This Year's May Day Was All About Politics, Paychecks, and Presidential Campaigns

You could be forgiven for thinking the headlines from this year's May Day were the result of some sort of weird internet worm hole flooding our feeds with stories from the future.

The presidential election is more than a year away, but, yesterday, the pre-campaign push was already in full swing. The Indonesian Trade Union Confederation (KSPI) announced its support for Prabowo Subianto's renewed bid for the Indonesian presidency and Prabowo himself used the event to layout a ten-point plan to improve the lives of workers.

Prabowo also delivered dramatic warnings about the threat of foreign workers, arguing that “there are no people in the world that want to open their doors to foreigners like us." It's not really true, foreign workers make up a tiny, tiny fraction of Indonesia's work force, but the speech was still seen by many as a preview of Prabowo's coming campaign—one built heavily on protectionism, populism, and stern warnings about threats from elites, foreign countries, and foreign nationals.

"We're not anti-foreigner, but take care of our people first," Prabowo said in his speech. "If we open our doors to foreign workers, where will we work?"

Politics played a much bigger role in this year's May Day demonstrations than they did last year. Throughout the day, I repeatedly saw posters, t-shirts, and banners reading "#gantipresiden2019," or "change the president in 2019." Multiple people screamed "Prabowo!" as they marched in-between chants about higher wages and cheaper commodities like rice and beef.

But the level of politicking at this year's demonstration also left plenty feeling pretty uncomfortable. Puspa Dewy, of Solidaritas Perempuan, called Prabowo's speech "unethical," and KSPI's declaration of support a stain on what should've been a day about workers' rights, not the presidential race.

Coalition members NasDem said Prabowo's early campaigning was a sign that he was fearful of losing the election to incumbent President Joko Widodo a second time. NasDem politician Irma Suryani Chaniago told local media that Jokowi wasn't concerned with campaigning this far before the race.

"Don’t [politicize] May Day," Irma told local media. "This is the time for workers to take a break, to be merry. This is the time for workers to voice their aspirations. It shouldn’t get saddled with such things.

"Even though everybody has the right to express their politics… This indicates a great insecurity about Jokowi—they took a head start, campaigning before it was the time for political campaigns."

Here's what it was like on the ground (in case you spent your day off being lazy instead).