Le but de cet article est d'examiner la signification des changements dans les relations de trava... more Le but de cet article est d'examiner la signification des changements dans les relations de travail avant et après la crise économique au regard des nouvelles formes émergentes de subordination des travailleurs au capital à travers diverses mesures de flexiblilisation, cela tant au niveau national qu'au sein des milieux de travail. La période comprise entre 1987 et 1996 fut marquée, dans l'histoire du développement capitaliste coréen, par la confrontation entre le capital et le travail, rapport qui s'est cristallisé dans la formation d'un « mouvement de syndicats démocratiques » hautement politisé. Ce n'est qu'à partir de la crise économique de 1997 que l'État capitaliste et les entrepreneurs privés ont pu regagner un contrôle effectif sur le facteur travail en soumettant ce dernier aux impératifs de la logique marchande. En d'autres termes, c'est le marché du travail flexiblilisé, basé sur une forte compétitivité, qui détermine les mécanismes de gestion des ressources humaines et qui a permis aux entrepreneurs de diluer, de façon effective, le militantisme des syndicats sur le lieu de travail. Une étude de cas sur les relations de travail dans l'entreprise Hyundai Motors Car a révélé que, avec le degré grandissant de flexibilité et d'insécurité au travail, les relations de travail apparaissent maintenant sous une forme substantiellement différente. Cette forme de relation de travail n'est pas simplement basée sur un contrôle coercisif de l'État sur le travail, mais plus fondamentalement sur une subordination plus volontaire des travailleurs individuels au capital privé. Cependant, la marchandisation du travail flexiblilisé semble avoir une double-nature. Dans une tentative pour institutionaliser le marché du travail flexiblilisé, l'État joue un double rôle, intégrant, d'une part, les syndicats dans un espace corporatiste, comme la Commision tripartite, et d'autre part, utilisant des mesures autoritaires contre n'importe quelle violation du règlement venant nuire à la flexibilisation du marché du travail.
This article analyses the way in which informality becomes the common feature of capitalist labou... more This article analyses the way in which informality becomes the common feature of capitalist labour in globalising Asia. As the mobility of capital has developed, different industries and production processes are now neatly interwoven. This transnationally coordinated capitalism subjugates almost all of Asia's population to the expanding circuit of capital that builds hierarchical forms of the division of labour for the creation and realisation of profit. In this ''global factory,'' capitalist labour becomes the common basis of living for the people of Asia. At the same time, the global factory gives a particular informal nature to capitalist labour and changes its social form in Asian societies as mobile capital requires flexible and disposable forms of capitalist labour. Throughout Asia, unwaged workers and workers in informal employment are increasing in number. These workers lack legal, institutional and, most of all, union protection. It is urgent for the labour movement in Asia to develop a new organising and solidarity strategy that addresses the comprehensive recomposition of labour.
In Asia, the construction industry -- with its long history -- is considered one of the most impo... more In Asia, the construction industry -- with its long history -- is considered one of the most important industries for national development. Construction workers, however, are treated largely as secondary citizens, deprived of means to protect their dignity. They form one of the biggest groups that comprise the urban underclass. Often having migrated from rural areas or neighbouring countries, they work for buildings that they would never dream of living or working in. Given the current development of globalisation, the construction site is increasingly becoming a site where informal labour meets global capital. In both developed and developing countries, there is increasing competitive pressure on individual construction firms to cut off direct and indirect labour costs by using migrant labour and keeping labour as informal as possible. Still, construction firms in developed countries look for new markets in developing countries. Construction TNCs create, demolish and recreate instant global supply chains at the sites. This report looks into the changing nature of the global construction industry, particularly its impact on workers in Asia.
The Korean labour movement has been broadly understood as one of the most militant trade union mo... more The Korean labour movement has been broadly understood as one of the most militant trade union movements in the world. To be sure, the radical unionism in Korea has been rapidly developing since the emergence of democratic trade union movement in the 1970s, changing the nature of the relations between capital and labour to a great extent. However, despite its fame, it also faces many challenges from the accelerated restructuring of capitalist relations. This article examines the dynamics of the development of the relations between the state, capital and labour after the economic crisis in Korea in 1997. By doing so, it attempts to identify the basis of the challenge to the further development of the Korean labour movement, in the context of the unfolding of the reconstruction of the way in which capitalist labour is organised. The article is divided into three main parts. Firstly, we look at the restructuring policies introduced by the state and corporations under the guidance of the structural adjustment policies of IMF. Secondly, we examine how far the crisis and restructuring policies have had an effect on the nature of labour relations by tracing the effect of immediate labour market restructuring policies as well as of other structural adjustment policies. The last section evaluates the transformation of trade union movement on the basis of emerging new forms of unionisation and subjectivity of the labour movement in the restructuring process.
L’avenir du mouvement des consommateurs: Vers un nouveau militantisme du mouvement syndical inter... more L’avenir du mouvement des consommateurs: Vers un nouveau militantisme du mouvement syndical international dans l'industrie mondiale du vêtements
Les relations du travail en Corée en transition: flexibilité autoritaire? Dae-oup Chang Le but de... more Les relations du travail en Corée en transition: flexibilité autoritaire? Dae-oup Chang Le but de cet article est d’examiner la signification des changements dans les relations de travail avant et après la crise économique au regard des nouvelles formes émergentes de subordination des tra-vailleurs au capital à travers diverses mesures de flexiblilisation, cela tant au niveau national qu’au sein des milieux de travail. La période comprise entre 1987 et 1996 fut marquée, dans l’histoire du développe-ment capitaliste coréen, par la confrontation entre le capital et le travail, rapport qui s’est cristallisé dans la formation d’un « mouvement de syn-dicats démocratiques » hautement politisé. Ce n’est qu’à partir de la crise économique de 1997 que l’État capitaliste et les entrepreneurs privés ont pu regagner un contrôle effectif sur le facteur travail en soumettant ce dernier aux impératifs de la logique marchande. En d’autres termes, c’est le marché du travail flexiblilisé, basé sur un...
My thesis aims to demystify the form of the Korean state by unveiling the theoretical shortcoming... more My thesis aims to demystify the form of the Korean state by unveiling the theoretical shortcomings of developmental state theories and re-examining the historical development of the Korean state in the context of the formation and reproduction of capital relations in Korea. The first part develops a Marxist critique of theories of the developmental state. Through a close reading of Marxist theories of the state and Marx's own theory of value and commodity fetishism, I derive an understanding of the state as a differentiated moment of the reproduction of capital relations. Accordingly, I define the most serious theoretical shortcoming of the statist approach as its understanding of the state as a set of institutions and of capital as a set of businessmen. This approach enabled statist to define the state in East Asia as a state 'autonomous' from capital by deriving the form of the state from the nature of the seriously narrowed-down state-society relations as relations be...
The celebrated 'rise of East Asia' as a centre of global capitalism resulted from the increasing ... more The celebrated 'rise of East Asia' as a centre of global capitalism resulted from the increasing integration of East Asia into the expanding circuit of capital that turned most of the East Asian population into 'capitalist value-subjects'. This means that the vast majority of East Asian population now have to make and reproduce living at different moments of production, reproduction and realisation of capitalist value. However this integration does not create these new value subjects as a singular and cohesive class of working women and men. Instead, it produces many segmented labouring classes whose livelihoods depends on insecure and oppressive wage employment or a wide range of survival activities for money income in the informal economy. The result is the paradox of East Asian development-the increase of the traditional working class has been marginal in the rise of East Asia as a workshop of the world. This again created a complex condition for social movements of labour. A close look at the current struggles of new value subjects in Thailand, Korea, Cambodia and China reveals that these new value subjects are capable of going beyond the boundaries set up by the previous struggles of organised labour. However, it also tells us that there is a serious disjuncture between the emerging social movements of labour and the existing trade union movement of the 'industrial working class' in East Asia. This challenge calls for a reconsideration of the theories and practices of the labour movement that presuppose a process of coherent working class formation.
In contemporary labour studies, methodological innovations to grasp the changing social forms and... more In contemporary labour studies, methodological innovations to grasp the changing social forms and struggles of capitalist labour seem to be stagnating. This article aims to address the system of labour studies behind these methodological problems. To do so, we explore the historical and theoretical development of labour studies corresponding to the development of the labour movement that is often reduced to a movement of employees at production sites. Marx’s value-definition of capitalist labour as an understanding of the most important and peculiar mediation of capitalist social relations has been forgotten in labour studies and instead the narrow surplus value-based understanding of labour became an exclusive, if not only, basis of contemporary labour studies. Although this contributed to the establishment of labour studies as a sophisticated system of knowledge, labour studies in the meantime became an ‘area study’ which deals only with production sites without critically engagin...
The political power of labour during and in the aftermath of the democratisation of East Asian de... more The political power of labour during and in the aftermath of the democratisation of East Asian developing countries often appears to be small, ineffective and segmented. Why did labour as a political force make such limited a contribution to the democratisation of East Asian developing countries? Does this also mean that labour has little potential in pursuing democratisation further? This paper discusses the place of ‘labour’ in East Asian democratisation. In so doing, we are also challenging the classical framework that looks mainly at the relation between ‘organised industrial labour’ and ‘liberal democracy’ in identifying labour-democracy relations. I argue that this framework tends to impose an ideal type of labour politics, frozen in the 19-20th century European experience in establishing the industrial workers movement and liberal democracy. The complex relations between the evolving social forms of labour and different forms of democratic mobilisation and participation of la...
Le but de cet article est d'examiner la signification des changements dans les relations de trava... more Le but de cet article est d'examiner la signification des changements dans les relations de travail avant et après la crise économique au regard des nouvelles formes émergentes de subordination des travailleurs au capital à travers diverses mesures de flexiblilisation, cela tant au niveau national qu'au sein des milieux de travail. La période comprise entre 1987 et 1996 fut marquée, dans l'histoire du développement capitaliste coréen, par la confrontation entre le capital et le travail, rapport qui s'est cristallisé dans la formation d'un « mouvement de syndicats démocratiques » hautement politisé. Ce n'est qu'à partir de la crise économique de 1997 que l'État capitaliste et les entrepreneurs privés ont pu regagner un contrôle effectif sur le facteur travail en soumettant ce dernier aux impératifs de la logique marchande. En d'autres termes, c'est le marché du travail flexiblilisé, basé sur une forte compétitivité, qui détermine les mécanismes de gestion des ressources humaines et qui a permis aux entrepreneurs de diluer, de façon effective, le militantisme des syndicats sur le lieu de travail. Une étude de cas sur les relations de travail dans l'entreprise Hyundai Motors Car a révélé que, avec le degré grandissant de flexibilité et d'insécurité au travail, les relations de travail apparaissent maintenant sous une forme substantiellement différente. Cette forme de relation de travail n'est pas simplement basée sur un contrôle coercisif de l'État sur le travail, mais plus fondamentalement sur une subordination plus volontaire des travailleurs individuels au capital privé. Cependant, la marchandisation du travail flexiblilisé semble avoir une double-nature. Dans une tentative pour institutionaliser le marché du travail flexiblilisé, l'État joue un double rôle, intégrant, d'une part, les syndicats dans un espace corporatiste, comme la Commision tripartite, et d'autre part, utilisant des mesures autoritaires contre n'importe quelle violation du règlement venant nuire à la flexibilisation du marché du travail.
This article analyses the way in which informality becomes the common feature of capitalist labou... more This article analyses the way in which informality becomes the common feature of capitalist labour in globalising Asia. As the mobility of capital has developed, different industries and production processes are now neatly interwoven. This transnationally coordinated capitalism subjugates almost all of Asia's population to the expanding circuit of capital that builds hierarchical forms of the division of labour for the creation and realisation of profit. In this ''global factory,'' capitalist labour becomes the common basis of living for the people of Asia. At the same time, the global factory gives a particular informal nature to capitalist labour and changes its social form in Asian societies as mobile capital requires flexible and disposable forms of capitalist labour. Throughout Asia, unwaged workers and workers in informal employment are increasing in number. These workers lack legal, institutional and, most of all, union protection. It is urgent for the labour movement in Asia to develop a new organising and solidarity strategy that addresses the comprehensive recomposition of labour.
In Asia, the construction industry -- with its long history -- is considered one of the most impo... more In Asia, the construction industry -- with its long history -- is considered one of the most important industries for national development. Construction workers, however, are treated largely as secondary citizens, deprived of means to protect their dignity. They form one of the biggest groups that comprise the urban underclass. Often having migrated from rural areas or neighbouring countries, they work for buildings that they would never dream of living or working in. Given the current development of globalisation, the construction site is increasingly becoming a site where informal labour meets global capital. In both developed and developing countries, there is increasing competitive pressure on individual construction firms to cut off direct and indirect labour costs by using migrant labour and keeping labour as informal as possible. Still, construction firms in developed countries look for new markets in developing countries. Construction TNCs create, demolish and recreate instant global supply chains at the sites. This report looks into the changing nature of the global construction industry, particularly its impact on workers in Asia.
The Korean labour movement has been broadly understood as one of the most militant trade union mo... more The Korean labour movement has been broadly understood as one of the most militant trade union movements in the world. To be sure, the radical unionism in Korea has been rapidly developing since the emergence of democratic trade union movement in the 1970s, changing the nature of the relations between capital and labour to a great extent. However, despite its fame, it also faces many challenges from the accelerated restructuring of capitalist relations. This article examines the dynamics of the development of the relations between the state, capital and labour after the economic crisis in Korea in 1997. By doing so, it attempts to identify the basis of the challenge to the further development of the Korean labour movement, in the context of the unfolding of the reconstruction of the way in which capitalist labour is organised. The article is divided into three main parts. Firstly, we look at the restructuring policies introduced by the state and corporations under the guidance of the structural adjustment policies of IMF. Secondly, we examine how far the crisis and restructuring policies have had an effect on the nature of labour relations by tracing the effect of immediate labour market restructuring policies as well as of other structural adjustment policies. The last section evaluates the transformation of trade union movement on the basis of emerging new forms of unionisation and subjectivity of the labour movement in the restructuring process.
L’avenir du mouvement des consommateurs: Vers un nouveau militantisme du mouvement syndical inter... more L’avenir du mouvement des consommateurs: Vers un nouveau militantisme du mouvement syndical international dans l'industrie mondiale du vêtements
Les relations du travail en Corée en transition: flexibilité autoritaire? Dae-oup Chang Le but de... more Les relations du travail en Corée en transition: flexibilité autoritaire? Dae-oup Chang Le but de cet article est d’examiner la signification des changements dans les relations de travail avant et après la crise économique au regard des nouvelles formes émergentes de subordination des tra-vailleurs au capital à travers diverses mesures de flexiblilisation, cela tant au niveau national qu’au sein des milieux de travail. La période comprise entre 1987 et 1996 fut marquée, dans l’histoire du développe-ment capitaliste coréen, par la confrontation entre le capital et le travail, rapport qui s’est cristallisé dans la formation d’un « mouvement de syn-dicats démocratiques » hautement politisé. Ce n’est qu’à partir de la crise économique de 1997 que l’État capitaliste et les entrepreneurs privés ont pu regagner un contrôle effectif sur le facteur travail en soumettant ce dernier aux impératifs de la logique marchande. En d’autres termes, c’est le marché du travail flexiblilisé, basé sur un...
My thesis aims to demystify the form of the Korean state by unveiling the theoretical shortcoming... more My thesis aims to demystify the form of the Korean state by unveiling the theoretical shortcomings of developmental state theories and re-examining the historical development of the Korean state in the context of the formation and reproduction of capital relations in Korea. The first part develops a Marxist critique of theories of the developmental state. Through a close reading of Marxist theories of the state and Marx's own theory of value and commodity fetishism, I derive an understanding of the state as a differentiated moment of the reproduction of capital relations. Accordingly, I define the most serious theoretical shortcoming of the statist approach as its understanding of the state as a set of institutions and of capital as a set of businessmen. This approach enabled statist to define the state in East Asia as a state 'autonomous' from capital by deriving the form of the state from the nature of the seriously narrowed-down state-society relations as relations be...
The celebrated 'rise of East Asia' as a centre of global capitalism resulted from the increasing ... more The celebrated 'rise of East Asia' as a centre of global capitalism resulted from the increasing integration of East Asia into the expanding circuit of capital that turned most of the East Asian population into 'capitalist value-subjects'. This means that the vast majority of East Asian population now have to make and reproduce living at different moments of production, reproduction and realisation of capitalist value. However this integration does not create these new value subjects as a singular and cohesive class of working women and men. Instead, it produces many segmented labouring classes whose livelihoods depends on insecure and oppressive wage employment or a wide range of survival activities for money income in the informal economy. The result is the paradox of East Asian development-the increase of the traditional working class has been marginal in the rise of East Asia as a workshop of the world. This again created a complex condition for social movements of labour. A close look at the current struggles of new value subjects in Thailand, Korea, Cambodia and China reveals that these new value subjects are capable of going beyond the boundaries set up by the previous struggles of organised labour. However, it also tells us that there is a serious disjuncture between the emerging social movements of labour and the existing trade union movement of the 'industrial working class' in East Asia. This challenge calls for a reconsideration of the theories and practices of the labour movement that presuppose a process of coherent working class formation.
In contemporary labour studies, methodological innovations to grasp the changing social forms and... more In contemporary labour studies, methodological innovations to grasp the changing social forms and struggles of capitalist labour seem to be stagnating. This article aims to address the system of labour studies behind these methodological problems. To do so, we explore the historical and theoretical development of labour studies corresponding to the development of the labour movement that is often reduced to a movement of employees at production sites. Marx’s value-definition of capitalist labour as an understanding of the most important and peculiar mediation of capitalist social relations has been forgotten in labour studies and instead the narrow surplus value-based understanding of labour became an exclusive, if not only, basis of contemporary labour studies. Although this contributed to the establishment of labour studies as a sophisticated system of knowledge, labour studies in the meantime became an ‘area study’ which deals only with production sites without critically engagin...
The political power of labour during and in the aftermath of the democratisation of East Asian de... more The political power of labour during and in the aftermath of the democratisation of East Asian developing countries often appears to be small, ineffective and segmented. Why did labour as a political force make such limited a contribution to the democratisation of East Asian developing countries? Does this also mean that labour has little potential in pursuing democratisation further? This paper discusses the place of ‘labour’ in East Asian democratisation. In so doing, we are also challenging the classical framework that looks mainly at the relation between ‘organised industrial labour’ and ‘liberal democracy’ in identifying labour-democracy relations. I argue that this framework tends to impose an ideal type of labour politics, frozen in the 19-20th century European experience in establishing the industrial workers movement and liberal democracy. The complex relations between the evolving social forms of labour and different forms of democratic mobilisation and participation of la...
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