Labor and the politics of structural adjustment in Australia and Indonesia

Abstract

A noteworthy lacuna in the voluminous literature dedicated to the “globalization” phenomenon has been sustained discussion of the position of organized labor. This article attempts to remedy this deficit by considering the experiences of two geographically adjacent, but very different nations: Australia and Indonesia. Concentrating on the last twenty years or so, when the general restructuring of international economic activity gathered pace, the article analyses the separate experiences of each country's labor force, before considering what such a comparative analysis reveals about labor's overall position in a global economy. It is suggested that while the outlook for organized labor is generally bleak, contingent national circumstance remains an important determinant of labor's developmental trajectory.