MANY STRAWS MAKE A NEST

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

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CONTENDING WITH THE PRESENT...

(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

(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

(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)

(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.