ASAA Southeast Asia Publications Series. Singapore: NUS Press, 2022. xvii, 363 pp. (Tables.) US$68.00, cloth. ISBN 9780824893606.
In February 2024, Indonesia will hold its sixth election since the Reformation (Reformasi) era began in 1998. The new enthusiasm for the Labour Party in Indonesia’s electoral politics (a stark difference from the 2009 elections, in which the Labour Party failed to secure even one seat in the national parliament) goes hand-in-hand with the intense flexibility of the country’s labour market and the stagnation of a minimum wage standard aimed at facilitating investment in Indonesia (Job Creation Law). The Party is regarded as an alternative answer to labour’s problems.
Though a book about the past, Workers and Democracy provides timely insights into the present. The years 1949 to 1957, a largely forgotten period, as the author suggests, laid the basic conditions for industry-labour relations in Indonesia that have continued to the present day. The general public is largely ignorant of the fact that it was during this period that such policies as a national minimum wage, the 40-hour work week, Eid al-Fitr festive allowances (known as Tunjangan Hari Raya, THR), maternity leave for women, and tripartite fora (known at the national level as Penjelesaian Pertikaian Perburuhan Pusat [P4P] and P4D at the local level) were initiated and achieved.
How is it that labour movements during this so-called forgotten period were able to lay such important foundations for Indonesian labour activism? Using three analytical aspects—namely agency, structures, and strategies (3)—Ingleson explores answers to this question. He argues that an enabling environment of liberal politics, anti-colonial sentiment (mostly among owners of large firms), responsive ministries, and the intense activities of labour unions at the grassroots level—predominantly Sobsi (All Indonesian Workers Union, affiliated with the Communist Party of Indonesia)—were all factors. Far from focusing solely on the rights of permanent workers, the unions also aimed to protect day-wage workers, present in both the private and public sectors. These workers sought permanent positions or increases in their daily wages as well as welfare/protection. During this period, it was better to be unionized than not (343).
The author arranges and arrays agency, structures, and strategies in two parts. The first comprises the first four chapters on macro-political liberal democracy, Indonesia’s post-independence history, and labour activism (centring on Sobsi). Post-independence mentalities, wherein the managers of foreign companies refused to change their attitudes towards Indonesian workers, fueled anti-colonial sentiments and encouraged labourers to unionize. The second part (chapters 5–8) provides detailed case studies covering public sector workers, plantation workers, dockworkers and sailors, and industrial and urban transport workers. We learn through Ingelson’s rich description about how labour action was organized, what strategies they used—a series of strikes and stoppages delayed the distribution of goods, which forced companies into negotiations—and how national union leaders lobbied policymakers in the government’s executive and legislative bodies. In these chapters, we also learn that Sobsi was successful (winning many industrial disputes) thanks to the contributions of hundreds of activists at the local and plant levels. Ingelson shows how these activists played the most important roles in organizing unions. They were ordinary labourers, not part of union structures, and were driven by specific local issues. They were the everyday game changers who exercised their rights collectively and contributed to the success of Sobsi (345). In my view, this is the primary strength of this book: a combination of perspectives from above (part 1) and from below (part 2).
The second strength of this book lies in its discussion of labour unions in the public sector (chapter 6), something unknown even to many Indonesians. There is a common perception that workers in the public sector cannot be unionized. This perception started when Jusuf Wibisono, as minister of finance, stated that a civil servant is not a labourer (171). This narrative was produced due to a lack of trust in workers’ movements (261), which importantly, originated from disdain for the communist ideology with which unions were associated. This chapter shows that public sector workers did indeed unionize in large numbers, both at the national and local (provincial) levels. Ingleson elaborates that Sebda (short for Serikat Buruh Daerah Otonom, or Regional Autonomy Workers Union) had 70,000 members (172), which included teachers, administrators, postal service workers, and workers in pawn shops, railways, forestry, and public works. They too grieved the minimum wage and the absence of social rights.
After the New Order disassembled the the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) and its affiliated organizations in 1965, labour unions and their activities at the grassroots level were curtailed. The New Order prioritized economic development, restricting any citizens’ political activities. Any grassroots activities would be labelled as pro-communist ideology. Since Reformasi in 1998, things started to change and unions came back to town, defending workers’ rights. Over the past years, unions have faced serious challenges. Ambitions to invite investors has paved the way for a bill on job creation and created a cheap labour regime. The minimum wage is now determined by the inflation rate and economic growth, rather than by what constitutes a decent life standard. Tripartite fora will be no use. Flexibilization of the labour market has intensified, not only through the presence of the informal sector (contributing to more than 60 percent of the Indonesian economy), but also by the presence of companies that utilize mobile-app technology, thus absorbing gig workers. By law, gig workers are regarded not as “workers” but as “contractors,” and therefore have no rights to join a union.
As they did in the 1950s, workers join unions to improve their living conditions. Now, they have established a political party, in coalition with other grassroot movements such as the peasant movement, the urban poor, and informal workers. Freelancers have started to establish their own unions despite the lack of regulations on unionizing for freelancers. Here we learn that agency has remained strong and workers have kept fighting, just like what Ingelson depicts in the book: how things change and stay the same at the same time.
Amalinda Savirani
Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta