In the 1950s the Indonesian economy was failing, with the division between rich and poor increasing sharply. At the same time the PKI, the Communist Party of Indonesia, grew to the third largest Communist Party in the world, with three million paid members and the support of ten million trade unionists and organized peasants. Sadly this explosive combination ended in the massacre of 1 million communists in 1965. Indonesia is a graphic example of how mistakes in theory have dire consequences.

In this talk from the 2023 Montreal Marxist Winter School, IMT activist Mike Leiden discusses the lessons of the Indonesian Revolution.