Tabea Meuter This ethnographic study explores the role of solidarity and gender relations within the Transnational Palm Oil Labour Solidarity (TPOLS) network, specifically in the context of the palm oil industry. It highlights ethnographic observations and interviews...
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...
Discussion summary: union organizing in the palm oil plantations
Palm oil plantation has been widely reported for practising various forms of human rights abuses. Given its characteristics of being located in remote area with social isolation in a massive land size, plantation is a ‘suitable’ place for harboring illegal practice of...
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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,...
Banned Pesticides Continue to Flood Indonesia
Every year, companies from the European Union (EU), such as Germany, Belgium, and Spain, export hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous pesticides to countries outside Europe. Many of the toxic substances in these pesticides are banned in EU countries themselves...
Public Letter to Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil re: Decision to Lift Stop-Work Order on Golden Veroleum Liberia – Golden Agri-Resources
October 29, 2025 TO: Joseph D’Cruz, Chief Executive Officer, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil CC: Pravin Rajandran, Head of Grievance, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Dear Mr. D’Cruz: This June, the RSPO announced that it was closing post-complaint monitoring of...
Paghimutad: International Learning and Solidarity Mission (ILSM) urges cancellation of Integrated Forest Management Agreement (IFMA) granted to Hacienda Asia Plantations Inc. (HAPI)
The Negros Island contingent of the International Learning and Solidarity Mission (ILSM) has urged the government to revoke the Integrated Forest Management Agreement (IFMA) granted to Hacienda Asia Plantations Inc. (HAPI) after documenting and confirming cases of...
TPOLS News-Recap: August 2025
Data Collection Method: “TPOLS News-Recap” is intended as a medium for circulating news summaries arising from various TPOLS social platforms and collaborative activities within the TPOLS Network, in two languages (Indonesian and English). Given the...
The People Struggle, the State Defends Capital, the State Silences the People: Call for International Solidarity to End State Violence and Brutality
Once again, the Indonesian state has revealed its loyalty to capital owners rather than its people. This time, a wave of protests by workers, students, and civil society was met with excessive violence, leaving casualties behind. An online motorcycle taxi driver was...

