Papers (Part 1)

• Choke Points and Transnational Labour Organising in the Palm Oil Global Production Network Fahmi Panimbang Sedane Labour Resource Centre

  Palm oil industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry that encompasses the globe, connecting oil palm plantations and mills in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America, to refineries and processing plants in in other regions and to food and beverages, cosmetic and chemical factories around the world. The industry has been one of the most repressive towards labour, using a sophisticated system of labour control. Most workers are mostly are precariat-migrants without a history of collective struggle. Consequently, labour in the industry is among the most unorganised and marginalised. This paper shows how labour activists in Southeast Asia are starting to identify spaces and choke points in the palm oil industry, using transnational networks to challenge the spatial control of capital. It argues that despite the usual challenges from capital, there is a potential for labour agency to use new organising strategies within the palm oil global production network.

• Labour and Populism: Indonesian Experiences in Comparative Perspective Olle Törnquist University of Oslo

  Labour movements in the Global South are up against two basic hindrances, one, diverse interests and fragmentation due to uneven development, two, week citizens’ rights and democracy. These challenges remain crucial, in-spite of the double-edged advances under the new international division of labour and the third wave of democracy. Hence, the labour movement strategies in the North are insufficient; the once so promising South African labour movement’s attempts to follow suit is a case in point. Against this backdrop, and a number of previous strategies to handle the challenges, the preliminary paper focuses on the pros and cons of one of the major alternatives that have been put forward: left-populism. This has a long history in not least Indonesia and Latin America. Recently it is also been argued in Europe, including in Spain and France, based on Chantal Mouffe’s theses, and to some extent by the new left in the US. The Indonesian experiences from congregating and strengthening movements by way of informal contract with leaders like Jokowi, and in particular, the successfully formed broad alliance of politicians, unions and movements in favour of the Indonesian public health reform, are the main cases in the preliminary paper. These campaigns, as well as the problems of sustaining them, are discussed in view of historical lessons in Indonesia, as well as the new experiences from Latin America, India and Europe.

• Labour Politics in Southeast Asia: The Long Shadow of Maoism Oliver Pye University of Bonn

  One of the puzzling questions of contemporary Southeast Asian politics is why, despite rapid industrialization and proletarianization, and despite a ressurgence of class struggles, Labour has not emerged as an independent political player. Across the region, no labour party of any persuasion has established itself inside or outside of parliament. Whilst some explanations point to structural reasons such as the power of capital, fragmentation, globalisation etc. for Labour’s political weakness, this is contradicted by Southeast Asian history, where Labour was once a significant political force despite similar or arguably more drastic challenges. This paper argues that the legacy of Maoism, in essence the subordination of independent working class politics to national liberation, is one part of the puzzle. Examining the politics of the Indoneisan Communist Party, it will be shown that the legacy has two components: firstly disastrous politics in the 1960s created a path dependency that shaped subsequent developments and secondly, Maoist concepts linger on in the contemporary labour movement. In comparison with other Southeast Asian countries, these two legacies can be shown to exhibit a remarkable similiarity across the region.

• Unions and Politics in Indonesia Michele Ford University of Sydney

  During the Suharto era, the official trade union was strictly prohibited from engaging with political parties and all but one of the ‘alternative’ unions publicly rejected political unionism, preferring instead to seek recognition as a socio-economic force. In the early years of Indonesia’s return to democracy, too, trade unions sat on the side-lines in elections and depended on mass protests to advance their demands. From 2004, however, labour leaders’ position on electoral politics shifted dramatically. Increasingly frustrated with the government’s failure to stem labour rights abuses, the ineffectiveness of the labour law enforcement, and the weakness of the social safety net, many unionists concluded that they must engage in ‘formal politics’ if they are to secure more favourable policies for workers. By the time of the 2009 election, the question was no longer whether unions should try to influence politics, but whether they should do it by lobbying parties from outside the system or by running candidates for office.

  In a context where the parties vying for power within Indonesia’s political system have made little attempt to define themselves by a commitment to particular policies—and have faced little pressure from outside to do so—unions’ efforts to engage in electoral politics are tremendously significant for Indonesia’s emerging democracy. Drawing on case studies from five union-dense locations in Java and Sumatra, this paper examines unions’ engagement in the 2014 and 2019 electoral cycles, and makes an assessment of its significance for Indonesian politics.

Papers (Part 2)

• Cinema as Asylum: PERSAMA, Shaw Brothers and the Malay James Bond Films Min Hui Yeo University of Oxford & Nanyang Technological University

  Shortly after Singapore broke away from Malaysia in 1965, authorities began to crack down on labour unions and activists. Dominic Puttucherry, the man behind Singapore’s Socialist Front and the trade union, was arrested together with other union leaders. Actor Jins Shamsuddin, leader of the Malayan Artists Union (Persatuan Artis Malaya; PERSAMA) and member of the Singapore General Employee Union (SGEU) Central Committee alongside Dominic Puttucherry at that time, also received warning that he could be jailed for at least two years. Unlike most of his compatriots, however, instead of the prison Jins found his way into a couple of James Bond-style Malay films that were made in Hong Kong and released in Singapore and Malaysia between 1967 to 1968. These films catapulted him to the peak of his film career, awarding him his now-iconic status as the Malay James Bond – a public image that effectively effaced his other identity as a prominent leader in Singapore’s labour activism scene of the 1960s. This unusual series of events illuminates a hitherto understudied area of Singapore’s labour movement history: the art and entertainment side of the story. Motivated by a desire to understand this intriguing chain of events, in this paper I explore the complex relationship between the PERSAMA, the Malay James Bond films, and the producer (i.e. employer) of these films – the Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) Company. Drawing mainly from biographical records, newspapers and movie magazines, I reconstruct the scenes where entertainment mogul Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong) intervened into Singapore’s labour activism scene by bringing key leaders of PERSAMA to Hong Kong under the pretext of making Malay James Bond films. I posit that through the making of these films, the Shaws essentially provided a sort of political asylum for PERSAMA activists while at the same time critically weakened the union which had, since its founding, been a major force of opposition to the company’s Malay counterpart – the Malay Film Production Company that was based in Singapore.

• New Brooms and Giant Napkins: Class and Gender in the Struggles for an Indonesian Domestic Workers’ Law Mary Austin University of London

  There are at least 4 million domestic workers employed inside Indonesian homes. However, their 24 year-long fight for legal recognition and protection as workers has been largely disregarded by international and Indonesian scholars alike. Yet it is a struggle where the intersectionality of class and gender is key. The paper focuses on a series of street protests conducted by the domestic workers' movement between 2009 and 2016 and argues that the recalcitrance of governments, the complacency of publics and the resistance of employers pushed the movement to take a more overtly class based stance in its discourse, collective identity construction, and alliance building, while never discarding its feminist roots. looking closely at the iconography of demonstrations, the strategic use of 'tools of the trade' as symbolic markers, and the testimony of participants, the paper traces shifts in styles and message over three periods: 2009-2011; 2012-2014; and November 2014 and February to March 2015 when the movement staged a series of hunger strikes. It ends with a brief consideration of where class analysis and and identity sit within current debates about future directions for the global domestic worker movement, affect, and the ethics of care.

• The Cambodian Garment Workers’ Movement: Linking Space, Agency and Gender Michaela Doutch University of Bonn

  The Cambodian garment workers’ movement is a relatively young phenomenon. Its biggest success – so far – was the last general strike in 2013/2014. The workers could achieve a temporary production stop and a minimum wage increase of more than 100%. Only the brutal intervention of police and military forces could stop the workers. Since then spaces for labor actions become more and more limited, but the Cambodian garment workers’ still (try to) shape spaces for labor actions.

  Based on qualitative research with Cambodian garment workers, the paper discusses how space, agency and gender are interlinked in the movement of Cambodian garment workers. Workers’ perspectives give new insights into Cambodian garment workers’ roles as significant agents in the global garment production network, shaping spaces for labor actions in very different ways, transcending spatial boundaries. Women workers` perspectives in particular examine how women are significant agents, breaking away from their traditional roles, experiencing emancipatory moments. This finally stands in contrast to an official representational unionism that is often patriarchal and corrupt. A gender-sensitive view from below is needed to help new organizing approaches to tap into this emancipatory potential of the mainly female working class in the global garment industry.

• Yellows vs. Reds Politics and the Unmaking of the Thai Labour Movement Akkanut Wantanasombut Chulalongkorn University Nantawat Chatuthai University of Bonn

  This paper examines the relationship between the Thai labour movement and Yellows vs. Reds populist politics, and how the former has been weakened or unmade by the latter. Thailand has been stuck in what is generally known as the Yellows vs. Reds political polarisation since the latter half of 2000s. Interestingly, the labour movement – historically an important actor in democratization processes – has not played an independent role in this recent politicisation of Thai society.There has been little presence of labour organizations within the Redshirts, although the latterclaims to be a popular grassroots democratic movement, and despite the fact that significant numbers of its supporters are workers. In contrast, several Thai labour organizations decided to join the Yellowshirts which claim to be a substantive democratic movement that protects Thai interests against vicious capitalistic globalisation. As we know, the Yellowshirts ended up as ardent supporters of nationalist-traditional authoritarianism and the military Junta-regime. Thus, the main question is “Why and how the populist politics of the Yellow- and the Redshirts led to the unmaking of the Thai labour movement?" The paper is based on interviews with key informants from the Yellowshirts, the Redshirts, and labour organizations. Selected formal political statements released by the three parties will also be closely examined.

Abstract

Keywords

• Economy
• Labor
• Politics