CLARA Annual Report
The Changing Labour Relations in Asia programme (CLARA) aims to build up a comparative understanding of labour relations in different parts of Asia which are undergoing diverse historical processes and experiences in terms of their national economies, their links with international markets and the nature of state intervention. This understanding will be based on the promotion of inter-Asian co-operation and the co-operation between Asian and non-Asian institutions. Currently, this programme is supported by the International Institute of Asian Studies (IIAS), the main donor, and by the International Institute of Social History (IISH), Amsterdam, the executing institution.
As in the previous year, this year CLARA has organized and/or supported various activities in the form of workshops, international conferences, fellowships, and publications. These are as follows:
Workshops
The annual labour seminar was held in the first quarter of 1999 (March). This seminar brought together scholars of 'labour in Asia' from various Dutch institutions. In this seminar entitled Challenges for Asian labour: Past and Present six scholars mainly from the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague and Centre for Asian Studies, Amsterdam gave presentations which focused on labour in various sectors covering primarily the Philippines and Indonesia.
The second workshop held in September in Amsterdam was called Documenting Asian Social History, unlike other CLARA workshops was not based on research presentations but was meant to discuss the problems and challenges of documenting Asian social history faced by labour research and/or archival centres in these regions.
In collaboration with IISH, CLARA brought together a small group of Asian specialists from Asia, Australia, and the Netherlands. At the end of the workshop with the results of the discussions and the needs of the participants in mind a number of plans were formulated for the future. Firstly there is a great need for training particularly in the field of archive preservation and also for conducting oral history. Another plan is to establish an electronic network of labour documentation centres. This electronic network is currently in operation (called Alsnet Asian Labour Studies Network) and co-ordinated by Eef Vermeij from the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam. There was also an idea to set up a website on labour issues and labour documentation, however, since running a website is more time- consuming, extra funding will be needed to appoint a person to undertake this project.
The third workshop of the year was held in November, in Bangkok, Thailand, and called Subcontracted Labour in Asia. This workshop was a collaboration between CLARA and two Thai institutions, namely the Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute and Homenet (is a non-governmental organization involved in organizing homeworkers). This workshop concentrated on labour in production systems which are organized in a decentralized manner utilizing a combination of family/household labour and wage labour and often deploying 'traditional' recruiting institutions covering the industrial, service and agricultural sectors. Such labour relations were shown in the many case studies from India, Philippines, Thailand, Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia. The various papers also discussed the different categories of labour (based on gender, ethnicity and age-group) and the different definitions of skill which emerged out of these subcontracting arrangements. Although most of the empirical studies did not look into the consequences of subcontracting arrangements on local politics and community life, community organizers from Thailand involved with homeworkers in different parts of Thailand brought up the problems of organizing homeworkers particularly in relation to trade unions. Currently preparations are under way to prepare a publication on subcontracting under the editorship of Prof.Jan Lucassen and Dr Ratna Saptari.
The fourth workshop held at the end of the year and organized by the Pakistan Institute for Labour Education and Research and supported by CLARA concentrated on the general issue of Labour in Pakistan. Although CLARA's emphasis is mainly on workshops which deal with labour issues in a comparative framework, the Pakistan workshop was considered to be an exception because of the dearth of studies and researches held on Pakistan compared for instance with that of India. This workshop focused on five key themes namely: labour history, the construction of class and community, the legal aspects of labour problems, the history of left parties and the contemporary changes in labour relations. Proposals were made for regional co-operation and sharing of experiences with researchers from South Asian and Middle Eastern countries. Tentatively in this regard a timetable was proposed to organize a comparative regional labour workshop at the end of the next two years.
Fellowships
One post-doctoral fellowship was awarded this year to Dr Prabhu Mohapatra from the VV. Giri Institute. Dr Mohapatra's research is on: 'Industrialization of Work Culture Jamshedpur Steel Works 1930-1990s' and started on March 1999. The project envisages research on the broad theme of the creation, maintenance and decline of the Work Culture in the Steel Town. Four aspects are to be specially studied, namely: a) The creation and contestation of Worker Loyalty and Company Paternalism best reflected in the Founders day Parade of the Company. b) The experience of industrialization among a set of fourth and fifth generation workers. c) Extensive study of the pattern of disputes on the shopfloor level. d) Finally exploration of the crucial strike of the 1958 in TISCO the last recorded collective action of the steelworkers, which was led by the communists.
Visiting Fellowships
CLARA awards one visiting fellowship a year and, because for various reasons the fellowship was not opened in 1998, the positions for 1998 and 1999 were announced at the same time and awarded in 1999. Two visiting fellows were appointed this year and stayed for three months based at the International Institute of Social History. These fellows were Dr Shigeru Sato, a historian from the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia, and Dr Adapa Satyanarayana, also a historian, from Omani University, Hyderabad, India. Dr Shigeru Sato consulted various institutions including BUZA, NIOD, and KIT. He also consulted material on economic and social changes during World War II, a period that still remains under-researched. Dr Sato will produce a working paper on labour in the Japanese period as a result of his study period.
Dr Adapa Satyanarayana specializes on Indian labour migration to Burma and Malaysia in the late 19th century and has collected various material from the International Institute of Social History and through secondary material concerning labour migration in general and Indian migration in particular. He also is preparing a working paper as a result of his three-month stay in Holland. *
CLARA Programme Co-ordinator:
DR RATNA SAPTARI
c/o International Institute
of Social History (IISH)
Cruquiusweg 31
1019 AT Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Tel.: +31-20-668 5866
Fax: +31-20-665 4181
E-mail: chlia@iisg.nl
http://www.iisg.nl/asia
CLARA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Prof. Jan Breman (CASA-ASSR)
Prof. Marcel van der Linden (IISH)
* Chair
Prof. Jan Lucassen (IISH)
Dr Ratna Saptari (IIAS / IISH)
* Secretary
Prof. Willem van Schendel
(University of Amsterdam / IISH)
Prof. Thommy Svensson (NIAS)