Source: The Militant, Vol. 12 No. 52, 27 December 1948, p. 3.
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The Dutch imperialists say their war against the Republic of Indonesia is not a war of colonial conquest but a “police action.” It is not designed, they claim, “to crush Indonesian freedom, but to clear the road for its triumph.” They are not slaughtering a defenseless people, but simply, “preventing a wave of murder, arson, kidnapping and looting” that was being plotted in secret by the Indonesians. And if they planned their altruistic enterprise in the dark of the night, timed it to catch the Indonesian government unawares and the United Nations adjourned, and had their paratroopers, bombers, tanks and artillery spring it without the slightest warning, it was only with the humanitarian objective of “saving lives.”
Were more cynical lies ever broadcast by Goebbels to smokescreen a Nazi blitzkrieg? If they hang Tojo and the foul Nazis for their crimes against humanity, what should be done with the Dutch imperialists?
The U.S. State Department squirmed Dec. 18 when the Dutch colonial despots, just seven days before Christmas, pulled a Pearl Harbor attack on the three-year-old republic and seized government officials of the Indonesian people. How allay public indignation over this stab in the back so obviously patterned on Axis tactics in World War II?
The State Department is now publicly trying to unload responsibility. To indicate displeasure with Dutch tactics, Marshall Plan aid to the Dutch East Indies was stopped and the UN asked to issue another order to “cease fire” and withdraw to previous truce lines.
No doubt the Truman Administration favors less violent suppression of the struggle of the Indonesian people for independence. A deal appeared feasible. The Indonesian capitalists had indicated in every way possible their willingness to serve as agents for Western imperialism, asking nothing in return but due consideration for their own interests. Up to the last minute, the Indonesian Government offered more concessions. Yet the Dutch imperialists arrogantly brushed all this aside and- resorted to their favorite instrument of colonial policy, the naked sword.
Despite passing tactical differences with the Dutch rulers, the fact remains that the Truman Administration shares full guilt for the drive to crush the Indonesian freedom fighters. The record proves this to the hilt.
The Indonesian Republic came out of the underground struggle against the Japanese occupation. When World War II ended, the Indonesian people took in good faith the proclamations of the Allies that they were fighting for “four freedoms.” They acted on the wartime promise of the Dutch Government to grant them freedom. They felt that surely the United States would recall its own struggle in 1776 against colonial despotism and come to their aid. On Aug. 17, 1945, they proclaimed their independence.
Against the tide of freedom that swept through the 72,000,000 people of Java and the other islands of the Dutch East Indies, the distant Netherlands government was utterly helpless. But the Dutch tyrants had powerful friends.
Within a month, the British fleet moved against the Indonesian Republic. The Japanese were told not to hand authority to Indonesia. British troops stormed ashore to seize key ports. Up went the Union Jack, the Netherlands Tricolors and the Stars and Stripes.
Here is how the Nov. 24, 1945, Militant analyzed the events:
“The objective of the British is deadly clear. They intend to smash the independence movement. They intend to reinstate the Dutch slavemasters. They intend to prevent above all the spread of the Indonesian uprising to the colonial lands still in the grip of London.
“Washington is backing the British and Dutch. American arms, American ammunition, American military supplies are pouring into the hands of the British and Dutch imperialist troops. American ships are hastening fresh contingents of soldiers to battle the Indonesian people.
“Thus are the fair promises of the Atlantic Charter finding their true expression in the smoking ruins and bloody streets of Indonesia’s cities.”
Once the key coastal cities were taken, the British withdrew and the Dutch carried on. They put a tight blockade on Indonesia to prevent arms from getting in and goods from getting out. Then they methodically built up their strongholds and moved forward according to the time-honored technique of colonial conquerors, making promises of peace to win truces and obtain withdrawals of the Indonesians, utilizing the truces to consolidate new positions from which to launch fresh attacks.
The Truman Administration played a perfidious role in behalf of the Dutch. When the Indonesian Government asked for help, Truman was silent. When the Indonesian Government protested the use of American military supplies, Secretary of State Byrne ordered removal of the label, “Made in the U.S.A.”
Almost one billion dollars were turned over to the Dutch in the form of Lend Lease, credits and Marshall Plan aid. Not a cent was given the Indonesian government.
When the State Department did intervene in Indonesia it was to use the authority and prestige of the United States to get the truces needed by the Dutch and the retreats and withdrawals of Indonesian troops into ever more vulnerable positions.
In the United Nations, Washington took the lead in keeping the Indonesians occupied talking about concessions, cease fire orders, truces and their violations while the Dutch methodically prepared to carry out their strategic aim of crushing all resistance in Indonesia.
And today, while the State Department publicly slaps the Dutch on the wrist, it sits in secret sessions with the Dutch and other-imperialist powers drawing up the Atlantic Pact, a military alliance under which new mountains of arms are to be sent to the Netherlands.
The Truman Administration is interested in protecting Big Business holdings in the fabulously rich Dutch East Indies. Among the companies are Goodyear Tire and Rubber, British American Tobacco, Standard Oil, Shell Oil, Colgate-Palmolive Peet, National Carbon, General Motors and International General Electric.
Besides this, the Truman Administration follows a general policy of backing reaction in the Far East as it does elsewhere. In China it has been Chiang Kai-shek’s dictatorship, in Indo-China the French colonial tyrants, and in Indonesia the Dutch imperialists. In addition, it counts the Dutch as allies in the projected war on the Soviet Union and consequently wishes to strengthen them.
The Indonesian capitalists and their political representatives bear a big share of responsibility for the success of the Dutch. As early as Oct. 13, 1945, The Militant noted that
“It is self-evident that Dutch imperialism plans a frightful blood-letting in Java to retain its hated colonial rule ... The Indonesian people are putting up a strong battle for their freedom, but already there are serious signs of weakness in the nationalist leadership.”
We reported that the head of the Indonesian nationalists, Dr. Soekarno, “issued direct orders to Indonesians in all spheres of life to cooperate with the Allied occupation force.” And we warned:
“This is the same policy pursued by the Stalinist-dominated EAM in Greece when British troops landed in that country last year. The results were disastrous to the Greek movement.”
Military disaster has now befallen the political representatives of the Indonesian capitalists. On the surface their mistake appears to have been naive trust in the Allied powers, particularly the United States. But what really paralyzed their struggle for Indonesia’s freedom was their fear of revolutionary struggle. They preferred to “cooperate” with the imperialist invaders rather than summoning the Indonesian people to all-out struggle from the beginning. This was their undoing.
They hoped the Dutch would make a deal. But the Dutch imperialists were too poor and too greedy to give it to them. The Dutch want them only as miserable quislings.
The attack on Indonesia has shocked the Far East. Nehru, Prime Minister of India, was only faintly voicing the white-hot anger of the masses when he declared Dec. 19: “A reaction to the Dutch action will be heard soon, all over Asia ... No one can prevent the tide of independence in Asiatic countries.”
The struggle of the Indonesian people will go on. Of that there is no doubt. However, the difficulties are now incomparably greater-than three years, ago.
The Indonesian people will have to build a new leadership, one capable of successfully guiding a revolutionary struggle. This can come only from the Indonesian working class. It will be based on the program of Trotskyism.
Last updated on: 29 March 2023