“Sometimes,” Baso said quietly, reminiscing about his untended oil palm plot now overtaken by weeds, “this grant feels no different than being forced into debt, especially if it’s your first time planting.” For four years, he has helped manage a seventy-two-hectare...
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 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...
Just Transition in the Palm Oil Industry – Part 3 (end)
A Just Transition perspective would integrate ecological sustainability and social justice. Photo: Worker’s helmet and fresh fruit bunch, North Sumatra, Indonesia © RAN/OPPUK/Nanang Sujana. Steps towards a Labour Perspective on Just Transition We have seen how...
Just Transition in the Palm Oil Industry – Part 2
The palm oil industry is plagued by land conflicts. Photo: Indigenous farmers block a road to a palm oil plantation and ritually spill pig’s blood in West Kalimantan, Indonesia © Irendra Radjawali Mosaic Landscapes as a Transformative Vision for the Palm Oil Industry...
Just Transition in the Palm Oil Industry: A Preliminary Perspective
What could a socially and ecologically just palm oil industry look like? Worker load fresh fruit bunches into a truck, North Sumatra, Indonesia © RAN/OPPUK/Nanang Sujana. Oliver Pye, Fitri Arianti, Rizal Assalam, Michaela Haug, Janina Puder[i] The palm oil...
Recent Post
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,...
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...
Red Earth, Green Lies: Oil Palm, Debt, and Socio-Ecological Calamity
“Sometimes,” Baso said quietly, reminiscing about his untended oil palm plot now overtaken by weeds, “this grant feels no different than being forced into debt, especially if it’s your first time planting.” For four years, he has helped manage a seventy-two-hectare...
Indonesia: PT HIP conflict continues with land occupation by community
PT HIP conflict continues with land occupation by community On Wednesday, 4 February, dozens of residents from Buol Regency, Central Sulawesi, originating from Mopu Village, Bukal Subdistrict, and several other villages, occupied palm oil land in Mopu Village, which...





