Viewing page 18 of 75

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

30 

workers per establishment or whether automated processes used this came out in answer to the question "Do you think cottage industry on Java is increasing, or declining?" He feels that the key distinction is between traditional production for a local pasar market, and fashion-oriented production for an international market - "These are two completely different types of industries/different industries and it doesn't matter whether you have them in the same village or even in the same house. For the one you have to take them to the Milano Trade Fair + come up with new designs every week and for the other you don't."
Sergio feels, unlike the Dept. of Industry people, that the focus should be on developing the domestic rather than the export market - " The best market for Indonesian handcrafts is right here [[crossed out]] in Indonesia." He feels this is particularly true of batik and pointed out repeated-

31

ly that American factories are now flooding American department stores with huge quantities of photo-printed batik design mass-produced yardgoods, dresses, bedspreads, towells [[towels]], etc. all on better cotton than is used in Indonesia and at 1/4 the price - "Any fabric designer will tell you that wax print[[crossed out]]ing is the most expensive, not the cheapest, way of producing textiles. Unless, of course, you have huge quantities of virtually slave labor that has never been organized into trade guilds or worker's organizations, as we do in Indonesia."
Sergio's estimate is that exports account for only a small percentage of handcraft sales. He defines "handcraft" as something "ethnical (sic) and fashionable".
I was surprised at the number of products I have seen on the market in the last 10 years which I assumed were traditional which Sergio had a hand

Transcription Notes:
the word “pasar” appears throughout this work, and can be googled. It’s a traditional market in Indonesia.