Popular uprisings in the Philippines, Nepal and Indonesia need no help to be leaderless
~ Simoun Magsalin ~
September 2025 became a month of an Asian spring. After Indonesia, the people of Nepal rose up in mass spontaneous protests, followed by anti-corruption riots in the Philippines. In the wake of these uprisings, governments have initiated a “black scare” aimed at targeting “anarchists” regardless of actual political or ‘anti-political’ orientation. Configured by Trump, Prabowo, and many others, the spectre of anarchy strikes fear into the hearts of all rulers.
While indeed anarchists have participated in the protests and violent actions in these countries, we remain as minorities. It will surprise no one that the vast majority of youth detainees in Manila have no such anarchist persuasion. The purpose of the black scare is simple: to suppress amok masa—the masses run amok. To intimidate our class, to break solidarity. Yet it cannot be denied that the disproportionate fear of our invocation of anarchy strikes upon the sovereigns of the world. The black flag flies again in the form of the straw-hat pirate flag from the *One Piece* anime.
In Nepal, popular disgust at the corruption and decadence of Maoist and succeeding Marxist-Leninist government coalitions could only have meant that the ‘anti-political’ orientation would include a complete rejection of communist parties. Nepal is the country with the most “communist parties” per capita, with both Marxist-Leninist and Maoist parties regularly taking turns leading the government. Anarchists and non-party communists began organising amid spontaneity, aiming to escalate the insurrection. Nepali insurrectos took their actions further than mass arson by seizing arms, causing the government to rapidly collapse. As the Nepali military took control, they began to blame “anarchists” for the insurrection. Liberal democracy was eventually restored through the infamous Discord election as another wave of amok masa subsided.
In Indonesia, where the masses had been protesting the ever more corrupt and militarised regime of Prabowo Subianto, the murder of Affan Kurniawan with an armoured police van triggered a wave of amok masa. The insurrections in Indonesia saw looting and burning of government buildings, police stations, and politicians’ mansions. Being the global south country with the largest anarchist milieu, they readily participated and elevated the insurrections. By the end of August and the start of September, Prabowo condemned the “anarchists”, ordering an open season: a wave of repressions and arrests on “anarchists”—whoever those might be. Prabowo and the security forces began to see “anarchists” everywhere, detaining more than three thousand people by mid-September, accusing anarchists of being dalang (puppeteers or masterminds) who orchestrated the insurrections. Mirroring the Indonesian genocide of 1965–66, the new “black scare” freely targeted anarchists, insurrectos, students, socialists, and progressives.
In the Philippines, the left has been at an almost-historical low after decades of demoralisation. While well-publicised vandalism and delimited street fighting did not stir a wave of amok masa in early September, the Indonesian insurrection and political revolution in Nepal inspired many leftist, progressive, liberal, and right-wing factions to schedule various anti-corruption protests across the country, the largest being the Trillion Peso March last Sunday (21 September). Per usual, the rallies featured the basic delimitation, peace policing, and self-kettling from all factions of the left. After the programs of various groups ended, most notably BAYAN of National Democratic orientation, unaffiliated youths in masks apparently started street fighting with the police at Ayala Bridge and at Mendiola, historically the literally-contested road to the Malacañan, the presidential palace. This direct action resulted in a second battle of Mendiola which escalated into a riot, resulting in the arrests of hundreds of youth and bystanders, more than ninety of them minors. After fierce repression, the Interior Secretary denounced the would-be insurrectos as “anarchists” and described a fanciful tale of a conspiracy of foreign financiers and local saboteurs, all the while lawyers were compiling evidence of torture.
Even as red-baiters (black-baiters?) from the state or cop-jacketers from the left work to undermine the common solidarity between the proletarianised in order to delegitimise insurrection, Asians are not cowed. Today the symbol of rebellion is the straw-hat pirate. But regardless of where specific signs and sigils come from, their power to inspire—to invoke anarchy—strikes fear into hearts the ruling class. It is this fear of amok masa, the fear of anarchy itself, that declares to the world insurrection and revolution is still possible.
Comments
it's interesting to see how…
anon (not verified) Thu, 10/02/2025 - 07:14
it's interesting to see how the word insurrecto is used in this article. in my context (east coast, U$A) it's a slang term for insurrectionary anarchist, in this article it seems to mean a person participating in the insurrection or upheaval.
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