New trade union for Indonesia?
By Max Lane
In a statement issued on June 13, the Free Discussion Forum (FBB), a group with extensive links among Jakarta factory workers, called for the formation of a new national trade union. The FBB pointed out that despite a significant increase in the number and the militancy of worker protests during the last two years, the workers movement had achieved only minimal gains.
Thousands of workers have recently staged strikes and demonstrations in Medan, Solo and Tangerang. In the latter city, thousands of workers held a march which stretched out over 15 kilometres.
The statement pointed to the massive mobilisations of workers and the survival of three independent trade unions founded during the last two years. But while the SBSI (Indonesian Trade Union for Prosperity), the Tangerang Trade Union, and the Bogor Genuine Trade Union had gained de facto recognition as groups calling themselves unions, they had not been able to win even the de facto right of organising workplace branches or representing workers in negotiations.
FBB called for a new trade union that would also relate to the democratic struggle. It claimed there was a lack of awareness on the part of independent trade unions that "the struggle is political, and that victory can be achieved only when it is based upon a multi-sectoral strength which is pro-democratic and will put an end to the authoritarian and anti-worker regime".
The statement argued that the recent calls for a general strike and national actions by the SBSI failed because there was no campaign linking the worker movement with the democratic (political) movement and multi-sector actions to fight the authoritarian regime.