[act-ma] 10/1 Mass Murder and the Making of Our Times (7:00 p.m. Zoom)

[Suren Moodliar]

A Conversation with John Roosa, Vincent Bevins, and Krithika Varagur,
hosted by Joseph Nevins
October 1, 2020, 7:00 p.m. (US Eastern Daylight Time), Online via Zoom
http://www.ShelterAndSolidarity.org/join (register for Zoom link)

October 1 marks the fifty-fifth anniversary of the beginning of one of the
worst episodes of mass murder in the twentieth century: the massacre of
hundreds of thousands of Indonesians in 1965-1966. Organized and directed
by Indonesia’s military, the killings targeted people associated with the
country’s communist party, the world’s largest outside of China and the
Soviet Union. The dismembering of a large part of Indonesia’s political
spectrum reshaped politics not only in Indonesia, but around the world,
foreclosing on a political pathway that might have produced greater justice
and more equitable outcomes in the Global South. Despite the enormity of
these events, and the sordid U.S. role of support, the killings in
Indonesia are little-known in the United States and beyond. And within
Indonesia, a country in which the outsized power of the military endures,
there has been no accountability for the slaughter. This show will explore
what took place in Indonesia in the mid-1960s, and its significance for the
sprawling country and the larger world; the enforced silence surrounding
these events in much of Indonesian society since that time; and their
present-day manifestations and efforts aimed at accountability. In doing
so, the show brings together three guests: Vincent Bevins, author of "The
Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade & the Mass Murder
Program that Shaped Our World"; John Roosa, author of "Buried Histories:
The Anticommunist Massacres of 1965-1966 in Indonesia"; and Krithika
Varagur, author of "The Call: Inside the Global Saudi Religious Project."
Joseph Nevins will host the conversation.

Sponsors: *Socialism and Democracy*, *encuentro5*, Hard Ball Press, and the
Community Church of Boston