“The Problem of Money”: Sobsi and Its Affiliated Unions, 1950–65

Between 1950 and 1965 Sobsi, one of the four major mass organizations connected to the Indonesian Communist Party, was the dominant labor union federation in Indonesia. Sobsi and its affiliated unions had to raise their own money to build their organizations and sustain their industrial, social, educational, and political activities. This article discusses the sources and extent of Sobsi’s income and argues that its insistence that fundraising was a core function for its unions was a prerequisite for their dominance of the post-independence labor movement. While it never raised as much money as it wanted, its constant focus on what it called “the problem of money” ensured that it raised enough to build an extensive national network of offices and increase its employment of people to monitor, support, and educate local union activists. Sobsi’s success in fundraising ensured that both it and its unions had far more money than their rivals, enabling them to develop deeper linkages into workplaces and to set the industrial agenda.