The Everyday Resistance of Anarchist Punks in Bandung, Indonesia

[safeinOhio]

https://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2020/09/23/the-everyday-resistance-of-anarchist-punks-in-bandung-indonesia/

—Lonely Planet

The cat is out of the bag now that Lonely Planet knows that Bandung, Indonesia, is a hot spot for punk rock. Over the years, I have discussed my research with different people from all over the world, and many are surprised that punk still exists. Punk is not dead; in fact, it is alive and thriving in the urban centers of Indonesia and has been for some time.

If you are tuned in to the visual cues of punk, it is difficult to wander around Bandung, Jakarta, Denpasar, or any other major city in the country without seeing markers of the scene. Early in my fieldwork, I bumped into some teenagers in the Dago area of Bandung, and one of them was extremely excited that the band shirt I was wearing and the back patch on his jacket were both representing the same obscure punk band from Portland, Oregon. Indeed, the punks in Indonesia are numerous and, as the kid’s fandom exemplified, plugged into the broader global punk rock scene. While punk takes different forms in Indonesia today, I focus on Bandung’s anarcho-punk scene and the global connections they maintain that are predicated on do-it-yourself (DIY) or anarchist principles. This group is redrawing sociopolitical and cultural borders, which is particularly noteworthy in a post-authoritarian nation with an emerging democracy.