The spirit of the farmers' struggle to reclaim their communal rights to land in Gunung Anten Village, Lebak Regency, Banten Province was mainly triggered by the agrarian crisis felt by the community who experienced socio-economic inequality, including inequality in land ownership. At the same time, in 1985 there was a 1.100-hectare rubber plantation concession area granted by the government in the form of a Right to Cultivate (HGU) to PT The Bantam Preanger and Rubber (PT Bantam) which was not utilized according to its designation and was abandoned.
This encourages farmers to cultivate the land according to local wisdom by planting various agricultural crops such as coffee, coconut, durian, rambutan, petai, banana and albasia wood. However, along the way, the cultivation carried out by farmers has experienced many challenges. Starting from companies that force farmers to cut down rubber plants that are planted on the grounds that the company will run a replanting program on abandoned land, criminalization of farmers, intimidation using thugs to damage farmers' crops to the eviction of farmers from their cultivated land.
The agrarian conflict continued until it gave birth to a farmer's struggle movement to reclaim land that was badly needed by the community to support their lives. In 2010, farmers began to realize that their movement was not well coordinated so that farmers built the Banten Farmers' Movement (P2B) farmer union to give birth to a collective and more organized movement aimed at pressing for the resolution of the agrarian conflict and the fulfillment of basic rights to land.
After a long struggle for 34 years, in October 2023 farmers succeeded in reclaiming through land redistribution through an agrarian reform program on the former HGU land of PT Bantam and Preanger Rubber which had not been extended since 2002. Farmers then received 12 communal land certificates covering an area of 127 hectares which were given to 195 farmers who were members of P2B in five villages, two sub-districts. Of the total land redistribution, 65 plots of land or 33% were owned by female farmers and the other 25% were owned by young farmers aged 35 years and under.
Abay Haetami as the Chairman of P2B said, "We feel grateful, we have fought for decades and were able to win land redistribution. This victory was not actually a gift from the government but a commitment from the Banten Farmers Movement organization which continues to fight and urge the government to give farmers their communal rights to land.. "
Land ownership with a communal or shared system is the union's choice to ensure control, ownership, and use of land in the hands of farmers so that it can be maintained and sustainable. This communal scheme also makes it impossible for people to sell their land certificates unilaterally without the consent of other landowners.
Furthermore, Abay said, "After the land redistribution, P2B will focus on strengthening the capacity of its members through the initiative of establishing a People's School. The goal is to improve farmers' understanding of agrarian reform, training in making seeds and compost, women's religious studies, religious study groups and becoming an alternative school for children at PAUD and elementary school levels because here it is far from school but the school is affiliated with an existing formal school."
The idea and initiative to build the People's School seemed to be well received with the support of the Nusantara Fund to support its construction. We feel grateful and thankful, what we hoped for has come true
Through the support of the Nusantara Fund, the P2B organization succeeded in realizing the construction of the People's School infrastructure which was built on 2500 m2 which is located on a collective land site resulting from land redistribution. This building was then used for routine learning for children as many as 16 people consisting of; 6 PAUD students and 10 elementary school students. In addition, the People's School is also used as people's education such as; land management training, production system, consumption system to marketing, agricultural processing, how to make fertilizer and how to graft shoots by involving the BPN and the Department of Agriculture as speakers.
