A study of worker activism and labour unions in the eight years between the recognition of Indonesian sovereignty by the Netherlands at the end of 1949 and the nationalisation of Dutch assets in 1957, Workers and Democracy contributes to the ongoing re-evaluation of the era of liberal parliamentary democracy in Indonesia. The focus is on the agency of workers and the structures, strategies and industrial campaigns of unions in the context of intense ideological conflict, competing union federations, the opposition of employers to collective action and the efforts by the Indonesian state to manage industrial conflict. The imposition of martial law in March 1957 was the deathblow to parliamentary democracy and to the freedom of workers and unions to engage in collective action. It was not until Suharto’s ‘New Order’ regime collapsed in 1998 that Indonesian workers regained the freedom of association and the right to engage in collective action.

1. Labor movement ? Indonesia ? History ? 20th century. 2. Labor unions ? Indonesia ? History ? 20th century. 3. Industrial relations ? Indonesia ? History ? 20th century.