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Life and Work in Colonial Cities: Harbour Workers in Java in the 1910s and 1920s
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 April 2017
Extract
The study of Indonesian history is still very much in its infancy. There is as yet nothing like the breadth or depth of historical writing on Indonesia that there is on China or India, let alone on Europe or the United States. Nowhere is this more evident than in the dearth of urban history. Certainly, Indonesia was, and is, predominantly an agricultural society, but since the 1870s an increasing number of Indonesians have lived in towns and cities, earning their living from the urban economy. In the colonial period many worked in the Indies bureaucracy, while others formed a small but growing professional class of doctors, lawyers, engineers and teachers. From this group came most of the intellectual and organizational leadership of the nationalist movement. Through their writings and speeches we have a reasonably clear picture of their changing perceptions of the world and their struggle to work out what it meant to be an Indonesian in the last three decades of colonial rule.
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References
1 Locomotief, 28 November and 2 December 1918. Locomtief was the major Dutch language newspaper in the Indies. It was published in Semarang, the major city of central Java, and throughout the colonial period was the most liberal of the European newspaper. Its social and political reporting on Indies society, both native and European, was detailed and thorough.
2 See Locomotief, 27 08 1921.
3 Ibid.
4 This figure is an estimate based on the 1930 Census. The 1930 Census calculated that between 30 and 40 percent of the native workforce of Batavia, Semarang, Surabaya and Bandung worked as day-wage labourers or domestic servants. It also showed that more than half of the inhabitants of Bandung, Batavia and Surabaya were born outside the city boundaries, of these the vast majority were born in the province in which the city was located. See: The Giap, Siauw, ‘Urbanisatieproblemen in Indonesie’, (Urbanization problems in Indonesia) Bijdragen Tot de Taal., Land-, en Volkenkunde, 115, 1959, p. 259Google Scholar; Hugo, Graeme J., ‘Population Movements in Indonesia during the colonial period’, in Fox, J. J., Garnaut, R. G., McCawley, P. T. and Mackie, J. A. C. (eds), Indonesia: Australian Perspectives (Canberra: Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, 1980), pp. 95–136Google Scholar; and Onderzoek naar de Mindere Welvaart der Inlandsche Bevolking op Java en Madoera, (Investigation into the Decline in the welfare of the native population of Java and Madura) Pt 6d (Batavia: Landsdrukkerij, 1912), pp. 1–17.Google Scholar
5 Nieuwe Soerabajaasche Courant, 22 November 1927.
6 A kampung is a neighbourhood in a town or city occupied by non-Europeans, often with its own administration structure and mutual aid organizations and usually with its own guard system.
7 Locomotief, 28 November 1918.
8 For descriptions of living conditions in the towns and cities of late colonial Java, see: The Indonesian Town: Studies in Urban Sociology (The Hague: W. van Hoeve, 1958)Google Scholar, and Cobban, James L., ‘Uncontrolled Urban Settlement: the Kampong Question in Semarang, 1905–1940’, Bijdragen Tot de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenhunde, 130, 1974, pp. 403–27.Google Scholar
9 I have discussed this theme at greater length in my article, ‘Worker Consciousness and Labour Unions in Colonial Java’, Pacific Affairs, 54: 3 (1981), pp. 485–502.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10 Java was administratively divided into Residencies, each headed by a European Resident. Residencies were sub-divided into between three and five Regencies, each with a Javanese Regent as the head of the native administration and a European Assistant Resident as head of the parallel European administration. A patih was the administrative deputy of the Regent.
11 Locomotief, 3, 4 and 5 July 1913.
12 See indices of prices of rice and other basic commodities in Mansvelt, W. M. F. and Creutzberg, P. (eds), Changing Economy in Indonesia, Vol. 4, Rice Prices (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1978), Table 1, pp. 45–6.Google Scholar
13 Locomotief, 28 November 1918.
14 Ibid.
15 Locomotief, 9 November1918.
16 Locomotief, 27 and 29 November 1918.
17 Locomotief, 29 November 1918.
18 For a general discussion of Sarekat Islam and its involvement in labour unions in these years, see McVey, Ruth T., The Rise of Indonesian Communism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1965)Google Scholar. Excellent though McVey's work is, it does look at labour unions and strikes from the perspective of leaders, political parties and ideologies rather than from the perspective of the workers themselves.
19 By October 1921 the Havenarbeidersbond claimed that it had branches at Cilacap, Tegal, Cirebon, Pekalongan, Pasuruan, Batavia, Surabaya and Semarang. It admitted, though, that most of the branches were not particularly active, including that in Semarang. Sinar Hindia, 24 Octover 1921, Overzicht van de Inlandsche en Maleische-Chinese Pers [IPO] (Survey of the Native and Malay-Chinese Press), 1921, No. 44, pp. 240–1.
20 See: Oetoesan Hindia, 22 and 23 April 1920 and 9 November 1920; Sinar Hindia, 9 November 1920.
21 Oetoesan Hindia, 10 August 1920.
22 See: Oetoesan Hindia, 22 and 23 April 1920 and ‘Note, 3 July 1920: Harbour strike at Cilacap’, in Archives of the Nederlandsch Handelsmaatschappij, Box 2719, ARA (General State Archives, The Hague).
23 ‘Report by J. J. Viehoff, 10 February 1921, on labour disputes at Surabaya in November-December 1920’, p. 7. Secret Mail Report 1921/253, ARA. (This refers to a file in the former Ministry of Colonies archives now located in the General State Archives, The Hague.)
24 Ibid, passim.
25 Locomotief, 27 August 1921.
26 Verslag omtrent de Koeliemoeilijkheden in de Haven van Soerabaia gedurende Augustus/September 1921 (Report about labour problems in the Surabaya harbour during August/September 1921), (Soerabaia: De Handelsvereeniging te Soerabaia, 1921), p. 7.Google Scholar
27 Locomotief, 27 August 1921.
28 Locomotief, 23 August 1921.
29 Locomotief, 27 August 1921; Soerabaiasch Handelsblad, 23 August 1921.
30 Sinar Hindia, 1 September 1921, IPO, 1921, No. 36, pp. 580–1. The wages earned by harbour workers employed by private companies on a piece-rate basis were, at least during the busy months of the year, considerably higher than the wages paid to unskilled harbour workers by the public works department. The following table details the average daily wages paid to harbour workers by the public works department between 1913 and 1924.
Source: Centraal Kantoor voor de Statistich, Jaaroverzicht van Nederlands-Indie (Central Office for Statistics, Annual Survey of the Netherlands Indies), 1929 (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1930), p. 223.Google Scholar
31 Letter from HVA, dated 13 August 1921, printed in Verslag omtrent de Koeliemoeilijkheden, p. 3.
32 Verslag omtrent de Koeliemoeilijkheden, pp. 5–7.
33 Ibid, p. 8.
34 See Scheltema, A. M. P. A., ‘Zijn Minimuumloonen voor Java en Madoera nu Urgenter dan in 1921?’ (Are minimum wages for Java and Madura now more urgent than in 1921?), Koloniale Studien, 20: 3 (1936), p. 91Google Scholar. See also, Verslag van de Arbeidscommissie betreffende de wettelijke vaslstelling van Minimuum-loonen voor werknemers op Java en Madura (Report of the Labour Commission concerning the legal establishment of minimum wages for employees on Java and Madura), (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1920).Google Scholar
35 Locomotief, 27 August 1921.
36 Soerabaiasch Handelsblad, 23 August 1921; Verslag omtrent de Koeliemoeilijkheden, p. 6.
37 Soerabaiasch Handelsblad, 19 August 1921.
38 Soerabaiasch Handelsblad, 23 August 1921.
39 Locomotief, 24 August 1921.
40 Soerabaiasch Handelsblad, 23 August 1921.
41 Verslag omtrent de Koeliemoeilijkheden, pp. 9–10.
42 Locomotief, 26 August 1921; Soerabaiasch Handelsblad, 26 August 1921.
43 Locomotief, 27 August 1921.
44 The Manifesto was circulated in Semarang and Surabaya and printed in Sinar Hindia, 27 August 1921, IPO, 1921, No. 35, pp. 424–7. For a discussion of the Revolutionaire Vakcentrale see McVey, , Rise of Indonesian Communism, pp. 45, 96–105.Google Scholar
45 Locomotief, 3 September 1921; Soerabaiasch Handelsblad, 2 September 1921.
46 Locomotief, 29 August 1921, Sinar Hindia, 29 August 1921, IPO, 1921, No. 36, pp. 578–79; ‘Report of a protest meeting of the Vakcentrale at Semarang, 28 August 1921’, enclosed in Attorney-General to Governor-General, 12 September 1921, Secret Mail Report 1921/876, ARA. Locomotief, prone to exaggeration on these matters, estimated the crowd at the meeting as 2000 strong.
47 Locomotief, 6 September 1921, Sinar Hindia, 30 August 1921, IPO, 1921, No. 36, p. 580.
48 Locomotief, 8 and 9 September 1921.
49 Resident of Semarang to Governor-General, 5 May 1925, V 30 January 1926—K1, ARA.
50 Resident of Semarang to Governor-General, 3 August 1925, V 30 January 1926—K1, ARA.
51 Resident of Semarang to Governor-General, 24 August 1925, V 30 January 1926—K1, ARA; Api, 5 August 1925.
52 Locomotief, 6 August 1925.
53 Resident of Semarang to Governor-General, 24 August 1925, V 30 January 1926—K1, ARA; Locomotief, 5 August 1925.
54 See, for example, my discussion of the largest strike in colonial Java, the railway strike of 1923, in ‘“Bound Hand and Foot”: Railway Workers and the 1923 Strike in Java’, Indonesia, 31 (April 1981), pp. 53–87.
55 Locomotief, 6 and 19 August 1925; Resident of Semarang to Governor-General, 24 August 1925, V 30 January 1926—K1, ARA.
56 Resident of Semarang to Governor-General, 16 September and 3 November 1925, V 30 January 1926—K1, ARA. The replacement sailors were inexperienced at this work and did considerable damage to the prahu, forcing the Companies to stop work for a week on 24 August in order that the prahu could be repaired. Resident of Semarang to Governor-General, 16 September 1925, V 30 January 1926—K1, ARA.