FARIDABAD MAJDOOR SAMACHAR

THE COMING INSURRECTION

2011-10-23T22:28:00.000-07:00

A text by The Invisible Committee (2009)

"How does a situation of generalized rioting become an insurrectionary situation? What to do once the streets have been taken, once the police have been soundly defeated there? Do the parliaments still deserve to be attacked? What is the practical meaning of deposing power locally? How do we decide? How do we subsist?

How do we find each other?"

Read it here

WE ARE THE 99 PERCENT

2011-10-09T00:35:00.000-07:00

"It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/page/2

FROM HONDA TO MARUTI SUZUKI: A WIDE ANGLE VIEW OF CORPORATE STRATEGIES

2011-09-08T03:16:00.000-07:00

(New Series No. 277, July 2011)

WHAT THE MARUTI BALANCE SHEET SHOWS

The 300-acre Maruti Suzuki factory in Gurgaon houses three plants and produces 7 lakh cars a year. The engine plant alone has a manufacturing capacity of 7.5 lakh engines a year.

The 600-acre Maruti-Suzuki plant in Manesar started production in February 2007. This factory houses Maruti's newest assembly plant with a capacity of 3 lakh cars a year.

Another assembly plant in this factory will begin production in March 2012 and will have a capacity of 2.5 lakh cars a year. The Suzuki Powertrain Diesel Engine factory adjoins Maruti's Manesar factory. This is a joint venture of Suzuki Motors (70%) and Maruti-Suzuki (30%) and has a capacity of 3 lakh engines a year.

12.7 lakh Maruti-Suzuki cars were produced in 2010-11 - 2.7 lakh units more than the installed capacity of its plants - and representing almost half of all cars produced in India.

Around 1.4 lakh Maruti-Suzuki cars were exported to 120 countries in 2010-11.Maruti earned slightly more than Rs.40,419 crores from sale of its cars during 2010-11.

Maruti-Suzuki contributed a total of Rs.4290.81 crores to the national exchequer by way of excise duties, and paid Rs.820.11 crores in taxes to the Haryana Government in 2010-11.
The company declared a total share capital of Rs.144.46 crores. The value of a Rs.5/- share went up to Rs.79.22 during 2010-11.

After deducting payments to employees (Rs.703.62 crores), bank interest payments (Rs.24.41 crores), costs of raw materials and plant maintenance (Rs.27,576.13 crores) and other expenses, the company declared a net profit of Rs.2288.64 crores.

WHAT THE BALANCE SHEET DOESN'T SHOW

Maruti-Suzuki had 8,500 employees as of March 31, 2011. Only 3,200 of the total of 8,500 employees are factory workers – 2,300 at the Gurgaon factory and 950 at the Manesar factory.
Apart from these 3,200 regular workers, every other worker in the Maruti factories is a contract worker, hired through a labour contractor.

Maruti first started hiring contract workers in 1977. In 2001, after a strike at the Gurgaon factory which was probably engineered by the management and was ruthlessly crushed, 1250 regular workers were laid off. Another 1250 workers were laid off in 2003. As of 2007, the Gurgaon factory had 1,800 regular workers and 4000 contract workers. The number of contract workers at the present date is not known.

According to figures from the ILO, regular workers comprise only 15% of the Maruti-Suzuki factory workforce – 85% are contract workers. This is a much lower proportion of regular workers than in companies such as Nokia (50% regular workers) and Ford (25% regular workers).

Regular workers in the Maruti-Suzuki factory are paid an average monthly basic salary of Rs.5,300/- and an “attendance allowance” of Rs.8,900/-. An amount of Rs.2,500/- is deducted from the salary for every day of non-attendance other than earned leave.

Contract workers hired through a labour contractor are paid an average monthly wage of Rs.7,200/- (for those with an ITI diploma) and Rs.6,200/- (for those who do not have an ITI diploma). There is no provision for leave, and an amount of Rs.2,000/- per day is deducted for absence from work.

THE ARITHMETIC OF PROFIT

Assuming that none of the workers took leave, the total amount paid out by Maruti-Suzuki to their regular factory employees during 2010-11 is Rs.54.52 crores. Assuming that the number of contract workers today is 8,000 (twice that in 2007) and calculating at the higher rate (Rs.7,200/- per month) the total amount paid to the contract workers in 2010-11 is Rs.69.12 crores. The total amount paid to factory workers (Rs.123.64 crores) represents 5.4% of the profits of Rs.2,288.64 crore made by Maruti-Suzuki in the same period.

THE MARUTI FORMULA- "LEAN MANUFACTURING"

One year ago, it took a herculean effort for the Manesar plant, working two shifts on the main (automated) production line, to make 1,100 cars a day. Today, the plant rolls out 1,200 cars every day from the main line and another 150 from the manual line. How has the pace of production has been stepped up?

Maruti Production System or MPS draws learnings from its parent company Suzuki Motor Corporation's concepts on `lean manufacturing' under Suzuki Production System (SPS).

Setting trends in new products and achieving customer delight starts with Manufacturing Excellence and Maruti's manufacturing excellence hinges around four important pillars-Cost, Quality, Safety and Productivity.

Every employee working on the line is 'cost sensitive' and functions in capacity of a Cost Manager. He is a key contributor in suggesting how to keep costs of production under control.

A product of poor quality requires repeated inspections, entails wastage in terms of repairs and replacements. "Do it right first time," is the principle followed to avoid wastage. To ensure quality, robots were devices and deployed, especially where they reduced worker fatigue and were critical in delivering consistent quality. With consistent improvements in the plant the company was able to manufacture over 600,000 vehicles in 2006-07 with an installed capacity of just 350,000 vehicles per year.

"Home or work place; Safety takes First Place". This has been the motto of the company where safety is concerned. Maruti attaches great significance to safety of its people and strongly advocates that safety at work place adds to quality of the products and improves productivity of the plant significantly.

In the Japanese manufacturing system, the central role is accorded, not so much to Quality, Productivity or Cost, but to Safety. When process flow, lay-out and systems are designed for maximum safety, they automatically contribute to better quality and productivity.
- from http://www.marutisuzuki.com/lean-manufacturing.aspx

The deepening economic crisis is justification enough for companies like Maruti to push even harder to cut costs and increase production. Shorn of jargon, Maruti's much-lauded lean manufacturing system is the tried-and-tested traditional system of squeezing the workers through increasing workloads, cutting wages and benefits, undercutting investments in safety and increased casualisation of the workforce.

Here's what lean manufacturing looks like on the factory floor.

The paintshop at the Manesar plant is a schizophrenic combination of cutting-edge robotic technology and brute physical labour. One one side are 12 painting robots. On the other, are workers carrying 25 kilo headloads of used screens up two flights of stairs and returning with a 30 kilo load of clean screens. Each worker has to carry 70-80 screens up and down the stairs, working an extra hour without pay if the job is not done by the end of the shift. The lunch-break (30 minutes) and tea break (15 minutes) are not counted as part of the working time on the shift.

The Quality Maintenance Unit employs 95 workers hired through a labour contractor. Their job includes cleaning out the tanks that hold thinners and solvents. They are always on the C-shift – from 12.30 in the night to 8.30 the next morning. Workers on the C-shift work non-stop. There are no breaks for food or tea. The food allowance of Rs.44/- that they used to be given has now been slashed to half. By the end of the shift, they are exhausted, giddy and nauseous from the chemical fumes they inhale. Workers in the Quality Maintenance Unit put in 32 to 192 hours of overtime every month, for which they are paid only Rs.28/- per hour, well short of the legal minimum of 1.5 times the normal wage. For many of these workers, the shift can extend to 17.5 hours of non-stop work without breaks or food.

"The tea break is seven minutes long. In that time, we have to run to the canteen, line up for tea and a snack, use the toilet and get back to the assembly line – and they expect us to be back with a minute to spare.”

“The line moves so fast that there's no time even to scratch an itch...”

“The company gave us all mobiles as gifts to celebrate reaching the one crore production mark, but what's the use - we don't have the time to call anyone.”

WORKERS AT THE MANESAR PLANT, SPEAKING TO FMS

Casual workers hired through a labour contractor are paid an average monthly wage of Rs.7,200/- (for those with an ITI diploma) and Rs.6,200/- (for those who do not have an ITI diploma). Casual workers on the A and B shifts are entitled to free meals at the canteen. There is no provision for leave. Wages for the day, and an extra penalty of Rs.2,000/- are deducted for every absence from work. Any protests or arguments with the contractor are dealt with by immediate dismissal.

Regular workers are not much better off. Their package consists of a basic pay of Rs.5,300/-, an incentive/attendance allowance of Rs.8,900/-, a house rent allowance of Rs.1,600/-, a Dearness Allowance and an allowance for children's education, adding up to between Rs.17,000 and 18,000/- a month. Although their contracts include provisions for paid leave and casual leaves, each day off work results in a deduction of Rs.2,200/- from the incentive allowance. The entire amount of Rs.8,900/- is forfeited if a worker takes more than four days off in a month.

Regular workers cannot be threatened by dismissal, but are harassed and humiliated by supervisors who abuse and manhandle them, arbitrarily move them from one assembly line to another, and report them to managers or the HR Unit for concocted offences.

THE STRIKE

The workers at the Manesar factory started a new union in April 2011. The membership included both regular workers and casual workers hired through labour contractors. The management refused to recognize this union. On June 4, 2011, the workers stopped work. The A shift was just ending and the workers on the B shift had all come in. Workers on the C-shift were quickly contacted over the phone and asked to join the strike. Before the management realised what was happening, more than 2,000 men - regular workers, apprentices, trainees and contract workers from all three shifts – had occupied the factory, sending the management into a complete panic.

As the strike went into its second week, the Haryana Government declared it illegal, but was unwilling to intervene as they had done in the Honda strike. Although police were stationed in the factory premises, the management was reluctant to force the workers out of the factory, given the the risk of damage to the equipment. Equally, the workers were determined to hold their ground inside the factory – everyone was aware that being forced or persuaded to vacate the premises would be the beginning of the end, as it had been for striking workers in Rico Auto, Denso, Viva Global, Harsurya Healthcare, Senden Vikas .... crushed protests that left workers far more vulnerable than before.

By the time the strike entered its tenth day, the factory had lost Rs.600 crores and Maruti shares had plummeted in value. It was obvious that the Maruti management and the government were helpless in the face of the workers' determined refusal to surrender.

The agreement between the workers and the management that ended the strike on June 16th does not reflect this situation. No one reading this extraordinary document would guess that the workers were in a strong bargaining position while the management and the government had their backs to the wall. Instead, those who brokered this “return to normalcy” created a scenario that disempowered the workers and made it seem as if it was their inability to hold out any longer that brought them to the negotiating table.

THE AGREEMENT

The signing of the agreement and the fact that the management agreed to take back the 11 office-bearers of the new union who had been dismissed on 6 June, has been hailed as a victory for the workers by some commentators.

But the terms of the agreement suggest otherwise.

A bitter “victory”

The 11 terminated workers will be taken back, but enquiry proceedings will be initiated against them and “appropriate disciplinary action” will be taken. Regular employees will be considered to have resumed work on June 17th, but actual shifts will resume from midnight on June 18th. An extra day of work on June 19th will be required to compensate for not working on June 17th.

In accordance with the provisions of the Payment of Wages Act, 1936 and the standing orders of the company, workers participating in the strike are liable to a fine of three days wages for every day of work lost. However, it was agreed that, for the moment, only ten days' wages will be deducted (ie one day's wage for each day of the strike). The remaining amount of the fine will be waived if, and only if, the workers maintain good behaviour and discipline, and abide by the rules of the company.

In accordance with the principle of “no work, no pay”, the workers will not be paid for the days they were on strike.

The workers agreed to maintain discipline, ensure expected levels of production and not indulge in any individual or collective activities that would hamper the normal functioning of the factory. The management also agreed not to behave badly or hold a grudge against the workers.
The agreement will be taken as a final resolution of all disputes between the workers and the management.

The story of the Maruti Suzuki strike of 2011 is very similar to that of the Honda strike of 2005. The Honda workers were persuaded by the so-called negotiators to come out of the factory. Once they did, they were mercilessly beaten by the police. By brokering this agreement, the self-appointed negotiators in the Maruti case have dealt an even more lethal blow to the workers' struggle. The Maruti Suzuki management is exhibiting care and concern for workers' welfare in the immediate aftermath of the strike. If the Honda case is anything to go by, this phase will be short-lived, and will be followed by a further tightening of the screws.

The 1,700 Honda regular employees who launched the strike in 2005 were workers on the factory floor. Of the 1,800 regular workers on the Honda rolls today, a large segment works as supervisors of contract workers hired through labour contractors. For instance, the motorcycle engine assembly plant at the Honda factory in Manesar is run by 4 engineers, 12 regular workers and 110 casual workers hired through a labour contracting company. Each shift in the assembly line in the no.2 motorcycle plant has 8 staff, 3 line leaders, 4 regular workers, 4 casual workers hired directly by the company and 101 contract workers hired through a labour contractor. Workers hired through labour contractors are responsible for the bulk of the production in the Honda plant. There are 6,500 such workers on the production line, and another 1500 in ancillary departments.

THE ISSUE IS GLOBAL

Regular workers and irregular workers. Casual workers employed directly by the company and contract workers employed through a labour contractor. Registered contractors and unregistered contractors. Workers who are entitled to PF and ESI, and workers who are not entitled to these benefits....

As many as 75% of the factory workers workers in Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad are invisible in government statistics. The vast majority – over 80% - of these workers are paid less than the statutory minimum wage. Shifts of 12 to 18 hours are the norm, and overtime is compensated at the same rate as regular duty and not at twice the regular rate as required by law.

The situation of workers in Maruti Suzuki and Honda is mirrored in thousands of small and medium factories operating within the 300 or so square kilometres of Delhi and the NCR, that are connected to other such operations in other cities thousands of kilometres away. All of them are struggling against similar strategies of exploitation and resisting attempts to undermine solidarity and unity.

Yet, it is this globalisation of oppression that is creating the conditions for solidarity across boundaries of race and nation, across different industries, different sectors, different companies.

THINE-MINE INTERACTIONS

2011-08-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

THINE-MINE INTERACTIONS WITH SPEAKING HANDS

We are afraid to talk about our problems-troubles-difficulties even with our co-workers, neighbors, and friends.

In the prevailing atmosphere, telling others about one's hardships-sufferings appears to bear the danger of being made fun of, being looked down upon, and being taken advantage of which would only increase one's difficulties-sufferings.

Making fun of poverty, weakness, and mistakes is prevalent.

Given the dominance of this perverted morality, we keep withdrawing into ourselves and our difficulties-hardships-sufferings continue to increase.

In the present system, each person is becoming increasingly insignificant. It is becoming meaningless whether or not a person exists or does not exist.

It is the effect of the present and the expression of this dark misery of human existence that many of our discussions take place in the combative arena of 'my-my, yours-yours':

I am this (praiseworthy) and you are that (derogatory), my father is like this and your daughter is like that, my heroine is this and your party is that; my caste is like this and your region is like that; my religion is this and your country is that...

In order to bolster oneself and downgrade the other, all that is taken up-attributed to-adopted by 'I-my' is shown to be virtue incarnate. And the things that are associated with or attached to the other ('you-yours') are denigrated. Fault upon fault in every 'I-my'. Virtue upon virtue in every 'you-yours'.

Open or hidden helplessness is the essence, and harshness-bitterness is the character of 'my-my, yours-yours' discourses.

Such discussions only work to further increase the already existing misery.

As a general matter, all sorts of discussions take place.

In these, thine-mine expressions also dwell, which seem important to us.

THINE-MINE MEANS OURS

Despite the dominance of the present system, it is a fact that compassion towards one another, sharing one another's happiness and sadness, helping one another is very widespread.

Our activities of love, respect, mutual help are of innumerable types and are endless. Thine-mine interactions seem to be part of an innate and natural human process.

It is true that our humane thoughts and practices which have been draped in holy and religious garb since time immemorial are visibly shrinking.

But what is more important is that faced with the ruthless awesomeness of the present, thine-mine interactions are making the whole earth their area of activity for the sharing of thy-my sorrow and pain (dukh-dard).

Our merging interactions, our close coordinations based on affection, regard, and mutual help, throughout the world, are moving forward to pose a challenge to the present system based on competition and denigration.

WHAT ALL DO WE DO...?

2011-07-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

19 Year Old Worker

I've been working since 1999. At this time, I am a casual (contract or temporary) worker in Lakhani shoes factory. I stay in a shanty on rent at 250 rupees. There is no electricty. And fearing raids of officials, the neighbors don't provide us with a connection, so we have to make due with a lamp. My duty is in general shift.

I get up at 5:30 a.m. I have to go out to defecate in a very dirty place. Then I get in line for water. My friend is also a casual worker and now after the break sells vegetables on the street. Just after getting up, he runs to the vegetable market. After collecting water, I prepare food for both of us. To prepare roti and vegetables for two on the kerosene stove, it takes an hour. After preparing the food, I take a bath and then I eat. I leave for duty at 8 a.m. on the bicycle.

Attendance is marked first at the factory gate and then in the department. Work begins at 8:30 a.m. There is no break for tea but at 9:30 tea comes from the canteen and one has to buy it with one's money and drink it while continuing to wok. It is very laborious work. You have to be at it all the time. Count, pack in boxes, load the vehicle... The supervisor continuously scolds and abuses us. In Lakhani shoes, there is not even time to drink water or go to the bathroom. One has to hide and go.

There is some relief during lunchtime. We eat together and talk. We want to leave this job but where can we go? Ideas keep churning in each one's mind. On the days I don't have time to make lunch, I eat in the canteen. They only serve rice and lentil beans in the canteen and they give an half plate for 4 rupees, but it does not fill my stomach. I have to spend 8 rupees. I am not able to send money home, nor am I able to live properly.

After lunch we have to work continuously for five and half hours, and there is no tea coming around. It seems as though we have been tied up. There is no overtime work for me. On the release at 5 p.m., I come straight to my room and make tea. Afte tea, I sit here and there for some time. I collect water at 6:30 p.m. and clean the utensils. I prepare food at 7 p.m. My friend returns at 9 p.m. and then we make dinner. Sometimes, I watch t.v. We wash the dishes and sleep by 10:30 p.m.

Around 19 Year Old Worker

After my 12th grade exams,I started working in a factory. I absolutely don't feel like getting up in the morning. My mother and father get up at 5 a.m. and start making vegetables and rotis. Even after repeated calls, I do not get up at 6:15 and then my mother's bickering begins. No matter how much I dislike it, I have to get up. Then I rush and get ready for work.

My mother says nasty things to me while giving me breakfast. Hurriedly, I eat and pack my lunch and by 7:15, I leave the house. I have to walk for ten minutes to get an auto. In one auto, we ten girls go to the factory. When the auto driver is late, he speeds a lot and we feel afraid. In these three years, I have seen many accidents. An auto flipping over caused serious injuries to my sister's girlfriend. During winters, one feels very cold in the auto. And during the summer, hot winds and in the rainy season, it's also problematic to be in the auto.

Our duty starts at 8:15 a.m. and the attendance is marked in the department. Before beginning work, we have to put on ghost-like uniforms. The supervisors scold us a lot and use dirty language while demanding production. Many girls start crying. They force us to increase production and then scold the boys into increasing production because of our production. Some girls out of fear of not meeting the production demands and some due to greed of incentive are at work all the time. They don't even have lunch and instead eat while returning home in the auto. There is immense pressure on us at the factory for fast and faster work...

Talking in the factory is prohibited. Under our breath, we abuse and curse the officers a lot. Our hands suffer a lot. Every day at least 5-6 times, needles prick my fingers. Sometimes, a lot of blood comes out, but the company keeps hammering away at us to produce, produce. There is no break in the factory except for lunch. Neither in the morning, nor in the evening does tea come to around. We have to ask and make an entry even for a water break. We girls have to work half an hour over time every day but the situation is worse with the boys. The boys have to work for 12 hours every day. Even on Sundays, we have to work. They scold us for taking Sunday off. And there is a bonus though, for full attendance in the month.

Having left home at 7:15 a.m., I return at 6:30 p.m. I am very hungry by then and the first thing I do is eat. I take out my frustration on my younger brother. I have to prepare dinner- mother also works. I wash the dishes and then watch t.v. It is 11 p.m. by the time I go to sleep.

SAGE NARAD DECLARED A TERRORIST

2011-06-28T14:38:00.000-07:00

(March 1996)

People were busy skimming pages filled with news of scandals. By being careless in their crookedness, high officials and top leaders had created dangers for the system. High officials and top leaders' discussion was centered around the learned judges of the Supreme Court scolding of their brethren. Here we are reflecting on the capacity of these spicy preparations to spoil the digestion of workers. We were evaluating how much we had been misled and the meaninglessness of it all, when a gentleman in shirt and tie entered the Mazdoor Library...

We were astonished and didn't even know where to offer him a seat when cries of "God!" "God!" further surprised us. While respectfully offering a seat to the celestial traveller, we were obviously curious about his changed attire. When we saw the sage light a cigarette, we were even more surprised. While blowing smoke-rings, he smiled and said, "Son, this is not about my attire. Very, very important issues are ready to burst out from within me. I have come to talk to you, leaving an important meeting midway. I have to say a lot- don't disturb in between with tea."

"When the President of this country, then the Prime Minister of that country, then the union of governments, U.N.O., declared terrorism as the major problem of the world, Indra, the head of gods, was disturbed and sent Narad to earth to find out about the situation."

The voice of the sage continued without any hindrance, "Initially, the terror of bombs in buses-trains-planes, the firing in crowded markets, abduction, dacoity, murder, heaps of bodies in riots terrorized me. In the shadow of such hovering insecurity, what could I discover and what could I report back to the head of gods, Indra?" This sage who has been travelling from time immemorial had never been so worried. "When I presented my credentials to the President of Italy, at that time, due to the fear of terrorism, every pore of my body was sweating. Greedily glancing at my shaved head, the bald President ran his hand over his head and without any worries, sucking at his cigar, offered a cigar to me. Seeing the expression of the President of Italy, my fear lessened. I also lighted the cigar, but before taking a puff, I asked him impatiently why he was not afraid of terrorism. That small man in that massive palace in Rome smiled for some time and then started talking to me like he was explaining the matter to a child."

"The President of Italy said, 'God, you are one whom we worship but you are very naieve. To rule over people with your methods of incantation-bribery-threat-and guilt are so simple in contrast to today's needs. If not an hundred, then at least 90 will understand it in a blink and it will all become an harmful joke.

The history of the governments of Rome is very old. To keep people harnessed to work and to maintain control, scholars-intellectuals have written many volumes and translated such books... To rise on the ladder of governance, to become officer-leader and climb higher, the books of Machiavelli and devious Chanakya are as basic as the A, B, C's. Who can compete with the politicians of Italy in conspiracy and murder?!

Despite being very important, all these are old tales, but still, to fulfill the purpose for which you have come from heaven, it is necessary to inform you about them. Despite long experiences of ruling, we still had to choose officers-leaders through extremely tough competitions for the higher posts in government. Murder and deviousness was required for those of higher posts.

Then about 30 years ago, conditions started getting out of hand. People were not coming under our control. Keeping ordinary people under control through leaders-parties-organizations was failing. Instead of opposing this or that leader, or party, people in increasing numbers were becoming anti-government. In history, for the first time, ordinary people in increasing numbers were holding the government responsible for their every problem. Ordinary people started seeing the solution of their problem in doing away with governments. Why should anyone rule over anyone? Such questions, ideas, and practices putting the basis of rule and system of rule in danger were not only troubling us in Italy, but shaking governments throughout the world.

At that time, I was the Personal Assistant to the President. The duty to be with the President, like his shadow, provided me with rare experiences. Conversations with Presidents and Prime Ministers of various countries, discussions with one intellectual giant after the other, deep discussions in meetings with top officers of secret organizations...At each place, the problem of reestablishing control over ordinary people used to hover over us like a ghost. From that deep churning, emerged this all-curing terrorism which you've come to learn about....

Amongst politicians, scholars, and secret service chiefs of all countries, there was a common agreement that as far as they could see, there were problems upon problems in controlling ordinary people and they would only increase. Danger to the very existence of governments had arisen. In this situation, it had become of paramount importance that the gov't should appear before ordinary people as a savior where in the name of tackling terrible evil, ordinary people's anti-government attitude could be transformed into a pro-government one.

To terrorize ordinary people and keep them terrorized, there was a necessity for an extremely depraved, cruel, dangerous and unknown, invisible, devious, and powerful enemy from whom only government could protect ordinary people. Therefore, we created that enemy. We are rearing it. That enemy is terrorism!

Did you understand anything, God's emissary? I am proud of this fact that in Italy, we began its use before other governments. A secret organization of the government of Italy on December 12, 1969 blasted a bomb in the crowd in Piazza Fontana murdering 16 people. This act inaugurated the terrorism that has often caused ordinary people to support the government to save them from this terrible danger. Getting to know the reality of the slaughter at the post of Prime Minister, Aldo Moro and for months through radio-t.v.-newspaper-magazine brought them into order. Then to thrust the knife deeply, Aldo Moro was murdered.

There are problems, there are massive-insoluble problems, and they are increasing. But still, this all-cure of terrorism has given immense relief not only to the government of Italy, but to governments throughout the world.

Because of this, we have been able to acquire support for such laws where people can be imprisoned for years without trial. By characterizing an individual as a terrorist, anyone can be killed. The head of our 17 secret organizations will acquaint you with the details.'"

After repeating the conversations of the President of Italy, Sage Narad took a deep breath and after remaining silent for some time said, "The President had made clear the issue of making terrorism the paramount problem and propagating it. But still there are many notes which I put before the heads of the Italian government's secret organizations. The head of secret services accepted not only helping and coordinating with terrorist groups in other countries, but also establishing and directing terrorist organizations against one another in the governments of different countries. The government of India's secret service, RAW, does this in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, China. Pakistan's ISI does this in India and Afghanistan. While America's CIA continues to do these bad deeds throughout the world, when the Soviet Union still existed, the KGB carried out these actions. What can we say of Israel's Mossad? Even the Italian government's secret organizations are one with the Palestinian PFLP. There are problems from terrorism organized and created by government against one another. But for some time now, this has become the routine activity of governments.

The chiefs of secret services in Italy said that these attempts to weaken other governments in competition as a bonus keeps the secret agents of all governments alert and on their toes. By putting the blame for problems on another government citizens', anger against "their" government is diverted. In India earlier, the CIA was seen as responsible for every problem. Now it is Pakistan's ISI. Secret service chiefs' matter-of-fact routine expressions in this context answer many questions without even being asked. I returned to the strange issue of government's organizing and directing terrorism against their own citizens.

The secret services chief of the government of Italy said that initially their agents used to keep time-bombs in a bus, train, or crowded place. Blast details-murders and headlines in newspapers-radio-t.v. of course spread terror. An atmosphere of alertness and strictness is created. But the blasts used to be anonymous and things would end in that. This was due to our lack of experience.

Soon secret services created such names whose pamphlets would be left at the site of a blast or responsbility would be taken by making phone calls to newspapers. Before terrorist organizations became concrete, the propaganda received and obtained through newspapers-magazines-and radio t.v. of course, performed the earlier tasks. Due to propaganda, many naieve militants were attracted towards those organizations and we enrolled them. Terrorist organizations are ladder-like secret organizations in which decisions are taken at the top and implemented by those at the bottom. Those at the top know those below, but those at the bottom do not know those at the top. In this situation, to get deeds done as per one's desire is a very enjoyable game. What all names we have had to think up for terrorist organizations- Red Terror, Red Brigade, Revolutionary Hammed, Muhajid Muhammed, Trishul Sena, Angels of Terror, Black Tiger, Red Lion..."

After speaking, Sage Narad became quiet. We were about to interrupt him for tea when he began speaking again. "In the expositions of the President and chiefs of secret organizations had been dominant. At this, I asked about those groups which emerged on their own and take great pains to solve social problems through terror. At my suggestion that these people are not the agents of secret organizations, all the chiefs laughed and started speaking to me as through I was a child. It is true that because of social problems, small, secret terrorist organizations form by themselves. But for security from government's secret organizations, they are forced to give their secret organization ladder-like form. Those at the top take decision and those at the bottom carry them out. In these also, those at the top know those at the bottom, but those are below do not know those who are above. Military discipline and indispensability of secrecy for security is embalmed with principle in such a way that those at the top are safe and independent and those at the bottom have to mortgage their conscience and are ever ready to carry out orders. To infiltrate into such organizations is a task for us secret agents. Given the means and the freedom to act that secret organization have been allowed, it is very easy us to infiltrate into any such organization. Infiltration on the basis of information from the inside, selective arrests and eliminations through 'encounters.' Our agents reached positions of those directing these organizations. By changing your attire a bit, we can provide you the experience of a chief of terrorist organization right now. Saying this, they put me in this dress. And do you know what they said? They said that we are declaring you a terrorist which will bring you in the line of the safest persons on the earth."

After saying all this, Sage Narad fell silent. The reality of terrorism organized and operated by governments as a policy began to dance in front of us. The deeds of secret organizations of governments in South American countries; bomb blasts in England; gas attack in Japan; terrorism and terror in Sri Lanka for 25 years; bomb blasts in Israel; firing in Egypt; burning Karachi in Pakistan; Hindu-Muslim riots from time-to-time in India; during 1967, murders of traffic policemen in Kolkatta; ULFA, Bodo, Naga, Kuki violence in Northeast. In Punjab, bombs in buses, selective killings of people, Black Cats, Barebody Gangs, murders of family members of policemen; in Kashmir, the abduction of Home minister Saiyyed, bomb at the Governor's venue, bomb blasts of buses in Jammu, indiscriminate firing by unkonwn people in selected villages, new terrorist organizations formed each day. In Delhi, bomb blasts in buses, trains, crowded markets...Amongst these, most of them are the deeds of secret organizations. And to give more reality to terrorism, to put it beyond doubt, and at the same time, to solve issues between ruling cliques, the murders of Kennedy, Mujeeb, Aldo Moro, Sadat, Indira, Zia ul Haq, Premdas, Rajiv Gandhi, Rubin...

Thinking about all this, to deal with the terrorism policy of governments and its implementation by bomb blasts, firing abductions, dacoity, and murders by secret services, we were about to ask Sage Narad for his views about secret versus open, when the sage suddenly got up and promising to meet soon again, left the Mazdoor Library...

(We have taken information from Gyan Franco Segunderi's book On Terrorism and the State)

In Hindi

2011-06-05T21:17:00.000-07:00

Back issues of FMS in Hindi are now available online.

Read it here.

WHAT ALL DO WE DO...?

2011-06-02T22:09:00.000-07:00

34 Year Old Casual/ Temporary Worker

I came to Faridabad for the first time in 1997. First, I joined Autopin factory through a contractor. In the first month, for 13 to 14 days, I worked for 16 hours each day. (I was seventeen at the time.) I worked there for nine months. In later months, I worked 16 hours a day for six, seven, eight days.

Through another contractor, I joined Talbross factory. Here also for six days in a month, they used to force us to work for 16 hours. During winters, going to and from the factory was very problematic given the fog at the railway crossing and crossing the National Highway Mathura Road. I saw three, four accidents where blood was all over the place. I felt sick. Because of the accidents and night duty during winter, I left Talbross after four months.

Then through an acquaintance, I joined Anil Rubber factory. Here for the first time, they had me sign on blank papers at the time of employment. I had also heard that employment officers take a 200 rupee bribe. In Anil Rubber, I worked sixteen hours a day only four days in a month. After six months, I was given a 'break', meaning termination of services.

I joined Expro factory. Here we have to work for 16 hours a day, five days in the month. And there was no chance of leaving after 12 hours of work. While working in Expro factory, I had heard about ITI (Industrial Training Institute). After six months, I was again given a 'break'. In June 1998, I left for my village. That year I could not get admission in ITI. I got admisson in 2000. After completing ITI in 2002, I came back to Faridabad and I am now a temporary worker in Oswal Electricals.

At this time, I am on night shift. In the factory, I go to the latrine. (If I don't go in the factory, then I have to go out in the open near my shanty.) I walk back to my room. I wash up and then have a bath. I don't drink tea. By this time, it's 9 a.m. And for breakfeast, I make roti, and fry potatoes, peas, or cauliflower. Sometimes, when I am too tired, I straightaway prepare my meal- rice, lentils, and something else with it. Normally, I sleep at 11 a.m. and get up at 4:30, 4:45 p.m. If I sleep after breakfast, then I miss out on lunch. After washing up, I go to the vegetable market and have a light snack there. At most, I spend 5 rupees on it. I buy vegetables for another 5 rupees and on returning I sit in a barbershop and read the newspaper there for an hour or two. Then for an hour or two, I study in the room- general knowledge, general science, and about my subject of refrigeration. At night by 9 p.m., I make dinner. Then I rest for an hour before leaving for work.

On arrival, attendance is marked at the factory gate. In the department, the supervisor tells us the work to be done and issues gloves and a pencil. I have to check the production of three operators. I have to check for fissures, indents, fault in the sites etc. There is pressure from the operators that I should hold back from finding faults. Yet, the responsibility of the job is that I do it according to the norms. This work continues into the night until 7:30 a.m. In Oswal electricals, there is no break for a meal and even for tea. Constant work for 8 hours! There is no question of sleep. (In some factories, workers work quickly and sleep after their work.) If the material is bad, then you can't even take out ten to fifteen minutes for yourself and the material piles up. If the material is good, then we can rest for five, ten minutes and dring this time, we go to the latrine. Otherwise, we go to the toilet after the shift is over.

There are 500 workers in Oswal Electrical factory, but there is no canteen. (The law says if there are more than 300 workers, there has to be a canteen.) We are banned from leaving the factory to have tea. Three, four of us have to get together and obtain a gate pass for one person from the supervisor and send him to the East India Crossing open shops to get tea. Even supervisors cannot go out to have tea. This was the situation in the night-shift of Talbross Factory also- no break for meal, no break for tea, and there was a canteen, but it used to be closed at night.

Shifts change every week. Last week I worked the morning shift. Then I used to get up at 5 a.m. I had to go out in the open to defecate. Then make breakfast and lunch. Eat two rotis and fold four to take with me. During winters, I don't bathe in the morning. From 7:30 a.m., I work in the factory. In the day shift, there is lunch break from 11:30 to 12 noon.

After the shift is over at 3:30, I come straight back to my room. I bring water and have a bath- supply water is not too cold. If something is left over, then I have that, or I prepare something small to eat. Then I read for awhile. I go to the library in NH1 (a locality) and for an hour, I skim through both English and Hindi newspapers. And return by 7 p.m. I'll read books for an hour or two. I prepare my dinner at 9 p.m. and sleep by 11 p.m.

For these 15 days, I have to do all the work myself. Earlier I used to give an acquaintance, 600 rupees per month for my meal.

The most problemtic is B shift duty. Now I will have to bear this all by myself. In B shift, I return from the factory 12 at night. At that point, it is very difficult to eat the 9 p.m. prepared cold food. It is 1 a.m. by the time I finish eating. I can't fall asleep until 2 a.m. In the morning, I awake at 7, 7:30 a.m. and because of lateness, going out in the open for latrine is an additional problem. By the time I have my bath, it is 10 a.m. After breakfeast, I feel drowsy and sleep for another hour and a half. After getting up, I have my meal at 12:30 to 1 p.m. and just wile away time. Everything goes topsy-turvy in B shift. I feel loose, without energy. This laziness remains till 4:30, 5:30 p.m. After we have been working for an hour, then the body becomes alert. In B shift, leisurely roaming and reading stops.

I really dislike being in the factory. There is too much fault-finding and lecturing by the supervisor. I feel bad when co-workers refuse to answer a question or talk back rudely- they don't even consider us human beings. They want to get work out of us at a faster speed than CNC (computerized) machines.

Outside there are also problems upon problems. Water problem, problem in the post office, problem at the railway station...everywhere there is a line. I dislike lines. Right now, I have no friends here. They are all temporary. A little acquaintance, some conversation. Sometimes, I feel extremely lonely.

I like interesting work, where there are things to be learned. I like to roam about and gather information. But in this age, where are such things?...

WHAT ALL DO WE DO...?

2011-05-17T08:45:00.000-07:00

42 Year Old Gov't Employee

I have been in central government service for twenty years. Before this, I did other jobs for 5 years. To earn some money, I had begun tutoring from the time I was in 8th standard. After I had finished 11th standard, I joined a factory. I worked in different factories- Hindustan Syringe, Escorts first plant, Unimax lab, Belmont Rubber, and Steadchem. (After every six months, I was thrown out). While working in the factories, I continued my studies through correspondence and completed a Bachelors in Commerce. Then I became a teacher in a school and while I was teaching there I got a job in the Central Government.

My husband is also in government service. We have one son. Because of Board Examinations, after 12, he doesn't go to school these days, and my health is also not well. Therefore, in the morning I get up late- 6:45, 7 a.m. For the past 7 years, I have had breathing problems. For over a year now, a major operation was postponed for medical reasons and then I avoided it because of my son's exam.

Even in gov't service, for years it was routine to wake up at 5 in the morning. After making breakfeast and lunch, I sent my son to school at 7. The fridge made it possible to knead the flour for rotis at night and cut vegetables beforehand. So instead of getting up at 5, I could get up at 5:30. After getting my son ready, I would broom and mop the floor and wash the dishes. Then get ready for work. Because of breathing problems, increasing from the dust, for the past three years a woman comes and does the household work. Whether I am awake or asleep, work is on the mind all the time. I don't feel like getting up in the morning, but I have to work. My husband brings milk and makes tea for us in the morning. I make breakfast and lunch. After getting ready by 8:45, I leave for the office. Work is work. There's nothing to like about it. Even if there is a problem in the house or I'm not feeling well, I still have to go to work.

Work is from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. First of all, we have to sign in. Then begin your work and keep at it. Earlier I was dealing with the public, but now I only work behind a desk. Because of this, I can be a bit flexible with the work. If I don't feel like it today, I'll do it tomorrow, but I can't postpone it too much longer.

There are no constraints on drinking tea in the office from your own money, but I don't have an habit of drinking tea. Lunch is from 1 to 1:30 and during that time, men and women sit separately. Such is the tradition. In the women's section, we talk about children, family matters, the rising prices of everyday expense. Someone sings a devotional song. But 80% of us lie down for twenty minutes. Some even take a nap. In these twenty years, I haven't faced any difficulty as a woman employee. Now in the office there are many women working, but when I was dealing with the public, I was the only woman amongst male co-workers. Instead of facing problems as a woman, I got special attention.

After 1:30, office work continues till 5:30. Because I have to sit in a chair all day, I get tired. From the office, straightaway I come home. I'm dead-tired and my husband makes a cup of tea for me. I make dinner and prepare things for tomorrow's meals. By 10 p.m., we have had our meals and are free. Then we watch t.v.

From childhood itself, I haven't had time for any interest to develop. Everything is so tied up by routine. If there is an holiday for a day or two, I can do the pending household work, but any time more than that and I wouldn't know what to do.

My attempt has been that my son shouldn't have to face the difficulties we have faced. We live an extremely simple life. My husband and I are both government servants and we have only one son, but still we are in debt. We are worried about our son's exams, but we are even more worried about his admission. What if we have to pay for a slot in a university? To take a loan, we would spend our whole life repaying it. And then my operation!

There are problems. But I consider only those as problems for which I cannot see a solution. In my life, I have had problems at each step. Therefore, I do not consider routine problems as problems. I did not bother about my health- for my job, I have done overtime, and on holidays instead of taking rest, I take care of household tasks. Because of these reasons probably, there have been too much mental pressures. Taking it all into consideration, I am worried about my health.

From my childhood, I liked helping others and my own people. I don't know why I liked to. Instead of sitting in a chair and doing office work, I like live relations instead. It has been almost my nature that I should not hold back anyone's papers and no one should have problems because of me. It has never entered my mind that people whose work I do should pay me something in return. In twenty years, I hav not taken a cent from anyone for doing his or her work. And because of this, I have gotten great satisfaction. But in dealing with the public, you need a lot of energy. Of course, you have to talk a lot. You also meet many such people who simply do not accept that you want to help them. In such a situation, one gets tense. Because of illness, now I am doing a deskjob. And here also I don't want to see anyone face a problem because of me. But government itself is a problem...

WHAT ALL DO DO WE DO...?

2011-04-26T09:13:00.000-07:00

50 Year Old Electricity Board Worker

Duties and Shifts.

Right now my shift is from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., but I am only really off-duty at 9 a.m. because early in the morning, there is a lot of load on the electrical line and some mishap is bound to occur. There is not enough staff there, so we have to stay back and I get home late.

I am tired when I get home. I don't feel like doing anything. At this age, physical fatigue is natural. But nowadays, mental stress is greater.

These days my family is with me so when I get home, I get a cup of tea. After having tea, I rest for an hour or two. Then after a bath and my meal, I go to sleep around 1 p.m.

Of course, I don't feel like I have to get up around 3 to 4 p.m. Sometimes, it is because noise in the house or noise outside. But I don't get enough sleep. Because of this, my heart and mind are restless...

After getting up, I go and get the vegetables or some other household things. If I leave, I have to go here and there at 6 p.m. It's 8 by the time I return. These days I get my meals cooked,so I don't have the additional burden of having to cook my own food. But still there is usually there is something or the other to deal with.

Sometimes, I am ill or my kids are ill and we have to go to the doctor. Depending on the season, there is some illness or the other. On the days I have to go for treatment for myself or the kids, then I have to squeeze in all the other things I have to do. I don't get a chance to rest. One has to be on duty during the prescribed shift hours. If there is any work on the electric line, then one has to go. Otherwise one has to stay at the Complaint Center. As soon as some break-down takes place, one has to inform the officer.

During summers, there is a lot of power failure. Because of dust storms and winds, there are breakdowns on the line. There is also too much load on the line because of people running fans, coolers, leading to breakdowns. Even at 1 or 2 in the night, the public will come to the Complaint Center. It is because those who come in and complain give us an helping hand with the manual work that we are even able to work. Otherwise, there is too much staff shortage.

During winters, there are less power failures, but when they do happen it is difficult to search them out. Because of fog, there are additional problems. A ten minute task takes half an hour. And sometimes, it is even difficult to locate the reason for the failure at all.

During the rainy season, the transformers get burnt. Cables get burnt. Trees fall and wires are broken. The danger of accidents is high. Most workers are busy. Conversations are few. Discussions only take place when people are happy.

When my family is not with me and they return to the village, then life becomes very difficult. Before I come home, I have tea at a shop somewhere. After coming home in the morning, I have to clean the place. Mop the floor, dust, wash the clothes, wash the dishes. I have to collect water from the public tap. Then I cook my lunch and dinner. Sometimes, I make vegetables with bread or rice and lentils or bring curd from the shop and eat it with bread. It gets to be 1 to 1:30 p.m. once I complete all this. Then I rest for an hour or two.

After getting up, I clean the utensils and get vegetables from the market...Sometimes, my bicycle needs repairs and sometimes my body needs repairs.By this time, it's already 8 p.m. And then I have to get ready for the night shift.

Life alone is very difficult to handle, whatever be the shift. For the morning shift at 7 o'clock, I get up at 5 a.m. When I am alone, then for half of the week, I am not able to make food for myself. I have to go for duty without tea or breakfast and there is not enough time to prepare a lunch to take with me. One reason for this is the laziness that come in the body with age.

Even if one does not get meals, one still has to work. I have to either eat in the hotel or share whatever co-workers have brought. When the family is with me, I get home-cooked food. During the morning shift, there is more work. Instead of 3 p.m., we get off at 4, 5, 6 p.m. Some work or the other comes up so that we can't leave yet. But we don't get overtime payment for staying back.

IHAAS-IHAASIYE

2011-04-11T12:25:00.000-07:00

Coming together to help one another used to be called Ihaas. Fifteen to twenty persons would join together, take up the task, and quickly complete it. The beginnings of Ihaas are not known, but in the villages of Punjab and Haryana (northwest India), even 50 years ago, Ihaas-Ihaasiye could be seen.

As much as we decrease the necessity for money, that much more space increases for us. There is an easy, simple way to decrease the necessity for money: help one another. Our close coordinations shrink the space for money and enlarge the space for you, for me, for us...

We do not know whether Ihaas questioned caste-based oppression-exploitation or not. Still, Ihaas ad Ihaasiye which shrank the space of money by means of mutual help are a source of inspiration for us.

TURMOIL IN EUROPE: A WORKER FROM LONDON

2011-03-17T21:03:00.000-07:00

(New Series No. 271, January 2011)

Shaky money system, increasing state debts, austerity measures, general strikes, violent demonstrations... during the last months of 2010, the social turmoil in Europe has intensified to a degree unseen for 40 years. We have a look at the prelude of the unrest, it's weaknesses and potentials.

At the end of 2008, the global market was shaken. In Europe, governments told us that it was the problem of banks in the US which gave out cheap credits to people who were not able to pay them back. We saw middle-class people losing jobs and houses, ending up living in tents. Houses remained empty because no one was able to afford to live in them. New cars were piling up because without credits, no one could buy them. And we thought it was just their problem.

The crisis gripped some of the global companies, particularly those of the automobile industry. Between October 2008 and February 2009 about 800.000 temporary workers in Germany lost their job, but they don't have to call this redundancies. The permanent workers were sent on short time work with agreement of union and financial support of the state. In France, workers locked-in managers and threatened to blow up factories in order to get compensation. But in general, the first wave of crisis seemed to have been avoided.

During 2009, it became obvious that not only the US banks, but all major banks in Europe were involved in the business with debts. We were told that the bankers were greedy, but that the government had to save the banks in order to save the economy. The state debts increased. In 2010, the state in Greece announced that it would have difficulties paying back its debts. The European central banks sent money. In Germany, we were told that it was just the problem of the Greeks because they retire too early at age 59 and the state has to pay the pensions. "Why should we pay for them?", the public media asked. In Greece, the public media blames the German state and the IMF which supposedly 'forces' the Greek government to engage in spending cuts in return for credits.

The next countries on the line were Ireland and Spain. The collapse in construction, tourism, and other sectors resulted in an increase of unemployment to 20 per cent in Spain. This time they had more difficulties to explain the high state debts: Ireland had been the boom country of the 2000's, quite a few young Germans went there to find better paid work. By this time, the governments in Europe had to declare that the debt crisis is affecting all states and that the Euro as a money system is under threat. They started to say that we will all have to save money and work longer. They told this to a generation of workers which will not understand: during the last 20 years we have seen wages declining, temporary jobs replacing permanent employment and work load increasing - so why are we now in a deepening crisis?

By 2010, all governments announced cuts in spending: later retirement age, wage cuts for public sector workers, higher university fees, cut in unemployment and other benefits. In England, the state announced to cut 500,000 jobs in the public sector - which will result in 500,000 more job cuts in the private sector - and to make unemployed people work without payment. They say that the financial support for poorer school students (transport, books etc.) will be withdrawn. In Ireland, the government announced a 10 per cent cut of the minimum wage. Many countries announce to close their borders more tightly to prevent the entry of migrant workers.

An atmosphere of panic has taken over the world of parliaments, company headquarters, and stock exchanges. The saving measures are supposed to re-establish the trust of 'the market' into the credibility of the government and the Euro. But it seems that the measures result in the state losing the trust of the 'normal people'. The news are full of pictures of demonstrations, strikes, clashes with the police, attacks on government buildings.

Several one day general strikes in France during September, 29th of September general strike in Spain, 24th of November general strike in Portugal, 30th of November massive student demonstration in England, 27th of November students in Italy blockade most major cities in Italy, 27th of November biggest demonstration in Ireland's history, 15th of December another general strike in Greece...

Some of these protests looked massive: an hundred thousand people in the streets; no trains running. The size is an expression of general anger. People bother to march and shout. But one day strike is not yet an expression of strength. In the following some glimpses at the weaknesses and potentials in these protests.

France

In France, more than a million were on the streets, but the actual participation in the general strike was only around 20 per cent and this only in public sector. The strike has seen some new forms of organization: inter-professional assemblies, blockades of roads and rail-tracks. These strikes brought together workers from different sectors. But they are also expressions of weakness. In Paris, bin men of the public sector were on strike, but private bin men did not join. In response, few workers of the 'inter-professional assembly' start to blockade the waste incinerators. The waste piles up, but this does not overcome the initial division. Out of assemblies and blockades, new things appear. For example a day-long occupation of 'round-abouts', with people camping, barbecuing, talking and enjoying music.

Spain

In Spain, the division between the growing mass of young unemployed and public sector workers seem even wider. When a general strike was called, the government starts to blame 'the lucky (public) workers' for being privileged. Like in France the socialist government in Spain tried to enforce a 'minimum service' in public transport, hospitals, waste collection etc., and threatened workers with a fee, and in the case of France, even with prison, if they don't go back to work. Workers in public transport ignored this for some days. Then their union representatives accepted the 'minimum service'. In November 2010, the airport workers (flight controllers) went on strike. The government brought in the army in order to take over the work. This has not happened since the dictatorship in the 1930's to 1970's.

England

Everyone was shocked by the announcement of the cuts, but there was no call for general protest. The cuts are enforced on a local level. In a school in the South of London, 16 out of 200 teachers were supposed to be sacked. The union said that it would not accept 'forceful redundancies', but did not do anything else, saying that due to legal circumstances nothing can be done. The school management put pressure on people: every teacher had to undergo a 'test', even after several years of teaching, and a supervision of their class lessons. The pressure resulted in 16 people accepting VRS. At my work-place, the management took 2 out of 9 trucks off of waste collection. The remaining 7 trucks and workers will have to do extra-work. They will stop calling in 10 temporary workers, this will not even make the news.

Then a slight surprise happened. The student union had called for a march against higher university fees (most students are 10,000 - 20,000 pounds in debts after finishing studies) on November 10th. At first, it seemed the usual march: some leaders speaking, stewards showing the route, slogans. Then several thousand students left the official route and encircled the building of the ruling party. They smashed windows, occupied the offices and the roof, lit fires, brought in music to dance around them. The police were surprised, the government enraged, the student union president distanced himself and talked about 'violent minority'. The incident has given some fresh air to the school and university students.

In the following weeks 30 to 40 universities were occupied in protest against the fee hike. Often only one big room is occupied. The occupiers organize activities themselves: cooking, writing leaflets, going to picket-lines of public sector workers, organizing teach-outs (holding 'lessons' in public spaces, for example supermarkets or banks). Maybe 300 to 500 people take part in this. Some universities have 10,000 to 20,000 students.

The younger school students are more uncontrollable. Their financial support has been cut and they are angry. They organize mainly through the internet (85,000 joined a web-site to be informed about spontaneous demonstrations) and mobile phones. On the day of a demonstration, they go from class room to class room to call people, they jump over fences when teachers try to lock them in, they go to university students to mobilize them. The police cannot cope with them: there are no speeches, no stewards, no route. At the first demonstration, they finally managed to 'kettle thousands of school students for 6 - 9 hours in the freezing cold'. They hoped that next time they would not turn up.

The next time school students ran in groups of several thousands into different direction as soon as they saw police. They ran through the main streets of London, normally reserved for cars and shopping. When they saw the car of Prince Charles, they attacked it. Some of them shouted "We are from the slums of London," while some of the university students had banners like "I don't want to become a bin men." Instead of political party slogans and banners, we saw a lot of self-made placards, such as "I wish I could say something beautiful, but I cannot" or big signs saying "This is not a good SIGN."

The school students have changed the atmosphere a little bit. The local councils separately have to announce where to cut money, where to sack workers. Nowadays several hundred police have to protect these local parliament meetings from being disturbed by protesters. Some of the politicians say, "You act against democracy." In the public media, more and more voices say: "Accept the cuts in the sake of democracy. The government has been elected."

The pictures of the demonstrations in England went around Europe. A few days later students in Italy occupied public buildings, the Tower of Pisa. People in working class areas of Rome helped them to keep the police away. The students shouted, "London is calling and we answer." The following week students and workers in Greece occupied buildings, battles with the police erupted...

Despite the mass marches, the various parliaments have voted in favor of the austerity measures. The large scale and partly 'symbolic' protests have not prevented the 'symbolic' vote. The struggle will have to find ways to express itself on a daily level. Nevertheless, the large demonstrations have not yet made people tired. In England the opposite is true- people say things like 'I feel alive'. They run free through town, meet people in assemblies, take over a space which has been impersonal (occupation of offices or inner-city streets). The media and social scientists are surprised: "Who are these young people"? "And why are they so angry"? "Can it just be because of a fee hike or a money cut"? We see a generation which in this crisis has lost its illusions: that individual efforts will result in a better future. The global atmosphere of the last decades was that of individual pressure: exams, short term work contracts, individual debts.

Whether mortgages in America or micro-credits in Andhra Pradesh: debts fill the gap between an ever growing apparatus of state and industry on the one hand and the down-sliding existence of those who keep this apparatus running by their work on the other. Debts are an expression of desperate hope for the future: management-market-politicians take credits to win time when profits-sales are bad. They hope that 'more technology-more production-less workers-lower wages' will bring back 'prosperity' in the future. Credits will keep business running till then. As a result of their 're-structuring', unemployment is rising. Wages are decreasing and workers are forced to take credits themselves in order to compensate the wage loss. Their debt is partly pure necessity, partly the individual hope that in the near future a better job will turn up; that the child will find a good job after education. The debts are an expression of dependence. They keep us running, the interest rates keep us running faster. They keep the system running, although everything - the tired bodies, the suffering friendships, the polluted nature - screams to stop.

The last time we saw the system shaking to this degree was when the crisis forced the European states into mass destruction of humans and industry in the Second World War. This was their way to 'annihilate the debts', to start anew. We will have to find a different way. Some of the struggles in Europe can give us hope. The 'enforced stop-and-go' of the crisis will disrupt 'the daily race' and might bring us together in search for a different, money-less society: where we decide together what we need and how we obtain it.

INDENTURED LABOUR & CORVEE/GRATIS LABOR ARE COMMON IN FACTORIES

2011-02-27T18:03:00.000-08:00

(New Series No. 151, May '08)

THE LAW

Decision of the Supreme Court of the Gov't of India:

According to Article 23 of the Constitution, if the state or central gov't pays less than the statutory minimum wage to any worker it is considered forced labor. Workers who are paid less than the statutory minimum wage are bonded workers. Bonded labour, getting work done in a fuedal mode, is banned by law and the Indian Constitution.

UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY FOR WORKER’S RIGHTS

*IIT Kanpur, Delhi University and Jawarhalal Nehru University are Government of India institutions as well as major centers of knowledge-production.

-In a 1999 survey, some students of IIT Kanpur discovered that none of the contractors on campus were paying the statutory minimum wages to its workers.

-In 2004, 1,500 male and female workers were engaged in construction-repair work worth 28 to 30 crore rupees at twenty places. On the JNU campus, workers in construction, library, gardening, cleaning, cafeterias are hired through contractors. These workers are not paid the statutory minimum wage. Some students, employees, and teachers discovered this fact. In turn, they founded "University Community for Workers Rights."

Afternoon news on All India Radio on May Day. The Government of Delhi has set the daily minimum wage at 140 rupees, but all the workers the AIR correspondent interviewed were only paid 80 to 85 rupees.

-With the emergence of this opposition to bonded labor and fuedal mode of work on JNU's university campus, some students were punished in June 2007.

(Information taken from People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) publication "Fettered Lives: A Report on Contract System and Exploitation of Workers in JNU.") Contact PUDR: c/o Sharmila Purkayasth, S. Miranda House, Teachers Flat, Delhi University, Delhi 110007.

MINIMUM WAGE IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION

*We'll not talk about the extreme shamelessness or the conspiracy of generating a fearsome reality to make people passive… We will also not talk here about bonded workers at brick mills and stone quarries, now and then depicted as 'extraordinary' or unusual. Come, let's take a glance at factory production in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana.

First, let us take a look at the authorized factory areas by their block, sector, phase. Okhla Industrial area in Delhi is such a place. Udyog Vihar in Gurgaon is such a place. Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida in U.P. are major factory areas adjoining Delhi. Faridabad is mostly a city of factories. In factories, situated in unauthorized industrial areas in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana, 70 to 75% of all the workers in factories in authorized industrial areas are not in company documents. They are considered 'illegal workers.' These 70 to 75% of workers are not paid the statutory minimum wage. The statutory minimum wages in Uttar Pradesh is 2,699 rupees. In Haryana, it is 3,535 rupees. In Delhi, it is 3,633.

Among these workers, many are forced to sign in company and gov't documents that they have received statutory minimum wages when they are paid less than that. If one leaves or is kicked out after working for a week or ten days in a factory, payment is not given for that week of work.

In the national capital region spread over Delhi, U.P., and Haryana in registered factories located at authorized sites, 75 to 80% of workers are not paid minimum wages.

In Delhi and Faridabad, there are lots of areas which are not authorized for factory production, but where large numbers of factories exist. Today a significant portion of factory production is taking place in these unauthorized areas. Those who made plans and policies for factories in Okhla, Udyog Vihar, Noida, Faridabad have not allotted any space for worker's housing nearby. In this situation, workers are compelled to live in unauthorized colonies...In these colonies, the destructive dance of workshops and factories continues day and night.

95 to 98% of workers engaged in industrial production are invisible in documents. 90 to 95% of workers engaged in workshops and factories in unauthorized areas of Delhi and Faridabad are not paid the statutory minimum wage.

And to put salt on a wound- there is ‘honararium.’ The Gov't has taken the lead in paying 1/2, 1/3, 1/4th of the statutory minimum wage in the name of paying an honararium rather than what is actually owed.

CREATION OF THE WORLD MARKET

*Getting work done gratis was the basis of serfdom. Labouring masses have been tied up in many bonds. As a a part of their birthright, those living in forts and palaces extracted a part of the produce from laboring masses. Proponents of the market raised a slogan of opposition to taking things gratis. Traders declared "give with this hand, take with that hand." A new flag of independence. A major portion of serfs were then transformed into artisans-peasants. Representatives of the market left fuedals far behind in cruelty, oppression-exploitation...While they broke many old bonds, they still kept many bonds intact and created many new bonds. The valor of traders who dethroned fuedal mode through slave trade and bonded labour fructified in the making of the world market.

The world market became the basis of production for the market employing wage-labour. World market became the basis of wage-system. The new mode of production denouncing corruption, cruelty, slave trade, indentured labor of traders gave ‘less development’ as a reason for these. Establishing itself through steam, and coal-based machines, this mode declared progress and development as the cure for all ills. Cutting each and every bond, demolishing every shelter, the vehicle of progress-development glorified the free availability of wage workers as 'freedom'. The chariot of progress-development has played such havoc with the earth, oppression-exploitation are extremely pale in front of it.

In a few areas, some workers had slight relief from bonded labour and fuedal bonds. But, increasing numbers of labouring masses began to sink in fathomless whirlpools.

*Serfs transformed into peasants. Artisans became free from fuedal bonds. The illusions of peasant-artisans' freedom through labor produced for the world market...Production for the market employing wage work carries a social death for artisans-peasants.

In these 200 hundred years, production for the market, employing wage work has become world-wide. In these 200 years, the social death and social murder of artisanship-peasantry has been increasing throughout the earth. Increasing numbers of labouring masses have been transformed into wage workers. Ruined peasants. Artisans changing into wage workers. Reducing the demand of wage workers with new, newer machines!

This is the result of the process of progress-development. This process has created a situation today where only one worker is needed, but an hundred are available. This condition increases workers' compulsions to such an extent that there a multitude of workers available for work in any condition. The increasing compulsion of workers does increase pity. Pity is also extremely dangerous for the present social system. All governments, all courts, all big brains are acquainted with the present reality, but they are helpless to confront this reality. Therefore, face to face with bad to worse conditions, workers have to leave aside gov't- courts-big brains and think for themselves about to what to do...

WHAT ALL DO WE DO...?

2011-02-10T16:19:00.000-08:00

47 Year Old Doctor

Normally, I have a good deep sleep. I get up naturally. I like waking up. It's not like I think, "Oh, another day has come." The reason for this? Probably, my two decisions- not to take bribes and not to indulge in just anything after duty hours to earn money.

I get up two hours before duty-time. By the time, I brush my teeth and shave, my wife makes tea. While drinking tea, we read the Hindi newspaper together. Then in the toilet, I read the English paper. I glimpse at the headlines. My interest is in reviews or analysis of economic-social issues. If it is not about health, I do not read the editorial. After my bath, I get ready half-an hour before duty time. A woman comes in to clean the house and prepare breakfast. We, husband and wife, while having breakfast together watch the news. If anyone comes to meet us in the morning, we feel inconvenienced.

At the hospital in the morning, there is a tradition where the doctors meet informally. Greetings and casual exchanges take place. Earlier, there used to be discussions of the stock exchange but thankfully, the 1992 scam where doctors lost a lot of money has put an end to the early morning obsessive discussion about money. After the meeting, every one goes to their own department. Routine work-rounds. Gov't health institutions are certainly inadequate. Too much of a workload on doctors and other hospital employees. Indirect wage-cuts are also occurring. Increasing wages is a thing of the past. Now the question is of maintaining the wage you have. These days more and more, the administration treats us as servants of the government where we can be called for work twenty-four hours a day, thirty days out of the month...

For the rural and urban poor, there is absolutely no space to live. At least, they should have a place to die in peace, but political leaders make this impossible. The gov't policy itself is ludicrous- "health at your door." This policy turns us into puppets. The sword of transfers hangs over every gov't employee's head. I have also borne and managed it. Because of proximity to power, I have also exercised some clout. But my conscious efforts have been to not make use of that clout for personal gain. In gov't service, generally there is no scope for specialization. The structure of the 1940's still continues. You're placed anywhere for duty. I absolutely do not like duty in shifts, but have had to do it.

Although, there is an increasing tendency to increase the hours of work, I'm thankful that in the hospitals right now, the doctor's duty is six hours. To deal with hundreds of patients...

Probably, I have become old or aged. I am pained by the increasing tendency amongst doctors to think in money terms- let the patient pay 100, 200, 500 otherwise, delay or ignore the patient! Ten years earlier 30 to 40% doctors considered this way of taking money wrong. Now merely 10 to 15% think so. In medical college, I used to think wherever we are together, we will stop such a tendency. But now I find myself weak, helpless. In these conditions, articulate opposition does not seem to have any meaning.

One-third of doctors in New Zealand are suffering from mental illness. 10% of doctors have dangerous mental diseases. This is the result of tension borne of pressure, of too much work and responsibility. According to a study conducted by Wellington School of Medicine, 441 physicians, 330 surgeons, and 400 pharmacist were included.

Doctors are increasingly becoming money-minded. They consciously take wrong decisions- "there is no need for operation, but operate still because it will make more money"! Desires for car, house, computer, children in costly schools, property...Even after all the dishonesty and cheating, doctors still have difficulties paying installments. Conflict and tension in interpersonal relations has increased.

At two or three p.m., duty is over. Domestic help keeps the food ready. My wife and I have our meals together. In summers, after meals, I sleep for two to two and an half hours. I have no problem in maintaining a regular, daily routine for myself. But where others' company is needed, schedules are irregular. I swim alone, but I cannot play volleyball alone! After duty hours, doctor colleagues get involved in some money-making scheme. Many people keep pushing me to take up some business but I have decided that I need time for myself. I clearly refuse to use my after duty hours time to earn money.

My childhood was one of poverty. During winters, I did not have a sweater. In winter, one must have a sweater. I must not be poor! But I never had a desire for car, bungalow, servants...For my medical college expenses, my family had to mortgage our agricultural land. If the expenses were what they are now, then I wouldn't have gone to medical school. If the bribe of 5 lakhs that is now being taken from doctors to secure employment was being done earlier, I would not have chosen to be in gov't service. My mother has been my inspiration. Around my mother, there used to always be a congregation of women and girls. And she used to cooperate, help, give suggestions about weaving cloth, making good food, dance...Many things are taking place in the world where I can contribute. My heartfelt desire is to make positive contributions. If things improve, I feel good. I enjoy helping people, although my wife does not like this tendency of mine which runs counter to the current pragmatism. My desire is to acquire recognition as a good-hearted, mature person. I absolutely do not like anyone showing pity on me. I do not want recognition on the basis of weakness, but rather on the basis of my good qualities.

In medical college, I had begun to study health problems. My stress has been on community health and treatment. With the community's participation in health matters, corruption and negligence can be easily dealt with. In light of my experience during these years, I find that there is a danger in community participation when it only includes the dominant persons in the community. Again, no space is left for the weaker ones. Health first or social transformation first? Social transformation...But those who have taken contracts to change society- to me, they seem incapable of doing that. They are set establishments. To keep the structure intact is their priority. Therefore, in the arena of social transformation, they are without any importance- I don't see any logic in fighting parties or making friends with them. To overlook them seems proper to me. Practice according to conscience will open up new ways.

After swimming, leisurely walk and games. At 6:30 p.m., I have tea and snacks. Then for some time, t.v. Then I go to the market if necessary. Before dinner, for an hour, I sit with neighbors and chit-chat. Dinner is prepared by my wife. After having dinner at 9 p.m., I watch t.v. till 10:30. At 11 p.m., we sleep.

The rising sun fills my soul with joy. When I have time to take a morning walk, I become reflective. One is surprised that the Indian government did not have absolutely any drug policy until 1987. There is merely an Act in a document which enumerated drugs that could be sold. There is no control of the price of medicines. In 1987, drug price control order was jointly opposed by domestic-foreign, national-multinational drug manufacturing companies. Due to companies' opposition, in 1987, the order covered only 260 medicines. And because of a review that takes place every two years, today merely 80 medicines are covered under the Act. And, do you know what the order says? The printed price of the medicine can be anywhere from 50 to 500% more than the production costs!

Costs = the real cost of the production of the drug + expenses on research + expenses on patent + expenses on brand name.

The difference between a generic name and brand name is itself a wonder. For a fever, the price of a Paractoml medicine is .16 paise. Paractmol is the generic name of the medicine. This Paractmol tablet in its brand name form of Crocin is 56 paise! Propogators of brand-names- film stars, cricket stars- such tactics are very costly for the public.

Production is production. Let's see distribution also. 15 years ago or earlier, company representatives used to give samples to doctors whose evaluation served as the basis for the sale of the medicine. Now, medical representatives do not distribute the samples of medicines. Rather, they manage doctors...If you want a car, get so many lakhs medicine sold, for foreign tour, get so much medicine sold, mobile and expenses, cash! The sponsors of doctors' conferences are drug companies. And, besides companies giving doctors' food and drinks, some doctors arrangements are also made. As a result, 40 to 50% of medicines that private or motivated gov't doctors prescribe are not required for treatment. Half of the medicines given to patients are unnecessary! You'll also be surprised by this- one-thousand patent medicines are available in wholesale at one-third of the price printed on them. I'm not talking about sub-standard or local medicines. Even after supply at one-third of the printed price, patent drug manufacturing companies are ready to give commission for obtaining orders for them! Looting the public's pockets...And free healthcare when the European Union has given the Haryana gov't 20 crore rupees to demolish the very concept of free healthcare. Produce the sentiment that people should pay for their own treatment. Nothing is free, we will have to pay even to die...

Why do we have diseases? Attention is not being paid to this, attention is only on treatment...On the pocket. When I look at technology, computers, then adequate medical arrangements and healthcare seems possible for everyone. But when I look at the social system then...Even then, my desire for improvement does not die. People are not able to live peacefully. Even so, for people to die in peace, I am ready to cooperate with today's helmsmen and to bear their farcical tactics.

A FEW THINGS ABOUT METHODS OF OPPOSITION

2011-01-27T17:55:00.000-08:00

The disease of the body manifests itself in the symptoms of headache, fever, cough etc.

Similarly, diseases of society express themselves in the various problems of the people.

It is said that the sage Ashtavakar's body had 8 bends. Yet, from the burden of work, our bodies have 80 bends.

At each step, at every moment, our soul gets so many beatings that for our own protection, we often become crooked.

Today each soul experiences the pain of a body that has thousands of bends and breaks.

We are victims of lying, cheating, and manipulation. We are prey to muscle-power, money-power, intellectual power. Competition is like having a knife slowly cutting through us. One upmanship inflicts multiple cuts and wounds.

Working under someone, being ordered around bloodies us...

We Become What Subordinates Us

By joining together with supporters, we oppose all this in various ways. But...many times, it becomes a part of our daily existence to lie, cheat, manipulate a neighbor, a near one.

-At the workplace, we try to put reins on co-workers who increase production. In place of competition, we attempt coordination. Yet at home, we inculcate competition in our children. To be ahead of other children.

-In the workplace, we aspire to trim the boss's feathers. Whereas, we go to extremes to make our children into bosses.

Our anger against subordination in the workplace is correct. But, by the time we reach home, we ourselves become police officers-subordinators.

Our contradictory ideas and practices should be thought over. Every one has the capacity to lift a pebble with one finger. The present social relation is of a Himalayan load. Lifting pebbles through coordinations can change the present social relation. We bring down two stones from the weight lorded over us. But then we pick up one stone and place it back on ourselves!

Keeping in mind one's own and others' limitations and compulsions, it is appropriate to choose those paths that take us toward straight, truthful behavior. The cure for crookedness is straightforwardness. Our souls will blossom. Our 'enemies' soul will also yearn for straightforwardness.

"Butter cannot be drawn by a straight finger"- this is the saying of those who draw butter. Those who exploit. In entrenched warfare, where immediate results are desired, and there are either/or situations, to lie, cheat, manipulate becomes inevitable. To question, stop, or overcome crookedness by crookedness is to put ointment on a symptom that only increases the disease.

With the weaving patterns formed by intertwining straight fingers, souls will expand. Bodies will also become healthy. The yardstick to evaluate methods of opposition is whether they increase the space for straight, truthful behavior...

TERRORISM-TERRORISM

2011-01-09T19:30:00.000-08:00

(New Series No. 166, April 2002)

*People were not willing to go to war. American gov't efforts to motivate people for war were failing. The matter is of 1941. Two years had passed in the mega-slaughter for divisions of the loot. In this situation, the President of America was informed by the government's secret organizations that the army of the gov't of Japan was preparing to launch a major surprise attack on American government's military base at Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt hid this secret information from the Commander of Pearl Harbor military base so that Japan's government forces' attack should appear as sudden and American government's forces bear massive losses. So, it was...Thousands of American gov't soldiers and officers were killed in the "surprise" attack on Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt became a great leader by playing the leading role in transforming the emotions of sadness, pain, and anger into emotions of "punishing the wicked deceivers." People were instigated into war. In that slaughter, 50 million people were killed throughout the world and the pain and sadness was fathomless.

*Another great leader in the rank of great leaders is Hitler. Those in top hierarchic positions were extremely worried by the increasing attitude of opposition to gov't and system amongst the people. The companies, chairmen, managing directors, and generals of not only those based in Germany but also those based in America- Ford, General Motors, IBM- prepared the ground for the great leader to put reins on the people. At that time, the beating and driving away not of "Muslims" but rather of "Jews" was presented as the simple solution. There is no difference between the truths and lies of those in top hierarchic positions. The reality that they both are the same was taken to new heights under the leadership of Hitler. The Parliament House of German gov't was set on fire by the head of gov't, Hitler's party. And by making the opponents responsible for the fire, Hitler emerged as a great leader. "Attack on Parliament" was used seventy years earlier in Germany to put reins on the people.

Hitler-ites' whirlwind of "Pure German," "Pure Aryan," the national interest, and patriotism played a leading role in the 1939 wars with Churchill-ites, Roosevelet-ites and Stalinists. But the more important fact is this-that when the German government's army was fighting on the fronts, then despite government's propaganda and extreme strictness, workers in Germany-based factories punctured the propaganda by dropping production by 35%. And...in the armies of countries at war, the number of such soldiers who refrained from killing- did not fire bullets, fired them in the air, dropped bombs in vacant places, was in the hundreds of thousands, otherwise...Not 50, but 500 million would have been slaughtered.

*One thing about the father figure. In the chain of hierarchy was the Russian government's head, the Czar in 1905. People higher up in the hierarchy used to propagate their head as Father of the people. The people in Russia were becoming more and more opposed to the Czar. To deal with such problems those in upper echelons of hierarchy often see the solution by using force. And more important than the use of force is justifying the use of force. More important than war is to motivate people to war, motivate them to work. Therefore, to generate consent for the necessity of force, the Czar got his uncle who was also the Minister of Interior to be murdered by the Secret Police and this act was propagated as "crime" committed by the enemies of the country. Only an 100 years have passed since this event.

*Deviousness is the character of hierarchic social systems. To be in the upper echelons of hierarchy, bribing, threatening, and deceiving are indispensable. Chanakya-Kautilya formalized this 2,500 years ago. but in the more than 100,000 years of its existence, hierarchic social formations in human society have merely a duration of 5 to 7,000 years. And in this short period, what they have inflicted! But yes, even today, what is of paramount important is the attitude to be adopted by the oppressed and the exploited...

We could begin the discussion with the attack on the American government's military headquarters at the Pentagon and the World Trade Center Towers being struck by passenger planes but it seems to us that this will be concentrating on the symptoms. We'll talk something about this event at the end. To begin, let us talk about ourselves so that attention is focused on the disease and we can help in the churning that looks for its cure.

-It seems that each one of us is ready to burst out. Among mother-son, father-daughter, husband-wife, brother-sister, sister-siser, brother-brother, and between friends, viciousness and bitterness in conversations have become very widespread. The power to tolerate has diminished. Some say consideration for others is no longer there.
-To be extremely cautious with family members, with neighbors, co-workers and others we come into contact is growing.
-Showy get-togethers or minimal relations, or just blatant disrespect for others are all increasing today. It is said this is how the times are.
-I am right. You are wrong. I am superior to you. We all seem to be bowing down to this attitude which is transforming the fragrance of life into stink.
It is obvious that each one of us has shrunk-become withdrawn. But this shrinking has not reached its end with a withdrawal into "I." Rather, each "I" is divided up into may peices and has become the arena of mutually opposite,contending desires and sentiments. Each one is filled to the brink with explosives. Each person has become a bomb. And in front of each is the choice of destruction or new creation.

The development of hierarchic social systems has brought us to this turning point. Most of those in the higher echelons of the hierarchy are trying to take us into the paths of destruction. To generate conflicts on the basis of caste, religion, gender region is part of these efforts. In this process, the new formula of identity-politics, opposition to "anti-terrorism" and "pro-terrorism" seem to be opposite to one another but in reality it is a double-kick to push us on the path of destruction.

Identity Politics

Even with sisters by birth, sister-brother by birth, brothers by birth, distances are known to be so wide that talking of extended family, homogeneity feels odd. Much less larger units like the factory...In such a situation, caste, religion, color, gender, region, and country rule, contain millions in their hold. What would we call claims of homogeneity on their basis...To identify someone on the basis of his caste, her religion, his color,her gender, his region, or her country...But what does the use of a label tell us? These labels provide a basis for what kind of relations? In whose interest is it to know or recognize others in this way? It is true that the limiting and shrinking of human beings has given birth to such a level of loneliness that many a times any type of community-feeling seems comfortable. But by looking away at the increasing lack of humaneness and attemting to build relations on the basis of caste, religion, country is like trying to gain pleasure from scratching at the itches cased by leprosy.

In fact, picking up two or four facets out of the thousand facets of human beings and discriminating on their basis suits hierarchic social systems. Inequality and discrimination are two sides of the same coin. To discriminate on the basis of gender, color, height, and build, fraternity, caste, set, religion, region, language, citizenship etc. is a normal activity in hierarchic social systems. And instead of daily life, discussion of events is the language of these systems. In this situation, event-like discriminations have gained some wide circulation. It is this growing lack of community, growing loneliness, and facts of discrimination circulated and propagated that discrimination became the basis of identity-politics. In this politics, exercises are undertaken to make changes in the hierarchy by highlighting a few facets out of the thousand facets of a person. A black man as the President. A woman becomes a fighter pilot jet. Untouchable becomes Superintendent of police...And the juggernaut of identity-politics proceeds anew, crushing people.

Therefore, instead of the question being "who should rule over us?" the question should be "why should anyone rule over us?" But to stop these questions being raised on a wide scale, there is the chain of bomb-blasts and identity politics with ever new disguises. To do, to have get done, to let it happen. We return to the event of September 11th.

Some facts:
-Secret organizations of the German gov't BND had in June 2001 told the secret organizations of the America gov't CIA, plans were underway to hijack passenger aircraft and strike them at imporant targets in America.
-From July 4, 2001, Osama Bin Laden had himself treated in the American hospital in Dubai and there on July 12, a CIA officer met him. It is claimed that Laden was on the "Most Wanted" list of the American government.
-In August 2001, President Putin of Russia had bluntly, without mincing words sent the information about the imminent attacks.
-President Bush's father and ex-President Bush Sr. is the senior advisor to the Carlyle group. Contractor for military hardware, the Carlyle group makes billions of dollars in a war.
-In July 2001, the gov't of America had decided to launch a military attack on the Afghanistan gov't in mid-Otober 2001. In this context, before September 10th, the gov't of America had sent 23,000 soldiers to Oman.
-New Democracy magazine in Boston, U.S.A. gives many other facts of this kind. It is said that in an investigaton of a crime, the first question is "who benefitted from the crime?" According to New Democracy, the maximum profit from the event of September 11 has been the gov't of America, mlitary, and manufacturing industry and oil industry.

It is well-known that after the break-up of the Soviet Union, "enemy-less" American gov't has created "terrorism." By fostering "terrorism," "Islamic terrorism," the American gov't has created an extremely dangerous enemy. In fact, to deal with the increasing opposition of people, every country's gov't has created "an enemy" in the form of "terrorism."

There are no limits to the deviousness of those in the higher-up echelons of hierarchy. Therefore, to limit oneself to the exposure of conspiracies is no solution. In hierarchic social systems, ever new conspiracies, innumerable conspiracies are taking place. Yes, instead of limiting ourselves to two or four aspects of a person but rather accepting the reality of thousands of faces of each one of us, we'll put a rein on identity politics. This impedes slaughters which are instigating people in the name of caste, religion, country. Whether it be the drumming of terrorism or the bleating of religion, our refusal to give consent is the beginning and the end of hierarchic social system.

Respect for persons stops the diminishing of person. Respect-based coordinations by bringing to fore community formations is providing an opportunity for the expansion of the personality of every person. These are initial steps for the creation of a new society.

WHAT ALL DO WE DO…?

2010-12-20T16:38:00.000-08:00

(New Series No. 268, October 2010)

Twenty year old worker

I get up at five o'clock in the morning, in the middle of sleep...

Since I was 12 or 13 years old, I always got up at five in morning to milk the cows. We had two cows. Then I went three and a half kilometres on my bicycle to deliver the milk to a place outside of our village. Back at home, I would eat and then go and graze the cattle. After having washed and returned the cows, I went to school at about ten o'clock. My parents fought a lot with each other. Since I was in seventh class, my father stopped sending money to us. We lived in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. My father worked in Pehowa, Haryana, painting and plastering houses. For one month, I worked as a helper for the manager of a brick kiln. But selling milk was our profession. When my father did not send any money during all of 2004, I left school. Everyone said, "How long will you survive by grassing cattle, go and learn some work..."

In 2005, I arrived in Gurgaon. I stayed with the son of a relative. I was 15 years old then. For ten days, I had to sit idle. I learned how to make rotis and started to make food for those who went to work at four in the morning. I found my first job in N.K. Rubber factory in Nakhrola. The personnel manager interviewed me. The contractor said that I was still young, but that it would work out. The workers -who had come from Orissa to find a job - filled out my job card, stating that I was 18 years old.

I had to get up at half past four in the morning. I prepared food. Then I went one kilometer on foot. I began work in the factory at eight o'clock. They ran two 12hour shifts. We manufactured soles for shoes. It was assembly line work. You had to stand upright for 12 hours, only half an hour meal break. I hardly managed to keep up. The supervisor got angry. My feet would swell up from all the standing.

During nightshift, you get very tired. I snuck away to get some sleep. The supervisor screamed and the guard went to find and wake me up. Although I had already worked six hours at that point, they cut 12 hours from my wages. I had difficulties sleeping during the day. During the nightshift week, I used to get so very tired by Wednesdays... Now on nightshift week, I often take Wednesday off.

There are six people now sharing the room. From my first wages, I used 1,000 rupees to pay the food bill. With 250 rupees, I bought a thin mat and blanket. With 300 rupees, a gas cooker and some cooking utensils. Then I went to get a different room in Nakhrola. With another one of the guys, I paid 700 rupees rent. The guy left and I spent two months on my own.

The winter began. You leave at half past seven in the morning and return at eight o'clock at night. For fifteen days, you do not see the sun. A thin mat, a blanket, a sheet - I had no proper bed, I slept on the floor. I also had no sweater, so I slept with my jacket on... I could not get any sleep at night. When the morning came...I can still remember how cold it was during winter in 2005. In the factory, it smelled really bad, but it was warm...There, sleep came very easily.

I had been working at N.K. Rubber for four months when the message of the death of my grandmother arrived. I went back to the village. Cutting wheat, thrashing wheat, storing the straw. Cutting arhar, digging out garlic, cutting coriander. Preparing the paddy field, preparing the rice plants and planting them. Go and fetch the cows for grazing, grazing them. At home, there was a lot of difficulty because of the heavy burden of all the work. But if you don't do it, what will you eat? Suffering at home continued. There was a lot of fighting between my uncle and my father. Because my mother had been staying in the village, we got hold of three bighas of land during the re-distribution.

My earliest memories are from Pehowa in Haryana. They sent my older sisters to a government school and me to a private school. After a year, my sisters returned to the village to stay with my mother. I stayed back with my father. After having prepared food in the morning, my father went to work and I went to school. One day on the playing field, a kid threw a stone and it hit my head. I bled a lot, but there wasn't anyone to put a bandage on, so I kept my head in some cloth. When my father came from work at eight o'clock, he bandaged my head. I was very sad. I was alone. I missed my mother and my older sisters. My father went back to the village. I had my exam coming up. He had left me in Pehowa, so the neighbors gave me food. I developed a fever - now I think it was because of the stress. I was good at math. My father wanted me to keep on studying in Pehowa. I would go back to the village during holidays. It was a private school so, the holidays were very short. After the marriage of my two older sisters, my mother was left only with my younger sister. I went back to the village and my mother would not let me go back...

When I arrived at Gurgaon the second time, I started again working at N.K. Rubber - this time in the packing department, where I stayed for four months. I also went to Perfecti factory, but nothing came out of it. In order to learn how to run CNC machines, I started at Moog Automotive for a low wage. The supervisor was a cousin of mine. I stopped after twelve days. There was too much quarreling because the cousin kept on screaming at me. I went back to the village. In 2006, I spent the whole winter in the village. Then I went back to Gurgaon. It took 15 days to find a job. I spent a lot of time running around IMT Manesar. I had job interviews at many places.

They hired me at Vishal Retail factory (Plot 16-17, Sector 5). They hired me as a press man - it was the first time that I worked at a steam press. I became a record keeper and then a small supervisor. I learned how to sew. Wages were delayed. The first day after the supposed pay-day, workers stopped working for a while. The next day workers stopped working at eleven o'clock. The general manager said that wages would arrive at three o'clock. Workers started working. The wages did not arrive. Workers stopped again. At eight o'clock at night, people were finally paid. I worked there for a year. Then the factory closed. The contractor disappeared. One year of contributions to the PF lost...

I was ill for 15 days. I had chicken pox. I did not eat, I could not walk, neither sleep. Because he was afraid of infection, one of the roommates left. I was upset about that. I used to cook for him. The other roommate took 15 days off. He cooked food, prepared the medicine, and washed the clothes.

After Vishal retail had closed down, I started at Orient Craft (Plot 15, Sector 5) as a tailor. You had to work from half past nine in the morning till one o'clock at night every day. On Sundays, they made you work from half past nine in the morning till four o'clock the next morning. They paid double for overtime. They sacked me because I took a Sunday off. They said that data was lost on the computer. I had to go to the office again and again to get my outstanding wages. After twelve days working at Orient Craft, I worked seven days at Gulati Export (Sector 4).

Then I started at STI Zenho (161, Sector 40). The company manufactures break pipes for Maruti, Suzuki, and Honda cars. I learned how to operate a bending machine. Most of the supervisors there were women. The behavior of our supervisor was not good. You had to ask in order to go to the toilet. Even after having finished the target, you had to keep the machines running, making extra-pieces. You were not supposed to make pieces which would be 'rejected'. You were supposed to work eight hours daily overtime. For two or three days, I was concerned with the fact that a woman was my supervisor, then I got used to it. You are forced to work, so you have to listen. After seven months, I took holiday and returned to the village. My sister was ill. At the time of return, I also got news about the work accident of my supervisor cousin. He was kept in the Delhi Jay Prakash Trauma center, got a blood infusion and had to stay for fifteen days. He then had to be looked after by relatives for another ten to fifteen days. After all this, I started again at STI Zenho. After five months, they gave me an enforced 'break'.

I started at AG Industries (Plot 8, Sector 3). About 100 permanent workers work on three shifts and another 500 workers hired through contractors work on two 12 hour shifts. They manufacture fiber side-covers for Hero Honda motorcycles. The permanent workers wanted to establish a union. So, in January-February 2010, the company kicked out eighteen of them. On March 20th, all workers gathered and stopped working. The police came in two bus loads, they entered the factory, started beating us with lathis and kicked the workers out. One had his hand broken, several others had bleeding heads. At six in the morning, some workers went back inside and started working. The managers also worked. Workers were brought in Hero Honda buses from Gurgaon, from Dharuhera and also from Ghaziabad. New people were hired at the gate. On March 26th, the unions had a demonstration in Gurgaon, with ten thousand people, with speeches. Then again, nothing. After signing the 'good conduct conditions', the permanent workers went back inside on the 2nd and 3rd of April, leaving the eighteen other workers outside. After four months of working there, I had an argument with the supervisor. I left the job and went back to the village.

When I told them that I would go back to Gurgaon, my mother and sister cried. I stayed for three more days. When I left, I didn't tell them. I borrowed money for the travel from a friend. I looked for a job for eight days. I started at Kumar printers (24 Sector 5). Two 12 hour shifts. At every machine, at every corner cameras. There are 50 permanents and 225 workers hired through two different contractors. They do industrial printing. During the Commonwealth games’ trouble, 50to 60 workers left because they were afraid of being harassed by the police. Due to the lack of workers, the remaining workers had to work from eight in the morning till one at night. They also brought 30 workers from Bhiwadi in a bus every day. I haven't fixed a date yet, but I will go back to the village...

BOND WITH US

2010-12-09T16:32:00.000-08:00

Whenever and wherever, life is equivalent to death. Then and there, there is nothing to fear for acquiring life. Why fear in taking new steps?

Bond with us. Everyone is acquainted with the symptoms. Every person is contending with them. Most people in their own ways want to do at least something for a better society. But because of this or that constraint, our good desires and efforts are strangled. During these past several years, we have also acquired some acquaintances, ideas, and experiences from many generations and from different parts of the world to create a better society. Around this Majdoor Samachar, there has been more than twenty years of acquiring experiences and exchanging ideas. We have also turned many a corners as a result of the worldwide churning and our participation in it. In the context of "what to do?" and in the process of preliminary sum-ups, we are at another turning point. Helplessness is borne out of isolation. But in the confinement to small numbers or limited reach, we are faced with becoming merely a cog in the machine by trying to become extensive and expand our reach. It seems to us that forming bonds and coordinations seems to be a route to go beyond these two dead-ends. To dismiss the present and create a new present, we are requesting here for varying kinds of bonds, and many, many new coordinations.

It has been more than fifteen years that 5,000-7,000 years copies of this Majoor Samachar are being distributed free and its readers have some acquaintances with our desires-aspirations-practices. Those who want to coordinate with us can and should meet us any day in the Majdoor Library 11-12 or 6-7 p.m. Those who live far and want to form bonds and coordinate with us can write letters. The sum of means will increase the capacity of all of us.

IDENTITY AND COMPLEXITY OF IDENTITY (3)

2010-11-17T19:05:00.000-08:00

(New Series Number 250, April 2009)

Emergence of I

‘Who am I?”

In a single I,
there are many I’s

Beyond I

*In all living species, there are many kinds of relations between its unit and the collective-community. In the human species also, that was the situation for a long time. Only a few thousand years ago, in small scattered areas of the earth, ‘I’ emerged amongst humans. Despite the efforts of human beings, in other species, the‘I’ did not progress/advance.

*In a species-community’s unit, togetherness is common. But now and then, conflicts do take place. Mutual conflicts are not fatal. They are the basis of the species' existence. It is inherent in each species that conflict not be fatal.

In a fight, the death of anyone is an exception. In the human species, during 95% of its existence, this has also been the case.

Now the murder of an human by another human, murder of humans by other humans, singles out the human species from all other species...

*Accumulating a part of their activities in material skill and knowledge-forms are normal activities of living species. To stay alive, expand for a better life such accumulations are seen on a wide scale. In every living species, relations in a generation and amongst generations gains fragrance from these accumulations.

Until 2,000 years ago, this was also the case in the human species.

Now, developing mountains of accumulation in material-skill-knowledge-forms for destruction-bitterness-worsening life separates the human species from all other living species.

It is necessary to reevaluate worm, animal, wild-uncivilized versus civilized.

It seems that in the near future, the destructive dance of identity politics will increase greatly. Good desires of human one-ness and fraternity have suddenly been rendered incapable of stopping this destruction. Often, they have become tool-weapon of this or that politics of identity. Very deep urges emerge in each one of us which is exploited by a specific person sitting on or desirous of and wishing to sit on the pyramids of heads and shoulders.

As in other areas of social life, in the politics of identity and institutions has become dominant. To overcome the means and professional methods of institutions we have begun this discussion as a contribution.

*Efforts of the past to dominate the whole constitute the chains of civilization. The earth is a common planet of the solar system and the sun is the common star in the universe…During 95% period of its existence, the behavior of human species has been as a part of nature.

But during these 5-7,000 years, the human species increasingly refused the reality that it is a part of nature. Control, control upon control has become our obsession. While control over one’s sense organs, control over one's self has become one end of the spectrum, the grip/throttle of every ‘other’ lies at the other end.

*Although the control of humans is crossing the sky, ‘nathna’ (nose ring) is not in currency today. Nathna means to control. Making an hole in an ox's nose and taking a rope through it was called natha. The actual rope in the ox’s nose was called ‘nath.’ In the stages of gathering and hunting, our ancestors' behavior was chiefly that of being a part of nature. Controlling animals through nose-rings began changing many things.

-Putting nose-rings/controlling the ox, exploitation of the cow... This did not stop at animals. The owners of animals became the lords of slaves. And husband became the synonym of lord and nath…

-In nature, such related capacity of a woman is equal to that of many men. One man cannot sexually satisfy one woman…Therefore, ‘nathna’, putting nose ring. Continuous conflict within man and woman. There are no limits to doubt-suspicion-cruelty. Anecdotes regarding a woman’s character. Today DNA tests exist to verify paternity…

It has been a synchronicity of weapon and text that nose-rings became the ornament of strength or power of market. It is the increasing weakness of man that is forcing woman also to become a wage worker. One politics of identity that places curtains on this reality presents it as woman's empowerment…Becoming of woman as wage-worker is seen-shown as a step on the path of emancipation.

Market-Money are making the individual the unit of a social construct. For the wage system, even a deformed community is a barrier. Therefore, while using deformed communities through various kinds of identity politics, market-money and wage system also continuously attack deformed communities. The making of the individual as an unit has rendered woman also a wage worker, transformed her into a carrier-vehicle of “I.”

* With the making of individual as unit, “I” becomes universal. "I" keeps gobbling the space for normal relations. The “I” of men was dreamed for lessening his pain through the continuance of his lineage. Now with the woman’s “I”, standing side by side with the man’s “I”, the individual in the continuity of “I” in lineage is put to an end.

This also is a reason for ‘don’t want children.’ Today, the certainty of death after birth is increasingly making ‘I” insane. Look at sexual relations in this context. In place of an easy, leisurable activity, it has become THE only relation. Be it woman or man, the hunger for intercourse is there all the time and many kinds of traders cash in on it. In this situation, in place of being a relief from pain, sexual relations have become a cause of psychic pain.

Be it woman or man, increasing loneliness is what confronts us. Regarding this, we will continue the discussion about ‘who am I’ and keep in mind that fact of our being a part of the whole.

On Schools

2010-10-25T21:47:00.000-07:00

(New Series No. 168, June 2002)

*The aim of the institution in the form of school today is to assist in the molding of children according to the needs of the market by chiselling, thrashing, and placating them.

*Schools have taken the shape of factories. School is a factory and in it children are raw materials, teachers are machine operators, buildings-books-other employees are auxiliary materials. In the form of ready goods after education, those youngsters who cannot be sold are called unemployed-useless and those who get good rates in the market are praised. We send children to school to prepare being sold in the market.

*To make the life of children is the overriding tenet. Generally, no stone is left unturned in making life hell for children and for parents to 'create a life for themselves.' Those teachers who take 'making a life for children' seriously, they sometimes surpass parents in making life hell for children.

We know it, we repeat it like a chant that a wound by an axe gets healed but a wound caused by a sharp tongue always remains raw. But..the dance of the destruction and violence by words is thousands of times greater than the widespread physical violence against children. Generally, no restraint is exercised in giving innumerable wounds to the mind and soul of children by poisoned word-arrows because we put on the armor of 'making the life of children.'

Like almost every elder person, every child dies hundres of times every time. This is not news.

Look at the news: Children in increasing numbers are committing suicide in Japan; incidents of multiple murders by children inside schools in U.S.A. are increasing; to 'improve' the mind an psyche of children, expansion of medicines and psychiatrists is increasing.

In such a situation, instead of gulping, repeating the dominant meanings of making a successful life, it seems necessary to have extensive discussions on them in a critical fashion.

Success is a bad fruit

*To consider as success being one-up amongst those closest to us is not just widespread but has engulfed the routine activities of daily life. To be one-up vis-a-vis sister, brother, neighbor, co-worker, or fellow classmate in what all arenas, what all efforts have become a part of our daily life; gate or door of the house, clothes, and shoes' value, height of the son, the daughter's color, power position of the acquaintance, marks of the girl in the class, expenses on the birthday party, capacity to drink alcohol, expenses on tent, lighting, status, knowledge, articulation, approach, qualities of your son in-law...To be one-up amongst near ones, you go from shallow to even more shallow levels. This can be taken as an expression of the increasing significance of person in hierarchic social systems. By making a person's being or not being equal, the present social system has made one-upmanship into a psychotic condition. Social psychosis.

*Climbing up the ladder of hierarchy is in reality extremely scarce. but dreaming of it is very common...Those who do make it, their phony or real efforts for success become anecdotes or stories for the lower sections. It's also current to call real success the climbing up over the pyramid made of heads and shoulders.

*To maintain an hold on the upper rungs of the ladder in hierarchy is also called success. Becoming unstable due to the constant efforts of those below and the scramble to climb up does not leave anyone on top for long.

To be one-up always carries with it the fear of being tripped. Tension, guardedness, alertness, putting on a mask is the flipside of the coin of one-upmanship. And to see success in being one-up from one's nearby ones is a barrier to coordinations with those near us. Efforts to be one-up does not allow relations to be easy.

Efforts to climb up the ladder of hierarchy requires extreme stretching of body and soul. One dislikes being subservient to anyone. And efforts are made to impose subservience on others which shatters one's personality into peices. Manipulation, insidiousness, kissing up, lying, cheating become common activities. To hide the real emotion and put on an image is a compulsory aspect of climbing up the ladder of hierarchy. The higher one climbs, so much is one doomed to attempt personal solution of social poblems. 2,500 years ago, Emperor Chandragupta was doomed to change his room each night for security.

Eforts for success bind us, pierce us. Efforts towards success inflict innumerable wounds on body and soul. Efforts for success bloody relations between human beings. And today on acquiring success, what is it that is available? An even worse life than the confined, limited, narrow life of Emperor Chandragupta which consisted of doubting others, constantly hesitating, being devious, and cruel.

In view of success being a bad fruit, climbing up the ladder of hierarchy is a problem in itself. To sit on heads and shoulders is itself a problem. To identify control and management as the source of problems is a point of departure for the creation of a new society.

Let's return to the school.

Abduction of Whom?

Influence during nurturing-stories, anecdotes produce such emotions about education, school, and teacher-guru that one then comes face-to-face with these in the present. Often it is said and heard that education has now become a business. Schools have become licensed enclosures for business. In place of guru, servants have been given in the form of teachers. Pain bursts out in words. "In today's system, education has been abducted."

Rather, the very coming of education-school-guru is linked to the coming of hierarchic social systems. In the ashram, sage-guru used to give education to slave-ownes' sons- this education used to teach how to keep slaves under control and generate one-upmanship amongst slaveowners. An example of the negation is the thumb of Eklaya. (Eklaya was denied education by a guru...) In fact, school, guru and education had abducted the mutual easy relations amongst generations in the community. Education and school in essence are anti-community and feed hierarchy.

Schools have opened in large numbers because of the compulsion which masks extensive literacy as the requirement of the market. Sages and gurus have been transformed into specialists-reputed professors and these people create ever new logic and theories to maintain hierarchy.

Yes, in very large numbers, teachers have become educational workers. They have become wage-workers of the educational field. This is not something to regret. Rather, this is good news. It is the advent of a large group who have the capacity to lift the curtain from anti-community education-school.

Let's go beyond breast-beating and look at "Workers are shirkers." "Gov't employes don't work." "Teachers don't teach." In doing so, the emptiness of the present hierarchic, social system will be clearly visible. From this positive point, we will attempt to go ahead with the discussion of education, school, teacher, student.

Solidarity with Viva Global Workers

2010-10-08T15:16:00.000-07:00

Solidarity with Viva Global Workers, London

WORKER ACCOUNT OF VIVA GLOBAL DISPUTE

2010-09-30T20:37:00.000-07:00

(New Series No. 267, September 2010)
A worker’s account of the Viva Global dispute, Marks & Spencer supplier. 413, Udyog Vihar Phase III, Gurgaon.

“Often there’s no water in the toilets because the pipe is bust. During the summer, drinking water is warm from the overhead tank. Workers on the 3rd floor must go to the 1st or 4th floor for drinking water since there’s none on our floor. It’s too hot on the shopfloor and workers faint. The annual wage increment is too low. Overtime is paid at single rates while we’re told to sign that we’ve received double. To overcome the problems faced by these regular workers, tailors took the initiative to start a union. Slowly 250 workers hired by the contractors were thrown out. Among these thrown-out workers there were 150 women (threadcutters and sequin/ bead sewers, repair workers) earning Rs.3,000 per month (significantly below the minimum wage). Since April the company has closed overtime and management started getting work done outside the factory. They began discriminating against permanent tailors by giving less work and then making allegations that they weren’t working. 20th August, some workers went with the union to the labour office and one representative from management came, carrying merely a letter. On Monday August 23rd, 14 workers were stopped at the gate and prevented from going into duty and told that they were suspended. Instead of the usual 3 guards, there were 7, as well as 8 others to bully the workers. 120 workers stood in the rain and arguing that these 14 should be let in, there arose a scuffle between the workers and guards. Then others arrived with hockeysticks from the company’s side. Male and female workers were beaten with hockeysticks and so forced away from the factory gates. They also took one worker away.

Workers went to the union office, then the union called the labour officer to the factory. But nothing happened. Since August 2rd, 120 workers have been sitting at the factory gate in a protest, with only 50 working inside. The union president and a tailor sat on a hunger strike to get the kidnapped worker released, which he was the next day, dropped beaten and injured, 500 yards from factory gate.
On 27th August, the police arrested three persons in relation to this case.

The factory makes goods from M&S. The buyer came from Bangalore. She made enquiries and called the union and management representatives for a meeting in a hotel. Then she left for Bangalore after saying that there would be a meeting on 28th August between management and union to reach an agreement. But until now (12 p.m., August 28th), management had not shown its face”.

Students comment on the protest
“2nd September labour commissioner himself came to the factory (from Chandigarh). He stayed for 2 hours with management. After coming out, he told the (non-suspended) workers to return to work, saying that an agreement would be reached. Then the workers roughly spoke to him and the union leader spoke in his favour. There was some discussion among the workers that they should negotiate for 6 of the suspended workers to stay out and for the rest to go in.”

WAGE WORKERS IN GURGAON

2010-09-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

(New Series No. 266, August 2010)

India Bulls worker- 448, 49, 50, 51 Udyog Vihar Ph V.
3,500 workers. Share market, electricity, real estate, finance company.
60 – cleaning
26 – security (‘Swift Securities’)
15 – maintenance, all hired thru contractors.

Security guards: 2x12 hour shift, no weekly off. Rs.6,200 for 30 days at 12 hours per day. July 7th, 8 a.m, all guards left their duty posts and by 8.30 a.m., management had offered Rs. 1,000 extra to all per month.

Bharat Export Overseas (garments)- 493, Udyog Vihar Ph III.
Production Dept: Work starts 9 a.m., finished at 8.30 p.m. daily required. 4 days per week, until 1 a.m.

Finish Dept- 1 a.m. daily is shift close and few times per month, work whole night (to 6 a.m.). For all these days they get Rs.25/ day for food. All overtime at single rates.

350 workers, none have ESI/ PF (only small ‘staff’).
Helpers on Rs.130 and tailors Rs.180, for 8 hrs.

16th July, production workers were collected in the basement and finishers on 1st floor and were told that buyers are coming next day (17th) and if they are asked, they must say that helpers get Rs.162/8 hrs and tailors Rs.270/ 8 hrs, there’s no overtime, and all workers have social security benefits…

Buyers came, saw, went and didn’t talk to the workers.

Toilets are filthy.

Hyundai Supron showroom- 255 Udyog Vihar Ph IV.
All workers (not staff) thru contractor, Rs.3,500-4,000.

2nd week July, labour inspector came, met officers and went away.

Libas Exports- 357 Udyog Vihar Ph IV.

Landlords: in Kapa Sera and other villages, landlords say that to stay in their house, worker tenants must purchase from their shops at higher rates.

Eastern Medikit- 196 Udyog Vihar Ph I.
Casual workers given June wages on 20th July. Permanent workers work in 3 shifts of 8hours, while casual workers have two 12 hr shifts. Overtime payment is less than single (Rs.15/ hr). May overtime was not paid until July 11th.

Graffiti Exports- 377 Udyog Vihar Ph II.
On July 10th, company closed all stitching work. 350 workers were total, now only 85 in finish dept remain. Helpers are paid minimum wage of Rs. 4,214 against 10.75 hrs instead of 8 hours. Shift is 9:30 a.m. to 8:15 p.m., and frequently to 2 a.m. This overtime gives helpers only 5 hours overtime (while checkers get 7 hours).

Few workers have ESI & PF.

Buyers include ‘White & Company’, ‘Nimi Mazi’, and ‘Noa Noa’. Wages paid only the 15th of every month. Drinking water is poor.

EEL- 402 Udyog Vihar Ph III.
8 a.m.-8 p.m., 11 a.m.-10:15 p.m. are two main shifts. 175 workers make machinery for cement plants. Overtime paid at single rates. Another factory at 509 UV Ph II(50workers the same 12 hr shift).

Rakheja Enterprise- 74 Udyog Vihar, Ph I.
Helpers’ wage: Rs.3,500
General checker: Rs.4,000
Tailors: Rs.4,500

Overtime less than single rate at Rs.16.66 per hour.

700 workers make garments for ‘Jack Jack’, only 3 of these have ESI & PF.
Second factory at 744 UV Ph 5, where helpers’ wages are Rs.3,000.
Dirty toilets.

Sarthi Security- Hanuman Mandir, Dunda Hera village, Udyog Vihar.
Guards work in two 12 hr shifts and no weekly off. After 30 days, paid Rs.5500.

Sargam Exports- 152-153, 210, Udyog Vphar Ph 1, 224 Ph IV UV & 540 Ph V, UV.
Payment of wages is according to minimum wage. Overtime at greater 100 hours per month all paid double.

Management is very abusive, and they take bribes of Rs.500 per month from helpers (arguing where else do you get such a good deal). Buyer is H&M.

Bhurji Supertec- 272, Udyog Vihar Ph II.
June wages not paid until 22nd July.

Premium Molding- 185, Udyog Vihar Ph I.
Making steering equipment for Maruti.

Helpers’ wage Rs. 3,500, 80 hours overtime per month, paid at 6 rupees per hour.

S&R- 298, Udyog Vihar Ph II.
9 a.m.-11 a.m. standard shift and if don’t work Sundays to 6 p.m., get thrown out.
Overtime paid less than single at Rs.17.5 per hour.

Can only drink water only at lunch and must go out of factory since none inside. Toilets are very dirty.

WORKERS REPORT

2010-09-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

(New Series No. 264, June 2010)

Palam Export A-205 Okhla Ph 1:

9:30 a.m.-1 a.m. production workers, 9:30 a.m.-5 a.m. finishing workers. Production workers stay back 15 days per month until 1 a.m. and stay till 5 a.m. for 3-4 days per month.

Finishing – 100 workers. 9:30am – 5 a.m. daily. After closing at 5 a.m., they start again at 5 a.m. Male workers sleep in the factory while women go back to their rooms. 50 women workers with these hours for 30 days in a month, become like corpses. One young worker (20, male) did this shift and then failed to come to duty since April because the doctor diagnosed heart trouble. Workers have been making complaints to labour office.

On May 14th, 11 p.m., the labour office raided the factory and found 400 workers working. The officials stayed until midnight and threatened the management. After the raid, the management released everyone at 6 p.m., after which the old schedule returned.

A new manager has been brought in since May 26th and asks, ‘how can a worker work 90 days in a month?’. He has ordered that those workers who are being called for night shift must have their names pinned up by 4 p.m.

Those directly hired workers are paid correct wages. Those hired through contractors are either paid peice-rate (tailors) or are paid Rs.130 – Rs.150/ 8 hrs (helpers). This is true even for those working for 8 to 9 years. There is no Provident Fund or ESI for 150 workers hired by contractors and overtime is paid.

Wages are paid late. April wages were paid on 15th-25th May. But the tailors hired through contractors are paid on the 7th itself because if they’re not, they strike. [Unlike permanent workers, the tailors can easily leave.) Permanent workers get Rs.40for 1 a.m. shift, while contract workers get Rs. 25. For 5 a.m. shift, permanent workers are paid Rs. 97; contract workers ae pad Rs. 57. But here at least, there is 4 p.m. tea, 8 p.m. tea and samosa, 11 p.m. tea, and 5 a.m. tea.

About Baithaks:
Workers of Denso factory making auto parts in Guong Dhong province, China. In early July instead of beginning work at start of shift, the workers just roamed around the factory and continued for 8 hours. The management asked the workers to start work but no workers did. The next day, they continued with the same. The union repeatedly requested the workers to start work but they did not. No sloganeering, no speeches, no violence. Workers did not present anyone as their leader or representative. Workers did not use PC or mobile phone to put up their demand, to ensure the company/ government could not single out anyone. Workers wrote on bits of paper and pinned up their demands. The management, desperate, asked the union to hold elections so that there would be someone with whom they could negotiate. The silent and peaceful workers did not elect anyone. The company finally increased wages and the workers resumed their work.

WORKERS REPORTS

2010-09-29T19:36:00.000-07:00

(New Series No. 263, May 2010)

Circle of Animal Lovers (NGO) Worker
(E-67, DDA Flats, Saket)

I work in the NGO. There are 30 of us employed here – doctors, drivers, cooks, helpers and office staff. The doctors get over 20,000 Rs per month for 8 hour days, the office staff gets 6,000 to 8,000 Rs. The drivers get 6,500 Rs for 12-hour duties. The cook and the helpers get between 3,000 and 5,500 Rs per month for 14-hours shifts. None of the workers get ESI or PF. The NGO is engaged in a sterilisation scheme for street dogs – which is part of the street-dog eradication program run by the Delhi government. Although officially the government has assigned the MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) for this task, but actually the big shots have decided to let cheap NGO workers complete the work. The MCD pays 445 Rs for the sterilisation of a dog, and besides provides other favours to the NGO management: the NGO gets water and electricity free. The vans are called ambulance and are in a bad condition – but because of the NGO name the police do intervene. The madam running the NGO swears at the workers and even lifts her sandal to threaten the helpers. The 15 workers who stay in the office take some of the restaurant food that was originally meant for the dogs, some of the donations meant for the dogs get messed with, too. The whole process of catching a dog, sterilising it and letting it free is very painful – several dogs die and are buried in the scrub-lands at night. But they are entered as completed sterilisations in the register. The two doctors have to perform 30 to 40 dog operations per day… a doctor let some younger helpers do the work. This increases pain for the animal and the likelihood of death.

Shahi Export, Plot 15a, Sector 28, Faridabad
…after days of overtime many workers collapse. On May 24th, 53 workers are brought to the nearby hospital. They have to be treated with oxygen. 41 workers remain in the hospital. Most of the collapsed workers are women…

NTL Electronics, Plot F-28, Sector 6, Noida
…after days of overtime six female workers collapse and fall unconscious…

Palam Export, Plot A-205, Okhla Industrial Area Phase I
…after having worked 19.5 hours a day for several month a 22 years old worker suffers a heart attack and 50 female workers collapse at work…

Sargam Export,-Plot 153, Udyog Vihar Phase I, Gurgaon
…during night-shift two workers collapse and fall unconscious…

Enexco Technology-157 Nourangpur, Gurgaon.
There is money for ESI and PF cut from the 175 casual workers’ wages, but only 15 got an ESI card, and the card is temporary. If people leave the job PF is not paid – the PF form not given. After several years of employment a casual worker said: “Actually we are hired through a labour supplier, through a contractor”. In the factory there are another 125 workers hired through contractor and 40 permanent workers.

Orient Craft Worker- Plot 15, Sector 5, IMT Manesar.
The 26 thread-cutting workers get 3,000 Rs per month, no ESI no PF. Official shift-times are from 9 a.m. till 6 pm, but they make you work till 2 a.m. Only if clients/buyers come to the plant workers are let go at 6 p.m. We work 60 to 70 hours overtime per month, but the pay-slip only shows 12 to 15 hours. Overtime is paid double rate, but on Sundays they are paid less than single rate. Some supervisors swear a lot at workers.

JNS Instruments Worker, -Plot 3, Sector 3, IMT Manesar.
There are 15 buses who bring and return people to and from work. They work from 8:30 am till 5:30 pm, those 200 who work till 8 p.m. are returned in smaller cars. The male workers work on two 12-hours shifts. The workers hired through contractors get less than single rate for overtime: 14 Rs per hours.

Kailash Ribbon Worker-403, Udyog Vihar Phase III, Gurgaon.
The helpers among the 400 casual workers get 2,700 to 3,300 Rs, the skilled tailors get 3,500 to 3,900 Rs – neither ESI nor PF.

Eltex India Worker-887 Udyog Vihar Phase V.
The workers employed in the plant work 200 to 250 hours overtime per month. Sometimes they make you work from 9 a.m. till next day 9 am and then force you to work another whole shift. The overtime is paid single, and 500 to 800 Rs per month are embezzled. The helpers hired through contractors get 2,800 Rs, neither ESI nor PF. The wages are always delayed, we haven’t received our March 2010 wages yet (24th of April 2010).

Sargam Export Worker -153 Udyog Vihar Phase I.
There are an abundance of little irregularities going on in this factory: there is always some overtime left unpaid; people who had worked January and February 2010 and left the job since then were not paid the 300 Rs DA; those who leave now are not paid the statutory bonus.

Dheer International Worker -299 Udyog Vihar Phase II.
People work 250 to 300 hours overtime per month. The payment is at single rate and 50 to 60 hours get embezzled per month. Wages are paid delayed.

Cosmy Worker -864 Udyog Vihar Phase V.
The helpers working in this factory get 3,000 Rs. The skilled tailors get 140 to 150 Rs per day. Wages are delayed. If you leave the job you have major trouble to get your outstanding wages. Workers who go to the local ESI office in Dundahera have to face a lot of trouble.

Mac Export Worker- 143 Udyog Vihar Phase I.
The 400 workers employed in the factory get neither ESI nor PF. The helpers get 3,500 Rs. When being hired the tailors are promised 175 Rs for an 8-hour day, actually they are paid 150 to 160 Rs. The normal shift runs from 9 am till 9 pm, but they make you work longer, till 1:30 am. Overtime is paid at single rate, every month 300 to 400 Rs get embezzled. Lack of drinking water is a major problem in the factory. The toilets are very dirty. The big boss swears a lot.

Asian Handycraft Worker- 310 Udyog Vihar Phase II.
The helpers are paid 3,300 Rs to 3,500 Rs, the skilled workers get 4,000 to 4,500 Rs.

Kis Export Worker -871 Udyog Vihar Phase V.
In the factory 450 workers are employed through two different contractors, they get neither PF nor ESI. The tailor helpers get 3,914 Rs and the tailors get 156 Rs per day. The 300 Rs DA statutory from January 2010 has not been added to the monthly wages. The thread cutting and bead-stitching women workers are paid 3,600 Rs. The daily working-times are from 9 am till 10 pm – 18 to 20 days per month they make you work till 1 am. About 100 women workers are send home at 9 pm, but a third contractor supplies 20 female workers who work from 9 pm till 1 am. There is no monthly day off. The male workers work 160 to 200 hours overtime per month, about 200Rs get embezzled. There is a lot of swearing on the shop-floor, there is a lack of drinking water.

Security Guard
The office of the company Swift Security is situated at Nihal Bhavan in Dundahera. The company employs 6,000 security guards, on 2×12-hours shifts. There is no weekly day off. If you work 30 days per month, 12 hours per day they pay you 4,000 Rs to 5,000 Rs. Even after three to four years of employment they don’t give you ESI. They cut 540 Rs in the name of PF – when people leave the job, some are paid double amount of the fund money, some are paid single, some are not paid out at all. Sometimes you have to work 36 hours on stretch – they won’t give you money for food, and the overtime is paid single. Wages are paid with delay. If we don’t have any security ourselves, so will we give anyone else security? We just wear uniforms and stand around.

Eastern Medikit Worker- 292 Udyog Vihar Phase I.
The 300 casual workers were paid their March wages late, on 20th of April. The company did not pay the new minimum wage, only 3,870 Rs. The April wages haven’t been paid yet – 15th of May. The company does not include the Dearness Allowance of July 2009 nor the Dearness Allowance of January 2010. The casual workers work on two 12-hours shifts, the overtime is paid at 14 Rs an hour – March overtime has not been paid yet either. The management would not let casual workers leave after 8-hours, no matter if the worker is ill, no matter if he or she might drop dead.

Bharat Export Overseas Worker - 493 Udyog Vihar Phase III.
None of the 300 workers employed in the factoryget ESI or PF. The helpers in the finishing department get 120 to 130 Rs for an 8-hours shift. Workers work 150 to 200 hours overtime per month, payment is at single rate. There are three faulty fridges for drinking water. The toilets are very dirty.

Oberoi Hotel Worker (Shankar Chowk)
The workers employed through Starling Vilasan work on the construction site of the five-star Oberoi Hotel. The 300 workers get neither PF, nor ESI. Their wages are below the minimum wage: 3,600 Rs.

Pearl Worker,- 446 Udyog Vihar Phase V.
Even if management makes you work till 1 a.m., they won’t give you extra-money for food. Only the first two hours overtime are paid at double rate – the rest single rate.

Radhnik Export Worker- 215 Udyog Vihar Phase I.
If you want to get drinking water or go to the toilet you have to take a token. If they make you work till 2:30 am they give you 30 Rs extra for food, though the food in the canteen is not good. We work 80 to 100 hours overtime per month, they pay single, but force us to sign double-rate. The 500 skilled tailors get neither ESI nor PF – officially they run as employees of Om Enterprise, but management says, that when clients/buyers come to the factory we are supposed to say we are Radhnik company workers.

Polypack Worker- 193 Udyog Vihar Phase I.
If you take one day of per month, they mark all four weekly days off as absent, even so you have worked. This means that you lose 720 Rs of your monthly wage. The daily shift times are from 8 am till 8:30 pm, they often make you work till midnight. They call any work after 12.5 hours shift ‘overtime’, and pay it less than single rate. The 50 workers hired through contractors are paid 5,400 Rs: for 26 days of 12.5 hours.

Taurus Home Furnishing- 418 Udyog Vihar Phase III.
The helpers are paid 3,000 Rs, the checkers 3,500 Rs and the tailors work on piece-rate. Out of 300 workers only 10 to 15 might get ESI and PF. The drinking water is bad. The toilets are dirty.

Countess Craft Worker- 6 Udyog Vihar Phase I.
The workers employed in the carpet show-room have not been paid February, March and April 2010. The company has not paid into the PF fund the last two years. Since three years the company has not paid the statutory bonus.

Crew Banks Worker- 199 Udyog Vihar Phase I.
Severe wage delays of two month now.

Gaurav International Worker - 198 Udyog Vihar Phase I.
The managers swear a lot at us. The female thread-cutting workers are paid only 3,000Rs, the male helpers 3,000 to 3,300 Rs, there is also physical abuse going on.

IT IS NECESSARY TO QUESTION THE WAGE SYSTEM ITSELF. IT IS NECESSARY TO THINK AND ACT FOR THE CREATION OF A NEW SOCIETY.

2010-09-23T17:28:00.001-07:00

(New Series No. 184, September 2003)

8 Months

Aged 19-20 years: A little farmland in the village. After graduation came to Delhi with a friend in December 2002. Joined Maharaja Prints near Badarpur border Delhi at 1,400 rupees per month salary. There's only one shift of 12 hours, from 8 in the morning till 8 at night. Payment for four hours in overtime at single rate. No ESI (health insurance), no Provident Fund. Left the job after four months and came to elder brother in Mujesar (village turned slum industrial area). Brother got a job in Khem Cardboard Factory in Sector 24, Faridabad through a contractor with 1,800 rupees per month for 8 hours duty. There were two twelve hour shifts in the factory. Overtime payment was at single rate. Correct payment was not given after deductions of this or that. 2,200 rupees per month. During summers, upset stomach for 5-6 days. Left the job. Joined Alfatoyo Factory in Sector 6 through a contractor. Rest only on Sunday, 1,400 rupees salary per month. Two shifts of 12 hours each and payment of overtime at single rate. Fight co-workers in the factory and beaten outside of the factory. Worked there for one month and then left the job. Trough a contractor's subcontractor joined Cast Master Factory in Sector 6. fr 8 hours per day for 30 days of the month, no Sundays off, 1,800 rupees salary. There was one shift of 12 hours, morning 8 to evening 8 and overtime payment was at single rate. There are 4 furnaces in the factory, worked on one furnace. Sieve aluminum scrap, remove ash. Liquify it in the furnace, take out the molten metal, and pour into moulds. Then remove the product and store it. During work, my ribs were burnt by molten aluminum. With the dwindling of orders from Yamaha company, work decreased and I was thrown out of a job on July 13. My June wages were paid on July 27th after making me run in circles quite a bit. Wages of 12 days July have not been paid till today. August 14 and I'm being made to run around again.

15 years
Age 33-34 years: After ITI (Industrial Training Course) years, I came to Faridabad and completed my internship at Escorts first plant. A friend got me employed in High Tech Gear Limited in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan. The management operation was so extensive, it's difficult for me to describe. There used to be half an hour lunch break and there was a shortage of plates in the canteen. There used to be a lot of push-and-pull for food, and you had to wash the shabbily-cleaned plate of another to have your own meal on. I soon left that job and came to Faridabad. I worked as a casual worker in different plants of Escorts Company. At that time, I was a young guy and used to think I was making a lot of money. Acquaintances explained to me how long would I remain a casual worker and I should try for a permanent job. In this situation, after I was again given a break, I went to Noida and in 1992 joined Yamaha Factory there. At that time in Yamaha Surajpur (Noida) there were 600 permanent and another 600 hired through cntractors. At the time of the contractors, there was no ESI and no health benefits and no Provident Fund. But there is to be no break-time. This way I worked in the factory continuously for 4 years. When the company removed the contractors, and by employing us itself, health insurance and Provident Fund laws were implemented. Luring us with promises of making us permanent workers, the company extracted massive amounts of work from us. There were more than 150 welding shops, 135 in machine shops, 100-150 in body assembly, 70-80 in engine assembly casual workers in the factory. At the time of union elections, leaders each time would make promises that casual workers would be made permanent. Of the 600 casual workers who were working in Yamaha Surajpur factory, 300 workers had been continuously working for 8 to 10 years like this. After Yamaha obtained a share in Escorts motorcycle, it put up a voluntary retirement scheme. But the workers did not leave their jobs. Then many were transferred to Faridabad from Surajpur. Even after that, 600 casual workers continued to work in Surajpur. And with the increase of demand from Yamaha workers for motorcycle, the company started C shift (night shift from midnight to morning/0 hundred hours to 800 hours) in the factory. And with the permanent workers refusing to work in C shift, the C shift was run by casual workers. Caught up in the snare of getting a permanent job or 10 years, I hardly took any leave. I forgot all about my brother, sister, father, mother. Work rubbed away my body. But facing problems in the market, the company dismissed casual workers. With the sale of Yamaha motorcycles continuing to fall, the company began single shift work in the factory. And then, 300 of us casual workers who had been working eight to ten years continuously in the factory were given work for 12 days each month. We met union leaders and told them that you have not been able to secure us permanent work, but at least get our monthly wages fixed. The leaders said you should look for work at some other pace. By making our monthly wage 1,000 rupees, the company forced us to leave the job. To feed my family, I joined a factory in Faridabad on contract. Before the months end, I was removed. In July on removal, the ideas of committing suicide on the rail line were shaking me but I stopped myself by thinking about my little daughter and my wife.

CONVERSATIONS...MORE CONVERSATIONS...BUT WHAT SHOULD WE TALK ABOUT?

2010-09-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

(New Series No. 151, January 2001)

We get out of the factory after the shift ended. We got in the auto that we've hired on a monthly basis. We would talk every day. And talk and talk. The auto stopped at the red light. A car hit the auto and sped by. The auto overturned. Everyone became unconscious but since the auto had stopped, it was not fatal. As soon as they came to consciousness, those who were less hurt, one-by-one took other autos and went to their homes. Even after reaching home, they did not inform the family members of the girls who stayed in their neighborhood. Those who had suffered the major injuries and were unconscious were taken to the hospital by autodrivers.

We talk a lot yet we are not saying anything. This is merely an example of how we are just killing time.

-22 year old working girl: We seven, eight girls sit together. We talk a lot. About our girlfriends, about our families, about our guy friends. We tell lots of jokes. We recite couplets. We talk about fashion. Sometimes, we also back-bite. Sometimes, whne the discussion is about films, we talk about this or that film. Sometimes, when the conversation is about eve-teasing (harassing females), then we all curse men. There are conversations about the world. What kinds of people exist in the world. Seeing the poor and sad. Oh, we if we had something, we would give it to them. We talk about companies. We curse management and nickname managers and supervisors. Problems of the family and the problems with the neighbors. Difficulties in collecting water. Bickering about getting the gutter cleaned and the quarrels about the garbage in the alleys. Anecdotes about children. Our own childhood enjoyment. and mischeivousness of student days. We talk a lot amongst ourselves.

-12 class boy: When we were in 10th class, we used to get fed up sitting the whole day in the school and used to talk about not studying further but rather doing some course for employment. Now in 12th class, we talk about the future. We talk about food and games and laugh a lot. Till the final examination, the conversations are about books in the syllabus. We talk about girls merely to pass the time. We hardly talk about marriage or dating, In fact, people talk little. They hide their concerns because of jealousy towards one another. We do not talk openly to one another. Most of the discussions revolve around showing off. Discussions about material goods. T.v., fridge, house...So big...talks about jobs, fat salaries, big companies, deskjob, clean work...In conversations about neighbors and neighborhood, mostly it's about putting one another down. Discussing the household affairs of others in the neighboorhood. Between one another, there is tension. Fights break out even while collecting water.

-50 year old man: People talk only in their own circles. You don't talk to everyone. One evaluates and then talks. It seems as though lines have been drawn that one has to so much with this person and not about this with that person. Some of it is due to upbringing and some due to the fear of a fault of being found and then rebuked. Even with one's own brother, one's problems are hidden from him or to extract something out of him, they are inflated. It's a ritual to say that things are 'okay.' It has also become a tradition to present one's condition as better than another's. No one reveals one's own shortcomings. It happened because of this or that reason; it wasn't a failing on my part. One never talks about one's misdeeds. And if a mention does take place then by giving a presentation of the conditions, one tries to justify one's misdeeds. However much one may hide, still most conversations begin with personal discussions and then maybe move on to social discussions. Leader-type people never converse about themselves or their concerns. They straight-off talk about society, politics. Concerns about the family, about the neighborhood come in what's deemed as personal. Old people start their conversations about families with discussions about son, daughter, daughter in-law. Most people in the 50-6o year old age group are tired of family. They talk badly about their children.

30 year old man: Casting aspersions is widespread, downplaying the other is rampant. Not talking straight, hiding camaflouging. To down play others and to raise one's self up is dominant in conversations. Show-off and phony display amongst relations have become too pervasive. Back-biting has become a normal practice. This process of regurgitating whatever is on the radio, on t.v., in newspapers, throughout the day has unfolded.

-Around 50 years old man: According to me, people don't talk among themselves because people usually only talk to one another who serve a purpose and where that isn't there, they don't talk. Relations founded on love and respect are not existant today. This is because of the age we live in. People think only of their interest. People have become too clever from listening to the radio, watching television and films and talking on the telephone. We pick up the scum that is going on in the world.

-Around 40 years old: Superfluous discussions have become a problem. So much is spoken that is difficult to say anything. If we don't sift and select then we'll get bogged down in the marsh of conversations that feed the present system. If we don't, we'll sink into these discussions.

Listening to and telling one another's sadness, pain, problems, and difficulties is the point to begin from. The point of departure seems to be to focus discussions on what all we can do to lessen our difficulties.

On Schools

2010-09-03T15:08:00.001-07:00

(New Series No. 165, March 2002)

"40-50 years ago in Garhwal (Himalayas) children 5 year old children got together in the village on the auspicious day of Vasant Panchami. With the beating of drums and flute etc., they were taken to be registered in schools. The father who used to plow the fields had the desire that desire his son should not plow. Therefore, his son should go to school. The paraphenalia of those who returned home from jobs on the plains motivated children to go to school."

"Earlier children used to be taught that they should be truthful and honest. But now, they are told that they cannot survive this way. They must be clever. If one is to survive in this society, then 'cleverness' must also be taught as a subject."

School is amongst the holiest of cows in the present social system. Extreme patience is requested for this discussion.

Discussions on the city often get reduced to its problems and suggestions for reforms. It is rare that the discussion be focused on a critique of the city itself. The same goes for wage-work. To talk about the school and education seems to be still more difficult.

But to raise questions on the axioms of city, wage-work, factory, office, competition, army, school etc. is to raise questions on the present social system. To overcome the present social system which deterioriates living, it's a primary requirement to discuss these subjects.

A Little History

In slave-owner and slave, fuedal lord and serf, hierarchic social systems, literacy (knowledge of the alphabet) was limited and remained limited. To confine reading and writing to the priest, the Father, the Imam, language different from ordinary people's language, Latin and Sanskrit were used. Only the sons of slaveowners, princes, and priests went to schools. It is obvious that to maintain these hierarchic systems, literacy was important. But it should also be kept in mind that for the famous Magna Carta document, the King of England put his seal because he did not know how to sign. The King of England was illiterate. And Emperor Akbar used to his thumprint as a signature. He was also illiterate.

Efforts to limit literacy in the past and efforts to make everyone literate today...seems to be a knot. What is this knot? We will focus on the Indian subcontinent.

Aimless Versus With Aim

Those who have different aims than oneself, it is a tradition to call them aimless. With victory in the war at Plassey, East India Company began taking over state power in the subcontinent. By calling the existing hierarchic social system aimless and barbaric, the East India Company furthered its victory campaign.

Even today ,children have to learn, by rote, the list of reforms to transform uncivilized persons into civilized by rote the list of reforms that were done to make the uncivilized into civilized ones. Opposition of sati (wife burning herself on her husband's funeral pyre), propagation and expansion of education...Some patriotic scholars used to or do raise sharp objection to Lord Macauley's education policy for producing clerks.

But it is without debate that the East India Company laid the basis for the expansion of schools, education, literacy in the Indian subcontinent. Isn't this fact enough to loosen the knot?

Taking of 1/4th produce=loot; Taking of 90% produce= legal

Taking of one-sixth of people's produce by the king or emperor was said to be just according to the law. Those moving up to become kings used to forcibly collect 1/4 of the produce. This was called loot. Generally, in the hierarchic fuedal system, labouring people's produce would be usurpsed by 1/6th to 1/4th. Taking more than that, while maintaining the system, was not possible. In the eyes of the new advocates of civilization, limiting collection to 1/6th or 14th was aimless. To extract more out of the labouring massess,the need for a new social construct, the necessity for new hierachic social system was presented.

On looking back, we find that the role of East India Company in the Indian Subcontinent was to prepare the basis for a new hierarchic social system. East India Company played an important role in laying a lasting foundation for production of the market. Transforming the production of peasants-artisants into production for the market prepared the ground for the present social system. The basic tenet of the market system for making more extraction possible- increase trade! School-education-literacy have an extremely important role in increasing the productivity of persons and thereby promoting the exploitation of geographical and social diversity through distant trade. The propagation, expansion of school-education by East India Company, then by the British government and then by the native government must be viewed in today's context where 95 to 98% of workers' production is taken away from them. Not only 1/4th but 1/6th was also loot. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the holiest cows of the present social system where 98% of our production is swallowed up.

The Blindfold of Holiness

How much exercise seems to be necessary merely to begin a discussion on schools! It is hoped that it will be possible to have more natural conversations about the institution in the form of schools which aims to mold children as per the requirements of the market by molding-beating-thrashing-erasing-chiselling... Hopefully, it will be easier to discuss it by loosening or opening the holy blindfold of 'making children's futures'. What kind of future? The language of the present social system is the language of events. And if we stay within this language then the mass slaughter of Gujarat is only a cracker-sparkler in comparison to the bomb blasts which seem inevitable if the present social system continues...

Children as raw material, teachers as operators, other employees as helpers, school as factory...What kind of a picture is this? We prepare our childre to sell themselves on the market...What is this? Come, let us put a question mark on school, on the present social system.

WHAT ALL DO WE DO...?

2010-08-31T19:21:00.000-07:00

(New Series No. 175, January 2003)

19 year old worker: I've been working since 1999. At this time, I am a casual worker in Lakhani shoes factory. I stay in a shanty on rent at 250 rupees. There is no electricity. And fearing raids of officials, the neighbors don't provide us with a connection, so we have to make due with a lamp. My duty is in general shift. I get up at 5:30 a.m. I have to go out to defecate in a very dirty place. Then I get in line for water. My friend is also a casual worker and now after the break sells vegetables on the street. Just after getting up, he runs to the vegetable market. After collecting water, I prepare food for both of us. To prepare roti and vegetables for two on the stove takes an hour. After preparing the food, I take a bath and then I eat.

I leave for duty at 8 a.m. on the bicycle. Attendance is marked first at the factory gate and then in the department. Work begins at 8:30 a.m. There is no break for tea but 9:30 tea comes from the canteen and one has to buy it with one's money and drink it while continuing to work. It is very laborious work. You have to be at it all the time- oil it, count it, then pack in boxes, load them on the vehicle. The supervisor continuously scolds and abuses us. In Lakhani shoes, there is not even time to drink water or go to the bathroom. One has to hide and go.

There is some relief during lunchtime. We eat together and talk. We want to leave this job but where can we go? Ideas keep churning in each one's mind. On the days I don't have time to make lunch, I eat in the canteen and they give an half plate for 4 rupees, but it does not fill my stomach. I have to spend 8 rupees. I am not able to send money home, nor am I able to live properly.

After lunch, we have to work continuously for 5 and half hours, and there is no tea coming around. It seems as though we have been tied up. There is no overtime work for me. On the release at 5 p.m., I come straight to my room and make tea. After tea, I sit here and there for some time. I collect water at 6:30 p.m. and clean the utensils. I prepare food at 7 p.m. My friend returns at 9 p.m. and then we make dinner. Sometimes, I watch t.v. We wash dishes and sleep by 10:30 p.m.

CREATION OF EVENT, CREATION OF ENEMY

2010-08-26T19:21:00.000-07:00

(New Series No. 160, October 2001) In hierarchic social formations, normal or ordinary life is extremely dull, boring, and painful. People sitting on pyramids made of heads and shoulders apply the ointment of splendour over their pain. Those on the lower rungs of the ladder, those who are oppressed and crushed, it becomes compulsory for them to oppose-rebel at all times.

To keep them oppressed, to maintain their grip, texts and weapons are the instruments of those sitting on heads and shoulders. War and the Book (Ved, Bible, Quran, Constitution, Marxism, Anarchism) are two ends of the swamp. War and the Book are two events, great events. By chiselling events, literary figures and artists lay the basis for identity-politics and contribute to the creation of events for a long time.

Weapons and warriors of those sitting on heads and shoulders bloody us. Texts and intellectuals instigate us against one another for bloodshed. The essence of texts is: those who are sitting on heads and shoulders, those who are oppressing, exploiting you are doing all this for your own good.

In the present hierarchic social system, oppression, exploitation has now come forward in the institutional form. Instead of a particular person, we are confronted by faceless institutions. Through zig-zagged paths, it is being increasingly understood that the source of the pain of body-soul-conscience is formless and rooted in social relations and emancipation in the creation of a new society. This realization of the people has brought every form of government face-to-face with death. In this situation to postpone death, governments have reared-created terrorism.

The event in America, understood as the event, and the reactions of those sitting on heads and shoulders, it becomes irrelevant as to whether the massive destruction was self-caused or was gotten done by the State or a mixture of self-caused and got done. Educated propagandists through radio-television-newspapers-magazines have spread terrorism's fear-fame worldwide. A very good harvest of self-made and government-created terrorists is imminent. It looks like this harvest will for the time being fill the treasuries of bankrupt governments with the justifications of security-danger. And in the coming days, in every part of the world, there will be massive increase in government terror. A glimpse of attacks using terrorism as a shield is that immediately after the event, airline companies dismissed 100,000 workers.

For effective opposition of oppress-exploitation, it is necessary to make dysfunctional the weapons and blunt the texts of those sitting on our heads and shoulders. To bring into being a society in which there is no discrimination, premised on our being unequals, it is necessary to overcome weapon-text...

METHODS

2010-08-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

Being face-to-face and being in the entourage of officer and leader are both dangerous.

One way of dealing with management, government, and those perched on our heads is: yes sir/madam with the mouth, no sir/madam with the hands.

The mouth has to only deal with thirty-two teeth whereas we are encircled by thirty-two thousand swords-missiles-shastras-texts-treatises-theories...

LIFTING MOUNT GOVARDHAN ON A FINGER

2010-07-25T12:28:00.000-07:00

(New Series No. 160, October 2001)

The present has immensely shrunk the space and time for discussions, but still, everyone, somehow arranging some time and space, talks to each other, in their own ways. Conversations happen while coming to and going from places of work. People talk during lunch-time, during tea-time, while drinking water and going to the bathroom. Even while doing work, there are discussions. People do take out 10-15 minutes for conversations before the end of the shift. In the factory, discussions about what problems are there are the time of course take place- most of the talks are on that issue, and in that discussions different ideas emerge. Many a time, the atmosphere is such that no one directly asks what is happening. Rather, they come to the issue, covering it up with this or that, during discussions. Talks in the home and the laborhood, talks when going to buy vegetabless. Normally, all kinds of discussions take place. Still, it is heard from many workers:

"Workers are not saying anything"

Agreed, that our conversations in the sphere of my-my your-yours and which are meant to make us look superior or extremely inferior are harmful for us. And, back-biting, of course, is damaging. However, thine-mine interactions, our conversations, talks and practices of helping each other and close coordinations also go on. It is thus obvious that when it is said that "workers are not saying anything," it means something else altogether.

"Workers are not saying" really means: solutions are not forthcoming to the problem being faced. Rallies, demonstrations, speech-making are not happening. Nobody is directly saying things to management, touts, leaders. The desire for a brave savior is not being fulfilled.

Herculean labors to save others (Lifting Mount Govardhan on a finger)

In fact, we are all well aware of the present arrangments. Everyone knows that today s/he is extremely insignificant. What conclusions do we draw from this true recognition of reality? Our insignificance many a time encourages us to search for saviors in an avatar, a messiah, a superhuman. We worship and perform rituals, we fast, participate in religious singing groups, listen to religious discourses, run from pillar to post behind musclemen, leader, lawyer. The wait for a true avatar, a true prophet, a true guru, a genuine savior does not carry a halt/brake on our increasing suffering. What do our experiences of the quest for a messiah tell us? May it not be that we are waiting for the Ganges to flow in the reverse direction?

One mode could also be this: each one of us can pick up one pebble rather than trying to lift a mountain single-handedly. Each one's creativity and activeness can continuously go on as per one's own convenience and style. We insignificant, inferior, subordinate persons, through our close coordinations can soon enough lift the Himalayas, Mt. Govardhan is merely a tiny hill.

WHIRLPOOL

2010-07-18T12:14:00.000-07:00

At night, Whirlpool cleanses itself and by burning rejected plastics, paints, and chemicals in huge quantities, spreads wholesale pollution...

SHANTYTOWN ECONOMICS-1

2010-07-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

(New Series No. 176, Feb. 2003)

Faridabad and New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) are planned industrial cities surrounding New Delhi, the capital of India. Factories are in the network of the plan. The living quarters of supervisors, managers, and government officers are also in the plan. But where will the workers who are being squeezed in the factories live? The plans are silent about this. In the plans for Faridabad and NOIDA, no space has been set aside for the living quarters of workers. Good people will call this the naievete of the planners, and clever people will call it their stupidity...But, neither the naieve nor the stupid can sit for long on pyramids made out of the heads and shoulders of others.

Behind the characterization of people's very being as illegal lies an entire political economy. The basic pillars of this political economy are to foster an army of middle-men to increase the grip of control and lower the standard of life for the purposes of greater exploitation.

*Lowering the expense of the worker's housing is a means of lowering the cost of workers altogether. This lust for cheap labor is what is hidden behind allowing the construction of "illegal" shantytowns. In the name of obligation and protection, various levels of middlemen and their henchmen extort money from residents. The system of oppression and exploitation gets in these goods their "policy officers" and "lawyers" almost free of cost. When the bosses feel a need for these lands, the residents can easily be characterized as culprits for living on illegal lands, and it is then not very difficult to get these lands vacated.

*Illegal migration is an open business. From Mexico to America, Turkey to Germany, Korea to Japan, India to the Gulf area, Bangladesh to India...Overall, the number of those living illegally in the world today is in the tens of millions. The label of illegality is used to increase the helplessness of the person. This is a fantastic prescription to increase exploitaton and decrease the opportunities for resistance. Illegal migration also increases the exploitation of the "citizen" worker, and when the need arises for the bosses to turn victims against victims, it almost never misses its target. In this context, terrorism is certainly an handy tool in the government's hands to further crack down on the workers.

*If we look at hawkers and street vendors in different cities, only around 2% of them have licenses. Ninety-eight percent are knowingly forced into illegality, so that the policeman on the beat, the goon in the area, the political machine can extort money and harvest votes.

*Declaring this and that as illegal and creating an atmosphere of fear by the strict implementation of laws is not a leisure activity for the bosses. By doing this, the boss of the bosses, the government of America has imprisoned 2 million citizens, and has put 800,000 people waiting for trials into jails. Prisons are being turned into factories and offices where 2.5 million are put to work for wages that have been cut to one tenth of the minimum wage fixed by the American government. To cover up the Himalayan-sized exploitation and oppression, you have space programs, mega-events, accidents...

In Faridabad, the acceleration of the government-sponsored demolition activity has raised extensive questions in the shantytowns: How do we oppose this? How do we fight? What are the paths to save ourselves from sinking further into these swamps or getting our heads bashed in? In our view, recognizing and discarding the mystification being bandied about by middlement is the point of departure. Now is the time to critique this political economy with body-mind-passion (mann). We have to go beyond shedding tears and breast-beating...

LOCAL DEMOLITION

2010-07-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

(New Series No. 176, Feb 2003)

Faridabad, India- Since January, there have been public anncouncements by government officials in several shantytowns ordering residents to vacate the land in 24 hours as the residents were illegal occupants. Many of the shantytowns have been in existence for 40 years. Though Faridabad is a planned industrial city, with space allotted for the housing of managers, supervisors, and government officials, there is no space in the plans for the hundreds of thousands of workers who work there. Workers were forced to build housing illegally on government land and are subject to extortion from all levels of officals. Now that the land has become valuable, they want it back. But where will the workers live?

There are 5,000 to 6,000 dwellings in each shantytown, many of which are pukkah (cement and brick) homes, rather than mud dwellings. Most of the residents are factory workers in companies such as Escorts, Bata, Goodyear and Whirlpool, or they are retrenched workers involved in petty trade.

In January, as soon as the announcement to vacate was made, thousands of residents blocked the national highway close to the shantytown. Police-cane-charged the crows and re-opened the highway. The crowd surged back and blocked the main railway tracks. The trains were stopped. Residents picked up stones from the tracks and threw them at the police. A few arrests were made and by nightfall, things quieted down. The next day, the police, civil administrators, and earth-moving demolition machinery arrayed themselves over a two-mile stretch of road facing the shantytown. That day, most workers stayed home, and thousands kept the police and machinery out. They were forced to put off the demolition. The exercise was illegal, even according to the existing laws. The state government assured the High Courts that it would follow the legal process, which is under way.

Since then, several shantytowns have been shut down. Legal experts and leaders, who claim that they are working to stay the proceedings, are very expensive and cost the workers a lot. One proceedings costs $4,000, when the average monthly salary of the resident is $40/month. By July, the lawyers, besides collecting their fees, started to file the same arguments for each resident, making it simpler for the designated collector to reject the complaints without a glance.

The demolition activities have intensified since July. On many occasions residents joined together spontaneously to save the shantytowns. Other times, the police took residents by surprise and succeeded in their demolitions. Still other times, the middle-men and leaders paved the way for the demolition crews.

These peices of land have become valuable because of development and their proximity to national highways. Shiny new offices, showrooms, bank and commercial enterprises have cropped up in the area, seeing the shantytowns across them as eyesores. Some of the land is also being used for construction of institutional areas and factories.

MANY STRAWS MAKE A NEST

2010-06-24T17:14:00.000-07:00

Many Straws Make a Nest: A Documentary about Proletarian Unrest in Delhi's Industrial Belt

Watch it here

CONTENDING WITH THE PRESENT...

2010-06-03T23:45:00.000-07:00

(December 2002, New Series No. 274)

The peasant-artisan prescription of labor for relief has itself become a disease…

Instead of one, two, three, four crops during less work in the villages, artisans-workers going to cities to slog; rearing cows and buffalo for selling milk; farming chicken and fish; daily rounds of the market for seed-medicine-fertilizer-cotton seed-animal feed for buying these, for repairing motor fan and for selling grains, vegetables, eggs, milk, butter; also open a small shop.... In attempts to somehow stay afloat, people's bodies are taut all the time. And...increasing numbers going bankrupt are being eaten up by the idle, empty, and endless time. Where to go? What to do? To tell the increasing army of unemployed that they don't "work hard" is to pour molten lead in their arms.

Disappearance of time, of leisure...Time, leisure becoming a burden. Both carry the turmoil for the soul. For peace of the soul, refuge in the sects is a mirage. Even a learned philosopher of those sitting on heads and shoulders had said 100-125 years ago that God is dead. It is true that even with the discoveries of science, technical means and management research being covered by mysterious paraphenalia, the incarnation of dead gods are still collecting crowds around them. But despite the use of all marketing techniques, the arenas and effects of sects and gurus are diminishing. The major modern networks of those sitting on heads and shoulders to tie up and pierce souls encourages the obsession for consumption and increases the army of degree holder psychiatrists. The lust for consumption and the hypocrisy of degree holders who blame the victims are one up on the gods. They are also very much fatal. Competition is swallowing normalcy and simplicity.

Again, the same question. What to do? In the present, each person is encircled and entrapped to such a degree that each one of us has to make innumerable compromises. Every day we have to bear such terrible things that our soul gets battered. Each day we ourselves commit such bad acts that we cannot speak about them. We cover these up in the garb of that which is forced upon us and try to placate our conscience. That which we felt was imposed on us, was it actually forced or was it put on? Should I have done this or should not have accepted that? Conflicts of this type churn inside us...

Whatever claims of being all-powerful we may be making on the outside, it is usually the case that at all times we find ourselves helpless. Generally, it is knowing that one is helpless that makes us fall in our own eyes. To look at oneself degradingly, lack of respect of a person for him or herself is very wide today and only increasing. And this lack of respect for oneself is expressed in disrespect for others.

More or less, such is the situation with each one of us. Therefore, those whom we come in close contact with, those whom we know intimately, towards them open or camouflaged disrespect is very large. Those who are far away, those whom we come into contact only once in awhile, those whom we know very little, with them it becomes easier to produce the sentiment of respect rather than actual respect. It is very fatal for the victim to blame him or herself in his or her inner thoughts or to find other victims as the culprits. This ensures our own entrapment and viscious encirclement. Disrespect for those near to us and looking down on one another are among the major obstacles towards coordination with those close to us. Coordination amongst nearby ones are the point of departure to break the encirclement.

That we contend- isn't it in itself the basis for respect? Aren't our souls yearning for truth, love, respect, adequate basis for respect? The issue is not of overlooking others misdeeds or one's bad deeds. Rather, instead of, cursing oneself, others, the issue is of taking such steps that people encircled by compulsions can easily take. The feeling of helplessness of person is a strong basis for efforts to create a new society.

THE CITY VS. THE VILLAGE

2010-05-22T21:41:00.000-07:00

(December 2002, New Series 174)

There was a glimpse of life in the city, with fragments of life in the village.

* People are getting split into groups. If you sit with us, then don't sit with them.

*People lose their temper on minor issues. Sitting together is decreasing. Even those who smoke hookah fill up their hookahs and go and sit in their own homes.

* What can one do? One is not able to finish one's own work. How can one help one's brothers? One doesn't get nutritious food. Bones are visible in the youth. Trusting others is decreasing. The load of exchange is falling on women's heads. Men are falling for drinking and gambling. To meet the expenses of the house, women are facing increasing difficulties. Tensions, quarrels between husband and wife are increasing...

* Earlier more young women used to commit suicides. Now more young men have started to commit suicide. This is hardly reported to the police. Everyone gets together and performs the last rites. If you go to the police station, it creates another suicide. One can't by through farming or artisanship. There aren't any jobs. So, many people are opening shops. People are going insane. They keep telling any Tom-Dick-and Harry to secure them a job, any job.

* Lumpenization is increasing. After sunset, one does not go out of the home, afraid to come across a drunkard on the way. People are getting sucked into debts. Inability to refuse, forces one to loan money to relatives which is rarely returned. If agricultural land is mortgaged, then it is difficult to get it free. Tt gets sold.

* Hypocrisy is increasing. Superstition is increasing. People adopt ritualistic postures and take refuge in sects. Whichever sect one adopts, he or she calls it 'the best' and the rest imposters.

* Youth label the experiences of elders as 'barking'... The old, aged do not speak the truth...Falsely, they say that their time was great.

* Even only sons are living separately from their mother and father. In old age, husband and wife have started living separately. Mother with one son, and father with another son. Conversations between husband wife cease- they say they have bore it for long enough, no more now. No one takes objection to someone tying up the buffalo on the path which inconveniences everyone. When others do no object, why should I? People will change the path. People will bear the difficulty.

* One who dies is praised. The facts are not spoken of. At the time of a tragedy, everyone's sympathy bursts forth. In normal conditions, people are unconcerned.

* People are becoming strange. Even if it's not to my advantage, it should be to your disadvantage. Backbiting and pointing out others' shortcomings is an epidemic.

* People have become so weak that they hide their true opinions and intentions from everyone. In the village, many people simply go to vote so that they can tell the supporters of candidates that they voted for their leader. One talks of support, but tells a lie to the group.

* Personal occupation or control of common goods is increasing. Let common interest go to hell. Personal interests surpass everything.

* These days one is struck more by speech. Talking in very crude, vulgar terms is increasing.

Life in the city, life in the village are twins. They are copies of one another...

IN LIEU OF MAY DAY

2010-05-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

(New Series No. 167, May 2002)

Human beings take work as something forced on them as a load to be borne. The process of human being's efforts to lessen work, to lighten it were turned upside down with the advent of hierarchic social creations. The processes of increasing workload on labouring masses began.

In this process, the factory-mode emerged. With the counting of every moment and endless increase of speed, factory modes beginning and end is work. By pushing seasons aside, the factory mode imposed work throughout the 12 months of the year. Through electricity, the limits of sunrise and sunset for work have been broken. People have been put to work not only during the day, but also at night.

It has not been a long time since factory-mode made a significant impact in production. It is only around 250 years. With the factory-mode, wage-work system became significant in production. With the firm-footing of factory-mode provided by steam and coal, the extensive expansion of wage-work system began. Together with production, factory-mode and wage-work system has been taking every area and arena in its grip, squeezing life out of it, making it synonomous with work. Sports, song, dance, discussions, advice, free-time, hospitality have all to a significant extent been transformed into work. Factory-mode and wages are erasing them. Retirement is like death.

The Return of What Was Rejected From the Beginning

Around 200 years ago, the visions of artisans, peasants, and new wage workers created by dire necessity or brute force were in some respects not as mesmerized as those today. They felt that factory-mode makes life something forced on us. Transforms life into a burden. Those artisans, peasants, and new wage workers opposed the premises of the factory-mode. They attacked factories, broke machines, burned down buildings. By making factory's fortress-like, and through hanging, and bullets, the initial use of the factory was crushed by those sitting on heads and shoulders.

Thereafter, questioning of the factory itself decreased. The opposition of factory-mode dimmed. Seeking relief in factory life, relief through the creation of more factories, and defining emancipation as capturing factories became significant. 8 hours working day, the independence of enslaved countries, and socialist revolution are symbolic of this shift.

Relief in the Factory

It is still common to describe the absence of factories or the decrease of factories in the area as the reason behind the bad condition of people living in an area. Even today advocates of factory mode are presenting the establishment of very large numbers of factories in the area as the prescription for the well-being of people in the area. In this context, for rapid industrialization, the process of forming new provinces, the creation of new countries has not stopped yet. The expansion of factory-mode and the worsening of labor masses' condition are two sides of the same coin.

In colonies, the lack of factory mode was said to be the reason for the bad condition of residents there. In the name of making people happy, the establishment and expansion of factories was said to require 'enslaved countries' 'independence' and a lot of noise was made for this. Sacrifices were asked from and taken for laboring masses. More than an hundred countries 'became independent.' In 'independent India,' in these 50 years, factory-mode, wage-labor system has been widely expanding at a rapid pace. Has there been any relief with the spread of factories? The relief of the expansion of factory-mode and the condition of labouring masses is going from bad to worse is in front of us. These same fruits of obtaining relif through factories has fallen in the lap of laboring masses of other 'countries that become independent.'

Emancipation in Taking Over Factories

The Communist/Socialist current through cuts-selections-and militancy reached a significant stage of success. The growing speed of work prepared the basis for emancipation. The takeover of extremely fast means of production was seen as the revolutionary step of emancipation, The takeover of factories was made a point of departure by the Socialist Revolution for the wide and rapid expansion of the factory-mode. Result: as far as the workers are concerned, Soviet Union (Russia) and America was merely that of label.

New Beginning

In view of the cruelty, murderousness of factory-mode towards life, there is an urgent need for new extensive opposition to factory-mode. Disassembling of factory-mode and its bases will be helpful in this. Some points are:

*Like other hierarchic social formations, in factory-mode based societies, a representative system is inherent- be it imposed or elected.

*Movements for relief in factory, relief through factory, emancipation by taking over factory be it non-violent or violent or a mixture of violent-nonviolent, are all are directed by representatives, leaders, and their networks. The workers' labouring masses acts as per order to ensure that there is need for an apparatus. The two extremes of organization in representative systems are loose- slimy apparatus versus a strict, efficient, alert apparatus. The deciding steps are taken through the measurement of the success of the apparatus.

*In the 19th century and in the early decades of the 20th century also, the question of real repesentation and phony representation was the subject of sharp discussions. But after seeing the result of relief through factory and emancipation by taking over factory, this question was rendered meaningless.

*The change of ownership had turned from the path of individual to joint stock to shareholding to loan-based. This has done away with the differences between militant and soft, honest and dishonest, reformist and revolutionary parties, and leaders.

*The yardsticks of measurement of a representative system has the task of hiding the importance of steps and attempts of ordinary people. Whereas, to give primary importance to the activities of ordinary people should be the basis of new paths. For this, very different yardsticks for measuring the effect-impact are necessary.

*As for one's capacity and facility, what steps should each worker take and which steps should not be taken? Without co-workers, what kinds of coordinations should we have? Going across the boundaries of factory, city, region, country, what type of methods for worldwide coordinations needed? By churning alone, will new kinds of effective and organized be decided? As alternative to factory-mode, come let's be participants in the churning for new society!

METHODS OF WORSENING OUR SITUATION (1)

2010-04-11T06:55:00.000-07:00

(New Series No. 182 August 2003)

The results of the labor we put in becomes the means to oppress, squeeze, and further exploit us. For 5 to 7,000 years, the flow of the social river is running opposite its course.

* Humans who consist only a fraction of the earth, at a few places on the earth, began movement on the path of the exploitation of the earth. The violent domestication of animals, like the placing of reins on the horse's mouth to bring it under control, has also brought with it the slavery of human beings. From the pain of the body and the soul, pyramids-hierarchial structures and epics arose.

Of course, the slave's pain in body and soul was fathomless, but there were no limits to the restlessness of the slave-owners. By declaring life itself as a curse, slave-owner Siddharth became Gautam Buddha and raised the flag of death as emancipation.

* Exploitation increased with the usage of plows that scraped the surface of the earth and brought in large numbers of serfs in vast areas throughout the earth. In tune with the construction of the fort-the palace, entering into war, the forced taking away of produce, renunciation and ascetic practice and worship became the careers of the pain of body and soul. It is lords who left warfare who became saints...

* The present social system which began with steam and coal is moving towards piercing the womb of the earth...is taking over the whole of the earth with its tentacles. Electricity has gobbled up the night. The chain of company-corporation-institution-computer-satellites has rendered the existence and non-existence of persons almost the same. As compared to the time of Gautam Buddha, the antagonism between person and society today has increased to such an extent that to express it or to articulate is a mind-boggling exercise in itself.

* To create fissures in the increasing, enclosing vicious circles, coordination amongst neighbors seem to be a point of departure. And the ideas and practices of exploiting the weaknesses of one another becomes a painful barrier in the coordination among those in our life.

Methods of Worsening Our Situation

* At all times we are surrounded by difficulties and the difficulties are such that they keep on increasing. Often, it's heard and said that the whole social system is bad and it is itself the root of the problems. In addition, government-company-municipality-village panchayat-party-leader-officer are also identified as the direct producer of many of our immediate problems and difficulties. These feelings-evaluations of ours are generally correct. In this situation, when we take steps by coordinating amongst ourselves, we of course move forward on the path of obtaining relief and changing the system. But we also do a lot against this movement...

* "The era is bad." "The world is an enemy." "Such a time has come"...Such phrases are often heard. In our opinion, these statements are also reflections of truth.

But where are we lead by these accurate statements? What places, paths, and activities? Ones of hook or crook- get your needs taken care of...Somehow, just get through life...By any means, deal with what is before you...Who knows about tomorrow?...There is nothing right or wrong, everything goes. There's only one meaningful thing: get what you need to get done.

* Often, it does not seem possible to immediately deal with or overcome the present social system-government-company. They seem very powerful, but straight-forward confrontation with them seems to just increase the problem. So far, the above of "everything goes, nothing is right or wrong," seems to be okay. But intoxicated in the ideas and practices of the market, many times for immediate relief we push over and unleash our load on the weak amongst us, manipulate them with our problems. In doing this, we abandon ethics and designate no limits in the meanness we exercise towards our co-workers and neighbors. And then, for the laboring masses who are entangled amongst themselves, the government or company become the adjudicators for our everyday relations.

To spoil relations with those close to us for minor relief, to opt for anonymity with co-workers, for minute self-interest is creating such a wound which keeps deepening and worsening the situation.

Immediate and momentary, superficial and shallow relations are the character of ideas and practices according to the market.

In the beginning of production for the market and its expansion, ethical norms were also a major barrier. Ethics were entangled and enmeshed in religions. And religions were the pillar of the cruel fuedal system.

Ethics are being declared as superfluous remnants of tradition. To escape ethical constraints is being encouraged on a wide scale. Friend, this is the game of the market...

Contending with religions to increase space for itself, the market system claiming to attack religious hypocrisy and inequality was in reality targeting ethics and morality. After attaining dominance, the market actually fed the hypocrisy in religions.

The point of departure for the creation of a new ethics seems to be a critique of science which brought about the market system that has brought life to the destructive narrowness of production-consumption.

Let's question the very attitude, aim of exploitation of life and-non-life.

MAJDOOR SAMACHAR TALMEL : TAKING STEPS COLLECTIVELY

2010-03-10T07:36:00.000-08:00

(New Series No. 261, March 2010)

*In today's conditions how can large numbers act or work collectively? In the present, how can we make organized efforts on an increasing scale? For positive roles, what should be the form of organizations today? We have been grappling with those questions for quite some time.

Below we are presenting our preliminary conclusions in a broad way. On the basis of this understanding, we are beginning our activities in Faridabad, Okhla (Delhi), and Gurgaon. All those who want to make efforts for a straight-simple common life in the dominance of crookedness and show are invited to give suggestions and even more than that, to be one with the attempt.

*For 30 years, we have been looking at factory workers as the chief carriers of emancipation from the present. After some experiences amongst factory workers in Gwalior, Indore, and Bhopal from 1982 on, we have focused ourselves on the city of factories, Faridabad. In recent years, we have obtained some experiences in Okhla Industrial area (Delhi) and Gurgaon which has very rapidly emerged as a major center of modern industry. Together with direct experiences and reflections on them, we have made efforts to know the experiences of worker's activities in factories, mines, transport etc in different areas of India. We have made special efforts to know the experiences and ideas of workers in other parts of the world. Together with those of the present, we have tried to know-understand the experiences of past generations. On the basis of all these experiences and ideas, we are presenting this proposal about organized efforts, about organization today.

* The first necessity for collective steps is to create opportunities for coming together. We gather in factories, but there are many obstacles to easy conversations. 12 to 16 hours duty every day and then the time it takes to commute, buy vegetables-ration, collecting water, making arrangements for oil-gas, cooking food or giving time to children-wife... In such a scenario, it is very difficult for most workers to find time to go somewhere to meet others. Going regularly to neighbor's rooms to meet others creates many difficulties as well. In this situation, Majdoor Samachar Talmel is making its primary work or activity to provide spaces in localities for gatherings.

Very soon, we will try to set up baithaks (meeting places) in Faridabad, Gurgaon, and Okhla Industrial area. As per convenience, one can spend time without any hesitation in the baithak and without any hindrance, exchange experiences and ideas for half an hour-one hour- two hours. Suggestions and cooperations and help for setting up baithaks at various places are welcome. If things proceed well, the organization will contribute to setting up dere (places where in teh past in the Northwest people lived, worked, and shared together) for those desirous of living collectively.

*There will be no posts in the organization. Members will be on the basis of baithaks and they will constitute the committee. There will be efforts to increase togetherness-coordination amongst baithaks-committees. Those contributing to coordinations will have a technical role and they will not have any additional power. In committees, there will not be any hierarchy. There will of course be no formal posts. The informal importance due to experience-activeness will not be increased. Rather, efforts will be made to decrease that importance. Members will not be as unequals, but there will be no discrimination amongst members.

For rent of the baithak etc., members will contribute five rupees per month. For helping one another, members will give and energy as per their capacities. Permanent worker, casual worker, workers hired through contractor, employees, all workers can become members of the organization. Economic help on personal basis from members and those sympathetic to talmel (togetherness) is welcome. But money will not be taken from institutions.

*Majdoor Samachar Talmel will not be registered. The organization will not debate with companies-governments. It will not try to convince them. It will not enter into negotiations with authorities. Generally, the organization will not give reactions. We will take steps as per our understanding and convenience and will leave reactions in the arena of companies-governments. Members, together with their coworkers, will continuously make efforts for steps at their workplaces. Majdoor Samachar Talmel will try to take steps on the basis of area, wider areas.

*We hope that in some months such conditions will emerge where collective steps would be able to provide minor relief to members and other workers. For example, in Faridabad, Okhla, and Gurgaon when workers are fired from or quit a job, wages of 5-10-15 days of performed work are generally not given. On the basis of baithak, 10 people will go with the affected person and try to obtain immediate relief. There will be discussion in some detail about this at baithak places.

*There should not be the necessity to discuss courts, under the government of India. Even if a judge wants, she-he cannot do anything pro-labor because the process is crooked, long, drawn-out and there is space for appeal after appeal. Yes, the organization will try to provide relief against acts of companies, such as putting illegal pressure on workers by taking them to police stations and threatening them. We hope that in some months, Majdoor Samachar Talmel will be able to send lawyers for workers held in police stations in such conditions.

*Together with efforts by members to take steps as per their convenience and their workplaces and by the organization on area basis, ordinary workers will be encouraged to perform what they can easily do. For example, in cases of statutory minimum wages not being paid, provisions of Employee State Insurance, Provident Fund, forced overtime and payment at single rate instead of double rate, insults-beatings, delay in wages etc. providing help to make complaints to the concerned Department and Authority. At the baithak, addresses and suggestions for writing letters will be easily available.

*Majdoor Samachar Talmel will be based on baithaks in localities and will be open to coordinations with steps taken by workers collectively in other places in India, in other regions of the world. The organization will make special efforts to coordinate with workers intiatives especially and people's initiatives generally throughout the world. Those decisions of contributing to such coordinations will be given memberships even without being connected to a baithak.

Think about becoming a member, helping choose a place for baithak in a locality, exchange experiences and ideas in a congenial atmosphere. Paths will emerge- will go forward.

*It has been 200 years since production for the market, exmploying wage labour became significant for the world. Many changes have taken place in these 200 years:

-Factory mode which was established in production in tiny England has spread throughout the world via Europe and North America. Today groupings of factories are spread out at every place throughout the world. Becoming dominant in production, factory mode has spread out in trade-transport-education-medicine-entertainment. Universities-research institutions have become factories for producing knowledge.

-Initially, there was some owner of a factory. With the cost of establishing, running, mounting a factory, it became increasingly difficult for any one person to establish a factory. 8-10 people together started establishing factories. They became 5-10-15% partners. Joint stock companies emerged. Increasing size and cost very soon did not leave it possible for 10-12 people to jointly establish a factory. Companies with thousands of shareholders emerged who established factories.

But soon by collecting wealth of thousands of shareholders, it did not remain possible to establish production unit. The cost had been greatly increased by the size of the factory, land, buildings, machines, raw materials, fuel, storage of goods or warehousing of goods, buying-selling at distant places wages for thousands of workers etc. For establishing-running companies, loans became the main source of wealth-money. This became a major reason for the entrance of governments in production arena.

-Together with production units, significant companies in trade, transport etc. are established, run with wealth. 80-85% of which is obtained of or through loans and 15-20% through shares. Those who are Chairmen-Managing Director personally have 5-7%of shares of the money that is invested in the company. Those people who are Chairmen-Managing Director have invested 10th-100th part of 10% of the money invested in companies but their behavior is still like that of owners. Owners who are continuously engaged in theft from "their own" companies. The reality that there are no owners of companies becomes visible to workers when the company becomes shaky and goes bankrupt. To get some part of their dues, workers are told to wait for the court's decision regarding the companies' morgage properties.

The increasing scale of production refused to call an halt even when factories started having tens of thousands of workers. Oil, electricity-run machines taking the place of coal steam-based machines increased the speed of work, increased production, and reduced the number of required workers. Automation and especially the use of electronics rapidly accelerated this proceess. Still, the scale of production today presents the necessity of factories with hundreds of thousands of workers. In China, electronic-gadget producing factory is running with an hundred thousand workers at this time. But changes taking place constantly in the production arena are taking place even more rapidly these days. Even otherwise, it is very difficult to keep under control large numbers of workers at one place. Over that, there is the repeatedly emerging need for sudden massive changes in the whole production process. In such a scenario, it becomes increasingly explosive to deal with workers.

-The process of dividing into many factories, the massive factories with large numbers of workers has taken place throughout the world. See the textile industry in India. In these 25 to 30 years, there has been massive increase in production of cloth, but large composite mills with spinning-weaving-processing-dyeing-printing have vanished. No signs are left of well-known textile mills of Mumbai, Indore, Gwalior, Kanpur, Faridabad. There are millions of power looms spread out in Mumbai, Surat etc. in chunks of 10-15-20 power looms. To bring a little more to the fore the special aspect of the present, let's take the auto industry. Today for car production, a very large factory which is spread out over 7,000 500 sq. kilometer area and requiring hundreds of thousands of workers is needed. Managing the costs and especially control over workers is impossible...

Via the path of foundry, moulding machinery, assembly at different places, the creation of auto hub. The division of one factory into thousands of factories. Today Maruti-Suzuki cars are assembled in two factories in Gurgaon. But their part is made in thousands of factories situated in Gurgaon, Faridabad, Okhla, Noida. Many factories-workshops producing over two parts. The directors of thousands of factories working for the main factory, especially the directors of small factories with their personal intervention in production contribute to maintaining the illusion of 'owner'. But getting parts made at thousands of places could not save the world's biggest vehicle manufacturer General Motors from bankruptcy. Companies are paperboats in the ocean of the market.

-On the one hand, massive increase in production and major cut in workers employed through every new machine automation, electronics. On the other hand, tens of millions of pauperized artisans and peasants are being forced into the ranks of wage workers. During the period of steam and coal in tiny England and then Europe, peasants and artisans were destroyed on such a big scale only some of them could become workers in factories. Some became shop-keepers and large number of people were driven out to far-flung America, Australia. In these 100 years, especially in these 50 years there has been a rapid increase in the number of wage workers in India, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Korea, Indonesia. But displacement from Europe had already "filled" America and Australia. Today for tens of millions of pauperized peasants-artisans in Asia, Africa, South America, there are 'no vacant' spaces anywhere to go to. Suicides by hundreds of thousands, getting involved in killing and getting killed. Thousands becoming suicide bombers. If we talk only of India, then here for one job, there are an hundred persons in line.

-When the factory became property of the company, it made stopping production no longer such an effective weapon for workers. During 1980-1990, at various places this bitter truth became visible.

On the basis of experiences, places where workers kept away from strike despite instigations there for major attacks, companies resorted to lock-outs. And then large-scale retrenchment of permanent workers during 1990-2000 did not leave it possible to turn one's face away from this reality. This process made factory-based union follow. So, the matter is not of phony or real representatives. The issue is not of less or more militant struggles. The matter is not 'if we had held on a little bit longer.' When in production work in factories, most of the workers are permanent, even then the importance of struggles confined to a factory had in reality greatly shrunken. Here with 80 to 85% of workers in production work being temporary has rendered the struggles of the 1990-2000 period ancient. The representative system that gives the reigns of 100 in the hands of 5 is ineffective today. To struggle under leader's directions is fatal. Activeness of 95% instead of 5% and steps on the basis of area seem necessary.

-Today production of a thing takes place in thousands of factories situated in thousands of square kilomoters. Across oceans, parts travelling thousands of miles is also signficant. And, the distribution of production has acquired world-wide character. Togetherness-coordination amongst workers of the world is today more indispensable than ever before.

-Nothing will come of blaming a certain person, certain institution. We have to deal with a social relation, social process. Not to 'otherize' anyone, taking each one as co-victim could place a significant role in opening up paths. The social process has engendered a massive apparatus for oppression-exploitation. Confrontations, do-or-die methods is to walk in laid-out traps.

Instead of government strike in an area, consideration of three days continuous holiday-like steps is necessary. In today's conditions, what all can be done to change or transform today's condition? Extensive discussion, conversations about this are necessary.

-Today the chief course of pain-misery is the wages system. The worst thing is wage work. Subordination carries endless pain. Still, most of the efforts to overcome pain get bogged down in the whirlpool of trying to maintain this wages system. The present system based on wages system has today become so hollow that it is desperately trying to stop the making of wage workers. On the other hand, people in very large numbers see becoming wage worker as a relief.

Instead of seeing wage work as that which is imposed by difficult circumstances, it widely considered desirable. Unemployment has become a very big problem. Symptoms of unemployment are increasing very greatly in the near future. Wage workers, peasants, artisans, small shopkeepers, and unemployed are of course in dire straits. But the pain of the Management class that keeps control over the poor is not much less. To be a boss is in reality to be a decorated walking corpse. Therefore, putting the wages system in question is necessary for organizations, organized activity. It behooves us to make efforts for new communities. Efforts to make wage-work bearable to some extent became tools to maintain the present system. And struggles for power are nothing more than the claims for better handling of the wages system.

Giving practical shape to this proposal will depend on the number and activeness of people willing to become one with the proposal. We'll keep informing about the establishment of meeting places (baithaks). Until then, please come to Majdoor Library for interactions.

WHAT ALL DO WE DO...(16)

2010-03-08T08:13:00.000-08:00

(New Series No. 259, January 2010)

A 50 to 55 years old worker: The time that I get up in the morning keeps changing. Now that I have started working as a painter and whitewasher again, I get up at 7 o'clock in the morning...

We were eight brothers and sisters. There was little family land, so my father started working as a mason. After having worked for Kanpur for some time, my eldest brother in addition to the work in the fields, also started work as a mason. I did not like school too much, because you had to endure the teacher’s punishment. I can still remember the beating of the teacher's stick on my back in the 5th grade. So, I stopped going to school then and grazed cows instead.

My father and eldest brother worked in masonry. My two older brothers started working in Faridabad while my younger brother went to school. My sisters were already married at that time. I worked on the field. I ploughed the field with the bullock. I irrigated it with the Persian wooden wheel and bamboo baskets. I made sugar melasse. My uncle would do some of our work and we would do some of his. I would do wage work, but back then you were not paid in cash, but in grain: two to three kilos barley, peas, rice. I had a passion for singing and drama, but my father did not like this...

I was seven years old when I was married. The wedding procession went on foot. My uncle put me on his shoulders and took me along. Eleven years later, my wife was brought to our house. We had a son. I never had money on me. I would have to ask my mother for money. My wife would say one thing or the other...

Constant bickering at home. My wife and my sister-in-law went on and on finding fault with one another. My sister in law ridiculed me - you don't work, you just wander about. In anger, one thing is said and then another- it gets messy. I remained mired down in anger. I refused to work....

I went to Kanpur to my uncle. They hired me at Victoria Mill to remove the ash from the boilers. After two days, I left the job. After wandering around in Kanpur, I returned to the village. I borrowed 50 Rs and after informing my relatives, I left for Ludhiana. I started working in a work-shop manufacturing parts for bicycles. The wage was 130 Rs a month. At that time one kilo of flour was 60 to 70 Paisa and a quarter litre milk was 50 Paisa. I shared a room with another guy, the rent was 20 Rs. We cooked on a sawdust fire. Our expenses for food and so on was 30 to 40 Rs. I then worked in a workshop for engine parts and finally in a factory producing nuts and bolts. There the wage was 180 Rs...I was able to save 100 Rs a month. The telegram with the news about my mother's death reached me after an one week delay…

Because of too much quarreling, I left the factory job and I rejoined at the work-shop when news arrived that my brother had died in an accident in Faridabad… I did not understand English and the management at the workshop did not tell me what had happened, they just stuffed me into a car...

I refused to live in the family home. My older brother called me to Faridabad. There I started working as a helper at the furnaces of Orient Steel factory and at the same time ran the paan (betel nut) shop of my brother's friend. The factory ran on three shifts and after the factory work, I worked four to six hours in the shop. On Sundays I worked sixteen hours in the shop. There was always money in my pockets. One brother’s factory was closed down and in the other brother’s factory, problems were occurring. Because of the shop, I did not stay back to work overtime, making the excuse that my health was bad. The supervisor who had hired me left the job. Two months later, I was forced out of the job.

At the entry gate of Mujesar, I got a paan shop there. I began to sit there every day for 16 hours a day. Claiming that the area was his, a fellow from the village had my shop removed…

I went back to the village for a while, then returned to Faridabad, and got a paan hut in front of Nikkitasha factory in Sector 6. When things became troublesome inside the Escorts plant, the management had decided to open Nikkitasha factory. There was a large population of workers and three buses brought staff from Delhi. Because of this, I used to sell a lot of paan and cigarettes. Then suddenly after about two and a half years, the workers and staff went back to the Escorts plant. My sales dropped to less than a quarter...I moved the hut to Sector 2 in front of Orient Bank, then to Bata Chowk. Tired of it all, I sold the nicely done up hut. I brought my wife and children to live with me in Faridabad…

For two months, I walked around and sold bracelets and stuff which I got on commission from my brother. The profit was 50 per cent per item and you could have a good laugh with the ladies. But small items would also tend to get lost…

I came to the decision to sell vegetables and borrowed 500 Rs from my brother. I bought vegetables and fruits on the market and pushed the trolley through the alleys of the area. You encounter all kinds of people along the way. Together with the vegetable sales I started working on piece-rate in a work-shop doing hand moulding. Around Diwali I also started whitewashing jobs through a contractor. I bought a shack in the slum, sold it, bought another one. The hand moulding requires strength and is rather hot. I was sick of selling vegetables.

I started selling scrap. I walked through the alleys shouting. In order to collect iron, bottles, plastic, copper, alloy I would have to start working at 4 o'clock in the morning. In the morning, the guards sell cheap stuff secretly on the side. I would have to run around till 2 p.m. When the Haryana government banned alcohol drinking, there were less bottles around, then my income went down a lot...

For three months, I worked as a guard at a factory gate in Sector 59. Twelve hours a day, thirty days a month… Because of troubles of sleeping at night, I left the job.

Ten years ago I started whitewashing and painting buildings. I work myself and I also sometimes take two to four workers to work with me. Ten years ago everyone used lime. Today 90 to 100 per cent want their walls painted. To work with lime is not so harmful. Plastic paint is harmful for lungs and eyes. When you scrape the old paint of the wall, chemical dust enters your lungs. The skin on my hands got bad due to the chemicals, The wall paint comes in powder-form and irritates your skin. In the bright sunlight. some of the paints reflect so much that the painter can go blind...

I got myself a ladder on rent and started whitewashing in 2002. The ladder broke - I fell from 18 ft hight. My ankle bones broke in a bad way, I was not able to walk for a year. I lived on savings and the income of one of my boys who started work as an electrician… Then I took another contract for painting and whitewashing... It is because of all the compulsions upon a person that makes a person leave one thing, pick up something else, then make that person wander or return to that same thing…

I am tired of whitewashing. Climbing up, plastering, painting. It is hard, dirty-dusty work and I don't have the capacity to do it any more...

In 2008, I had started selling cigarettes and peanuts on commission. In March 2009, I started selling juice. But in September 2009, I had to return to whitewashing work… The peanuts did not take off and there is heavy work attached to them - standing around from 8 a.m. till 11 p.m. waiting for customers.

I get angry when my wife asks what I have been doing all day. It’s been 30 years that I have left the village. I left with the desire to earn and build a proper house. What I have now is a slum hut. I have lost my courage... I hope my son will take care of us, that he won’t just push us around.

LIFE VS WORK-MONEY, WORK-MONEY

2010-03-04T06:57:00.000-08:00

(New Series No. 186, December 2003)

18-22 years age: Has to earn money. Has come to the city just to earn money. Sitting idle, he thinks, who will feed me, take care of my expenses. 1000,1200,1500 rupees per month pay. Each day 12-16 hours duty. Young, he is slightly flashy in appearance, a bit bouncy in his walk.

28-30 years age: Preoccupied with family expenses. Has to raise kids. Chooses duty over holiday, though it is not what he desires. Will do overtime shifts at single rate. For additional money, he will work 12 to 16 hours shifts or after 8 hours duty finds some other work on the side. The neglect of his body-clothes-relations is increasing.

Above 40: There are no jobs for someone his age. Reluctantly, he is given work- 1,200rupees a month with the condition that he will work 12 hours everyday, 30 days of the month. He is visibly helpless...At every step, people are generating work for money- a shop in the house, shop on a handcart, shop on a cycle, shop on the side of the road...

With this state of things, the one upmanship vis-a-vis neighbors, co-workers, relatives, acquaintances, friends is like the ceaseless and gnawing itching of leprosy.

When will we live? Where is the time to live? And here many of us consider ourselves-humans beings- as the highest creation on earth...

"There is no time to die" people say, but if time is needed to live then conversations about the present social system and creating a new society have to take place.

Probably not for all, but for many living beings, food, water, and shelter, can be considered indispensable necessities. These necessities in themselves give us pleasure and the activities for acquiring them are also pleasurable. But for quite some time amongst human beings, acquiring food, water, and shelter has increasingly become a compulsion, a painful activity. In the present times especially, the majority of people's lives is withering away just in obtaining one's daily bread.

Besides maintaining life and continuing the existence of a species, various kinds of relations amongst a generation and across generations, gives life joy and meaning. Amongst many species, relations are generally harmonious and there is on attachment and affection towards life. But in these 5 to 7 thousand years among humans, there is an increasing tendency to see life as a curse. To escape from the cycle of life is considered emancipation and transcendence! Today, killing time, engaging in time-pass has become extensive.

Among many types of species, one generation exchanges knowledge-skill amongst itself and passes it onto the next generation. Amongst such species, exchanges between children and the aged are generally playful; learning and teaching one another gives both pleasure to both. But with the break-up of community and the advent of hierarchy/rich-poor divisions, relations amongst human beings have begun to be tortuous. To fulfill the needs of the market, an extensive noose and net of schools has emerged to teach and train young ones. This has meant not only the construction of torture houses for children on a wide scale but the increasing break-down of intergenerational relations making the elderly superfluous, transforming the aged into those waiting for death. Old-age homes and 'children are a nuisance' are two sides of the same coin...

Besides human beings, many species accumulate in material form, i.e. add, create, collect. The creation of hives and collection of honey by bees, the stocking of nuts and food by squirrels, the construction of nests by sparrows...Various types of accumulation for making life richer, better, more secure. But since the break-up of community-type societies and the emergence of hierarchic/rich v. poor social systems, accumulation and increasing accumulation is worsening the life of more and more human beings, rendering it more painful and more insecure.

Steps that increase relations with neighbors, co-workers, friends, relatives, acquaintances loosen the noose of work-money. These steps are steps on the path of life, a fruitful life.

Generation after generation, accumulation is intensifying on both macro and micro scales. And both the macro and the micro themselves are intensifying in form. The macro meaning bigger buildings and structures. The micro meaning greater technology, telescopes, minutes research to control populations. The accumulation has become so fearsome and demonic that persons being and not being are rendered almost the same. Increasing loneliness is biting at and absorbing every person. Even the non-living- the air, the water, the earth - has been deformed to such an extent that all living beings, all species are at stake.

The thing is not to blame oneself or this-that-and-the-other. Rather, it is necessary to think and meditate on the bad situation that work-money, work-money has made and is making. It seems necessary to scratch deeply underneath the surface of that which is being eulogized as progress and development by the 'best' among our species - the scholars, researchers, experts, and 'wisemen' and to uncover the vulgarity and absurdity of it's finesse propagation by artist and court jesters. Is there any other alternative to these paths and methods that are being disseminated through our schools, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and films...?

"If there's not enough for me, how can there be spare for you?!" There is an objective basis or criterion to believe that our relations are shrinking in the present system as seen through our time, means, and the energy of our bodies and souls. It is either work-work-work-more-work-more or sit idle, idle, idle...Both are narrow, vicious cycles. Money-money-the obsession-with-money certainly carries inside it many wounds, certainly shows how helpless we feel in the present state. It seems the script of helplessness is written on the wall, but are we really helpless?

See the sparrow... What is life, we must ask? What is a fruitful life?

We human beings have created these conditions. The outcomes of the tussles that have taken place across many generations are in front of us. But the struggles have not stopped. The churning continues. Apart from the old forms, new beginnings, new methods, new paths and efforts to bury the present social system and create a new society are also continuing, are also increasing. It seems necessary to bring in new scales of measurement to recognize and understand the effect or importance of the steps persons are taking both separately and collectively. Then in the place of 'nothing is happening', all that is taking place will become visible to us...

To deepen, increase, widen relations amongst human beings is the path to demolish the existing social system and create a new society on earth.

Reflections

2010-02-28T07:44:00.000-08:00

Observations from an American friend who watched workers on their way to work in Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon

So many people walking to work, reminds me of the scene set in NY City, but even this seems like much more. The difference with the crowds in NY and the Gurgaon flood of people is that, in NY, you find people of all different classes and backgrounds hustling and bustling to different locations. In Gurgaon, everyone seems to come from the same place and they all seem to be traveling in the same direction, all to work in factories, call centers, etc. for low wages, perhaps even under bad conditions. I observed two men limping severely, so much so that they had to use their hands to pick up their leg in order to take the next step. I wonder if it was a work place accident caused by difficult conditions. Regardless of the reason, that didn’t stop them from making their daily trip. It almost seems like a religious procession, everyone seems intent and devoted to their journey. Cars, buses, street vendors and rickshaws break up this constant flow of people, yet everyone continues along without paying them much attention. I took a picture of the scene; in the picture, it is sunny out, some stop to buy food at the stands nearby while others continue to walk along, pleasantly talking to their neighbor. In the picture, you can see that there are a lot of people, but you miss the sense of energy. When I saw the crowds in person, I was overwhelmed by the force of it. I took a picture, but how do I explain what is missing? You have to witness it to understand.

CONVERSATIONS...MORE CONVERSATIONS...BUT WHAT SHOULD WE TALK ABOUT?

2010-02-26T06:49:00.000-08:00

(New Series No. 166, February 2002)

"My father's hip-bone broke. When we four brothers began running around for his treatment then people said, "he's an old man, you, shouldn't bother so much about him." These statements offended us. He was our father, he had brought us up, he had given us parental affection and love- if he has become old, should we forget him? It was not possible to take him on the bus, so we hired a jeep. From the village, we went to Chhapra district (a small city) then to Patna (the capital of Bihar). When our wives starting sneering about who will clean his shit, then we began cleaning him. 32,000 rupees was spent. The bone was joined and our father started walking around again."

"Us three brothers began slogging in the factories and another one stayed back in the village. In most of the factories, the factory pays 1,200 rupees a month (25 US dollars) for an 8 hour day. And if you don't work 12 hours each day, then you cannot make ends meet. Instead of paying wages monthly, they pay it every two months. That means you eat less. The money order that we sent home takes four months to reach. (Because the post office uses the money order as interest, it should only take a week but because of this can take even a year). Family members think we are having lots of fun in the job."

"My father was direly neglected. He was treated with disrespect. One day in anger father went to the field and there poured kerosene oil on his body and lit himself on fire."

Relations based on 'what I get out of it'...Instrumental, shop-keeping relations, keeping accounts of relations, market-engendered behaviors and ideas— this is white darkness...

What do we talk about?

Whether we are talking about children, the elderly or about ourselves, the language of the market creeps in the conversation. The bad situation we are in today has been engendered by the market yet often we advise those for whom we have good heartfelt wishes to make greater efforts in the swamp of the market. Holding the notion that we are doing good, we are in fact part of the tragedy of the bad doings that are now widespread...In the name of making a future for the children, things that feed the present system, take place in every home. The sharp knife of the market is deep down even in us victims. To overcome this poison in us is as important as dealing with or overcoming the market outside. Without creating yardsticks of success in life which are antagonistic to success in the market, the market can not be overcome.

The 'value' of human beings

It has become very common to say that there is no value of human beings today. On the other hand, while introducing a person, it is common to stress his price/market value. This is an expression of human beings becoming a commodity in the market. And this is a result of us all becoming so cheap that the glorification of a person's specialities is establishing new scales of vulgarity and uncouthness.

In fact, in hierarchic social systems, in place of the reality, the image dominates. For image, instead of the normal, the extreme is necessary. Instead of the routine, event is necessary. The stories of slave-owner Ram, slave-owner Ravana, emperor Ashok, emperor Akbar are widely disseminated and propagated, whereas things about slaves and serfs are available in small fragments after a great search. The market system speaks of equality but in fact embodies the height of hierarchic social systems. The market system that has reached the faceless stage today in the form of companies and institutions which has produced an obsession for the desire for faces. The basic tenet has become - "Show that you've achieved something remarkable." The almost universal desire to become leader-actress-player-artist-officer-director-chief carries with it the torture of each body and soul by oneself. The repetition of media-propagated special persons' expressions-looks-lifestyles on our part has become a part of our daily activities. Thinking, discussing humanness instead of the 'value' of human beings will help us recognize these incessant wounds. Efforts to break from the deceit of images are a step on the path of humane behavior.

Making the future

Who doesn't know that competition in the market is endless? Who doesn't know that prices in the market keep changing? Who doesn't know that insecurity is the life-activity of the market?

Superficial, for-show, momentary and instrumental relations are in the character of the market. Is it right to call attempts to build such relations as 'making the future'?

Come, let's begin children.

"Good" schools, costly education, tutoring after school- all these efforts are to increase the price of the child in the market. To hold back on one's own meals and to make the situation of children worse is justified in the name of making children's future. Be it only for the sake of children, isn't it necessary to rethink all this? Instead of crying over compulsions, it seems necessary to raise questions regarding school as such. This is part of questioning the market..For natural, normal relations among generations and for the upbringing of community society....For this necessity, practice is knocking at our doors. So think, reflect, discuss it because we are all getting roasted in this oven.

...FISSURES...FISSURES....FISSURES...

2010-02-03T06:54:00.000-08:00

There are many Iraqs.
There are many Americas.
There are many Indias.
There are many Faridabads.
Where are you-I?

(New Series No. 178, April 2003)

In northern Africa, there are the country-State-governments of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. The armed struggle challenging the government of France's occupation and attempt to form a new government had made Algeria hot news in the 1960's. Like Turkey and Indonesia, Algeria consists of a vast majority of Muslims but in 1964 a secular state was established there. Soon after, public discontent started getting out of the control of the new government. During the elections the secular party lost to the religious party, the latter cancelled the elections and continued its stay in power behind the military. The religious party started an armed struggle for power. During these ten years, the secular and religious gangs were involved in bloodshed for power and only when hundreds were slaughtered did it become news. Beyond the bloodshed taking place to save the secular government and to establish an Islamic government, many other occurrences were taking place but the propaganda apparatus kept aloof from discussing them.

In a little magazine called Willful Disobedience, there is a brief description of a people's uprising that has been going on for 2 years in Algeria. Contending and overcoming old and new obstacles, public activities seem to be creating fissures in the present social system. Rejecting dead-end paths and searching for new ways, people's activities seem to be providing constructive material for alternatives, for creating a new society. Come, let us establish a dialogue with our friends in Algeria for an outline of the next stage of our present daily routine life.

* 70 kms. away from the capital Algiers in the Kabylia region of Algeria. On April 18,2001, police killed a student in Benidola in Tiziozi area. There was opposition. It spread. Outbursts of anger took place. People attacked police stations and military detachments. People attacked with simple tactics like throwing stones, glass-bottles, and lighted glass bottles with one-fourth petrol, burning down police vehicles, police stations, courts. Collective anger spread and every type of gov't office and political party office was attacked. People's rebellion, revolt, uprising, insurgency spread to the whole of Kabylia region and millions of people joined it.

* At the beginning of May 2001, the people's upsurge started efforts to organize itself. It came face to face with the problems of committees, assemblies, councils, affinities, and coordination between all of them. Means necessary for coordination and people who became the means had the danger of becoming or being made into delegates-representatives-leaders. But there were also processes occurring of dealing with these dangers.

* The government of Algeria was unsuccessful in crushing the people's upsurge. By mid-June 2001, government control in Kabylia region was almost completely done away with. To stop, contain, cash in on the people's upsurge, the Front of Socialist Forces (FFS) offered support to the military president to bring about democratic change.

* Boycott of police by the people- people refused to sell food or give and food and other materials to the police. The government was forced to use helicopters and convoys of trucks through heavily armed detachments to supply goods to its other detachments in Kabylia region.

* Opportunists infiltrated the people's upsurge and attempted to manipulate in their own interests. At the end of June 2001, the coordination committee of people's groups refused to meet the representatives of the government. In the middle of July 2001, the coordination of Tiziozi drafted an oath of honor, respect, commitment to be taken by those people becoming means for coordination parts of which are:

-- not to be involved in any activities or acts whose aim is to make direct or indirect links with State power and its touts
-- not to use the people's upsurge in the interest for factional interests
-- not to use it for electoral competition or any other process for capturing power
-- not to accept any political appointment in institutions of power

* The attempts of leftists and unions to infiltrate the people's uprising and abduct it for their interests was defeated by the people. During the mass strike in Kabylia on July 26th, 2001, "Throw out the traitors! Throw out the unions!" slogans were in wide circulation and discussion.

* Government officials secretly contracted with such people who supported the idea of compromise with government. At this in mid-August, people threw out all government officials from Soumma Valley (a region in Kabylia). Soon after, all government officials from the whole of Kabylia region were forced out by the people. Mujahideen Minister had to cancel his tour of Tiziozo and the Home Minister was greeted by showers of stones when he came to install the new governor.

* At the beginning of October 2001, the government banned the demonstration being organized to give a charter to the President demanding the release of prisoners, withdrawal of cases, and recalling of police. The government used anti-insurgency armed bans in large numbers to disperse the demonstrators. On October 11, 2001, the coordination-arch and other self-organized meetings and committees, inter-regional coordination decided that no charter demand will be given to any government representative.

* It was also decided that the issue was beyond completely beyond negotiations and anyone who would accept to talk or discuss with the government would be boycotted.

* People stopped paying their taxes and bills. People refused compulsory service in the army.

* On December 6, 2001, people who claimed to be representatives or delegates of the coordination planned to meet the head of the government. The whole of Kabylia region was shut down in protest. People surrounded police barracks and there were violent confrontations. In Amizor, offices of the gas company, tax department, and Mujahideen national organization were burned down. In Elqesaeur, the court and the judge's houses were attacked.

* Roads were obstructed. On February 7, 2002 outside the United Nations office in the capital, people were arrested. People had quarantined the police in barracks. When the police again came onto the roads, there was a mass strike in all of Kabylia. At different places, people assembled in front of police barracks and confrontations with police took place at different places.

* At the end of February 2002, the president declared elections for May 30. In response, the people captured ballot boxes and administrative documents and burnt them. To appease the people, the President withdrew police from two different cities and offered to negotiate.

* At the people's no-compromise assertion, the government again began making large-scale arrests. On March 25, 2002, government forces attacked that theater in Tiziozo which was being used as an office for the coordination. The government issued arrest warrants against 400 'representatives' of the coordination-arch.

* Increasing oppression was met by increasing opposition. On May 20, 2002, when the President went to Algiers University, then the students demanding the release of prisoners greeted the President by showering him with stones. The next day the students took over the University.\

* In May 30, 2002, less than 2% polling took place in Kabylia region. People put up barricades in streets, on roads. Municipalities, government building, election offices were taken over. And burnt ballot boxes were littered on the roads.

* To derail the people's upsurge on June 19, 2002 with the mediation of two representatives, the government prepared a proposal and permitted prisoners to meet and discuss it. People at large rejected 'representatives'. The prisoners refused to accept a proposal that contained their conditions of release for reaching a compromise with the government. With the people's upsurge continuing in August 2002, the government of Algeria released the prisoners and declared to hold elections in October 2002. Again confrontations of people with the police took place in different places. Despite the participation of Socialist Forces Front (SFS), merely 10% voting took place in Kabylia in place.

* The gov't could not have its way despite a second election within a year. In the last week of October 2002, the government again began a major attack on the people. Government armed bands are raiding those places where people hold meetings and coordination groups meet. Arrests and torture occurred. Prisoners went on hunger strikes.

* From amongst the people and from the government side, hundreds have been killed and thousands injured. Despite this, people's uprising in Kabylia region has not come to a halt. For two years continuously, this people's upsurge has not allowed itself to be hijacked. Therefore, the propaganda apparatus is keeping mum about it. But it is necessary for ordinary people to discuss this people's upsurge. New language, new words, new idioms, new meanings seem necessary. And the continuing world-wide churning is making these indispensable.

In this people's upsurge there is no leader, there is no party, there is no charismatic spokesperson. Behind this people's upsurge, there is no letter-like hierarchic organization. There is no pyramid-like organization. Instead of being controlled and directed from above, this people's surge has attempted to organize itself. Opposite to top-down or bottom-up approaches...here those who are at the bottom and have attempted a wider coordination by keeping those who are like them as themselves. As necessary means of coordination, people have been decided upon but they have not been given the rights of representation, delegation, leadership. It is not that everyone is alike or that everyone is equal rather...rather it has been that they are not unequal. Therefore, for two years, this people's upsurge has continued and parties, unions, politicians are other opportunist elements have not been able to hijack it, exploit it.

Government-power seeks, creates mediums-middle persons. Compromise means the present itself! Attempt after attempt to engender, become a representative, delegate, leader.

People surrounding confronting the armed bands of the government had placards in their hands in which was written "You cannot murder us, we are already corpses."

This people's upsurge is against all those in power, all those contending for power, all those anxious for power.

ON ANIMALS

2010-01-25T03:17:00.000-08:00

(New Series No. 186, December 2003)

Even today, sparrows sing and dance for quite some time. For most human beings, most time is absorbed in the obsession for money.

Since domestication, donkeys are being made to carry loads but thankfully Donkey Resource Development Departments have not flourished and even today donkeys happily neigh. Human beings were already the topmost load carriers, but now, medicine, psychiatry, Human Resource Development Departments have made humans incomparable in load-carrying by cutting, molding, and transforming our body-minds-and-souls.

Dogs fight once in awhile but amongst street dogs, there is generally friendship. Often, in the morning and evening, dogs play, and that too, not warlike competitive sports. In contrast, human beings today engage in an uninterrupted process of preparation for competition and antagonistic conflicts.

In forests, pigs ate roots and branches and to cool off, lay in clean, wet soils. By domesticating, and bringing them into cities, we have made pigs anonymous with dirtiness. But compared to the pig's body, if you look at our hearts and souls, perhaps there is nothing more dirty than us human beings...

Before calling someone donkey, ass, dog, pig, it is necessary to consider whether donkey, ass, dog, pig is being insulted or the human beings who are being called by these names are being praised!

WHAT KINDS OF METHODS? WHAT KINDS OF PATHS?

2010-01-19T10:02:00.000-08:00

(New Series No. 190, April 2004)

Aged worker : "I worked for 22 years in East India Cotton Mill. East India Factory is closed since 1996 and till today I have not gotten all my dues (some monthly wages, severance pay, and gratuity). In these 8 years, after being shuffled from place to place, now I am working as a security guard in a factory in Sector 59. I see young boys and girls come to the factory gate every day in search for a job. I see those who are hired are squeezing and being squeezed by the demand for production. I feel sad when I see young people with tired, weary faces, coming out of the factory after duty and overtime. In our time, we used to go to factory gates with a desire for a permanent job but now merely for 5, 6 months employment, I see crowds gathering at the gate. I am troubled to see disheartened faces return upon not being hired. It seems that the dues of my 22 years service have drowned but at least during my time there was the possibility of permanent job and service dues. For this generation, there is absolutely nothing like dues. After 6 months, there is a certain break in service; there is dismissal. Today workers are being squeezed too greatly. What has happened to us happened, but what will happen to our children?"

* What has passed was better. The present is beyond tolerant…Should this cycle remain than life in the future is impossible…

* Neither any person, nor any institution, nor any place is worth trusting. All around there is insecurity and insecurity.

* One cannot do anything…One can do everything…Getting slapped between extremes is your destiny. Sometimes, one extreme and sometimes the other extreme...this crushes the body and soul. Balancing has been made impossible by the reality.

* Since one has been born, one has to pass the time. If we think too much then the result will be self-sacrifice or suicide. Nothing will change.

* Conditions will only go from bad to worse. This is not an expression of some desperation or pessimism. This is a statement of the bitter truth of reality. This type of expression appears clearly during thought and reflection whether a person speaks after having thought over things or the person speaks in an emotional state...This psychic condition appears to be worldwide. This can be called a reflection of the present social system. It seems that the human species has become a victim or prey of social psychosis.

What Not To Do

* Increasing difficulties will certainly engender anger. And given what exists, there must be anger. But what should our anger be directed towards?

* Through extremely active leaders and around them an active 5 to 10% population, attaining well-being remained a dream. Relief did not emerge. Conditions have only gone from bad to worse. Demonstration-meeting-movement-contributions have proved to be ineffective. They have been also harmful by becoming the medium for negotiations- deals at the cost of workers/laborers. In such a situation, it is a good thing that people in increasing numbers are distancing themselves from this. New leaders, new emancipators are a mirage. To repeatedly utilize them is not a negation but rather, a confirmation of our helplessness.

* Revolt, insurgency, revolution, uprising are said to be big, heavy words- "we have to raise children." This mantra was already widespread and now it has become even more widespread. The dominance of these practices-ideas of moving forward, climbing higher, holding on in the arena of the present social system- carries with it a worsening of our present situation. Instead of opposing human beings becoming commodities in the market, human beings are increasingly engaging in more and more competition. Presently, what is being done is:

- More members of the family working.
- More people are buying and displaying goods to show-increase one's status
- Wages are low. Do overtime. Don't take weekly leave. Go for work even when one is ill. Search for part-time work. Make children work.
- There is uncertainty and more uncertainty. In search of security, do additional work on top of one's job. Throttle one's interests. Not take any rest. Not meet with anyone "without vested interest."

* This simple solving of our bad condition only increases our bad condition.

Revolts against bosses, against the desire to be boss.

What To Do

"If we oppose, they'll throw us out."
"Opposition is simply not possible."
"Opposition has no effect- no one bothers."
"People are not ready to oppose- people don't give support."

These types of expressions show the current meaning of opposition. Yardsticks that measure opposition and the effect of opposition are the measuring rods of those sitting on heads and shoulders in hierarchic systems. All that is meaningful is visible, immediate, and in concrete form. Such yardsticks are really just a means to show ordinary people as not having any importance.

But it is ordinary people and ordinary life that is what is really important. We need those methods-paths which instead of making-showing the ordinary activities of ordinary people as helpless-insignificant establish their capability, their importance.

Insurgency against the market, against human beings becoming a commodity in the market.

As it is, ordinary people's ordinary work has played an important role in creating this vicious-demonic situation. Similarly, if ordinary people take ordinary steps in opposition then it'll not take long for the present to become the past. Lifting pebbles by the finger can be done by every one, every day. This lifting of pebbles through coordination will erase the Himalayas of oppression-exploitation.

The basis of respect for person, social respect for person is mutual good behavior and togetherness. It appears necessary to make these the means and aim of a fruitful-successful life.

Our labour worsens our conditions. As much as we labor, so much more is lost. New machines, ever new knowledge, instead of providing relief, is our misfortune. Our savings, accumulations are not only smashing human beings but rather the whole earth is being smoldered. In the name of straightforwardness, everything is topsy-turvy. It is necessary to think and consider from a new angle.

"If there is some vested interest then we'll certainly meet."
Whereas meeting is that meeting where one meets without any vested interest.

LETTER FROM LONDON

2009-12-30T23:59:00.000-08:00

(New Series No. 258, December 2009)

A late letter from London. I started working for a temp agency which hires street sweepers, waste loaders, street sweep-truck drivers. I work on a street sweeping truck, I sweep stuff from the pavement into the vacuum-brush of the truck.

When they hire people at the agency they say that you might get a public sector contract, a direct contract with the council. Then you might earn 18,000 to 20,000 pounds a year as a street sweeper. We get less than the minimum wage, about 5.50 Pounds per hour. This is about 750 Pounds per month if you work eight hours a day, five days a week, this would be 9,000 Pounds per year – less than half of the council workers pay. At the agency they tell you that you will get working clothes after six months, but the workers I talked to worked as agency workers since two or three years and they still did not have working clothes. For most single rooms in London you pay 80 to 100 Pounds a week– meaning that you can just ‘survive’ on the minimum wage – live in a room and eat basic.

A lot of guys work seven days a week, some work double shifts. The Polish truck driver I worked with yesterday takes speed (drugs), he worked 72 hours this week. London is based on this low wage maintenance work. The unemployment is high, entry wages are low, criminality is high. This creates quite a lot of pressure on people. And absurdities: I need a cycle to go to work, because buses and metro-trains are expensive. I bought a second-hand cycle for 50 pounds, the cheapest you get, I guess it has been stolen and then sold by someone who tries to survive – then I bought it. I get a cheap cycle, but I have to leave the cycle in the open at a bus stop – I would have to spend 100 pounds on a good lock in order to feel safe and sure that it is still there after work. On the main street we sweep five young guys were shot last month – gang war, poverty crime. In the estate where I live a group of young guys sweep the streets at weekends. They are supervised by an officer. They wear vests saying ‘Community Pay Back’ – a kind of chain gang. They have been caught committing poverty crime, and now they have to sweep. On our vests it says: For a cleaner Borough. The wages are too low to meet urban desires.

The truck driver I normally work with is from Algeria. He has to drive the truck through very busy London traffic, he has to operate the mechanical brushes and vacuum cleaning device at the same time. At the same time he is on the mobile phone talking to friends he has no time to see. I prefer walking down the streets sweeping – you have more time to think. Because you normally only sweep your own rooms it feels a bit like you extend your home into London city centre. Walking leaves more time to observe. Beggars in London normally sit next to cash-machines of banks. As a cleaner you feel a bit like a ‘city worker’, you can connect more easily with post workers or other people working in the open. People often ask you for the way. I don’t have to walk too much, the routes are quite short, may be seven miles in total. Sometimes we have to work on the truck, change the mechanical brushes etc., but that does not take long. We can finish our round in four hours. We wait somewhere sitting in the truck for an hour. I leave work after six hours, but get eight hours paid. The truck driver cannot do this, he has to return the truck – chained to the machine. All sweepers leave early. This makes the job o.k. The ‘productivity’ is the councils main target.

We had a meeting with the management yesterday, about 30 sweepers. They have a investigation team running around to score the cleanliness. We had 4 per cent litter, which is a good score. But the manager is not happy with people leaving the job early. He said that last month 50 per cent of the people were seen leaving the job early. He first talks about the productivity bonus (this is only for the permanent workers) – which is nine per cent of the wage. He threatens to cut the bonus if people continue to leave early. He then also talks about disciplinary measures. I was afraid that the truck driver would be scared after this talk, but they are used to management talk. This day of the meeting I left even earlier then usual. Even the recruitment agency knows that people leave early and they try to sell you the job as a good job because of that.

There is ‘first world’ and ‘third world’ close together: the sweeping trucks are highly equipped with technology, cameras etc. They must cost more than 500,000 pounds. The license to drive it costs about 800 Pounds on top of the normal driving license, which is 1,500 Pounds. High-tech for long hours of work. This is the ‘first world’. Early in the morning at around 4:30 the ‘third world’ arrives at the depot: workers who have no contract, but who are on stand-by. They wait and see if a worker with a contract does not turn up for work, then they can get a day job. If not, they have to go home again. Today I met one of them, he worked double shift, as well.

In Leeds yesterday an 11 weeks strike of bin men and street cleaners finished. The council had threatened to cut annual wages by 5,000 Pounds. The strike was bitter, glued depot locks, the council hired 100 temp workers, 950 had applied for the ‘scab-jobs’, some violence at the picket. In the end the wage cuts are not as bad, but the union agreed to a ‘productivity scheme’. The council wanted to enforce an average time of 13 seconds for getting the bin from the street, emptying it into the truck and returning it. In Brighton they have abolished bins for each household, people have to walk down the street to bring the waste to a huge container themselves – this is then emptied with the accumulated rubbish of 80 houses. Under the impact of the crisis there is a wider productivity drive: our friend was on strike in the Post Office, they want to introduce new sorting machines. In the supermarket Tesco, people scan their items themselves and pay at machines, no cashier worker necessary, one cashier supervises five machines and helps people to check out their shopping themselves. More unemployment, more pressure on wages, more crime…

SOME LINKS

2009-12-24T11:38:00.000-08:00

Under the Blogroll, we have added these links:

China Study Group
*news posted about workers in China

Collective Action Notes
*some English translations of FMS's first page from 2003-2004 can be found here

Faridabad Workers News
*here you can find video footage about the condition of workers in the national capital region (Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad)

Gurgaon Workers News
*updates on workers in Gurgaon, Haryana

Kamunist Kranti
*here you can find Questions for Alternatives, Ballad Against Work, Marx's Critique of Political Economy, and Self-Activity of Wage Workers

Subcontinental Upheaval
*monthly discussion and working group out of London

Towards Autonomous Transformations: FMS
*a description of our work

GORAKHPUR AND GURGAON: SOME QUESTIONS

2009-12-13T05:56:00.000-08:00

(New Series 257, November 2009)

In an effort to clarify some questions, we’ll discuss only the factories. 70 to 75% workers working in factories in Faridabad, Okhla (Delhi), Gurgaon are ‘invisible.’ ¾ of workers working in the factories are not in the factories according to the factory and gov’t documents and records. This is the meaning of ‘there is no ESI.’ (ESI stands for Employee State Insurance which is legally compulsory for every factory worker. Where ESI does not exist, the worker does not exist in the factory records. To Provide ESI 1.75% of wages are deducted and the company contributes approximately 4.75%.) 80 to 85% of factory workers are not given the statutory minimum wages set by the governments of Delhi and Haryana. In factories, 12 hours work every day is common. And 98 to 99% “extra time” alias over time is not shown and the payment is at single rate instead of double rate. Conditions in other areas under the control of the gov’t of India is not different than the above. Here on August 15, 1847, the government gained independence from providing residence to factory workers.

Based on conversations with a permanent worker, Rico Auto Industries, 38 kilometer Delhi-Jaipur National Highway, Gurgaon:

It’s a big factory. After casting in iron and aluminum through machining, various parts of vehicles are made. The company has factories in Ludhiana, Dharuheda, Manesar. Rico Auto, Continental Rico, Magna Rico, FCC Rico…In these factories, work of Hero Honda, Maruti-Suzuki, Honda, Ford, General Motors etc is done. Work has to be performed standing and after 8 1/2 hours duty, they force you to keep working. Even on weekly rest day, shift workers have compulsory duty. Payment of overtime is at single rate. They keep increasing the production target and for not completing the production target, they harass us. Wages are said to be 5,500 but really 4,200 are given. Basic wages are low and there are various allowances. Leave Travel Allowance (LAA) money is cut from the wages each month and given at the end of the year when LAA is supposed to be provided by the company. In the canteen, bad food for more money. No arrangement for transport. Despite many efforts, workers get tired of asking but many of the permanent workers also are not given ESI card. In this situation, permanent workers keep quitting jobs and new ones become permanent. ITI & MSC are taken as trainees. Permanent workers are 2,000 to 2,500. Through 2 contractors, as many as 2,500 workers have been hired. I don’t know about their condition…To overcome their difficulty, permanent workers put in 1,000 rupees each, that is 20 lakh rupees collected and joined the union. The big leader of the union converses with the Chief Minister-Prime Minister. In August, things started heating up. On September 21, when the company suspended 16 permanent workers, then no permanent worker entered the factory.

Workers hired through contractors also stayed out. Workers sat at the factory gates all day, even cooking their meals there. Leaders came to give speeches. Company hires new people. Production goes on. Goods enter and leave the factory. Sec. 144 forbids a gathering of 5 or more people at a place. Stay 50 meters away from the gate. Police took away the tents and mats. Arrests and bail. In support of unions in Sunbeam and Rico factories many unions together held a big meeting on September 25th. Normal production continues in other factories of the company. Due to prolonged time and the Diwali festival on the 17th, there were a smaller number of workers at the factory gate. The company organized an attack on October 18th in which a worker died and many were injured. Unions called strikes in 50 factories on October 20, 80-90 thousand workers did not work. Work came to a standstill for three days in the factory. One boss was beaten. Leaders did not allow the National Highway to be blocked. The company gave 5 to 10 lakh rupees to the family of the dead worker. No arrest in the murder case. Though the Labour Department–Chief Minister got negotiations started between the Management and union on Oct. 22nd. The Company restarted production in the factory through new hires on October 23rd. Negotiations are continuing. Leaders are keeping all things to themselves. This time they are not telling anything to the workers because... In 1998, when an attempt was made to form a union, the leader had sold out, we don’t know what is there in the demand notice, what the conditions are…Production is continuing in the factory. Pressure on the company is decreasing…Conversations-negotiations are on. Workers hired through contractors have dispersed. Where can we permanent workers go? Despair, full of rage, enraged. This week something is bound to…Union has started a relay-hunger strike from November 2nd.

*In eastern Uttar Pradesh in Bargadwa Industrial Area of Gorakhpur. On June 15, 600 workers of Ankur Udyog stopped work for statutory minimum wages etc. For the same thing, 300 workers of V.N. Dyers on June 23rd and 300 workers of U.N. Textile Mill stopped work on June 28. After an agreement was reached, work commenced. In these 3 factories on July 13th, Joint Front for the Struggle of Workers Rights was formed in the area. 1,000 workers of modern laminators and modern packaging on August 3rd demanded statutory minimum wages, ESI etc from the Labour Department. 10 rounds of negotiations. After the negotiations of August 21st, the company closed the gates at night to the workers at the gates. After finishing the shift at 10 p.m., workers at the factories also started gathering there. On September 11, hundreds of workers set up camp in the court premises and started cooking food. Gov’t Administration became active and gave assurance of a written agreement. At the Deputy Labour Commissioner’s office, Management explicitly refused to give statutory minimum wages. And the Co. which had been calling it an ‘illegal strike’ on September 13th put up a notice of a lock-out. Workers of many factories demonstrated on September 14th and burnt law books. 10 days assurance, on the fixed day of September 23rd, Gov’t Administration and co. did not appear for negotiations…

Hundreds of workers marched 5 miles to the District Administrator’s office and began preparations for cooking. Agreement on September 24th, workers hired through contractors and 18 other more active workers were refused a job. All the workers blocked the gate. Police, armed police. Agreement. Again not implemented. Hunger strike at District Administrator’s office on October 14th forcibly removed. On October 15th, 4 persons very active in the movement were called for negotiations by the Administration and beaten and sent to jail. All around opposition…Announcement of civil disobedience in Gorakhpur from October 21st. Strike by workers in 5 factories on October 21st. Strike by workers in 5 factories on October 20th and workers of 2 other factories joined the strike the next day. The Administration released the 4 persons who were jailed the night of October 21st…Seeing no other way, workers of modern laminators and modern packaging resigned in mass. And these two factories are closed till beginning of November. Lack of Alternatives…

(Information from Satyam, Katyayani; “Bigul” (69 Baba ke Purva, Paper Mill Road, Nishat Ganj, Lucknow 226006. Sanyukt Majdoor Adhikar Sangharsh Morcha, L.I.G.-II, 414 Vikas Nagar Bargadwaj, Gorakhpur).

Craft, trade, craft and trade unions narrowness has been known since 150 years. Craft-trade unions becoming harmful or dangerous to workers came to be realized in practice 90 years ago. Organizing workers on the basis of factory instead of trade was understood to be a viable alternative. Industrial unions were formed. To increase production on the basis of line system industrial unions soon became a tool to keep workers in control. Between unionized workers and those without unions, big differences in wages and allowances emerged. Extremely small minority of union workers got caught in the encirclement of fear and arrogance. Acceleration in the condition of the majority of workers went from bad to worse.

Automation and especially emerging electronics has made it possible to learn to work in the factory in a very short time. Together with this, the number of workers necessary for production of work decreased very rapidly. Number of unionized workers in the world has shrunk quite a lot.

Here in India, normally in factories only permanent workers are made members by the unions. And in these 20 years, percentage of permanent workers in the factory is between 0 to 10/15% only. Old factories that did not close down and where companies could not succeed in large scale retrenchement are exceptions. An articulate aspect of the reality today in factories here is that 80 to 90% of workers are temporary- casual workers, workers hired through contractors. Social death and social murder of peasants and artisans is pushing tens of millions in the ranks of workers at increasing pace. Large chunk of those who do anything for money has come into existence.

In Gurgaon in these 10 to 15 years, new factories have come up rapidly. Young workers are the overwhelming majority in these factories. At some factories, there are very small numbers, while at others more permanent workers are prominent. The pain that is borne of being a wage worker is also boiling in these young permanent workers. The function of established unions is to make these workers controllable/pliable.

80-90% of workers in the factories are casual workers. Those who work for 2 months here and for 6 months there. Who are not paid even the statutory minimum wages. Such workers are outside the frame of industrial unions…For the creation of a new society, these workers are freed from many types of shackles.

In Gorakhpur, questions regarding new forms of organizations, new methods of struggle are knocking at the door. In Gurgaon, it is not the talked about cases of Honda, Sunbeam, Rico Auto but rather the steps of 2,500 workers hired through pro contractors in Delphi; sudden stoppage of work by 4,500 workers in the spare parts factory of Hero Honda in Gurgaon; stoppage of work by 3,000 workers hired through contractors in Honda Motorcycle and Scooter factory against the Magement union agreement; stoppage of work by Eastern Medikit by casual workers on delay in wage payment…Workers are engaged in searching, making, forming, new paths.

In these conditions, the question before us is what all we should not do; what all we should do; how to go about it.

WHAT ALL DO WE DO...?

2009-12-12T05:56:00.000-08:00

(New Series No. 176, February 2003)

I am 32 years old. I work in a big company. My job is collecting dues from factories and offices situated in Faridabad and depositing them in the Delhi office. I work 6 days out of the week. I have to go to Delhi 18 to 20 days out of the month and in those days, my duty is from 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. On other days, from 9 to 6. My work is such that my body is getting out of shape. During these 4 months, every day I get up at 5:30 in the morning. I drink a lot of water and after going to the toilet, I go for a walk. We five, seven neighbors go for a 4 kilometer long walk and do half an hour exercise. While walking, we have a discussion on some topic. Here and in other places also, I have a lot of difficulty when similar people amongst themselves try to show themselves as superior or important.

We are all working. All are staff members. Some in Purchase, some in Accounts, some in Sales. We don't consider ourselves workers. In our definition, a worker is one who goes on a bicycle, has his lunchbox on his back, and a bidi lit in his mouth. But we all are bothered by more work and low wages. If someone falls ill in the family, then a thousand to fifteen hundred have to be spent and it takes many months to recover from such a blow.

Refreshed by a walk and exercises, I return home by 7:15 a.m. My wife is often asleep till then. We have two children- three and a half and another one and a half years old. I wake my wife up and together we have tea and read the newspaper. Twenty days in the month, I make the morning tea. If the children wake up, then we are able to have tea together and I read the paper alone. I have a bath at 8:30 a.m. and by then the children are usually awake. By placating them, and sometimes leaving the girl child crying, my wife makes breakfast and lunch, I pick up my bag after breakfast, take my son for a quick ride on the scooter and then leave for work at 9.

Collecting dues is a very difficult job. At some places, they put the condition of first getting the machine repaired. At many places, the customer is short of money and makes excuse upon excuse. At many places, the system is so inefficient and clogged, payment is tied up. Everywhere, there is a demand from me for New Year and Diwali festival gifts. And sometimes, there is even a demand for bribes.

From one place to another, throughout the day, I'm busy running around on my scooter. At every place, I have to be a gentleman before entering. These days I have to remove my muffler, remove my gloves, take off my windbreaker etc. It's compulsory to wear a tie but I don't wear it and instead keep it in my bag and only put it on before entering the Delhi office at 6 p.m. We consider the person who wears a tie to have monthly wage of 20,000 rupees. But they only give me 8,000. If they give me 20,000, then I'll accept the punishment of wearing a tie. Tie is the definition of gentleman.

At every place, I have to go through the process of enquiry and an enter myself in the register with my name, address, and work. Meet the dealing clerk in the Account department. If the check is ready, take it, otherwise wait till the next date. Out of 30 places at least 20 offer me tea. In dealing with one customer, it takes 30 to 45 minutes. One, then second, then third...Sometimes, at 1 p.m., or at 2. I have lunch and again that factory-office round. Work is such that I have some flexibility. Therefore, there is some possibility for shifting time depending on my mood or other work. But the pressure of work is such that whether there is desire or not, one has to go to the customer. On average, I go to 30 customers. The need for money smothers my body and soul and the company has also put out the bait of commission.

When I have to go to Delhi, then at 4:30 p.m., I park my scooter at Old Town or Balabgarh and catch the train. Then I take a bus to the company office. There I meet 8,10 people like myself.

Giving a report and listening to the boss about this or that takes an hour or two. I take a bus and then the train back home. I pick up the scooter from the station and reach home at 9, 9:30 pm. Sometimes, the children are asleep, sometimes they are awake. After a wash, have my meal at 10. After dinner, my wife and I used to go for a walk at night but we've stopped this because of the winter. Now we talk about something that occurred in the day and watch t.v. for awhile. When I was a student I used to come from the village to Faridabad to watch films but now in these four years, I have not seen a single film in the hall. I don't feel like it. I am fed up with the job. I want to leave the job but where can I go? We sleep at 11 pm.

**************************

I am not yet 35 years old. My husband and elder son both work. I look after the house and also earn some money from stitching and embroidery. Every day I get up at a.m. I have to go out for latrine in the open. It is dark. I fear pigs and dirty men. (Men sit and hide). It's forced on us. I have to prepare for it. After coming back, I fill up water from the public tap. If it is not crowded, it takes twenty minutes, otherwise it takes an hour.

After bringing water, washing the dishes, cleaning the place then I cut the vegetables and grind the spices. I don't use readymade spices. My husband works in Okhla now and he has to catch the 7:40 a.m. train. On one stove, I cook vegetables and on the other I make rotis (bread) after kneading the flour. Sometimes, on the kerosene stove, I have to heat up the water because my two kids have to get ready for school. After the vegetables are ready, I make tea. My husband has to leave home at 7:15 a.m. to catch the train. The children leave at 7:45. In the morning, they have breakfast of roti and vegetables and then drink tea. My husband also takes his rotis. The children come back at 1 p.m. and eat. After I've completed my work then if some tea is left, I drink that or I make another cup. I drink tea but I don't feel like having breakfast. I heat up water and have a bath. Then I wash the dishes, broom the place, fold up the beds. I work very fast but still it is ten to 11 before it's over and if some guests come in it takes more time. Then I take rest for an hour or two.

I again fill up water in the morning from the public tap. I have to collect water three times in a day. Then work for money. I stitch a pajama for ten rupees. An underwear for five. A petticoat for ten rupees. Contractors bring clothes from factories on which I do embroidery at piece rate. It is 4 to 5 p.m. By the time I bring milk and vegetables from the market, it is time to start preparing for dinner. Taking it all into consideration, it means that I cannot take care of my body. There is no time for myself.

My eldest son has night duty for 15 days in the month. Today he has night duty. He has to go at 8 p.m. from the house. I had prepared food by 7 because if he leaves immediately after a meal, then he'll have a stomach. He eats one hour before and takes some rest. At this time, he is also ill. His duty is of 12 hours. From 8 p.m. till 8 a.m. tomorrow, the boy of 17 years old has to stand at a plastic-moulding machine for 12 hours every day. I feel a lot of pain. I wish he didn't have to work but he is forced to. How can I have him sitting idle at home?

By 9:30 p.m., everyone is free and lies down for bed and watches T.V. Sometimes, I am not able to sleep the whole night because of worries. When I've fall ill, I worry about who will do my work as my son and husband go to work and my children go to school. If you take help from someone then one fears the false allegations by neighbors of having a 'loose' character. My daughter is getting older (she is 13) and I keep thinking about her. I have to carry so many burdens, yet have to still keep going. How can I go on? I have not even lived half of my life. My blood-pressure goes down very low and I have very bad thoughts. If I die, what will happen to my children? Now I don't feel like meeting people whereas earlier I used to get-together a lot with people. Now my daughter has become a great support for me.
When I was 12 or 13 years old, I was married. And my husband and I stayed like two friends. Our children respect us. Again and again I try to convince myself that my children will support me. Like others’ children, my sons will not leave for their marriage. The fear of being left alone in old age...I cut down on meals to save some money so that at least their greed for money will make our children look after us in old age.

When I get too tired then I become irritated and think why is this life being given to me? Death is better than this life.

I FEEL LIKE BECOMING A TERRORIST

2009-12-08T08:15:00.002-08:00

(New Series No. 237, March 2008)

Young Wage Worker: In 6 months, they definitely terminate your job. Many a time, a month passes before one gets work in any place. When 10 days pass of sitting idle, then hopelessness increases. One feels like dying…To commit suicide is a sin. I stop myself from doing so by saying suicide is a sin.

Manager of a factory supplying parts to Maruti, Suzuki car factories: There is more work with power presses. There is no count of fingers getting chopped. In these 2 years, 18 workers’ hands are being cut from the wrist. This is not to be shown in the records therefore treatment is done through private doctors. Seeing all this, I feel a lot of pain. My helplessness causes still more pain to me.

70 years old retired professor: Reading the newspaper early in the morning ruins my mood. How many disgusting things…My conscience says shoot these leaders and officers.

Those who were earlier villagers: Another young man of Mujesar village has recently committed suicide. Villages on whose land the factories of Faridabad stand, large numbers of the residents of these villages are in the grip of addiction. Rent from rooms is the main source of income for many of them. Young people full of arrogance and intoxication won’t even listen to their elders.

20 year old worker: Every day 12 hours. When there is more demand for the goods, then each day it is 16 hours of work. No day off in a week. No day off in a month. It is forced, if you don’t stay for 12-16 hours then there is no job. Payment at hourly rate. Whether it is second hour or 15 hour, the rate is the same. Production is not according to an hourly rate. Initially, for a new piece, if they set a time of 10 minutes then by reducing it, they make it 9, 8, 7, 6 minutes per piece. Then there is plus, minus, deduction if the production is less than what was set…

Lining charge and master constantly reprimand us. Why do we not oppose this? Why do we grapple to achieve the target? Why don’t people think? I get very angry. I feel like blowing away the bosses. I feel like becoming a terrorist.

*We are not happy with what there is. We want change.

-Each one of us goes to great lengths to change one’s conditions. From stretching our body to killing our conscience….What all we don’t do…A few people, one in many, are able to fulfill their desires. But, on looking back, these things which were considered very important are in reality found to be insignificant. All around conditions are going from bad to worse…Our efforts are failing.

-A common understanding is “the system itself is bad.” That solutions for people’s problems cannot be found for each person separately has also become a common understanding. That our condition will only change by transforming society also became a common understanding. And yet it seems that our efforts to transform our society has reached a level of stagnation.

*Discontent from the present used to be expressed prominently in demonstrations, strikes, confrontations with the police, armed revolts. That is a fact that throughout the world in these 100 years, but the success of meeting-strike-revolt has proved to be a failure. In the whole world, factories have been increasing, the number of workers has been increasing, size of the family has been shrinking., women working alongside men has been increasing, hours of wage-work have been increasing, pace of work has been increasing, insecurity is increasing…

Discontent has been increasing. Rage has become explosive. Throughout the world, their expression in meeting-strike-confrontation decreased greatly. Workers, following leaders is not seen often.

*What to do? Where to go?

We are very well aware of the personal importance of our own steps. The practical importance of our coordinations at workplaces and residences is known to all of us. In our opinion, in this extremely difficult environment, it is necessary to think and consider the extensive importance of our own coordinations and steps.

One person participates in many coordinations. Some coordinations of the old type are loosening, breaking but for a person to participate in new coordinations is becoming easier. Conditions have increasingly become such that a bond can easily coordinate with many bonds. These can take us beyond I-department-factory-neighborhood and provide a larger space. With ease, we can create world-wide coordinations.

-Coordinations which are outside of the bounds of practical/pragmatic interests are necessary and it is not difficult to form them. Such coordinations of ours can now and then with ease bring to a stand-still all that is happening. These will provide us with breathing spaces. These will save us from desperation.

-Market and money have forcibly joined the world together. Whereas through our coordinations, we can form bonds of our desire with 5 to 6 billion people in the world. To overcome the present, exchange and experiences and ideas can certainly help one another. These bonds-coordinations will provide momentum to churning that is going on for the creation of a new society in the world.

Demands are: Zestful life, Joy, Happiness, Love, Respect, Contentment

-If we put it this way, then for our own selves, for dear ones what we need is time, time, time. The real poverty of us people who are compelled to slog for 12 to 16 hours is the dearth of time.

-When we are sent back from the gate, given break, forced to sit idle, time becomes a death for us. This time which increases our worries is time forced on us. This time is not our own time.

-In this period of 12 to 16 hours work, continuous holidays for 3-4 days is necessary for merely saving life. 3-4 days of holiday will be able to provide some time for rest, worry-free sleep, get togethers, for some fun.

-Continuous work is causing derangement. Increasing vacancy of factories-offices is a point of departure for a zestful life.

-Coordinating holidays is how flowers of joy bloom.

INSIDE ACCOUNT OF HONDA CONFLICT

2009-12-08T08:15:00.001-08:00

(New Series Number 206, August 2005)

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter Workers: Plot 1, Sector 3, Manesar. The biggest problem in the factory located in Gurgaon is – work, work, work and work. The factory was set up four years ago and one thing that has been on the rise is production demand and the burden of work. The 'saahabs' (managers) keep the pressure of work up, and if anyone is questioned, then you are told - “You don't have to come on your duty tomorrow. This is how things have to be done. If you can't, then you can leave.”

In this way, one line has been made to produce 2,000 scooters in one day, by work being done in two shifts. Production of motorcycles has reached 750 in one shift – motorcycle production work is an year and a half old. One scooter has to be produced in 25-26 seconds. In this way, production of 1,000 scooters has been fixed for one shift. But if, for some reason, this does not happen, then the B-shift has to make up to meet the 2,000 figure. If, in order to make this extra work possible, production is halted for half an hour during the second shift and then continued, then no overtime is given. If production is still not completed then workers are forced to put in overtime. B-shift ends at 11:15 p.m., and usually one must work till 1-1:30 a.m.. On and off, one has to stay back till 5:30 a.m. to finish the production of 2,000 scooters.

Parts are made on CNC machines, where one worker has to operate two machines at a time. Some parts have to be made in 15 seconds, others in 30, others in 50 seconds, and some heavy parts in up to 2 minutes 10 seconds. In all this time, two machines have to be operated together. There are two shifts on the line, but three shifts for production of parts. Working one shift is so tiring that overtime is impossible, but has to be done or you will be shown the way out of the gate.

Around 90-100 hours of overtime have to be put in every month. The company compensates for overtime with twice the payment, but we workers are very opposed to putting in overtime. Considering the speed at which work is being done, no one will be able to work beyond the age of 35-40 years.

At first glance, at a superficial level, everything is good in the Honda Factory. Any worker (even the one who has come in through a contractor) is given two sets of uniform, one pair of shoes and a cap on the very day he joins. There are 25 buses which transport workers from the home to the factory and back, and if there are few workers then even an Indica or Qualis. There are two canteens and a meal – roti, rice, two vegetables, curd, salad, something sweet – is available for Rs. 6. Every worker is given a coupon of Rs. 200 for tea and snacks every month. It is clean. There is a doctor in the factory at all times, an ambulance, Medi-claim. Permanent workers, trainees and apprentices are all given their payment on the first of every month, and those who work through a contractor are paid through him by the 7th of every month. Trainees and apprentices are brought from far, and they are provided for accommodation for the entire month. Some of the ITI workers brought in by the contractor work for 6,7,8 months and are thereafter sometimes retained as trainees. Trainees are permanently employed once they finish their period of training (one to two years).

Paucity of permanent employment opportunities and the desire for permanent employment post trainee-ship compelled us to bear anything. But after the incident in which a worker was kicked, we increased dialogue amongst ourselves.

Late year, in October, at 11:15 p.m. in the weld-shop, during B-shift, one manager kicked a worker. The next day, during A-shift, workers stopped work at 9:00 AM, to protest against this. When the manager who had kicked the worker apologized, work was resumed – this was at 2:00 p.m.. B-shift workers also stopped work. The manager apologized again and work resumed at 7:30 PM. If work stops in a factory for one day, it amounts to a loss of Rs. 8 crore.

Quarrels increased in the factory. This year, on 6th February, bonds were asked to be signed, and the management was very forceful about this. All the workers left their place of work and assembled in the canteen. No one ate food. No one left when the shift ended. C-shift workers also came and sat in the canteen. Next morning, A-shift workers made there way to the canteen as well, instead of going to work. Workers from all three shifts – 1,200 permanent, 1,600 trainee, 1,000 employed through a contractor and 400 apprentices – were congregated in the canteen. No one ate or drank any tea. The company called police in the factory. The D.C. also reached the factory. There was no leader among us – the company asked for 5 workers from each department to talk with. An agreement was reached by 5-6 in the evening – there would be no suspensions, the bonds which had been signed were returned (workers burned them) and the production would be completed.

Work resumed on the morning of 8th February, after having been stalled for one and a half days. Pay was not deducted for the period for permanent employees and trainees, but workers employed through the contractor lost a day and a half of pay.

In April, the company gave its annual increment to the workers: Permanent employees got a raise of Rs. 2,800-3,500. Trainees got a raise of Rs. 600 (even through the raise in April 2004 was Rs. 750). This meant permanent employees were now earning Rs. 8,500-10,000 per month and trainees, Rs. 5,600. One thousand workers employed through K.C. Enterprises did not get any increment. Their salary remained at Rs. 2,800. They work on production and operate the CNC machines.

Apprentices get Rs. 900 from the government, and Rs. 700 from Honda Company. Like all companies, apprentices are put to production from the first day itself, instead of being trained first. They work all three shifts. Most apprentices are brought in from far off places and Rs. 1,600 do not suffice for them. They get overtime through a calculation on their 1,600, not what other workers would get. Once a machine got spoilt because of an apprentice and because of which the line didn't work the entire day. The apprentice was fired.

Things were stable for a few days. Then, a fork lifter got spoiled and a permanent employee was suspended. Ten days after this, workers refused to eat. The work was heavy, and so workers would drink tea. Trainees, apprentices and workers employed through contractors were involved in this. Despite a lot of pressure, workers employed through the contractor did not eat at the factory. When this continued for a month, the factory gave the worker back his work.

Talk about relief through a union began. Workers would meet at the Devilal Park in Gurgaon at intervals of 15-20 days. Cronies among us would report the proceedings to the company. Some steps to align with registered and bigger unions were taken. The Honda company began to increasingly suspend workers over small matters. It began with workers employed through contractors, and by 26th June, 500 of the 1,000 workers employed through contractors were fired. On 2nd June, to protest against this, B-shift workers left their place of work and went to the administrative building and shouted slogans. Production had stopped for half an hour and was compensated for later. The company fired four permanent employees the following day and suspended 25. In protest, meals were refused and overtime was stopped. Production of scooters fell from 1,000 to 450-500.

On 22nd June, the company put up a notice that trainees whose training period was over would be put to test on 24th June, a Sunday. Those who passed the test and if considered necessary would be employed permanently. This, when till now the company had been employing trainees and there had been no test preceding this. No one appeared for the test on Sunday. By this time the number of suspended workers had increased to 50. On 27th June, when we reached for work, the company asked us to sign certain conditions at the gate. When we refused, the company refused to let us enter the factory. Over 300 staff, 40-50 permanent employees and workers hired through contractors on 27th June itself, entered the factory. Work continued – there were around 2,000 people in the factory. Police was stationed at the gate. Four thousand workers were outside the gate.

The administration was petitioned through the union. A procession. Even came to the Parliament during the 11th July session. But nothing changed. It was in this context that there was a clash with the police on 25th July and we were beaten with sticks.

Following this, claims and announcements on TV, in newspapers and by political leaders made it look like our problems would be solved. But on the instruction of the Central Government, the compromise struck under the aegis of the Chief Minister of Haryana has pushed us into hell. According to this, workers returned the factories on 1st August, and are filled with anger. Everyone is annoyed. Permanent workers are saying that if they had to sign the conditions of Honda company after all, then what was the point of doing all that they did. The 35 trainees who had finished their training are still out of work. The 500 out of 1,000 workers employed through the contractor, who were fired on 26th June have still not been hired back. Those who had been hired through contractors on 27th will remain. The company will not pay us for the period from 27th June to 31st July. Through the deal that has been struck, the workers have been divided.

RELATIONS BETWEEN GENERATIONS

2009-12-06T07:38:00.001-08:00

(New Series No. 188, February 2004)

11 Years old child: Home-Family is a Jail. Parents sharp-searching eyes are fixated on the child all the time. If parents commit a mistake, the children are punished.

25 Years old adult: Family depends upon its own members' exploitation. Through the interplay of emotional blackmail and toughness- cruelties' dual tactics-families survive in the present. In a society where vast exploitation occurs throughout, family members themselves are very oppressive. The trouble is that parents take the responsibility of molding children seriously but in the same exploitation system at any cost. Whether it is the peasant or workers, today the family is paralyzed. To survive, all most families do is work, work, work, and play tricks. When children grow up, the parents are then engaged in limitless efforts towards marriage. Why? What is the purpose? For exploitation to provide a new family set up, create a new organized unit?

Elderly person: In family, there is increasing unpeacefulness… and more unpeacefulness. No sitting together, no love amongst one another. Living isolated and ignored. There is a sense of extreme burden, responsibility, heavy expense, no respect for any one… Mostly everybody feels inner isolation yet everybody appears integrated in the family. For every one either young or old, the family cycle is a difficult chain. The gradually narrowed family is now scattering. Family says,”I can’t take your burden any more.” To make ends meet, so many persons run away from family. But then outside the family, there is the market. Nowadays to make ends meet, it is very tough in the market. On the one side we are unhappy because of family and on other side because of society. What to do?

*The human species, like other species, has generational relationships which provide continuity. The community has generally constituted society generally through generational relationships which continue to be expressed until now.

* Due to the scattering of community, society is now in a very dangerous situation and there are problems for the human species. Hierarchic, oppressive, exploitative social systems have had a very bad impact on the body and soul of humans.

-- After birth, death is certain. This is natural. Happiness at birth and sadness at death are natural amongst living beings. But in a hierarchic social system, in a divided and split society, the pain of death becomes concentrated. No longer something of collective mourning, the pain becomes unbearable. Death which is natural becomes unacceptable. The obsession to become immortal is born.

-- In the hierarchic social system that emerged with the break-up of the community, men acquired a central role. And men's "I"-ness has became all-engulfing.

-- On the one hand, concepts of soul-rebirth and rejecting death emerged. And on the other, male-centered families arose to maintain the "I,"- my blood, my lineage, my copy, my name alive. But without women, children were not possible. So man's 'my woman', marriage rituals, emerged to create my wife/wives.

-- Nose-rings were used to establish control over animals. Nose-rings became the symbol of a husband's property. Thus, the nose-ring was declared to be the ornament of woman. The formation of family was the institutionalization of the dominance of man over woman. Mother and father both became the nose-rings of children and without them the children were considered orphans. Marital institutions drew lines demarcating legal and illegal sexual relations between man and woman. Men kept on consuming illicit relations and the pain was borne by women and illegal (bastardized) children. The constraints on women and the guarding of females has made woman irritable and overbearing. Woman as mother, as giver of life, has been transformed into woman as mother of nagging.

-- 'Blood relations' are supposedly considered an important part of the family yet girls through marriage become part of another family. With the creation of separate kitchens, even brothers by birth become parts of different families. Man by taking a woman constituted an economic unit in the form of family. Besides satisfying a man's sexual desires, marriage and family has become a means for producing children. There is an extreme desire for a son so that the rituals to be performed after death can be carried out by the son. There is an extreme desire for a son as a walking stick in old-age.

...Family acts like a permanent military detachment. But while a conscript army robs and then disperses, a standing army or permanent army continuously loots…

* To maintain the status quo, to climb the ladder of hierarchy, the whole family has to work as a unit. Family is a primary base in hierarchic social systems. The family works like the permanent military unit for these systems. To make life hell for children in the name of their welfare and to insult the elderly as a superfluous load is the normal function of family.

--In the past, having children so that they will look after you in old-age, generating a shop-keeping, instrumental relation, was undoubtedly painful. But nowadays, the gulping-biting that takes place in childhood to increase the marketability of children is resulting in the very break-up of relations between the young and old.

--The increasing dominance of the market in thought and practice combined with the increasing tendency of one-upmanship in society is deepening the politics that goes on in the family. Family has become the primary unit of the market. In the family, there is endless disrespectful behavior today towards one another. This behavior is flourishing. Insulting behavior reaches the depth of breast-beating and again comes back to the level of disrespect. Indifference and disrespect for the desires, tendencies of childhood, and children is called 'love'.

* Motherly love then, love, attachment, feeling of one's being, entertainment, empathy, sentiments, respect, help, co-participation, happiness at arrival, pain at departure... There are multi-dimensional relations between generations. Between infants, boys and girls, young and old. Community-wide bonds that existed between generations in the family mold have shrunk and narrowed and now entered the stage of the break-up of relations among generations. Slave-mother, foster mother, governess used to limit the motherly functions of a few women slave-owners, fuedals, bosses. But now daycare is limiting the motherly function of large numbers of working women. A handful of maternal and paternal grandparents of slave-owning/fuedal/boss class was limited by clowns, singers, storytellers, instructors. Now teachers and specialists through various mediums have side-lined maternal and paternal grandparents on a massive scale.

--In the said 'blood relations' mothers and women's role is dominant. Still recognition is given to the father, the man. "There should be at least one daughter otherwise the womb is not clean." Offering a girl in marriage is a great charity. These beliefs kept some space for daughter in the pre-dominance of man and son in the family tradition. In the past, there has been the custom of killing girls upon birth. But murder of the fetus after discovering it is a girl through the use of modern technology is a modern phenomenon.

* With the break-up of community, and the advent of hierarchy, inter-generational relationships community-wide have shrunk. The domination and expansion of the market has further limited the family, affecting husband-wife-daughter/son. Life has become a machine, leaving no time for love and romance between husband and wife. At the same time, dwindling desire and energy is emerging as the basis for industries that cater to produce sexual desire. The present system’s axis is the market and its crisis and instability has shrunk the family to a single woman bringing up children in highly developed areas. A single person does not constitute the definition of family. Yet in highly developed areas throughout, the number of single persons is continuously increasing.

The formation and increase of old-age homes and the withering-dying desire for children is a reflection of massive disorientation in intergenerational relations in the human species. Rejecting the natural process of death after birth has given birth to social psychosis. This massively hideous condition is also a loud call for a new social construct based on a new community.

Workers going to the factory after the rain

2009-11-22T07:07:00.000-08:00

SPEED AND HEALTH-II

2009-11-20T03:38:00.001-08:00

(From New Series No. 255, September 2009)

Brisk pace is predominant today. Glorification of fast speed, still faster speed has become a form of social madness. Manufacturing fast and faster vehicles for land, sea, air, outer space, even beyond outer space is one of the major activities of human beings...Producing crops that mature quickly, rapidly increasing the flesh of birds and other animals has become common today...

We are preoccupied with increasing the speed of our own bodies. Speed, faster speed, still faster speed has taken the place of mukti-moksha or freedom from the cycle of birth.

To go beyond the tempo of nature, we produce speed. Now we have many types of speed. Production of each kind of speed is an endless dance of destruction. The fearsomeness of the dance of destruction grows with the increase of speed. Let’s look at some aspects of the impact of speed on our health to realize how crucial it is to think about the very production of speed.

*Taking decisions. Taking many decisions. Every day taking many decisions of many kinds. This has become the mode of life for each one of us. Speed, faster speed in every arena requires taking quick decisions in split second stages. And speed is only increasing…

Innumerable things are linked together. And they are dynamic. At any moment, an extremely unstable equilibrium is created. In this situation, whether it be person or institution, decisions are in the category of flukes. Therefore, there is always an abundance of potential explanations.

Each one of us has to take thousands of decisions every day because of social conditions which have been created by speed, faster speed. In this situation, hope and despair have been replaced by extreme hope and extreme despair…In a single day, each one of us swings many times between these two extremes. On the one hand, we think, “I alone am a fool.” On the other hand, we think, “Except for me, every one else is a fool.” These have become the two banks of our hope and despair.

Speed, faster speed has brought about a flood of facts and figures. Persons know some of them, can keep some of them in mind. And there are questions of evaluation, comparative evaluation, and importance. There are compulsions of having to take thousands of decisions each day rapidly. “Who doesn’t make a mistake?” has become such a commonly-heard phrase. But the matter does not stop here.

*Decision after decision, fluke after fluke…Mistake after mistake. This endless process of today forces each of one of us to into many roles daily. We are doomed to putting on many masks every single day. In this situation, each person has become the wrestling ground for many personalities. There are 50 “I’s” in one “I.” Educated people call one division in personality a mental illness, when we all suffer from multiple divisions in our personality.

Children are told to become adults quickly. According to the pace of speed in the present, children should mould themselves quickly. School. Increase the speed of minds. The result is that even in a ten year old child, there is crankiness, laziness, and sadness…up to suicide.

Mental illnesses have become an epidemic. In this situation, the tendency to stop considering 15% of mental diseases as mental diseases has also emerged among psychiatrists.

National mental health program evaluations state that in India 10-20% of the population is mentally ill. According to doctors, 50 to 60% of individuals are mentally ill. Even amongst doctors, more than half are ill and 6 to 7% are serially mentally ill. Rapid speeds’ extensive dance of destruction in India has not been in effect for a significantly long time. In Europe, America, Australia, terrifying loneliness is a product of fast and faster speed. This can be gauged by the fact that for most other medical specialists, there are many immigration restrictions put in place by these governments. However, the doors for psychiatrists from India to enter these countries have remained open.

*Loneliness. Lonely in a crowd. This is a special product of fast and faster speed.

Instrumental relations are predominant today.

Despite such a rapid pace of life, there is adequate time even for instrumental relations. In fact, it is necessary to say that speed engenders so much work that there is a lack of time. In this situation, the cry of ‘no time’ is a cry for lack of time for instrumental relations. Whereas it is those relations which are beyond instrumentality that give us zest for life...give life a spark. In instrumental relations, acquaintances are made. But in relations beyond these, in non-instrumental relations… friends are made. (There is a massive change in the meaning of words and calling acquaintances friends has become common. Still, in compulsion this word is being used in its old meaning.) For any relation, time is a primary necessity. Today instrumental relations are gobbling all the time we have. So, there are many acquaintances, hardly any friends. Of course, this situation creates the fodder for mental diseases. The cure of mental diseases in our current situation becomes impossible.

*Let’s take a look back. Fear, anger, helplessness, jealousy, frustration, greed were extensive. Apart from charms, temples, shrines, a kind of sociability existed to prevent mental illness. Speed, increasing speed has either completely gobbled up this sociability or has commodified it. In these past 100 years, ceremonies and rituals on the death of a person have changed from one month to 13 days to 3 days to now one hour. A month long Holi festival is reduced to 6-8 hours. The month of monsoons which was once a month long festivity is now reduced to a two-day month. This is true too with the holidays of Teej and Rakshabandhan...Even for Brij (the birth of Krishna), twenty day festivities from birth of Krishna to Baldev Chat has merely been reduced to just Krishna’s birthday. Durga Puja, Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali have been commodified on a terrifying level.

Grandfather, maternal grandmother, friend, relations of the streets and neighborhood are now vanishing. The demand for privacy is becoming more articulate.

Therefore, even in India, the treatment of mental diseases is on the path of becoming a very big business.

*The first knock of speed is usually in the armed forces. Speed and having to move to different places and stay there makes the army a fertile ground for mental diseases. If we look at the Indian subcontinent, the first mental asylum was opened in 1787 in Kolkata. Then 1794 in Chennai. 1795 in Ranchi. 1806 in Mumbai. 1858 in Agra. 1862 in Bareilly. All these mental asylums are situated near cantonments. Initially, in these mental asylums, soldiers born in Europe were kept here and later on soldiers born in India were also locked up here. The law to lock-up mentally ill people was passed in 1858 and the asylums were under the control of jail superintendents. In 1920, the word hospital was added to their name, coming under the supervision of doctors.

After the armies, the next arena of speed usually is the production sector. The pace of speed and the distance away from families made soldiers mentally ill. Today at speeds much faster than then, workers have to live and work far away from their families...Regarding workers’ mental health…What can be said?

And the situation of mental diseases amongst the elderly…don’t even mention it!

LAWS ARE FOR EXPLOITATION AND THERE IS FREEDOM TO EXPLOIT BEYOND LAWS

2009-11-20T03:36:00.000-08:00

(New Series Number 255, September 2009)

As of July 1, 2009, the statutory meaning of minimum wages is as follows:

Unskilled worker-
3,914 rupees/mo. (8 hrs/151 rupees or approx. $3)
Semi-skilled worker (a)
4,044 rupees/mo. (8 hrs/156 rupees)
Semi-skilled worker (b)
4,304 rupees/mo. (8 hrs/161 rupees)
Skilled worker (a)
4,304 rupees/mo.(8 hrs/166 rupees)
Skilled worker (b)
4,434 rupees/mo.(8 hrs/171 rupees)
High-skilled worker
4,564 rupees/mo.(8 hrs/176 rupees)

Where less than minimum wage is being given, drop a postcard of 25/50 paise (1 cent) to these addresses:

Mr. Labour Commissioner
Gov't of Haryana
30 Bays Building
Sector 17
Chandigarh

Mr. Chief Minister
Gov't of Haryana
Haryana Secretariat
Chandigarh

Arihant Mac Industries Worker- 15a Industrial Area.
"The drinking water for workers used to be salty. When any one went to the third floor office to drink water, office staff used to prohibit that person. In the beginning of June one day, we all decided that we will not drink salty water, stopped work, and left the factory...The foreman stopped us and since then normal drinking water comes in water supply trucks to fill the pots in the factory with water. Wages of helpers earn 2,300-2,400 rupees; operators- 3,000; dye-setters- 4,000 and dye-maker 5,000 rupees. Since January, the boss has been saying he will increase wages but he hasn't. When the wages for July were being paid on August 13 so the workers refused to take wages. Then the wages were increased for each worker. In Arihant Mac, there is one shift for 12 hours. And in other departments, there are 2 shifts for 12 hours each. Each month, 10 to 12 times, there is continuous 36 hours of work. 340 hours work in overtime. The payment of overtime is at single rate. No weekly rest. On Saturdays, the duty is from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and the payment is at double the rate, but if you do not work on that day then no pay at all. During 12 hours work, the company provides 2 samosas and for 36 hours continuous work, 20 rupees for food. 200 workers make shockers, axles, springs, hood luck, but only 7-8 workers have ESI and PF."

(ESI stands for Employee State Insurance which is legally compulsory for every factory worker. Where ESI does not exist, the worker does not exist in the factory records. To Provide ESI 1.75% of wages are deducted and the company contributes approximately 4.75%. PF stands for Provident Fund which is a retirement and pesonion scheme. 12% is deducted from wages wages and 12% is paid by the company.)

"There are 20 power presses. Workers operate them 12 hours every day and 36 hours continuously. Even helpers (unskilled workers) are made to operate them. If a hand gets cut, ESI is back-dated through the payment of bribes to insure that person. Each day 2-3 trucks of materials goes to Jaya Bharat Maruti (IBM), products also go to India Forge and Arihant Engineering. For damaged peices, they cut at least 200-500 rupees from a worker's wage each month. there is just one toilet for 200 workers. It is dirty and there is a long queue."

Dhruv Global Worker, 14 Milestone Mathura Road.
"Doing two 12 hour shifts. Makes garments for North Storm, New York, Casual Mail, Baspro, Cag. On Sundays also two 12 hour shifts and no holidays even on Janmashtami (Krishna's birthday). Payment overtime is at single rate. Helpers hired through contractors wages are 1,800-2,200 and stitching operators are paid per peice. And there is no ESI or PF for these 600-700 workers. There are about 800 permanent workers and they are paid the statutory minimum wages for 10 hours of duty instead of 8 hours. Staff wages were to be increased in March but were not increased until July. Income tax department raided the factory on August 20..."

New Randhir Press Tools Worker- Plot 365, Sector 24.
"100 workers in two 12 hour shifts makes parts for Mahindra tractors. Overtime is at single rate and June and July money was not paid until August 13th. There is a delay even in the payment of wages. 5-7 old workers wages are 4,000 to 5,000 rupees and only these workers have ESI and PF. Helpers wages are 3,000 rupees and operators wages are 3,500, no ESI, no PF. Drinking water is bad, and you will fall sick from drinking it. There is no fixed time for lunch. for male workers, there is just one toilet and it is very dirty. for female workers, there is a toilet and it is locked all the time. And then they have to go to the nearby tracks to go to the bathroom. In 12 hours, the factory does not even provide a cup of tea. The boss curses at us."

Faridabad Bolt Tight Worker- Plot 63, Sector 6.
"There are 60 workers in a 12 hour shift. No ESI or PF. Helpers (unskilled workers) wages are 2,500 and operators 3,000 to 4,000. Overtime at single rate."

SPL Industries Worker- Plot 84, Sector 35.
"There are two shifts of 12 hours each and they forcibly make us work 16-20 hours also. Wages are paid late each month from 18-20th."

Dynamic Industries Worker- Plot 5c, Sector 4.
"Workers hired through contractor had two 12 hour shifts. Helpers wages are 3,000 rupees and skilled workers are on peice rate. No ESI, no PF."

ARS Enterprises Worker- Gurukul Industrial Area, Anandpur.
"Helpers wages are 2,000 and operators 3,400. In 40 workers, only 7 workers have ESI and PF."

Gauroro India Worker-Plot 44, Sec 59.
"Helpers wages are 3,500, no ESI."

Neil Kant Thermopack Worker at Plot 37, Krishna Colony, Street #1, Sector 25.
"Helpers wages are 2,900 and operators are 3,500. ESI and PF are for 5 workers among 25. The shift is from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Overtime at single rate. There is no arrangement for drinking water from the factory. You have to bring it from home. There is no proper toilet in the factory so you have to go on the bank of the canal."

G.L. Autparts Worker- 14 Industrial Area.
"700 workers in two 12 hour shifts make parts for Honda, Yamaha 2 wheelers. Work on Sunday also. Men and women helpers wages are 2,000 to 2,200 and operators are 2,700 to 3,300. Some workers are quietly given an extra 200-300 rupees. And 14-15 young boys also work here. Senior workers get work done and the company has given them hundreds of thousands of rupees loan for establishing workshops where companies are established. ESI and PF are for 75 workers out of 700. After 12 hours of work, they forcibly stop you from leaving by cursing you to work longer hours. Overtime is at single rate. Late payment of wages each month after the 15th."

Clutch Autoworker- 12 by 4 Mathura factory.
"Payment of July wages has started on August 17th."

New Hindustan Tubes- Plot 91, Sec. 6.
"Helpers wages are 3,000 rupees. Shift is from 6 a.m.to 9-9 p.m. Overtime at single rate. They give 30 rupees for food and two rimes tea and snack during a 15 hour shift."

SI Engineering- Plot 352, Sec. 24.
"May, June, July wages were not paid until August 19th."

Super Fibre Worker- 57 Industrial Area, Juteville Mill.
"June wages were paid on July 30th and July wages were not paid until August 13th. One shift for 12 hours overtime at single rate."

Micro Machines Worker- 100 Plot, Sector 6
"In two 12 hour shifts, parts for Gazioni are made. In Noida, overtime is at single rate. Helpers wages are 3,000 rupees. Only 3 or 4 workers have ESI or PF."

San Lume Industries- 35 DLF Industrial Estate.
"There is a great problem around drinking water."

Reliable Diesel Worker- 12-6 Anangpur Road, Gurukul Industrial Area, company's second unit.
"When workers request a solution for even minor problems, the bosses misbehave."

Vee Gee Industrial Enterprises Worker- In 31 Industrial Area.
"They have started calling us in to work 15 minutes before the shift starts. Supervisors misbehave."

K.P. Tools Workers- Eidgah Colony, Sector 6.
"Helpers wages are 3,000, operators are 3,400 to 4,000."

Dudeja Industries Worker- in Industrial area in front of Whirlpool.
"150 workers make cables for Whirlpool fridges. Wages are 2,200 to 2,500."

WORKERS THROUGHOUT

2009-11-20T03:09:00.001-08:00

(From New Series Number 255, September 2009)

E.D. Postal Employee-
"Gov't of India calls 3 lakh employees in the postal department as extra department (E.D.) We E.D. workers have got nothing from the 6th pay commission at this time. Our wages are 3200 to 3300 rupees. Before the Parliamentary Elections, assurances had been given that we would be recognized as Departmental Employees and our wages would be increased. Since elections took place, quite some time has passed since the formation of gov't and us E.D. employees' conditions still remain the same.

Haryana Roadways Driver
"In June and July 2008, through staff selection board, Gov't of Haryana hired 810 drivers and 1,200 conductors for state transport. New hires were called SPL and now drivers pay is 4,200 and conductors is 3,900. Whereas regular driver conductor ways after the 6th paid commission is around 15,000. Regular drivers, conductors on July 13th, gave a memorandum to the Management in which there was also a demand for regularization of SPL Drivers and Conductors. With the gov't not accepting the demands, on August 13th from 12 to 2 p.m., all buses of Haryana Roadways were stopped. In stopping buses for 2 hours, SPL drivers-conductors also joined the permanent ones."

Jammu Kashmir State Transport Workers
"After 5 months of oustanding wages, 4,500 employees of Jammu-Kashmir State Transport Corp. began to demonstrate daily in Srinagar beginning August 18th. On September 1st, after 15 days of demonstrations, 4,500 transport workers were joined by their families in the demonstration. Many protestors were injured by water canons, tear gas shells and baton charge by the police. 1,500 people were arrested.

Security Guard- CT-3x3 New Moti Nagar, Noida.
"Zenith Security Co. makes us guards work in two 12 hour shifts. No weekly rest for working 12 hours per day for 30 days. 3,200 wages are paid."

WAGE WORKERS IN GURGAON

2009-11-20T02:55:00.001-08:00

Gaurav Int'l Worker- In 1918 Udyog Vihar Phase 1
"Every day duty is from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.. In thread-cutting and packing departments, it is from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. They lock the gates. Because of this, women workers face a lot of difficulty. There are 600 female workers in the factory and 1,000 male workers. Men are made to work even until 2 a.m. The company does not even give a cup of tea in 14 to 17 hours of work. Women workers are cursed at a lot. When people came to inspect on July 28, the Personnel Department said that there is only 10-12 hours of overtime...Whereas it is more than 150 hours. While stitching velvet, a lot of dust flies around. Last year they used to give jaggery (gourd) for this. But this year, they have stopped giving it. They gave jaggery on July 28th only when people came to inspect. There are only 3 machines for card punching. It takes 15 minutes to punch your card. You have to take 2 days off and your card is withheld. In Gaurav Int'l, factory located at 208 Phase-I and 506 Phase-III, the bosses curse at us and misbehave with us."

KRF Worker- In 403, Udyog Vihar Phase III.
"There are 800 workers in two 12 hour shifts. Color thread is used to make stitching thread and labels for clothes. Work on Sundays also. Whereas 150 to 200 hours overtime where only 60 to 70 hours is paid and that also by single rate. If you object, then you get cursed at. New helpers wages are 2,200 and old helpers are 2,500 rupees. Whereas old helpers are made to sign on 3,840. One operator is made to operate 2 machines and the wages are 2,500 to 3,000 rupees but signatures are taken on 1,400 rupees. On taking a day off, two days wages are cut. Only 200 out of 500 workers have ESI and PF."

Vishesh Overseas Worker- 450 Udyog Vihar, Phase-I.
"In a month, more than 100 hours of overtime of which 50 hours are paid and double the rate and the rest is at single rate. Upon leaving work, it is very difficult to obtain payment for the work that was done. Those who have left in June and July have not been paid till August 25th."

Seekul Exports- In 775 Udyog Vihar, Ph. V.
"Helpers wages are 2,700 to 3,000 rupees. And sewing operators are on peice rate and the rates are not told beforehand. Toilet gate is open from 11 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.; 1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. and then 4:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. because of which there are lots of problems."

Modlama Worker- 200 and 201 Udyog Vihar, Phase I.
"In the month of July, the shift starts at 8:30 a.m. On the 4th Sunday of July, work went on in the factory for half a night until 2 a.m. Work was done for 28 days in July. In a full-night, work goes from 8:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. Whether it be a an half night or two nights, money for meals is merely 20 rupees. GAP goods are made in the factory. When July overtime was paid on August 25th, then 500 to 1,000 rupees were cut from each worker's payment claiming that overtime had been too much!"

"In Modlama Factories located at Plot 105 and 204, the same things occur. Now in August, the shift begin at 9:30 a.m. One boy worked continuously for ten days from 9:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. After leaving work at 6 a.m., he started work at 9:30 a.m. That worker took a thrown-away peice to tie on his head and thereafter, an allegation of theft was made. He was thrown out and not paid for the work he had done.

Madhu Chawla Design Trend-783 Udyog Vihar Ph. V.
"There were 300 workers but now there are 50. Even the minimum wages set by the government are not paid. Helpers wages are 2,500 to 3,00 rupees. And skilled workers are 140 rupees for 8 hours."

Akuru Box Leather Worker-- 199 Udyog Vihar Ph-I.
"July wages have not been paid until August 29th."

Logwell Forge Worker- 116 Udyog Vihar Ph-I.
"There are two 12 hour shifts. On Sunday, 12 hour night shifts alone. Overtime payment is at single rate."

Spark Worker- 166 Udyog Vihar Ph-I.
"There are delayed wages given on August 20th. In wages and overtime payments, 400 to 500 rupees are siphoned. On leaving work, not even half the money for what is done is given. If one objects, the bosses start cursing. They misbehave with women workers. The wages of workers cutting thread is 2,500 but all others are paid the statutory minimum wage. ESI and PF are cut from the wages but when workers leave they don't fill the form for withdrawal of PF. Only the staff has been hired by the company directly. 300 workers have been hired through a contractor. There is no canteen. There is a problem of drinking water. And for 300 persons, there is only one toilet."

ITC Worker- 86 Udyog Vihar Ph.I.
"Lifestyle Retailing Business Division, ITC Co. has hired 150 workers as contractors. Amongst the main contractors, one does nto allow workers to complete 5 pays and without giving any severance pay dismisses them. Whereas the other contractor company upon completion of 5 years at once gives one month's notice pay and 15 days of holiday per year for severance. Here sampling tailors create samples of John Clear, Wills Classic, Wills Explort, Mispelier, Club Life. Whereas their production work is done in Bengalaroo, Ludhiana, Nepal etc.

FOR CONSIDERATION

2009-11-20T02:50:00.001-08:00

(From New Series Number 255, September 2009)

Nuclear powerhouses are more dangerous and polluting than atom bombs but the propaganda apparatus propogates that they are the source of safe and pollution-free energy. In this context, we are giving some information here from the Aug/Sep issue of News and Letters. Contact 228, South Wabash, Suite 230, Chicago, IL, 6064 (arts@newsandletters.org)

During 1952 to 2000, throughout the world, 34 highly destructive accidents took place in nuclear powerhouses. In Pennsylvania state in the U.S. 3 mild island nuclear powerhouses in 1979 had reached the brink of a major catastrophe. In Russia, in 1986, Chernobyl Nuclear Powerhouse caused the catastrophe. In 100,000 square mile area in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, massive destruction took place. Destruction for many generations.

Direct experiences caused a monetary halt, establishing of new nuclear powerhouses stopped. The expansion of nuclear power industry throughout the world stopped. But in 2001, the gov't of USA has started again advocating the construction of nuclear powerehouses in the U.S. and in other parts of the world. 17 applications have reached the gov't of USA for construction of 26 nuclear powerhouses. The foreign secretary of USA in a recent visit to India has struck a deal with the gov't of India for construction of nuclear powerhouses. To arrange loans of 93,500 crores for companies engaged in the construction of nuclear powerhouses, the gov't of USA will become the guarantor.

There is not safe method of mining uranium. Children born in mining areas are deformed from birth. And waste from nuclear powerhouses...1,000 megawatt nuclear powerhouse produced 250 kilograms of plutonium each year. 5 kilo of plutonium is enough to make an atom bomb. Plutonium remains fatal for life for thousands of years.

Citizens and groups in the U.S. are opposing gov't policy of mining uranium and construction of nuclear powerhouses.

SPEED AND HEALTH-I

2009-11-20T02:38:00.001-08:00

(From New Series Number 254, August 2009)

Brisk pace is predominant today. Glorification of fast speed, still faster speed has become a form of social madness. Manufacturing fast and faster vehicles for land, sea, air, outer space, even beyond outer space is one of the major activities of human beings...Producing crops that mature quickly, rapidly increasing the flesh of birds and other animals has become common today...

We are preoccupied with increasing the speed of our own bodies. Speed, faster speed, still faster speed has taken the place of mukti-moksha or freedom from the cycle of birth.

To go beyond the tempo of nature, we produce speed. Now we have many types of speed. Production of each kind of speed is an endless dance of destruction. The fearsomeness of the dance of destruction grows with the increase of speed. Let’s look at some aspects of the impact of speed on our health to realize how crucial it is to think about the very production of speed.

 There is a complex interlinkage within the human body so that it can take care of itself. In the body, there are many built-in defense systems. In the adrenaline glands alone, there are two parts to control excitement/agitation. One part provides chemical/stress hormones for short-term and the other for long-term. It is a common thing to say that excitement has been the normal state of the human body. But nowadays to reach on time, to finish work in a given time span has become the daily mode of life. Achieving the necessary speed of body and mind for these demands has become a question of life and death for each one of us now. The social assembly line determines the necessary speed. This speed keeps increasing and the fear of being pushed out of the line and made superfluous acts as a whip. In such a situation, each one’s body and mind are in a state of excitement for quite a lot of time each day. What happens because of this is that the whole energy of the body is focused on controlling daily excitement. As a result, the body is not able to provide the necessary energy-means to other defense mechanisms of the body. The weakening of defense mechanisms increases the possibility of diseases. So, other living organisms which used to stay in our bodies and are necessary for our life are wiped out. The clock, yes the clock, digs the grave of health.

• Our muscles and joints vary according to our activities. As an example, we can take monkeys’ children playing on a tree. But the production of speed, still greater speed requires the repetition of some acts again and again. For some of us, the muscles and joints have to bear great pressure or load for a lengthy period of time each day. The product of speed, greater speed is an epidemic of pain in the thighs, knees, calves, hands, shoulders, back...

 One more outcome of speed, faster speed is the increase and massive extension of the attack of living organisms on humans.

 Living organisms are normally found where a body resides. The body naturally develops a capacity to deal with these organisms. Rather, we should say that the human body has previously had harmony with organisms residing around and within the body. We have already mentioned the break-up of the harmony of the body with organisms living inside it. Let us look at the transformations of the earth into the village by increasing speed. In vehicles, let’s take the airplane. A person living in a village in Faridabad district is normally in harmony with organisms around it. That person going to Singapore or America brings his or her body in contact with organisms with whom the body does not have harmony with. He or she becomes prey to diseases born by speed, greater speed. But the matter does not stop here. The person traveling from here to America takes organisms to America and the person coming from America brings those organisms here. This is the sowing, rather the spreading of the seeds of new diseases to both the places.

 The production of speed, greater speed carries within it cities and megacities. Speed, greater speed carries within it schools, colleges, metros, buses, railways, airplanes...We are forced to travel in metros, buses, rails, airplanes, and encounter persons in residences and offices in big buildings and crowds in malls and bazaars. All these elements together have increased the limitless possibilities of diseases that spread through sneezing or coughing.

 New chemicals have become necessary for increased speed. To maintain the acquired level of speed, massive amounts of chemicals are necessary. There is an whole new world of human-made chemicals. In these 150-200 years, new chemicals in very large numbers have been produced. And these chemicals have a major role in causing cancer. Changes in seeds to produce crops more quickly and in larger amounts through chemical fertilizers, insecticides, weedicides, has spread cancer and new diseases across villages.

 The body is capable of repairing itself. It is a normal activity of the body to heal cuts, scratches, and bruises.

 But the injuries associated with speed and faster speed renders the body nearly helpless. Time is not even spared for the body to heal itself. More people have died in these 100 years by road accidents than people who died in all the world in war in the last five thousand years. If we talk of India alone, then more people died last year in ‘road accidents’ than the people who died in the wars of 1948, 1962,1971, and 1999 and in 60 years of ‘terrorist’ acts. In the area under the control of the government of India in 2008, roads and vehicles took the life of 100,000, one million persons became disabled, and four million persons were incapacitated for some time.

 But if you look at workplaces other than those of roads, then roads and streets appear to be spilling less blood. Figures of murders, serious injuries, diseases produced by speed at workplaces are kept secret or greatly reduced in number. Increase of speed in agriculture through thrashers, tractors, tools, electricity are epic in themselves. An epic of a dance of destruction.

UPHEAVALS, INCREASING AND WIDENING UPHEAVALS

2009-11-20T02:36:00.001-08:00

(From New Series Number 253, July 2009)

*Workers rage again burst out in Bangladesh. In a factory in a central area of Bangladesh, dispute regarding outstanding wages increase and reinstitution took a violent turn on July 27. Some bosses were beaten up. Police burst tear gas shells to dispense the crowd of workers. Workers blocked the National Highway. Auxililary force of the police fired bullets. One worker died. Workers from many factories came out on the roads. Out of fear, some managements shut down the factories earlier than usual. The factory in the location where the dispute arose was put on fire. In protest against the workers' death, demonstrations were held on June 28th at different places in Bangladesh. And then on June 29, workers rage became explosive. In an industrial center of the capital Dhaka, there were sharp clashes between workers and the police. When the number of workers filled with rage reached 50,000, the additional police force of 400 officers called to protect the factory stepped aside. Most of the workers in the Dhaka area were on the roads but in some factories, factories became the target of workers' attacks and 50 factories were set on fire. Governments and vicious special forces were called in to control the discontent of the workers. (More informaion can be found here- http://libcom.org/news/fury-garment-worker-shot-dead-bangladesh-workers-strike-riot-28062009)

*In the month of June in India, the government of India launched an attack on peasants and artisans. For 8 months in Lalgarh area of West Bengal, poor people of 30 villages had refused to acknowledge the very existence of state or government. Agitated by this power, a gang-up of state armed police, central calamity forces (central reserved police force and border security force) and special forces and with the help of air force gunship, attack on peasants and artisans in Lalgarh was launched.

*In conditions going from bad to worse, upheavals, increasing upheavals are natural. In society, this has been taking place in the last 5-7,000 years. This process that began in minor areas of the earth has in these past 5,000 years increased worldwide.

We are tangled in a situation of violence and counterviolence, just violence and unjust violence, increasing violence in the garb of peace and non-violence...Because of this, one person is doomed to be split up into 50 personalities. Today each one of us is caught up in mutilating one's body and conscience. Each one is engaged in bloodying those around oneself. Mountains of pain are transforming each person into bombs. In these 200 years, the speed of narrowing the trap is closing in at faster rates and it's capacity to strike has become increasingly fatal.

We all are being pushed towards total destruction. We are pushing our own selves in this direction. So, let's increase exchanges, increase the churning to find the means to overcome this viscious whirlpool.

*A person has to deal with one's own self all the time. Persons, many kinds of relations with other persons is a common thing. In this scenario, in conditions from bad to worse, blaming one's own self, blaming other persons is natural. But this is blaming the victims.

Labouring masses have been prey to exploitation-oppression But 2,500 years ago, Prince Siddharth had become a beggar-monk and Emperor Chandragupt used to change rooms every night for fear he would be killed in his sleep. Today managers being forced out of jobs, chairmen and CEO's going to prison are becoming common.

People occupying a post keep changing. But the positions itself continue. The problem lies in the post/position. Getting involved in making this or that person the boss or changing bosses is to be entrapped. Put bosses as such, the very position of a boss as the head of the hierarchy, as the target. Besides emancipation of labouring masses, this will also open the doors for peaceful sleep for emperors...Princes will not become beggars. Life will not remain a curse. There will be no desire to seek emancipation from life.

In our opinion, focusing on social relations, social process and theory-practice based on victim-co-victim will create fissures in the present entanglement.

*In the army of kings and emperors, it was a big deal for there to be an 1,000 permanent soldiers. Emperors with palaces and forts used to normally take 1/6th of the production of serfs, peasants, artisans. By swallowing 50% of the production done by wage-workers in coal-based factories, wage workers provided the capacity to modern governments to have standing armies of 50,000 standing strong. In 1890, the government's formation of a 100,000 standing strong army had caused an uproar in the world. Nowadays in the year of petrol-diesel-electricity-electronics, 98% of what the workers produce is being siphoned off. Earth, even outer space has been militarized...

95-98% of what is being done today is unnecessary harmful and dangerous. Exploitation of earth, other species and our own selves has brought us to this place. The web of hierarchy has reached the factory through the control of animals for milking, the exploitation of slaves, the tearing apart of the earth for agriculture...This is the result of the "good life" based on the exploitation of all and of everything. This is the result of civilization, progress, and development..!

Fast to faster speed, more and more shine, production in increasingly large amounts...these are the scales of "good life" in the present. "Good life" in which people are increasingly being transformed into a surplus population into scraps and heaps of garbage...To deal in the circle of "good life" is to stretch the body and smother the conscience. For one to have the "good life," then one does not have time for one's own self...

Therefore, upheaval is welcomed. Upheavals provide the opportunity to think about other modes of living. Upheavals increase the possibility of new modes of living.

Won't it be nice to end harmful and dangerous work? How would one feel if the time to slog was reduced? What fantastic things are possible if there was free time for those who are tied to a fast pace of life. If work were reduced to 1/48th or 1/49th quarter than air, water, soil and health would immediately improve. To encourage upheavals, one can begin with one's self. Instead of stretching the body, let's listen to our bodies and create opportunities for rest. Instead of killing the conscience, we can listen to our conscience. Being at ease with oneself provides a strong basis for relations with others. Each relation needs time. Having time, acquiring time creates and increases the possibilities of relations of love, affection, attachment, respect and such relations can take upheavals onto a new terrain. Social death and social murder of artisans, peasants, shopkeepers will continue increasing upheavals. Ever increasing exploitation and increasing insecurity and uncertainty of workers will keep increasing upheavals throughout the world. Upheavals are necessary and welcome for the creation of a new society.

WAGE WORKERS IN DELHI

2009-11-18T07:22:00.000-08:00

Since August 1, D.A. (Dearness Allowance) has not been declared by the gov't of Delhi and was not done so until the beginning of Sep.

Basant India Worker- g-4, B-1 Extension, Mohan Coop Industrial Estate
"Against delaying wage payment and too much delay in overtime payments. 90 workers had stopped work on July 17th. Then Management paid the overtime of March and April months. When July wages were not paid till August 20, some women workers went to the bosses for wages. At this, the Management immediately terminated the services of three women workers. July wages have not been paid till today. August 24th and overtime of May, June, July has also not been paid."

Unistyle Worker- B-51, Okhla Ph.-I.
"In July, sewing operators had stopped work for 3 days because Eliza t-shirt's peice rate went from 28 to 37 rupees. One contractor paid 25 sewing operators as per 37 rupees rate but anoother contractor while working final payment to 21 sewing operators on July 23rd started paying the rate of 35 but that amount was refused by the workers. At that time, there was no work in the factory. So, the sewing operator made a complaint in the Labour Department to the union leader. In reply, the contractor denied that the workers were on peice rate and said that they were on monthly wages of 5,500. When workers produced proof of working for more than 3 years in Unistyle, the contractor changed what he had said and said they no longer had worked for 2 months but for 1 year. Besides taking up the issue in the Labour Department, the skilled workers kept going to the factory but had to sit idle because there was no work in the factory. It was said that July wages would be paid on August 7th. Then that they would be paid on the 10th, but wages were not given until August 17th. In this scenario, work for making Samsung T-shirts came and the contractor asked the worker to commence the work and the workers demanded July wages. On August 22th, 21 sewing operators were retained in the factory. An Hearing is still pending the Labour Department."

Wearnell Worker- B-134, Okhla Ph-I
"On August 8, 5 permanent workers were stopped at the gate by the Management and told to write their resignation letters and take their final dues. Workers refused to write resignation letters. Inside the factory, 125 permanent workers opposed this act of Management. At this, 21 other permanent workers were thrown out. Workers made a complaint in the Labour Department through the IFTU union. The company did not have a response. On August 18th, the company gave letters to 26 permanent workers in the Labour Department where it was stated that on August 8th, they had forcefully left the factory! And then suddenly a leader appeared and caught 21 of the workers in a trap by saying that if you immediately go back to duty, you will get severance pay at once. But still 5 workers were not prepared to quit their jobs. After cursing the split amongst the workers, the leader told the workers refusing to quit separately that he would get more money from them. At the leaders' behest on August 22, 21 workers reached the factory to collect their dues. With the leader being late, the workers called the leader on the phone and the mike on the mobile was put on to increase the sound so that the workers could hear the conversation. Assuming that the call was from workers refusing to resign, the leader told them not to worry. Let these 21 go and then I will get very good severance pay for you. Hearing this, 21 workers were stunned. Then they understood the meaning of it and after bluntly telling the leader off, they came together with their 5 colleagues. The 26 workers are pursuing their issue in the Labour Department through the IFTU union."

Boutique Int'l- D-80, Okhla Ph-I.
Wages of women workers is between 2,400 and 2,500 rupees. No ESI, no PF. Many workers are paid the statutory minimum wages and ESI and PF are there but upon quitting, the money for withdrawing the forums are not filled. These days there is hardly any over time but from September to March each month, there are 200 hours overtime, payment at single rate. There is difficulty with drinking water. For 500 workers, merely 2 toilets.

Balaji Hauzi Udhyog Worker, x38 Okhla, Ph-II.
"Helpers wages are 3,000. No ESI."