Title: Building international and regional labour networks during the Cold War period: Indonesia and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.Submitted by: Dr Jan Elliott, Research Fellow, Centre for Asia Pacific Transformation Studies, University of Wollongong, AustraliaThe establishment, and sustaining, of international trade union solidarity has always been historically difficult. It has been contingent on overcoming the problems associated with diverse historical experiences, cultures, geography, religion, ideologies, and personalities. The history of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) is replete with just such difficulties. The aim of this paper is to give an historical perspective to the formation of Asian regional and international non-communist networks of labour organizations during the Cold War period. The focus of the paper is non-communist Indonesian labour unions from 1951 until 1975 and their links to the ICFTU through their national centres and the regional organization, ARO (Asian Regional Organization). The time frame reflects, in the history of post-colonial Indonesia, the change from a robust process of labour organization formation in the 1950s-1960s, to an authoritarian, state-sponsored one in the 1970s. Until 1965, Indonesia had the largest communist party in Southeast Asia and it was vitally important to the ICFTU to expand its influence both within Indonesia and the region. The paper discusses the efforts of the ICFTU to influence Indonesian labour organizations towards affiliation with it, and to establish regional networks through the ARO as a counter to the efforts of the communist sponsored WFTU in the region. It then analyses the success, or not, of these efforts. Return to Abstracts menuCarol Burnett Phone: 61 - 3 - 9349 1899 Email: c.burnett@asialink.unimelb.edu.au
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