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,...
Report on the Public Discussion: Military-Based Violence and Land Grabbing in Negros Occidental, The Philippines
Saturday, June 6, 2026 — The increasingly widespread military-based violence and land grabbing in the Southeast Asian region have sparked deep concern among various civil society groups. In response to this crisis, an online public discussion titled “Military-Based...
Press Release of the PERISAI (People’s Union Against Imperialism) Alliance
SAVE INDONESIA, IMPROVE THE PEOPLE'S LIVES! Today, the Indonesian people are facing a battered economic fate. The failure of fiscal policy is the most determining factor in the current situation. Nevertheless, US neoliberalism is the root cause of the fiscal...
TPOLS News-Recap: March-April 2026
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...
MAY DAY 2026: Collective Statement of TPOLS Network
MAY DAY 2026: Collective Statement of Transnational Palm Oil Labour Solidarity (TPOLS) Network THE NATIONAL BUDGET IS NOT FOR MILITARY EXPANSION, WAR FUNDING, OR AGRARIAN MONOPOLY Since 2025, the TPOLS Network has strongly criticized the Indonesian government's...
Norwegian Pension Fund Dumps Bolloré for Human Rights Violations at Plantations
Collective Press Release | 5 March 2026 The world’s largest pension fund has revealed that it sold its shares in the Bolloré group, a powerful French conglomerate, due to unresolved concerns about “serious human rights violations” at a plantation company partly owned...

