PETANI MELAWAN PERKEBUNAN: PERJUANGAN AGRARIA DI JAWA TENGAH

One of current agrarian struggles in Central Java is between peasants against plantation estates. This paperexplicates four land conflict cases, and discusses varied responses of the state institutions to deal with land conflicts. This paperstart by showing the ways in which, after the fall of the authoritarian regime of Suharto in 1998, rural poor took the land back,which previously controlled by plantations. They believed the reclaimed lands belong to them as heirs. The Reformasi providedpolitical opportunity for rural poor in various regions to do Aksi Reklaiming, and got legitimacy for their actions. However, theplantation companies fought back, including by using legal and non-legal strategies. The paper shows in detail the trajectory ofeach conflict and efforts to handle it, and put them in comparison one to another.Keywords: agrarian conflicts, reclaiming action, Central Java