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The Politics of Workers' Contention: The 1999 Mayora Strike in Tangerang, West Java

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2008

Ratna Saptari
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Abstract

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This paper aims to examine the interplay between individual subjectivities and collective action during a strike which occurred at a moment of political transition in Indonesia from Suharto's authoritarian regime to a more democratically inclined government. It attempts to highlight some of the problems in understanding the nature of protest and collective action and the construction of workers' identities. By following the sequence of a strike, we are able to see the collaborations and conflicts between the leaders and those who are central in the protest action and those who are at the margins; between those who join and those who do not join but hope to obtain the benefits of the results. This also means that it provides us with a better understanding of the complexities involved when we refer to “consciousness”, “identities”, and “experiences” as analytical constructs. Such a focus can counter the often simplistic links made between action and intent, between the economic circumstances and political action.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , April 2008 , pp. 1 - 35
Copyright
2008 Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis

Footnotes

The research for this article was made possible by a one-year fellowship at the KITLV in Leiden. I am grateful to the KITLV for this opportunity. An earlier version of this article was presented at the KITLV workshop on “Rethinking Indonesian Historiography”, organized by Henk Schulte Nordholt and myself in Leiden, the Netherlands, on 21–22 June 2005. I would like to thank especially Abdul Syukur and Hilmar Farid, who were discussants for the paper, but also, among others, Henk Schulte Nordholt, Gerry van Klinken, Jean Taylor, Bambang Purwanto, and Adrian Vickers. Maria Hartiningsih from Kompas came to my rescue to help provide the photographs which illustrate the workers' demonstrations. The paper could not have been completed without the insightful comments of two reviewers and members of the Editorial Committee of this journal.