Communication against Capital: Red Enlightenment at the Dawn of Indonesia (Cornell Modern Indonesia Project) - Softcover

Subijanto, Rianne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1501778668 ISBN 13: 9781501778667

Publisher: Southeast Asia Program Publications, 2025

Synopsis

Communication against Capital explores the revolutionary communication strategies of the pergerakan merah, the anticolonial "red movement" in 1920s Indonesia. Rianne Subijanto tells the story of ordinary lower-class women and children and people of diverse races and ethnicities who waged their battles against Dutch colonialism within multiple arenas of communication, including political associations, assemblies, printed matter, schools, and shipping lines. Existing communication technologies were repurposed into mechanisms of struggle and used as weapons in anticolonial and anticapitalist resistance. In this process, communist ideas merged with ideals drawn from the Enlightenment to shape the emancipatory spirit of Indonesians. This red enlightenment motivated the production of revolutionary communication strategies of mobilization.

Subijanto's innovative work shows that the novel techniques of the pergerakan merah served to shift anticolonial mobilization in Indonesia from warfare to modern forms of communication.

About this title

About the Author

Rianne Subijanto is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Baruch College, The City University of New York.

Edition details

• Publisher: Southeast Asia Program Publications
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1501778668
• ISBN 13: 9781501778667
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 318