Friday, June 19, 2026 — An online discussion titled “Labor, Land, and Ecology Struggle: Organizing Strategies and the Struggle of Extractive Reserves in Acre, Brazil” was held through a collaboration between Sawit Wxmen Educational Group (SWEG), Sawit Watch (SW),...
Solidarity as a Cultural Practice: An Ethnography of Just Transition Within an International Labour Movement in the Palm Oil Industry*
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,...
Strategy Workshop: A Just Transition in the Palm Oil Industry
How can we achieve a just transition in the palm oil industry? Currently, Indonesia is burning. Besides the climate crisis, a major cause is the palm oil industry with its monocultures, deforestation, land grabbing and burning of peat grounds. While the 16...
MONOCULTURE MYTH
What would our future look like when our presence is rooted in monoculture? What would climate governance look like under the supremacy of monoculture? Indonesians, from commoners, bureaucrats, elites, to even those who are afflicted by monocrop economy have this...
Syngenta: a Poisoner Without Borders
Syngenta is an agrochemical firm, headquartered in Switzerland and owned by the Chinese conglomerate ChemChina since 2017. Together with Bayer-Monsanto, BASF and Corteva, these four companies dominate the market [1] for pesticides [2], commercial seeds, and...
More Than Just Natural Disasters: TPOLS Network Declares Forest and Land Fires an Ecological Crime and Destruction
Transnational Palm and Oil Labour Solidarity (TPOLS) Network is urging the Indonesian government to immediately declare the forest and land fires (Karhutla) in Kalimantan and Sumatra a national disaster and to end impunity for corporations damaging the environment....
Joint Press Release: WILDFIRES, FLOODS, AND DROUGHTS
WILDFIRES, FLOODS, AND DROUGHTS: Impacts of Corporate Crime, State Denial, and Labor Safety Neglect in Kalimantan and Sumatra Bogor, September 2, 2026 – The wildfires that have once again struck several regions in Kalimantan and Sumatra are not merely seasonal...


