Patronage and politicization : a study of a Thai factory in the 1970s

Abstract

This thesis is an analysis of the changes being wrought in traditional social relationships in a factory in Bangkok in the mid-1970s. The analysis looks at the different structures of meaning being developed by the two major groups involved in this essentially novel situation - the employer/manager group and the employees. It is suggested that, while relationships derived from the agrarian nature of traditional Thai society still operate in a residual sense in the Factory, they are in fact emphasized and promoted by management in an attempt to forestall and contain the development of alternative structures by the workers. Nevertheless, despite these, in many ways, successful attempts, there is evidence that a new form of consciousness is in fact emerging amongst the workers, best described as the development of class consciousness based on their situation as industrial employees in a capitalist mode of production. The main evidence for this is found in the setting up of a Trade Union - still a minority worker organization in Thailand - within the Factory, and in its history both before and after the coup d'etat of October, 1976. This has meant the coexistence of two essentially incompatible systems within the Factory - a patron-client system and a growing class system. At the time under discussion (September 1976 to April 1977), the development of class consciousness was limited to very specific actions and areas, and was, in general, peripheral to the life of the Factory. The patron-client relation is still very dominant, although its own ongoing development is in the direction of increasing systematization. It is only marginally challenged, but, where this does happen, the challenge is in terms of emerging class consciousness on the part of the workers, and not in its own terms. Moreover, conflict between these two systems is seen to be endemic, because of the ambiguities inherent in the change in the structural role of the patron-client bond. This is associated, in the industrial context, with a lack of agreement between the two groups involved on the definition of the terms of their relationship, whether it is one of diffuse traditional reciprocity, or of clearly limited legal contract. The evidence is that, while the workers are willing to accept the more diffuse relationship where it works to their advantage, they interpret it in essentially contractual terms, and, where the two systems do come into conflict, they see themselves as members of a working class rather than of an all-embracing factory community.