WHAT ALL DO WE DO…?

(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

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)

(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

(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

Solidarity with Viva Global Workers, London