In 2010, Asia Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC) launched a research project on organizing inside the zone which was a sub- project of the centre’s New Waysof Organizing project. Essentially, the project is a sequel to AMRC’s published study on organizing inside the zone in 1996. The specific objective of the research was to stimulate further exchange on strategies for organizing workers inside the zone and in society at large, which has also been impacted by the establishment of the zone. However, during the process, most of the research paper put more focus on thetrajectory of the development of the zone.

Generally speaking, we are confronted with the geographical expansion of capital mobility in which long-term investment in the form of a spatial fix becomes a conduit and container to accelerate the process of linking up global economic activities.  The special economic zone (SEZ) represents a fixed space, complete with the built environment, infrastructure and fixed assets that facilitate the mobility of capital in its quest to seek more profitable areas.

The geographical expansion of capital , with capital fixed to the land and accompanied by the establishment of an economic corridor, an extravagant infrastructure project which devastates the livelihood of millions of people. If one looks back to the historical context of capital accumulation and the territorialization of the accumulation process, one will notice the rapid proliferation of special economic zones (SEZs) as a historical continuity perpetuating capital accumulation.

Through this research, we expect that the elements underpinning the establishment of the zones, such as state policies, political negotiation between the investor and the state and the urgency to secure the land and labour, could constitute a good background from which we can design the organizing strategy against the zone.