Title: Challenges to NGOs' domination of the Indonesian labour movement in the Habibie Interregnum

Submitted by:Michele Ford, University of Wollongong, Australia

This paper examines structural and discursive changes to the representation of labour after the fall of Suharto which challenged labour NGOs' domination of the Indonesian labour movement. The first part of the paper examines how NGOs came to be the 'voice' of labour in late New Order Indonesia. In the second, the implications of changes to structures of labour control leading to increased opportunities for blue-collar unionism in the private sector, the reemergence of private-sector white-collar unionism and the loosening of government's grip on public sector workers' organisations during the Habibie interregnum are discussed. In the final part of the paper, external and internal challenges to conceptions of NGOs' role as the 'voice' of labour are examined. The paper concludes with an assessment of the possibilities for future involvement of NGOs in labour issues in Indonesia.

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Carol Burnett
Asialink
The University of Melbourne
Parkville 3052
Victoria AUSTRALIA

Phone: 61 - 3 - 9349 1899
Fax : 61 - 3 - 9347 1768

Email: c.burnett@asialink.unimelb.edu.au