Openbare Vergaderingen and the Communist Anticolonial Struggles in the Dutch East Indies

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session I
  In Interactive Paper Session: Political Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

The history of openbare vergaderingen /opənba:r ƒər’xa:dərIŋən/ (Dutch: “public meetings”) in the late colonial period of the Dutch East Indies—now Indonesia— demonstrates the significance of public meetings in social movements and suggests a revision to our understanding of the public sphere. As a means of resistance for ordinary people in the communist movement, openbare vergadering was the space where the subaltern class gathered together to discuss and debate their oppression and exploitation, their demands and strategies for resistance. This article is divided into two parts. In the first part, I provide a brief history of openbare vergaderingen and outline their communicative characteristics. In the second section, I discuss how the concept of openbare vergaderingen, which arose from the practice of public meetings in the period, challenges the Habermasian concept of public sphere and offers a new idea of what “public” means when seen from the perspective of class analysis.

Author

• Rianne K Subijanto, U of Colorado - Boulder