Batang, 7-11 September 2025 – Industrial development is often carried out without considering the local community’s conditions. This is because policies or regulations are frequently not developed in response to the needs of the communities themselves. As a result, as is often the case, the industry actually alienates communities—especially those in the surrounding areas. Instead of addressing needs, it creates new problems: land grabbing, social and economic inequality, environmental damage, and a decline in quality of life.
These issues emerged in the global meeting titled “Beyond Development Working Group” (BDWG), with the theme “New Industrial Politics: Alternative Economies and the Politics of Transition from Below,” which took place in Batang, Central Java, from September 7 to 11, 2025. Publish What You Pay Indonesia (PWYP) Indonesia was part of this event.
The meeting was held amid the intensifying polycrisis that is becoming increasingly severe—climate damage, loss of biodiversity, widening inequality, authoritarianism, militarization, and geopolitical tensions. These crises reveal the limits of the modern/colonial capitalist system that has so far framed industrialization as a symbol of “advancement,” relying on resource exploitation, ecological degradation, and global inequality.
In Southeast Asia, debates on industrial policy intersect with struggles against extractivism, socio-ecological justice, digitalization, and resource nationalism, in a context where democratic space is narrowing. State-led industrial policies are re-emerging, but often in ways that consolidate authoritarianism and perpetuate global inequality. On the other hand, social movements and critical academics are striving to reframe the debate toward decolonization, post-extractivism, pluriversal economies, and systemic transformation.
Within this framework, “industrial politics” emerges as a more comprehensive and radical alternative to “industrial policy,” namely a working framework that involves multiple actors—beyond the state—and envisions post-capitalist production and provision rooted in justice for humans, nature, and future generations.
Comprehensively restructuring industrial politics is a necessity that must be pursued in the midst of this deepening polycrisis era, alongside the reform of industrial policies. Industrial politics questions the underlying mode of production, challenges extractivism and excessive consumption, and seeks democratic, fair, and sustainable arrangements beyond the demands of capitalist growth. Therefore, development goals should not be solely oriented toward economic growth, which is inherently exploitative and extractive.
Industrial development should consider the conditions and needs of communities down to the grassroots level, be implemented in a bottom-up manner, and prioritize social and ecological justice, inter-ethnic harmony, and gender equality. Only by restructuring production and consumption systems to operate within environmental limits, maintain climate stability, and respect human dignity can development truly deliver justice for all.
Writer: Ariyansah NK
Reviewer: Mouna Wasef