The Labour Movement and Politics - Do They Mix?
Labour movements in Asia employ a wide range of means to defend workers from the control of capital, and make gains in their ability to control their work conditions and participate in decision-making about their welfares as workers and citizens. The key known tools are those of collective bargaining with employers at the workplace. They may also engage in actions including strikes, protests and demonstrations, with the target of their actions being either employers or the government, or even public sympathy. Another major avenue is through battle in courts, challenging capital through judicial processes. These are methods guaranteed by constitution, but confined by regulatory frameworks, such as the labour law, the trade union law, freedom of expression, etc. However, while offering leverage and protection to the trade unions and workers, they also put up barriers and narrow the range of measures workers can take to bargain for improving their conditions. Going beyond the legal frameworks immediately puts workers into illegal status or even criminality. Workers are forced to struggle politically as well as economically, when the state and its related institutions tend to limit workers’ legally acceptable demands to economic ones only. This explains the immediate interest of the labour movement in state and politics – ‘politics’ understood in the limited sense of electoral politics.
