radicalism gained enough support amongst both the Indonesian population and Dutch soldiers and especially sailors that the Dutch authorities got nervous. Sneevliet was therefore forced to leave the Dutch East Indies in 1918. ISDV was repressed by the Dutch colonial authorities.
Around the same time, the ISDV and communist sympathizers began infiltrating other political groups in the East Indies in a tactic known as the "block within" strategy. The most apparent effect was the infiltration of a nationalist-religious organization Sarekat Islam (Islamic Union) which advocated a Pan-Islamist stance and freedom from colonial rule. Many members including Semaun and Darsono were successfully influenced by radical leftist ideas. As a result, communist thoughts and ISDV agents were successfully planted in the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia. After the involuntary departure of several Dutch cadres, combined with the infiltration operations, the membership shifted from majority-Dutch to majority-Indonesian.
Establishment At its 23 May 1920 congress in Semarang, the ISDV changed its name to Perserikatan Komunis di Hindia (PKH; the Communist Union of the Indies). Semaun became party chairman, and Darsono the vice-chairman. Its highest committee members were predominantly Dutch.
During this time, communist sympathizers were still considered part of Sarekat Islam itself. In the period leading up to the Sarekat Islam's sixth congress in 1921, members affiliated with the central branch in Batavia decided to attempt to purge the organization of its communist members. Agus Salim, the organization's secretary, introduced a motion banning Sarekat Islam members from dual membership in other parties. The motion passed despite opposition from Tan Malaka and Semaun, forcing the communists to change tactics. The Dutch colonial authorities introduced more restrictions on political activity and Sarekat Islam decided to focus on religious matters, leaving the communists as the only active extremist organization.
In 1922, whilst Semaun was attending Far Eastern Labour Conference in Moscow, Tan Malaka tried to turn a strike by government pawnshop workers into a national strike by all Indonesian labor unions. The plot failed and Malaka was arrested, given a choice between internal or external exile; he chose the latter and left for the Soviet Union. In May, Semaun returned after seven months in the Soviet Union and began to organize the labor unions into a single organization. In September, the Union of Indonesian Labour Organizations (Persatuan Vakbonded Hindia) was formed.
At the Fifth Comintern Congress in 1924, it was emphasized that "the top priority of communist parties is to gain control of trades unions"; there could be no successful revolution without this. The PKH began to concentrate on unions, decided to improve discipline, and demanded the establishment of a Soviet Republic of Indonesia. The party name was changed again that year, to Partai Komunis Indonesia (PKI, Communist Party of Indonesia).George McTurnan Kahin, Nationalism and Revolution in Indonesia (Cornell University Press: Ithaca. New York, 1952) p. 77.
1926 revolt Planning In a May 1925 plenary session, the Comintern executive committee ordered the Indonesian communists to form an anti-imperialist coalition with non-communist, nationalist organizations; extremist elements led by Alimin and Musso called for a revolution to overthrow the Dutch colonial government. At a conference in Prambanan, Central Java, communist-controlled trade unions decided that the revolution would start with a strike by railroad workers which would then trigger a general strike; after that, the PKI would replace the colonial government.
The planned revolution would begin in Padang, but a government-security clampdown at the beginning of 1926 which ended the right to assembly and led to the arrest of PKI members forced the party to go deeper underground. Dissention among PKI leaders about the timing and course of the revolution resulted in poor planning. Tan Malaka, the Comintern's agent for Southeast Asia and Australia, did not agree with the plot (partly because he believed that the PKI had insufficient mass support). As a result of these divisions, the revolution was postponed in June 1926.
Revolt However, a limited revolt in Batavia (as Jakarta was then known) began on 12 November; similar revolts took place in Padang, Bantam and Surabaya. The Batavia revolt was crushed in a day or two, and the others were quashed in a few weeks.
Aftermath As a result of the failed revolution, 13,000 people were arrested, 4,500 imprisoned, 1,308 interned, and 823 exiled to the Boven-Digoel camp in the Digul region of Western New Guinea; several people died in captivity. Many non-communist political activists were also targeted by colonial authorities under the pretext of suppressing the communist rebellion, and the party was outlawed by the Dutch East Indies government in 1927. The PKI went underground, and Dutch (and, later, Japanese) surveillance ensured that it was never a disciplined or coherent organisation for the remainder of the pre-war period.
During the initial period of illegality, with much of its leadership imprisoned, the PKI kept a somewhat lower profile. Although PKI leader Musso returned from his Moscow exile in 1935 to reorganize the underground (or "illegal") PKI, his stay in Indonesia was brief, and the leadership of that illegal branch (such as Djokosoedjono) were soon arrested and exiled to Boven-Digoel. Remnants of the party worked on a variety of fronts, such as Gerindo and trade unions. It began working amongst Indonesian students in the Netherlands within the nationalist organization Perhimpunan Indonesia, which the party would soon control.
Resurgence National revolution
The PKI re-emerged on the political scene after the 1945 surrender of Japan and actively participated in the Indonesian National Awakening; many armed units were under PKI control or influence. Although PKI militias played an important role in fighting the Dutch, President Sukarno was concerned that the party's growing influence would eventually threaten his position. Because the PKI's growth troubled the right-wing sectors of Indonesian society and some foreign powers (especially the vigorously anti-communist United States), its relationship with the other forces also fighting for independence was generally difficult.
The PKI and the Socialist Party (Partai Sosialis) formed a joint front, the People's Democratic Front, in February 1948. Although the front did not last, the Socialist Party later merged with the PKI; by this time, the Pesindo militias were under PKI control.
Madiun Affair
On 11 August 1948, Musso returned to Jakarta after twelve years in the Soviet Union. The PKI politburo was reconstructed, and included D. N. Aidit, M. H. Lukman, and Njoto. After signing the Renville Agreement in 1948, many of the republican armed units returned from zones of conflict; this gave the Indonesian republicans some confidence that they would be able to counter the PKI militarily. Guerrilla units and militias under PKI influence were ordered to disband.
In Madiun, a group of PKI military which refused to disarm were countered in September of that year; the confrontations sparked a violent uprising, which provided a pretext to clamp down on the PKI. It was claimed by army sources that the PKI had announced the proclamation of a Soviet Republic of Indonesia on 18 September, with Musso as president and Amir Sjarifuddin as prime minister. At the same time, however, the PKI had denounced the uprising and appealed for calm.
The uprising was suppressed by republican troops, and the party experienced another period of repression. On 30 September, Madiun was taken over by republican troops of the Siliwangi Division. Thousands of party members were killed, and 36,000 were imprisoned. Amongst the executed were several leaders, including Musso (who was killed on 31 October, allegedly while trying to escape from prison). Although Aidit and Lukman went into exile in China, the PKI was not banned after the Madiun Affair. It continued to operate legally and openly, and its reconstruction began in 1949.
Publishing During the 1950s, the party began publishing again; its main publications were Harian Rakyat and Bintang Merah, as well as quarterly journal PKI dan Perwakilan.
Leadership of D. N. Aidit