A FEW THINGS ABOUT METHODS OF OPPOSITION

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

(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.

fms January 2011

fms Jan 2011 by baatein1 on Scribd

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.