Introduction On 28-29th November 2023, an international conference on “Just Transition in the Palm Oil Industry” was held in Sambas, West Kalimantan in Indonesia. The conference was attended by 140 participants, mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Cambodia,...
The Catastrophe that Flows Like Water: The Centrality of Water Issues for a Just Transition
The issue of heavily polluted water in palm oil plantation zones has severely affected local families and workers. Despite water issues appearing like a mundane problem, the communities near these plantations suffer from diseases caused by toxic rivers. According to...
Thousands of Indonesian and Filipino Migrant Workers in Sabah, Malaysia Continue to be Arrested Despite the Pandemic
Photo: View on border area between Sebatik island and Nunukan island in North Kalimantan. Documentation: TPOLS (2020) Press Statement 30 August 2021 In Sabah, Malaysia, thousands of migrant workers and their families continued to live in fear of raids. They hide in...
Stop the killings in the Philippines! Prosecute Duterte for his crimes against the Filipino people!
Photo by Lucky Dela Rosa/Philippine Collegian August marks a deadly month of killings in the Philippines under the Duterte administration. Four years ago, on August 16, 2017, a team of cops conducting an anti-drug operation in a poor neighborhood in Caloocan City shot...
Protect Palm Oil Plantation Workers from Threat of COVID-19
Picture: palm oil harvesters cutting down fruit bunch. Credit: RAN/OPPUK/Nanang Sujana, Press Release Jakarta, August 8th 2021, Transnational Palm Oil Labour Solidarity (TPOLS) Transnational Palm Oil Labour Solidarity sees that labor conditions have worsened among...
Agricultural workers call on Philippine government to protest Malaysian government’s planned crackdown on undocumented migrants amid Covid-19 spike
Press statement - June 8, 2021 – UMA The Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) today called on the Philippine government to protest Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin’s announcement of a total crackdown on undocumented workers in Malaysia. The...
Appeal for Royal Call for a National Moratorium on Raids and Detention until everyone is Vaccinated
The planned crackdown on undocumented migrant workers is a state-endorsed violence aimed at the most vulnerable group of people in the country. Rounding them up has never been a good strategy and more so at the time of a pandemic. It raises concerns of possible new...
Petition: Stop operations to arrest undocumented migrants, focus on the goal of controlling the spread of Covid-19
Calling for endorsement of the petition to the YAB Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. The press statements by YB Dato’ Seri Hamzah Zainudin, Minister of Home Affairs on 29 May 2021 and 3 June 2021 have created the perception among many that the government has...
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Sambas Declaration for Just Transition in the Palm Oil Industry
Introduction On 28-29th November 2023, an international conference on “Just Transition in the Palm Oil Industry” was held in Sambas, West Kalimantan in Indonesia. The conference was attended by 140 participants, mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Cambodia,...
Virtual Discussion: Sharing Session between Labour and Environmental Movements toward Transforming the Palm Oil Industry
The area of oil palm plantations in Indonesia, based on the data from the Ministry of Agriculture, increased from 14,9 million hectares in 2022 to 16,38 million hectares in 2023. Meanwhile, according to Sawit Watch, based on the given licenses the area of oil palm...
Creeping in Silence: Summer Postcard with Love
It has been six months since we distributed the postcard at the International Just Transition Conference in November 2023, now this postcard is ready to be delivered to you through this website. These postcards will bring you to TPOLS research findings on safety and...
Beyond Health and Safety: The Struggle of the Alienated Body and the Emergence of New Forms of Worker Organization on Palm Oil Plantation
Since the colonial era, health has been an integral part of labor control, as seen on palm oil plantations. Today, these agri-capitalist factories, operating in multinational contexts, continue to benefit from this mechanism of control, degrading workers’ bodies...
Beyond the Red Circle: Notes on a Palm Oil Plantation Union Meeting in Indonesia
In September last year, I attended a group discussion with workers organised by a branch of SERBUK (People’s Labour Union) at a palm oil plantation company in the Sambas Regency of West Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. It was the first gathering of union members...