The Guest Labor System in Taiwan

Abstract

Since the late 1980s, Taiwan's manufacturing and construction employers have pressured the state to increase substantially guest worker intakes in order to reduce labor shortages, to expand the supply of cheap accessible labor, and to weaken upward pressures on wage costs. This article describes the origins and development of the guest labor system and analyzes the effects it has had on Taiwan's economy and on workers both guest and local. The author analyzes the economic dimensions of migrant labor in the context of state efforts to promote employers' interests within a framework of class compromises and examines the response of Tai-wan's labor unions to the growing availability of cheaper foreign labor. Opposition to the mandatory food and accommodation fees imposed on guest workers led the state to encourage employers to recruit guest workers directly from the countries of origin in order to eliminate brokers' fees, the greatest source of migrant hardship. The author shows, however, that direct hiring has failed due to kickback arrangements involving employers, brokers, and state officials. This has brought the class basis of Taiwan's guest worker policy into sharp focus and engendered an intense struggle by guest workers.     

Land reform and Bimas in Indonesia

Underlying the current process of industrial restructuring in Korea is the weakening of the social and political comerstones of Korea's “miracle” economy: low wages maintained through labor market segmentation and suppression of labor movements, state leverage over the chaebol and labor, the containment of the middle class through a state-of-war mentality, and the decentralization of industry away from the capital city through the creation of countermagnets and growth poles. Korea's success in generating its own version of a post-fordist regime of accumulation will depend as much on changes in social and political institutions as it will on pursuing an industrial path of flexible specialization.     

The Greening of the Brass: Taiwan's Civil–Military Relations since 2000 1

Abstract

Since the Democratic Progressive Party's stunning victory in the 2000 presidential election, Chen Shui-bian has accelerated the process of creating an officer corps without strong party inclination toward the KMT. What is the impact of Taiwan's democratization on its civil–military relations? What is the prospect of transitioning from a party-army to a “national army”? Will the DPP's zealous advocacy for Taiwan's independence be incompatible with the military's long-held belief in “China-centered” nationalism, straining relations between the military and the new administration? The analyses, implications, and conclusions of this study will shed light on the general role of the military in Taiwan's democratic transition and consolidation.     

The Implications of Taiwan's Declining Defense

Taiwan's declining defense capability has increasingly tilted the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait towards China. While the current status quo suits Taiwan's domestic political realities and postpones the Taiwan question to the future, its declining defense capabilities vis-à-vis China hold important implications for Taiwan. They include the reduction of its political bargaining power with China, the undermining of stability in the Taiwan Strait as China increasingly has a viable military option, and ultimately decreases the probability that the status quo can be maintained. Left unattended, Taiwan's declining defense capabilities narrow Taiwan's options and could lead to unpalatable outcomes, including sudden crisis and conflict, and the ultimate resolution of the Taiwan problem on China's terms.     

“A Rose”

Abstract

The following is an example of a story written by one of Taiwan's folk writers. The movement of which he's a leader is called “Shandu,” and some consider it Taiwan's first indigenous literary tradition.     

Taiwan's Strategic Options and the US

This article assesses Taiwan's strategic options in relation to the US. From Taipei's perspective, the first strategic option is to maintain the interest of the US and this is largely done by emphasizing the threat posed by a rising China. The second strategic option relates to gaining more support from the US through highlighting the island republic's democratic credentials. Importantly, limitations exist in Taiwan's strategic options in part because they are subject to positive responses from the US as well as reactions from China. For Taipei, a middle power, the key therefore is achieving an optimal mix of strategies while overcoming any deficiencies in order to enhance its national security.     

Putin and the Public Chamber

In 2004, Putin created a Public Chamber to enhance state-society dialogue and civilian oversight of the state system. Drawing on interviews with individuals active in Russian civil society or the foreign donor community, this article investigates the Public Chamber's role in legitimating Putin's regime. It examines the vision of state and civil society in the doctrine of "sovereign democracy"; Kremlin strategies for enforcing the narrow parameters this vision gives the public sphere; the model of civil society the Chamber provides, and its actual workings. The Public Chamber's ability to legitimate the regime is considered in the context of civil society's status in Russia.     

Labor militancy and Taiwan's export-led industrialization

This article focuses on the various patterns of labor militancy in the process of Taiwan's export-led industrialization. It elaborates the variables that contribute to the various patterns of labor militancy and the possible causal relationships between them from three crucial dimensions — economic performances of export-led industrialization, the effects of a politicized environment, and the interaction between labor activists, government and rank-and-filers. By using evidence from Taiwan, it develops a two-dimensional diagram and testifies four propositions. First, export-led industrialization is not always associated with the deterioration of living standards and increasing material hardships, neither does it inevitably give rise to anti-system labor militancy. Secondly, the rise and the intensity of labor militancy have much to do with a politicized environment. Thirdly, when a politicized setting is given, labor militancy which arises in the midst of export expansion tends to be instrumentalist, whilst that arising in export contraction is prone to be anti-system. Lastly, no matter what type of labor militancy, it is more likely that the labor rank-and filers with withdraw from the militant mobilization when their economic claims are met, while the labor activists and politicians persist until they have been granted political concessions.     

RETHINKING ASIAN MOBILITIES

ABSTRACT

Vietnam's economic reforms have generated much praise for the country's rapid “opening” of its markets, as if the Vietnamese nation had previously existed in a state of isolation, closed to broader global influences and exchanges. Such discourses overlook the importance of transnational circulations of people, goods, technologies, and expertise during the socialist era that were vital to Vietnam's postwar national reconstruction and continue to play a role in post-socialist economic transformation today. This article traces the socialist pathways of labor migration between Vietnam and the former Soviet Bloc (specifically, East Germany) in the 1980s, mobilities that are generally absent in studies of contemporary export labor industries. Based on multi-sited ethnographic and archival research, the author follows Vietnamese workers first to the East German factories where they labored as “contract workers,” and then through their subsequent return and reintegration into Vietnamese society after the collapse of the Soviet Union. These mobilities bespeak of an alternative history and formation of diasporic communities that are little acknowledged or addressed in literature on labor migrations, and yet are important to understanding emerging forms of stratification today in Vietnam. Moreover, an analysis of early non-capitalist experiences with overseas labor regimes in the 1980s provides insights into contemporary Vietnamese governance practices that promote—rather uncritically, similar to other “emerging countries” —export labor as a nation-building strategy to reduce endemic poverty and develop a late socialist country.     

Reevaluating the Taiwanese Democracy Movement: A Comparative Analysis of Opposition Organizations under Japanese and KMT Rule

This article reevaluates the first phase of Taiwan's democratization process (1914-1986) by exploring the similarities and differences between oppositional political organizations under Japanese and Kuomintang (KMT) rule. Employing a parallel structure, the article compares two distinct periods of time, 1914-1937 and 1977-1986. Including the Japanese colonial era in the evaluation of Taiwan's democratization process makes it possible to examine long-overlooked issues in Taiwan's political development such as the question of continuity and disjuncture. The author argues that the Japanese colonial era should be recognized as the starting point of Taiwanese political activities and the era of KMT one-party rule that followed as a re-colonization of Taiwan (lasting from 1947 until the early 1980s). The author's analysis reveals that (1) Taiwanese political opposition during both eras originated within rather than outside repressive political frameworks and that moderate opposition organizations emerged as the best possible reaction given those circumstances; (2) domestic organizations had a greater impact on the Taiwanese polity and society than those in exile; and (3) peaceful approaches were an important alternative to revolutionary movements. The author recounts the story of Taiwan's democratization process (until 1986) through the careers of two long-neglected moderate political activists, Lin Xiantang (1881-1956) and Kang Ningxiang (1938-).     

EXTRACTING LABOR FROM ITS OWNER

The Asian economic crisis in 1997 helped bring down Suharto's authoritarian regime in 1998. At the same time it paved the way for more measures of economic liberalization. Some of these measures have taken the form of labor market liberalization, which aims to increase the labor market's ability to adjust to changing economic conditions by clearing what are seen as burdensome regulations, or “rigidities” as they are known in economic parlance. An important instrument in this effort is the private employment agency, which the Manpower Act no. 13/2003 introduced in 2003. This article argues that the introduction of these agencies has created opportunities for various actors in society to take advantage of the less-protected workers in the uncertain waters of the post-Suharto labor regime. In the process, the nature of industrial relations has also been changed in a way that is more predatory than liberal. Ultimately the agencies help erode the hopes for a better life for workers and undermine the revival of labor political rights in Indonesia.     

Gennadiy Zyuganov and the ‘Third Road’

Political scientists examine Vladimir Putin's efforts to ensure political control within a regime structure that is formally democratic. Methods for managing factional infighting, concentrating political resources in the "party of power," United Russia, and to limit electoral competition are specified. A Monte Carlo electoral simulation leads to counter-intuitive conclusions about the impact of proportional-representation rules on electoral processes and outcomes. Conclusions are drawn about the effectiveness of efforts to institutionalize an authoritarian regime in which shared power is vested in a hegemonic party.     

Australian Support for an Independent Taiwan Prior to the Recognition of the People's Republic of China*

Australia's efforts between 1950 and 1972 to create an independent Taiwan are an important, largely overlooked element of Australia and Taiwan's international relations. Australia saw de jure independence for Taiwan as a means to support the US while pursuing the interrelated goals of accommodating the People's Republic of China (PRC) and minimising contradictions between US China policy and the policies of the UK and other countries important to it. Initially Australia favoured the establishment of a Taiwanese majority‐controlled state. This preference later gave way to greater support for an independent Republic of China on Taiwan under Chinese Nationalist rule. Australia nevertheless consistently justified its policy via reference to the principle of self‐determination for Taiwan's people — either immediately in the case of a Taiwanese Taiwan, or postponed into the indefinite future in the case of a Chinese Nationalist Taiwan. Championing Taiwan independence lost its utility for Australia when Sino‐ US relations improved in the late‐1960s to early‐1970s, and it became possible for Australia to make the concessions over Taiwan demanded by China without damaging its relationship with the US. This shift preceded the election of a Labor government committed to building a friendly relationship with China. Australia then dropped its policy of advocating Taiwanese independence, and established official relations with China in late 1972.     

Social injustice and economic dynamism in contemporary Korea

Abstract

This article examines the processes of labor market restructuring and welfare reform in South Korea since the 1997/98 crisis, arguing that the Korean state-capital complex has succeeded in effecting a substantial redistribution of income from labor to capital. This redistribution of income has played a critical role in enhancing Korea's international competitiveness and in facilitating a return to sustained growth. The principal mechanisms through which this redistribution has been achieved are the intensified exploitation of weaker sections of the proletariat and the reduction of the traditionally more protected organized sections of the workforce in major firms. At the same time, the state has strengthened welfare safety nets and sought to place concerns about structural competitiveness at the heart of the welfare regime through the promotion of vocational training. What has been most striking about the process of welfare reform, however, has been the capacity of the state to limit the growth of welfare expenditures/provision whilst simultaneously creating massive new labor market insecurities. As a result of the success of the Korean state in restructuring labor markets in order to effect a redistribution of income from weaker sections of the proletariat to capital and limiting the growth of social spending we have witnessed a marked increase in inequality since 1997. Korea's apparent success in transforming itself into a competitive, dynamic neoliberal economy must, therefore, be understood as being symbiotically linked to the intensification of inequality.     

The Class Context of Temporary Immigration,Racism and Civic Nationalism in Taiwan

This article adopts a Marxist framework for examining the class bases of racism against guest workers in Taiwan, focusing on the legislative and administrative mechanisms adopted by the state to racialise and recompose the labour market and to politically repress immigrants, largely for the benefit of capital accumulation. It examines the ways in which racism against immigrants has constituted an important element of Taiwan's civic nationalism; an ideology which depicts guest workers' resistance as a source of social instability in the nation-state. The article also considers the ways in which the state has adapted to immigrants' struggles, together with the immigrants' and local workers' efforts to unite in solidarity against wage exploitation and racism. The article brings together evidence supporting the contention that Marxist analysis is the most effective means of explaining both racism and anti-racism.     

Resilience and Renewal: The Enforcement of Labor Laws in Brazil

What happens to a country's system of labor laws when its government embraces market‐oriented reforms? In a twist on the prediction that labor regulations will be repealed, researchers find that laws remain in place but are not faithfully enforced, a phenomenon known as de facto flexibility. This article examines the case of Brazil to understand its near‐opposite; namely, resilience and renewal in the enforcement of labor regulations. It finds that labor unions have combined the corporatist authority they gained under state control with the autonomy they acquired under democratization to devise new modes of action and to safeguard existing regulations. Meanwhile, labor inspectors and prosecutors rely on existing laws to combat precarious work conditions and promote formal employment relations, which strengthen the unions. This mutually supportive arrangement is neither perfect nor free of tension, but it shows how workers can be protected even when employers are subjected to global competition.     

Labor and democratization in South Korea and Taiwan

The article examines the recent work by Rueschemeyer et. al. (1992) and revisits the classic issue of the social basis of democracy. It argues that Rueschemeyer et al. are biased in their definition of democracy, have focused too narrowly on the postures of individuals classes, and have produced a one-sided picture of the role of the workers in democratization. Using the experiences of South Korea and Taiwan, the article argues that the extent of workers's involvement in the democratic struggle depends on their experiences of state domination. The latter, in turn, is influenced by the workers' market positions and the nature of the labor regime in question. The article also argues that workers affect democratization in a macro-structural sense, both by influencing the agenda of the oppositional movement and by shaping the contour of socio-political conflict of society.     

Bin Ali's Tunisia: Democracy by Non-Democratic Means

The article tackles one principal question: Can the current dicing with democracy in Tunisia serve as a harbinger for good governance when it is founded on exclusionary political practices. It argues that Bin Ali's reforms represent yet another phase in the reproduction of hegemonic political practice which is about control not democratic power sharing. The article's analytical agenda is two-fold. Firstly, it will critically assess the nature of Bin Ali's 'electoral democracy'. In so doing, it looks at the tension between political rhetoric and practice. What becomes clear is that 11 years of 'electoralization' and 'parliamentarization' have not put an end to unlawful exclusion, muzzling of free expression, repression and disenfranchizement. Secondly, it will show that Bin Ali's obsession with hegemonic control may already be corroding his regime's legitimacy at home and denting its credibility abroad, especially in France. In this respect, the analysis will attempt to draw general conclusions from three recent crises. Specifically, can they be read as the first cracks in the monolith of singular rule in Tunisia? The article concludes on a negative and a positive note. On the negative side, Bin Ali, as this author believes, is not likely to give up power constitutionally. On the positive side, the April-May 2000 crises have placed his regime in the spotlight at home and abroad and may possibly galvanize civil society into pressuring the regime to reverse its return to a closed society.     

ADVOCATING FOR SRI LANKAN MIGRANT WORKERS

Nearly a million Sri Lankan women labor overseas as migrant workers, the vast majority in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in West Asia. They are poorly paid and vulnerable to a wide variety of exploitative labor practices at home and abroad. Despite the importance of worker remittances to Sri Lanka's national economy, and in spite of the nation's history of organized labor and active political participation, migrants have received only anemic support from the state, labor unions, feminist organizations, and migrant-oriented nongovernmental organizations. The article contextualizes Sri Lankan migration within larger-scale economic dynamics (such as global capitalist policies and processes) and local-level ideological formations (such as local political histories and culturally shaped gender norms). The author argues that political freedoms in destination countries have a significant effect on organizing activities in both host and sending nations. Comparing the Sri Lankan and Philippine situations, the author contends that the vibrant activism in the Philippines correlates with the liberal organizing climates in the European Union and in East and Southeast Asia, while the paucity of organizing in Sri Lanka correlates with the strict repression of guest workers in the GCC. Compared to other destinations, the GCC countries give workers (particularly women) less chance for autonomous activities, are less open to labor organizing, and are less responsive to political protest.     

The Condition of the Ottoman Mine Labour and Its Impact on the Republican Period

In the Ottoman state, mining was important for the conduct of war, mints, public works, crafts industry, and financing the centralized administration system. In the republican period, mines were also important in the state's industrialization project, and they were used to subsidize the developing industries through provision of low-cost raw materials. These policies of the Ottoman and Turkish states had serious consequences for mine labour. Analysis of the Ottoman mining industry in the classical and post-classical periods, and also during the Turkish Republican period, highlights a range of emerging patterns. These include the strict control of the production by the state, the common practice of subcontracting, the role of foreign capital in the history of mining, the village-based division of labour around the mines, the use of peasant cultivator miners, the exploitation of unfree labour, the lack of investment, and traditional labour-intensive working conditions. The concept of ‘development and persistence’ is invaluable in explaining the longevity and extent of these practices stemming from historical circumstances, and we can see the persistence of some of these practices during the Republican period, despite the changes in the political regime and economic development. Throughout, the miners have been in a vulnerable position in relation to the state, exacerbated by their ambiguous peasant-miner position as wage labourers.