Arief W. Djati

With over a decade of experience in helping laborers articulate their needs and rights, Arief Djati is building a movement of trained labor leaders in Indonesia.

Indonesia's New Order regime encouraged a brand of economic growth that concentrated power in the hands of a very few individuals, permitting a host of damaging practices that left workers vulnerable to the whims of–and in many cases, intentional exploitation by–their bosses. Complaints of sexual harassment and physical violence perpetrated by superiors were silenced. Lay-offs came suddenly and with no explanation. Workers labored intolerably long hours to the point of physical exhaustion and collapse. In the name of security and economic growth, the workers of Indonesia lost most of their rights and those who spoke up were stifled.
Arief sees that Indonesia's recent political changes introduce the hope of lasting reform for the men and women who make up Indonesia's work force. By training and educating labor leaders and linking them together in a national network, Arief is strengthening the bargaining position of factory workers who actively oppose oppressive policies and practices in the work place. Through his efforts and the efforts of the labor leaders he trains, Arief is establishing strong local organizations that, in coordination with the major labor union, pressure the provincial legislature to enact policies that protect workers from abuses and exploitation. Arief's model will be effective in other Asian communities with similar labor histories.

During the early 1980s, the Suharto government facilitated rapid light industrialization in the country by promoting Indonesia's "cheap labor" as a comparative advantage to investors. At the same time, the government ran Indonesia's sole labor organization, in part to stave off criticism from the international labor community and in part to suppress the opposition movement from within. As part of a broader injustice, the government localized–and successfully limited–workers' understanding of their situation. At that time, people understood laborers to mean only those who worked at the lowest level. The separation of workers at the lowest level from those in mid-management (or higher) positions prevented organizing attempts from going very far.
The recent political changes have been promising, but workers have seen little improvement. While demonstrations are permitted and labor organizations are now allowed to convene and campaign for workers' rights, few significant advancements have been made. On the one hand, changes in policy concerned with labor have yet to take the side of the workers. But the workers have yet to organize themselves to formulate, articulate, and express their needs. The limitations of the leaders who have come from their own ranks are one of the reasons that workers' organizations have failed to make progress.
Surabaya, where Arief works, is the second largest city in Indonesia and, after Jakarta, the nation's second largest industrial area. With over 1.5 million industrial workers, its problems are highly significant in the Indonesian context, as the rest of the country looks to its example as precedent-setting. The conditions and geographic spread of the factories make attempts at coordinating and consolidating workers particularly challenging.

Following intensive discussions with workers, Arief designed a set of programs to train members of the work force to articulate their concerns more clearly, to initiate credit unions and cooperatives, and to advocate for changes to local and national labor laws and practices. By combining laborers and mid-level managers in the same organization, Arief eliminates the rift between those levels and builds on the strength of worker numbers.
Arief introduces his training in phases, beginning with men and women who show potential as trainers. Through the process of honing their writing skills, these future leaders gain a greater understanding of labor issues and learn to articulate issues to audiences inside and outside the labor movement. Participants often choose to write about their experiences of issues like work place safety, sexual harassment, and labor policies. The topics are both familiar to the participants and useful for the broader purpose of educating themselves and their colleagues about their rights as workers and about the protections that do, or should, exist. With practice and instruction, participants can and do articulate more clearly–a key skill of leaders. One of the groups published a book of essays and short stories produced as part of the initial training.
A primary objective of Arief's current work is coordinating the efforts of the smaller groups he has convened. Together with the People's Labor Union, he has pressured the legislature to enact regional ordinances and regulate policy. Arief and his organization have recently drafted–and are currently advocating for–the passage of a regional ordinance that calls for the elimination of child labor in East Java. This is a step toward influencing policy on a national scale.
In another important effort, Arief and his staff have engaged factory owners in informal discussions that relate to labor issues. Arief is a member of an antidiscrimination group in Surabaya that includes academics, owners of large pulp and shipbuilding factories, acupuncturists, pharmacists, and factory managers. He has used his membership as an entry point to assemble factory managers and owners and inform them of workers' needs and problems.
To further spread his ideas and activities, Arief and his organization use trained groups from the workers' communities as well as existing national and international networks. With labor movement activists nationally, Arief has established a labor education center in Bandung. Besides using books, bulletins, and the media to spread information, Arief and his organization have worked with respected directors in film and theater productions to relate the story of Marsinah, a young female factory worker and activist in East Java. An advocate for workers' rights, she was tortured and murdered in 1993 by "officials" who have yet to be brought to justice. These productions have brought the issue of worker rights to the attention of national and international audiences.

Arief, who is 35, was born in the city of Malang, East Java. During his years in junior high school, he led a protest against what he saw as the unjust treatment of a classmate by his teachers. From that time, Arief's sensitivity toward the social situation surrounding him began to emerge and continued in his university years when he joined with several friends in discussion groups and social actions. In 1988 Arief and his friends formed a discussion group to focus on issues of poverty, injustice, and human rights. From this time his critical thinking skills sharpened, especially as he held intensive discussions with his lecturers. Arief's commitment toward advancing the liberties of people did not end when he graduated from university. Rather, his discussion group became stronger. In 1991 Arief and his former classmates established a new civil society organization with a focus on workers and labor issues. At that time there were few citizen organizations in Indonesia that were concerned about the problems of workers. Arief is knowledgeable and outgoing and has a wide network of friends and supporters in Indonesia and abroad. He has written a number of articles and books and has collaborated on other publications with well-known Indonesian specialists. He is often invited to be a speaker or facilitator at academic and citizen organization gatherings.