This document is a written account by Jorge Martin, the International Secretary of Hands Off Venezuela, of his November 2008 visit to PT Istana, an occupied and now worker-run factory in North Jakarta, Indonesia. The story of how employees of CV Melody occupied the factory in an effort to fight off attacks by the company for their decision to unionize as well as how they began worker-controlled production are detailed in the piece.

“They had proven something very important: the bosses need the workers to run the factories, but the workers do not need the bosses!”