Why Clandestine?

Indonesian Anarchist Black Cross (Palang Hitam Anarkis/PH) was formed spontaneously out of the necessity to help our comrades during the repression of March Against Feudalism, 1st May 2018 Yogyakarta.
There have been few cases of anarchists being detained in the past and mostly were buried under the guise of fear and paranoia, leaving them alone.

Now, it has been proven that legal and advocacy works to counter the repression of the state, to protect the movement from potential snitches and traitors. Therefore we aim to be an organization that would support anarchists in trouble or those who dont claim themselves anarchists but nevertheless their deed is within anarchistic values.

Ever since M1 2018 more and more potential confrontation with the state seemed inevitable, whether it is organizational nor individual initiative, informal or formal, those who are in the grassroot struggle with community or those who are in the union.

The ultimate reason on why we can't afford to make a public meeting as the individuals involved are mostly still on the list of arrest.
Nevertheless, after a few coordination and discussion with comrades in several places, we are committed in widening the network within our reach, mostly comrades and collectives in which we are very close and have proved their trust in the network.

Restructuring

Due to it's spontaneous nature before, there will be legal workshops and organizational restructuring in this meeting.
It will be attended by those who created PH and comrades who had experiences as political prisone. There will be also lawyers who are active in the anarchist scene and comrades who have good organizational management. From its first initiation, PH "shadow" center is in Yogyakarta and were "controlled" by individuals scattered in other places.

Below are few points why do we need organized restructuring of ABC:

1. The point of restructuring is that we already achieved a concencuss that PH would be inclusive to anarchist of every tendencies, regardless any adjectives and stratetigal orientation. This concencuss were already agreed by all of individuals and collectives that will participate in this congress.

2. The general agreement is to make PH a formal organization.
By formal we mean that PH will only focus entirely on helping troubled comrades with better mechanism. Previous PH were too spontaneous, lack of transparency, and bad communication.

3. This meeting will host workshop on how to face repression and interogation, how can we avoid in telling names, what's the stake, and other experiences that had been faced by anarchists in the past.

4. Basic principles will also be decided in this face-to-face meeting.
Past and last year experiences have taught us to be more vigilant, strict, and knew when is the time to draw the line when someone have compromised our comrades for their own safety. At this point, we only have few fundamental principles that already agreed upon: Including no advocacy for snitches even they were our comrades before, we will not tolerate further cooperation with the state.
By doing advocacy work, PH members would be doing the task of analysing and cross-checking interrogation records. This work is essential as it is also useful for the network and movement to have a clearer understanding of the situation and avoid any useless paranoia that would be reveal by the examination.
Other principles will be discussed directly at the meeting.

5. Why strict and formal organization?
Because PH is not just an advocacy work but also an organization that aims to be the helping hands for troubled anarchists, therefore we need a clear structure, open financial resources and management, and active networking.
Informal and spontaneus organization will be not sufficient in coping with repressive mechanism by the state, especially concerning legal help and cross-checking of interrogation records. Most of the tendencies have agreed on this form of organization which only have one aim: that is to help every anarchists in trouble the best we can no matter what their adjectives are.
As long they are aiming to destroy the same "heavens".

Regroup and Evaluation

This meeting will be attended by core members of the Committee who organized the March Against Feudalism in order to evaluate last year organizing and action. There will be also past members of the Anti-Authoritarian Network (JAO) that would discuss things that can be done nationally for the next year general election.

This meeting not only will regroup the scattered individuals but also connecting them with previous networks of action groups and individuals that already been proven their dedication and individual principles in not compromising with the state.

Expand!

Indonesia is a country of islands, our networking were separated by seas or islands.
PH are planning to create local chapters in each cities which have an active anarchist movement and activities. Therefore, we already connected the network with individuals and groups which have been selected for their long involvement in the anarchist movement and their dedication to projects they were involved in. Groups and individuals are from East Borneo, West Borneo, North Sulawesi, Yogyakarta, Salatiga, and Jakarta.

What do we need?

1. We need a safe place to conduct the meeting, approximately three days effective: Evaluation, Re-organizing and Workshops, and Networking Coordination. This place will host 25-30 individuals.

2. Since it will be in one island (a city), individuals and groups on other islands need helps for transportation, be it ship or plane or bus, depends on how far they are.

3. Logistics! Yes, we will make our own food, so there you go, it would not be a hotel.

With our own fund and other necessities, we estimate that we need: 1.500 USD (1315 €).

This meeting will be a game changer for us in the future project and direct action campaign in every city in which we are active.
Your solidarity is needed to make this meeting possible and thus finally we can create our own network of PH across Indonesia with better self-organization, self-management, transparency and decentralized networking.

Security, Solidarity, and Counter-attack State repression!

Love and anarchy

Palang Hitam Anarkis