For Mutual Aid & Solidarity
From the Carcass of a Rotting World
Video created by Anarcho-Nihilist comrades in UK to raise awareness of the August 2025 Insurrection in Indonesia and the state repressive wave that followed.
In solidarity with all the prisoners and the ‘Chaos Star’ case comrades.
We will never forget the fallen, they are still present in our struggle.
Nothing is over, the conflict continues.
Long Live the FAI/IRF!
Article from Italian periodical ‘Disfare‘ about the repression in Indonesia, written by Palang Hitam. Updated corrected version: 18/3/26. We received a report that the only defendants left in Kebon Waru prison is Dena, defendants from the Gentong case and from the attack on parliament case. Adit, Rizki, Tubagus, Herdi, Reksi, Naufal. Others are already free. In the BlackBlocZone case, Komar was re-arrested, but his two co-defendants are released.
Repression and Resistance in Indonesia
In August to September 2025, widespread riots took place in Indonesia across various cities on the Archipelago. It was the largest modern social uprising in the country and it was arguably triggered by the killing of Affan Kurniawan, an online motorcycle courier, who was emblematic of many of the protestors: Marginalized, precarious workers, street people, working and underclasses. Affan was murdered by Brimob mobile brigade police in an armored vehicle, the cops ran him over in front of the crowd in Jakarta. The death happened in the context of an ongoing protest against government corruption, the rising cost of living and police brutality. The killing ignited even greater mass protests, which lead to violent clashes with police and paramilitary law enforcement. Lawmakers and politicians openly mocked the demonstrators, who were only calling attention to immediate social issues that concerned everyone, and pointed to the growing reactionary power of the ex-military regime. Since the riots, the repression has grown even harder.
Starting on August 30, 2025, hundreds of thousands took to the streets in cities including Bandung and Jakarta, demanding not only accountability and justice for Affan, but an end to the entire corrupt political-military-capitalist racket. Anarchist methods and street tactics became widespread, as did anarchist slogans and targets. The government factions, political parties, unions and students associations completely lost control of the narrative. They couldn’t control the anger on the streets and the moment of the revolt was sparked. Many government buildings, corporations, police stations and senior politicians residences were looted and/or burned down. Continue reading “Chaos Star – Article from Italian periodical ‘Disfare’ about the repression in Indonesia”
Imprisoned anarchist comrade and rapper, Dena (Maditya Dena) a.k.a Apip a.k.a Scoobydoomz, has been transferred to Kebon Waru prison in Bandung from West Java paramilitary police headquarters. This has finally occurred due to his charges being filed with the court. Dena is accused of the destruction of Hana Bank in Bandung, along with comrade Adit, who is also accused in the same case and faces trial. Dena is suffering with health condition related to his HIV+ status and in prison it is difficult to consistently obtain the meds, which costs money. Dena had been kept isolated from the rest of Chaos Star comrades. It is expected that Dena and Adit will face two years or less for the property destruction, however Adit also faces 25 years for the bombing of a police outpost, in an adjacent trial, relating to an action in 2024.
Fire to the prisons! Fire to the state!
Send solidarity post to comrade Dena, English language or Bahasa Indonesian:
Maditya Dena
JI. Jakarta No.42-44,
Kebonwaru, Kec. Batununggal,
Kota Bandung, Jawa Barat
Indonesia
Palang Hitam/ABC
Our anarchist comrade Komar (Muhammad Ainun Komarullah) was arrested by police from Surabaya when he was released from Kebon Waru prison after serving a sentence for instigation related to the Black Bloc Zone blog and Instagram account. The arrest by the Surabaya police is a vindictive revenge against Komar, due to the fierce and humiliating clashes that took place in that locality. Hundreds of young people, delivery drivers, taxi drivers and precarious workers were rounded up in the aftermath of the anti-state uprising and brutally tortured. Police violence cannot hide the fact that the regime uses systematic torture. Let’s not leave this comrade alone in the hands of the police, write to Komar, send solidarity post here:
Muhammad Ainun Komarullah (KOMAR)
Polrestabes Surabaya
Jl. Sikatan No.1, Krembangan Sel.,
Kec. Krembangan, Surabaya,
Jawa Timur 60175, Indonesia
FREE KOMAR! FREE THE PRISONERS!
THE STATE IS THE TERRORIST
Palang Hitam
Also on in March- Two Solidarity Events in Bristol for the Imprisoned Anarchist Comrades in Indonesia – 13+15 March 2026
Solidarity benefit gig for The Indonesian Anarchist Black Cross Palang Hitam,to help with legal aid after the August 2025 Insurrection.
21 March The Birds Nest, 32 Deptford Church Street, SE8 4RZ
Start 8PM suggested donation 5 quid.
This text words is the back of the flyer for the solidarity benefit Concert gig :
Indonesia is an archipelago of cancerous exploitation which the UK is complicit in to the tune of 2.86 billion dollars. British Petroleum, has been devastating the West Papuan landscape for 20 years, paying the local army to murder and torture the indigenous resistance as they go,in order to obtain “natural gas”. The commodity the UK imports in largest quantities from Indonesia is Nickel. Nickel mines have razed Sulawesi forests, unleashing mass poisoning of water sources through its chemical processing.
This metal is particularly necessary for electric batteries the UK consumes for the plague of e-vehicles as part of its totalitarian ‘green’ transition. The urban centers of Indonesia are littered with gigantic slums of ‘surplus’ human material, excluded from the world economy. The desperate struggle for survival under this regime makes ideal conditions for recruitment to the modern slavery of the sweat-shops which manufacture and export Nike trainers. Continue reading “Solidarity Benefit Gig 21 March for the Indonesian Anarchist Black Cross Palang Hitam (South-London, UK)”
PDF: List of Detainees Under the “Chaos Star” Label in Bandung, West Java
No# Prisoner Name Case Number Verdict Verdict Date Case/Charge Status
1 Very Kurnia Kusuma 986/Pid.B/2025/PN Bdg 6 months 29 Jan. 2026 Assault resulting in minor injury and serious injury Still in Prison
2 Joy Erlando 986/Pid.B/2025/PN Bdg 6 months 29 Jan. 2026 Assault resulting in minor injury and serious injury Still in Prison
3 Eli Yana 986/Pid.B/2025/PN Bdg 6 months 29 Jan. 2026 Assault resulting in minor injury and serious injury Still in Prison
4 Muhammad Vanza Alfarizy 986/Pid.B/2025/PN Bdg 6 months 29 Jan. 2026 Assault resulting in minor injury and serious injury Still in Prison
5 M. Subhan Abdul Ghoni 986/Pid.B/2025/PN Bdg 6 months 29 Jan. 2026 Assault resulting in minor injury and serious injury Still in Prison Continue reading “List of Detainees Under the “Chaos Star” Label in Bandung, West Java (Indonesia)”
Chaos Star update 22.1.26
Accused anarchist comrade Eat, in the Chaos Star case, has been released from the West Java paramilitary police compound to house/city arrest. Eat is expected to be watched closely by the Densus88 antiterrorist unit. Comrades and lawyers went to meet him and take him to get nutrition, medicine and rest. Eat remains under investigation and the case is still open. Here’s what Eat’s lawyer had to say about his status:
‘Eat was release by operation of law because the detention period during the investigation stage had expired and could not be extended. However, this release is temporary, as the legal process is still ongoing. The case is currently awaiting transfer from the prosecutor’s office. If it proceeds to the prosecution stage, Eat may be detained again and transferred to Kebon Waru Detention Center for trial.
From a substantive standpoint, Eat actually has a legal advantage in this case. The charges and the investigation report do not meet the required legal elements, particularly those related to incitement. There is no clear evidence of any direct call or instruction to organize or carry out last year’s protest, as alleged. because of this, the prosecutors themselves are hesitant to move the case forward to court.’
This hesitation has also influenced the investigator’s decision not to pursue a second case involving Eat and another named comrade. We thank everyone for their solidarity and support. Without international pressure, we do not believe that Eat would have been released.
Nothing is over. Eat could be re-arrested. There are another 73 accused anarchists and hundreds of prisoners of the uprising still detained. Yet this is a major success, since the Densus88 wanted to scapegoat Eat as the organizational figurehead and leader of the fake Chaos Star network and of the insurrection itself.
Please remain attentive to the health condition and legal process of Eat and that of the other prisoners. Anarchist comrade Dena remains in the West Java compound, and is also ill from lack of HIV medication. Take action and donate to Palang Hitam/ABC Indonesia. We don’t have enough support to adequately provide infrastructure to such a large number of prisoners at a time when the anarchist movement is under attack in Indonesia. To donate, contact Dark Nights, IWOC UK or any long-running established ABC group.
Fire to the prisons!
Palang Hitam/ABC
14.1.2026
We received the information that imprisoned anarchist comrades Eat (Reyhard Rumbayan) and Dena (Maditya Dena), are still held in the West Java paramilitary police compound in the fabricated ‘Chaos Star case‘, and that they have badly declined in health. In the case of Eat, severely. Both comrades have HIV+ diagnosis and are struggling to receive adequate healthcare, food and nutrition for their serious condition. Eat is suffering constant extreme pain from atrophy in his arm which is paralyzed.
Eat’s condition is in an advanced stage and we call for increased attention and pressure on his case. We remind that Eat is long-known anarchist who was imprisoned and took responsibility for the incendiary attack against a bank as part of revolutionary solidarity to Luciano Tortuga’s situation, after the latter was injured in an attempted bombing in Chile, 2011. We will never leave our comrades alone inside the prison and we will seek our vengeance.
We hold the Indonesian regime responsible for the abuse, the torture, the lives of our comrades.
After the uprising in August 2025, the anarchist movement is being blamed for causing the unrest, but this conceals the fact that the mass popular insurrection did not belong to the anarchists, it belonged to everyone. From Iran, to Indonesia, to the USA, we will fight back!
For international revolutionary solidarity! Free the prisoners!
Palang Hitam/Anarchist Black Cross
–
Write to Eat and Dena
[Name]
Jl. Soekarno Hatta No.748,
Cimenerang, Kec. Gedebage,
Kota Bandung,
Jawa Barat 40292,
Indonesia
via IWOC:
General Situation in Indonesia
On September 16, 2025, 14 individuals were arrested by the Bali Police on charges of vandalizing buildings and vehicles in the area of the Bali Police Headquarters and the Bali Regional Representative Council during the August 30 demonstration.
Since September, 288 people have been arrested for the August uprising in Surabaya, East Java. Some of whom have been released in poor condition, since the police tortured them badly for three days. This leaves around 80 people remaining imprisoned in Surabaya, including approximately 30 accused anarchists there. This week, some of them will undergo their first trial. The case in Surabaya is particularly sad because many of those arrested are ordinary people, such as workers or online motorcycle taxi drivers who happened to be in the vicinity of the riots. Some were simply watching the riots but were then arrested sporadically. Although they were eventually released in a battered state, some of their property, such as their cell phones, was not returned by the police/ Motorcycle taxi drivers did not even get back the motorcycles they used to make a living.
In addition, the police continue to arrest anyone proven to have been involved in the August demonstrations, especially students and activists in various cities. This time, they involved infiltrators in the Movement to map out arrest targets. As a result, many people are paranoid and suspicious of each other. Continue reading “Arrests and torture in Bali, Makassar and Surabaya (Indonesia)”
The following statement by Palang Hitam / ABC Indonesia was broadcast on air Monday, December 9th / between 11am – 1pm CET on Radio Blackout. The name of the show is “bello come una prigione che brucia” (Beautiful as a Burning Prison), a show broadcast since 20 years against prisons, repression, surveillance, military tech and AI. Radio Blackout is an autonomous radio (FM in Turin, Italy, and streaming elsewhere) born in 1992 as common project self managed by local squats, social centers and various collectives and individuals (antifa, anti authoritarian, anticapitalist, anti lots of things, with comrades from different areas of anarchism and communism).
From August to early September 2025, Indonesia was hit by demonstrations and riots triggered by public anger over government policies that were considered detrimental to the people. The main triggers of these protests were drastic increases in the cost of living, including food prices and education costs, as well as mass layoffs that affected many workers. In addition, increases in land and building taxes imposed by local governments as a result of funding cuts from the central government further exacerbated the situation. Public frustration peaked when there were proposals to increase the allowances and salaries of members of the House of Representatives (DPR) which seemed to ignore the suffering of the people.
Initially, public anger was only expressed on social media with calls to dissolve the House of Representatives. However, the response from members of the House of Representatives, especially Ahmad Sahroni, who called the critics “the dumbest people in the world,” only worsened the situation. On August 25, the anger erupted in the form of a massive demonstration in front of the House of Representatives office, which ended in chaos with clashes between demonstrators and the police.
This first demonstration was attended by various elements of society, such as online motorcycle taxi drivers, vocational school students, and members of the general public who were not affiliated with any particular organization. Although the posters they made were ridiculed by some pro-democracy activists for being poorly designed and therefore likely to have been “made by intelligence agents,” the protests continued. Their demands focused on the elimination of allowances for members of the House of Representatives, which were considered too wasteful, the passing of the Asset Seizure Bill, and the rejection of a number of other controversial bills.
On August 26-27, demonstrations continued despite a decline in the number of participants. Many students began to hold open discussions, showing that the issue of the House of Representatives was gaining public attention. However, riots broke out again on August 28, when labor demonstrations in various major cities demanded an increase in the minimum wage, the abolition of the outsourcing system, and changes to the Manpower Act. In Jakarta, labor protests in front of the House of Representatives building and the State Palace ended in riots, which escalated after an online motorcycle taxi driver named Affan Kurniawan was killed when he was hit by an armored police vehicle in Pejompongan, Central Jakarta. This incident was captured on video and went viral, sparking further outrage.
Since early August 29, online motorcycle taxi drivers have gathered at the Kwitang Mobile Brigade Headquarters, demanding justice for Affan’s death and holding the police accountable for the violence against demonstrators. The crowd grew, including students, and the demonstration shifted to police stations and government buildings. However, despite negotiations, the crowd was dissatisfied with the results, and riots broke out again, causing public transportation to come to a standstill and several stations to close.
The riots spread to various major cities outside Jakarta. There were 34 other flashpoints outside Jakarta where public facilities, police stations, and local council buildings were set on fire by the mob. On August 30-31, tensions escalated after it was revealed that several members of the House of Representatives, including Ahmad Sahroni, were abroad. This news further fueled public anger, which led to the storming of the homes of Sahroni and several other members of the House of Representatives, as well as government officials such as Finance Minister Sri Mulyani. Their homes were looted by a crowd that could no longer contain their anger.
That night, the power went out around the Mobile Brigade Headquarters, and police forces deployed to control the riots used tear gas and gunfire to disperse the crowd. The armed forces and police conducted sweeps in various areas to crack down on the rioters. This crackdown continued in the following days, causing tensions to rise throughout Indonesia. The Indonesian government labeled the demonstrators with accusations ranging from terrorism to treason. Instead of meeting the demands during the demonstrations, the Indonesian government responded with continued repression and a retreat from democratization.
This popular uprising was essentially driven by ordinary people, particularly high school students, the unemployed, and the online motorcycle taxi community—forces that had been underestimated and considered “politically unaware” by middle-class activists and most leftists. These rebels are not people who act based on their reading of Marxist or anarchist books. They are on the streets because the information circulating on social media has provoked their anger; anger that is then moderated by the middle class shouting “don’t destroy public facilities,” “don’t be anarchists,” “don’t be provoked,” and finally: making a series of long-winded demands called “17+8” on September 1 just to extinguish the fire and anger (the demands “17+8” that have never been realized until today). It is true that the mob still lack practical intelligence. But of course that is not their fault. Since they are the people who have always been sacrificed by the state and even by the opposition elites who claim to be “revolutionaries”—they have grown up with the understanding that anger must find an outlet.
Then, when the fires stopped burning everywhere, when the rulers and political elites apologized in public, no one could say for sure how it all began. There had been a lot of consolidation, discussion, cross-ideological networking, political campaigns, etc.; but what happened in August 2025 was a festival of insurrection that no one could have predicted. Even when the demonstrations first began, until the death of Affan Kurniawan as the boiling point of public anger, these demonstrations were still seen as “staged demonstrations” for the benefit of those in power, which, ironically, were promoted massively by most middle-class pro-democracy activists and their followers.
Now, after the riots, the police have arrested many people, including anarchists egoist/nihilists, but most of them are victims of wrongful arrest who did not even participate in the demonstrations. They are accused of being masterminds, provocateurs, intellectual actors, and are labeled as “groups of chaos stars.” Meanwhile, the members of DPR such as Ahmad Sahroni, who sparked public outrage, remain in office and have not been dismissed. Recently, the DPR passed a revision to the Criminal Procedure Code that allows police officers to arrest people without evidence and to secretly wiretap, record, and tamper with digital devices.
Palang Hitam / ABC Indonesia