WHAT ALL DO WE DO...(16)

(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

(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

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?

(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...

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.