With the Workers Movement
HE was born to a family of becak drivers. He quit school so he could work, to enable his younger siblings to continue with their schooling. He himself started roaming about, setting up a theater, reading poetry in kampungs and in towns, and finally ending up a labor activist. His name was marked, identifiable among demonstrators in Kedung Ombo, Sritex and other major protests amd demonstrators in Solo. After joining the Democratic People's Party (PRD), he made came to Jakarta ahead of the 1998 reforms. Then he vanished without a trace. But, his poem is eternal, becoming the protestors' common battle cry: there is one word, "fight"!
May 14, 2013
The Option of Practical Politics
Along with progressive artists, Thukul set up Jaker. It broke up when it was forced to become a political wing of the PRD.
Three friends were engaged in a serious discussion by the Brumbun coast, in Tulungagung, East Java, one afternoon 20 years ago. The host Moelyono, a fine arts fellow from Tulungagung, spoke about the increasingly repressive government. His two guests, painter Semsar Siahaan and Wiji Thukul,
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