Saturday, June 24, 2017

fms june 2017

They are really dodging implementing the new minimum wage scale.

What are they saying?

(Some 15-20 people had gathered)

They say there's a stay from the courts.

It's always like this. They always start with a lie. Then they will say, we'll do it when everyone else does it. Then they'll say they are going to have to close the factory and relocate to where the minimum is lower.

My suggestion is that the scale should be made the same across the capital region. Then the poor fellows won't have to dance about relocating so much.

(Some 30-35 people had gathered)

I say, let us all take a three day holiday.

Say again.

A break. Feast, roam, gather, meet. Take a walk on the streets with your family. And when night falls, play drums, sing, dance. Do this, and you'll have the new scale in three days.

(Sounds of laughter and agreement filled the slowly growing gathering)

What an amazing scenario. 500,000 of us, with our families, shutting the industrial area down for a holiday, celebrating and enjoying ourselves.

That's bound to frighten the management.

This does happen now and then, but with 500,000 families, you've changed the playing field.

Millions awake at night, in song and dance.

Fantastic!

(The gathering grew)

It's not like last time companies implemented the new grade on their own.

In our block, we stopped work in five factories, and only then was it implemented.

This happened in many factories.

Listen, I've been working for thirty years. Nothing is given to you; everything has to be taken. Let's talk about how.

Let me recount something.

Really? From how long ago?

Not from that long ago, sister. Just two years ago. 2015. You all probably remember. The month was February. Woollens had given way to lighter clothes. Faces were shining. Spring was in the air.

Are you recounting or imagining?

Both, my friend. A little memory, a little fable. The milieu was radiant. In the beginning, it was five hours long. What energy! Managers and directors fled from factories. Security and police stayed distracted by the spring air.

We remember. That is the milieu we grew up in. The aggression of managers and supervisors receded. We'd just entered the life of work, and were told these moments are special.

My young friend, prepare. These milieus are made. They also break. And they have to be made again. And then again.

Do pay attention to what I am saying -- production targets and intensity are continuously raised. That's management. No one exploits oneself wilfully. No one uses ones own intelligence for heightening self-exploitation. So the aggressive language. And so the milieu has to be made and remade.

(The gathering, by now of 50-60, brewed with excitement and thoughtfulness)

I'm going to take this conversation to the night bus.

Night bus! What bus do you take?

We all take different buses. Different routes, and different groups. But conversations, songs, stories, debates zigzag and thread through all routes. And these days, because temporary drivers and conductors are on strike, the group in our bus has become quite large. It's major fun.

Standing here I see how a conversation struck between three people can, in a tiny span, catch and spread to 10-15, to 30-40, to 50-60, to hundreds and thousands, to lakhs.

And every story teller, every narrator, every portraitist, every doubter, every opponent, every dissident, and every poet leaves her imprint, thickens, speeds up, slows down, spins, turns, gives new energy to the plot and the scenario. Now that's what I call a milieu.

In moments like this, like this present occasion, we catch a glimpse of such milieus, sense the breath of others, and see poets in every one of us.

There are many poets amongst us.

Faridabad Majdoor Samachar (Faridabad Workers’ News)
Issue # 348
June 2017

Page 1: There are many poets amongst us
Page 2: Many thoughts amidst conversations in and with transient groups
Page 3: In Myanmar; Commoning; Not to become targets
Page 4: Night bus; Experiences from MESL

PDF enclosed.

Contributions welcome

We currently print 16,000 copies at the monthly print cost of Rs. 14,000/-. We are able to meet this through contributions. To sustain us, you can send a bank transfer. Please write to us, and we will send you the bank details.

Distribution is over one month from 25 places in Faridabad, Okhla, Gurgaon, NOIDA and Manesar. Through this, we enter into thousands of conversations. Please write to us if you would like to join us; we will let you know of the place and time.

FMS_June2017 by baatein1 on Scribd

fms May 2017

"You look rested. No duty?"

"Hello. I had a wonderful meal of millet khichuri with prawn pickle. So decided to go off duty."

"You take an off so easily? You face no hassles?"

"Production is somewhat down these days. A storm is brewing. So I'm storing up some energy."

"Sarita, isn't this what you were also saying?"

"I was explaining to you that work is down in our place. And there's a saying, when you catch a slide, build up for unemployed times."

"Ha!Ha! I've been out of work for three months now. So there are no hurdles to speech. I'm listening a lot. Am reading a lot too."

"Ha! You talk like being unemployed is a freedom."

"I'm not making it out to be freedom. I'm practicing freedom. Freedom is also a game. The more you practice it, the better it expresses itself. You too are always practicing its ways."

"In China, I've heard, young workers write poems on mobile phones and send them to each other. These poems play out all facets of living."

"To snatch time and write songs, in joy and stubbornness, is a revolt."

"A few weeks back a newspaper carried a portrait of a young worker who took out an hour everyday to write poetry. The worker was quoted as saying that in his poetry he is trying to investigate and understand the import of the word 'equality'."

"This is revolt."

"Whenever it seems that production has come to a sudden halt, it is usually, actually, a swell of the hum between us -- of 1200 to 1500 people. There are words, there is a rhythm, and a feeling runs through us, but it is inaudible. Not heard. But you sway to it. It can only be lived."

"Have been to many places
Have drunk water in many places
It has been hard on my belly
But have learned to be carefree
With strangers."

"Time shortens
at times
Maybe we have to make new time
Friends, together
we take a holiday
to bring the horizon close."

"Let me tell you a story about drawing in the horizon. I've been running into this one good fellow repeatedly over the last five days at the teashop. The first day he was full of invectives, exclamations, and deep sighs about life! The next day, he and his 120 co-workers had stopped work, and he said with a wry smile, 'Life sucks'. Then on the third day, workers in two more factories of the same company stopped work."

"And then? Now what did he say then?"

"We met. He said, 'It's a hot day. Let me treat you to a good cup of tea.' And then, sipping his tea, he said, 'Do you sense our heft now?'"

"Three days, big fluctuations. Whenever we meet others, it's amidst intersecting arcs of the fluctuations of many."

"Poetry and song strike at the intervals between these intersections. They are stitches in the ascending and descending notes of these fluctuations."

"How is your good fellow amidst so many with such ease?"

"Tell me. I've been out of work for three months. I'm inside poetry now. I have time to listen. Don't hesitate. Tell me all your tales and hows."

"Tales, hows, and poetry. Three words with a lot of heft. The fluctuations, collisions, and entwined solos of these three runs through us, and it transforms the scent of the milieu."

"Far from where I was born,
and with whom I grew up
Making new
relations and friends
My arms open."

Faridabad Majdoor Samachar (Faridabad Workers’ News)
Issue # 347
May 2017

Page 1: Tales, Hows, and Poetry
Page 2: Conversations in and with thousands in transient groups
Page 3: Commoning; Not to become Targets; 1st of May
Page 4: Many Thoughts, in conversation with Many

PDF enclosed.

Contributions welcome

We currently print 16,000 copies at the monthly print cost of Rs. 14,000/-. We are able to meet this through contributions. To sustain us, you can send a bank transfer. Please write to us, and we will send you the bank details.

Distribution is over one month from 25 places in Faridabad, Okhla, Gurgaon, NOIDA and Manesar. Through this, we enter into thousands of conversations. Please write to us if you would like to join us; we will let you know of the place and time.

FMS_May_2017 by baatein1 on Scribd