Since the collapse of the New Order regime in 1998, democratisation and economic liberalisation have combined to create both opportunities and constraints for the revival of organised labour in Indonesia. The picture of post-authoritarian labour movements painted by various scholars is almost universally bleak, portraying helpless trade unions in the face of economic impasse and the undemocratic remnants of the old forces. Being overtly cautious of the new democracy, this line of analysis has not done justice to Indonesian labour movements. It overestimates the ghost of the old dictatorship and underestimates the power of budding organised labour. Using trade union as the unit of analysis, this dissertation seeks to offer a different view of Indonesian labour movements. It looks at shifting political opportunities in the regions and the agency of trade unions which constitute a political force that is far from being consolidated but has certainly made a significant contribution to the broadening of democratic politics. In negotiating pressures that originate from an increasingly liberalised economy, trade unions have adopted a strategy which is called „playing politics‟ in this dissertation. The term means that in the absence of significant market power, trade unions enter into the realm of power politics primarily by organising labour as social movements and attempt to ally with political elites, exploit the conflicts that emerge within state institutions and between the state and business, and try to join the ruling classes. In developing this argument, this dissertation makes two contributions to the study of labour politics in Indonesia: its reassessment of the historiography of the first ten years of post-authoritarianism and its offer of insights into possible future directions of labour politics.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:543663 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Juliawan, Benedictus Hari |
| Contributors | Gooptu, Nandini |
| Publisher | University of Oxford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:b7d799e4-5a32-4bb3-81fb-76578c78c07f |
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