Workers Online
Workers Online
Workers Online
  Issue No 41 Official Organ of LaborNet 26 November 1999  

 --

 --

 --

.  LaborNET

.  Ask Neale

.  Tool of the Week


International

Organised Chaos

By Andrew Casey

Persistent rumours are floating around Jakarta that the former boss of the official pro-Soeharto Indonesian trade union movement is about to be charged with corruption.

There is widespread speculation around the capital about what effect these corruption charges will have on a fractured Indonesian union movement. There are now said to be some 20 different union federations, and 47 political parties trying to form unions in Indonesia.

The spread of organised labour in Indonesia reflects in part a huge growth in the manufacturing sector, as foreign investors have moved in to take advantage of cheap labour.

Probably the most infamous of the foreign investors has been Reebok who recently admitted that their Indonesian workplaces had mistreated their employees.

The top unionist reportedly about to be charged with corruption is Bomer Pasaribu.

Bomer Pasaribu, now the Minister for Manpower in the new Indonesian Government of President Abdurrahman Wahid, was the former President of the pro-Government FSPSI national trade union centre.

The FSPSI, of which Bomer Pasaribu is still an executive member, was the only officially recognised labor union during the 32 year rule of President Soeharto.

The respected English-language Jakarta Post has over the last fortnight reported the corruption rumours a number of times in their news pages.

According to the Jakarta Post the Minister allegedly misused funds from the state-owned PT Jamsostek, which ran social security programs for workers. The official FSPSI was housed in buildings owned by PT Jamsostek.

During the last year, in the lead up to the collapse of the Soeharto regime, the FSPSI split into two factions.

The old guard faction was led by Bomer Pasaribu. The Reformasi FSPSI faction were ejected from the PT Jamsostek owned official trade union HQ, and starved of funds when they set up their new national trade union centre.

The official FSPSI was never a monolithic grouping. For the last decade there has been tensions within FSPSI between those who wanted the group to act as a legitimate workers organisation, and those who only wanted to toe the Golkar line.

The Jakarta Post has also reported a number of workers occupations and protests against President Wahid's appointment of Bomer Pasaribu. The protesters demand the Minister be immediately dismissed.

The workers occupying the Government buildings are affiliated to the Indonesian Prosperous Labor Union (SBSI), which for some years has vigorously opposed all groups within the official FSPSI federation.

Significantly these SBSI occupations went for nearly a week and passed peacefully without any police or military intervention. In the past the military especially would have been quick to put down SBSI demonstrations.

The Jakarta Post reports SBSI spokesmen as saying Bomer did nothing to improve workers' rights and welfare during his term as a union official, and that he continually sided with management and major firms against the workers.

However it is important to note that the leader of the SBSI trade union federation - Mochtar Pakpahan, who spent some time in jail under Soeharto, and also leads a small regionally-based 'Labour' political party - is said to be manoeuvring to be made the next Minister for Manpower in the Wahid Government, once Bomer is sacked.

In recent times some elements of the official FSPSI and the SBSI, as well as other union groupings such as the National Front for Workers' Struggle, Indonesia (FNPBI), have been co-operating, organising workplaces and demonstrations in defence of workers interests.

The FNPBI is led by Dita Sari, a well regarded dissident union activist who was imprisoned by the Soeharto regime for three years. She has visited Australia and been feted by the ICFTU at their Brussels HQ.

The confusion in the trade union movement in Indonesia replicates almost exactly what happened with the collapse of the Stalinist regimes in Eastern Europe. Many of the official Stalinist trade unions splintered into Old Guard and Reform factions, and oppositionist trade unions mushroomed.

In the lead up to the collapse of the authoritarian regimes of Eastern Europe foreign funding streamed in as overseas interests tried to influence the creation of new trade unions.

In Hungary, for example, American interests actively supported one oppositionist trade union federation, the Scandinavians tended to back the Reform faction of the official trade union movement, the Western Europeans backed a third grouping and still others tried to foster a Catholic Christian Democratic trade union grouping, along the lines of the Polish Solidarnosc.

There are already reports of foreign funding streaming in to back different Indonesian trade union groupings, as they try to mould Indonesia unions into their own image of what a working class organisation should look like.

An organisation called the American Center for International Labor Solidarity is backing Mochtar Pakpahan's SBSI. The British TUC, in co-operation with the ILO, is providing aid which helps both the Old Gaurd FSPSI and the Reformasi FSPSI.

Overseas interests and influence peddlers rarely understand the real needs and nuances of local working class communities, who quite rightly resent foreign models of working class organisation being imposed on them.

Probably the best thing would be for the influence peddlers to butt-out .. and to allow home-grown democratic union organisations to grow naturally.

In Eastern Europe the ICFTU tried to negotiate a butt-out policy.

All sides said: yes- yes they backed the butt-out policy, and promised to stop backing their particular favourites.

At the same time all sides knew their opponents were secretly continuing to send funds, and provide other support, to the favoured federation.


------

*    For the latest international news, visit Labourstart

*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 41 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: A Bob Each Way
ALP tactician Bob McMullan is responsible for charting Labor industry policy into the next millennium. He tells us where he�s heading.
*
*  Unions: Organiser of the Year
Just ten days to go before entries close for our $2000 air ticket. Here�s another nomination.
*
*  History: Labour Daze
A report from the 6th National Biennial Conference of the Australian Society For The Study Of Labour and Community.
*
*  Politics: Tomorrow�s Questions
While the turn of the century sees Sydney play host to the Olympic games, the International Youth Parliament 2000 will bring world focus to contemporary issues facing young people.
*
*  Health: Red Ribbons
December 1, World AIDS Day has a special place in the history of the AIDS pandemic.
*
*  International: Organised Chaos
Persistent rumours are floating around Jakarta that the former boss of the official pro-Soeharto Indonesian trade union movement is about to be charged with corruption.
*
*  Economics: Seattle Numbers Grow for WTO Protest
News of the agreement to smooth China�s entry to the World Trade Organisation has created its own "China Syndrome" for organisers of the Seattle WTO event.
*
*  Satire: Too Many Media Players!
The Productivity Commission has issued a report calling for the abolition of existing cross-media ownership laws.
*
*  Review: Leviathan
John Birmingham has lifted the lid on Sydney�s shady past - and found trade unions to be at the centre of the sordid tales.
*
*  Deface a Face: Reith Loses His Shine
With his Second Wave looking more like a splash in the bath-tub, Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith still reigns as the union movement�s favourite bogeyman.
*

News
»  Labor Hire Faces Deregulation
*
»  Democrats Poised to Say No
*
»  Olympic Job Cut Fears
*
»  Inspectors to Act on Ships of Shame
*
»  Grave Concerns About Body Bags
*
»  Former Trades Hall Boss Into Teachers Fray
*
»  Tools for Timor Plea
*
»  Rio Tinto Sacks 84 for Christmas Eve
*
»  Hotel Workers in Unprecedented Action
*
»  Tug Action Hits Sydney Harbour
*
»  Free National Parks Access as Bans Kick In
*
»  Parkers Issue Ticket To Loitering Government
*
»  Stop Forced Repatriation of Burmese Migrant Workers
*
»  Will the Real Casual Workers Please Stand Up?
*
»  STOP PRESS: Labor Wins NZ Election
*

Columns
»  Guest Report
*
»  Sport
*
»  Trades Hall
*
»  Piers Watch
*

Letters to the editor
»  Invitation to Visit Indonesia for May Day 2000
*
»  Online Sales
*
»  Republican Soapbox
*
»  'Union Bosses' Hurt the Workers
*
»  For Whom Belanger Tolls
*
»  The Teachers' Debate
*
»  POSITION VACANT: Electorate Office Manager
*

What you can do

Notice Board
- Check out the latest events

Latest Issue

View entire latest issue
- print all of the articles!

Previous Issues

Subject index

Search all issues

Enter keyword(s):
  


Workers Online - 2nd place Labourstart website of the year


BossWatch


Wobbly Radio



[ Home ][ Notice Board ][ Search ][ Previous Issues ][ Latest Issue ]

© 1999-2000 Labor Council of NSW

LaborNET is a resource for the labour movement provided by the Labor Council of NSW

URL: http://workers.labor.net.au/41/c_historicalfeature_indon.html
Last Modified: 15 Nov 2005

[ Privacy Statement | Disclaimer | Credits ]

LaborNET is proudly created, designed and programmed by Social Change Online for the Labor Council of NSW

 *LaborNET*

 Labor Council of NSW

[Workers Online]

[Social Change Online]