[Reader-list] After Honda

[Jeebesh Bagchi]

dear All,


Now the heat and shock is more or less over around the workers in Honda 
factory in Manesar, near Gurgoan. Newsaapers do not anymore carry 
stories and TV channels wait for another spectacular site of 
confrontation. Meanwhile criminal cases on around 300 workers will take 
its toll for the next 15 years or more.

For those of you interested in thinking about these events, do have a 
read of this text written in 1998, by some people based in Faridabad 
industrial area.

best
jeebesh
-------------------


http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/2379/leadry.htm


SELF ACTIVITY OF WAGE-WORKERS


Towards a Critique of Representation & Delegation


*Theories and practices of representation & delegation are a
stumbling block in the self-activity of wage-workers. They
hinder wage-workers' resistances, refusals and steps of change.
What follows is a part of a larger critique of representation &
delegation that we are engaged in. We invite you to join us in
this attempt.*


CONTENTS

* *Lead-ry
* Routine lead-ry Lead-ry -
* Depth of conflict management
* Self-activities of wage-workers
* Activities of a fringe left
* A critique of a fringe left
* A preliminary sum-up
* Self-activity of wage-workers against Politics of Closure
*


Lead-ry

*For over four years now we have encountered numerous arguments and 
counter-arguments in conversations amongst wage-workers on the role of 
leaders in routine factory life. The backdrop to these conversations has 
been the unfolding of events in factories where workers find themselves 
trapped. What is attempted here is a systematization of numerous 
experiences and observations to obtain a better understanding of 
shop-floor life in order to confront it more effectively. *

*"On the shopfloor we are at all times in direct antagonism with the 
supervisor/ foreman. This antagonism is because of the supervisor's 
constant attempt to maintain work flow." *

*"Supervisors constantly keep their eyes on us. They threaten us with 
charges, threets & suspension, placate us with overtime & advance 
payments and use outright deceptions to keep us in check." *

*"Supervisors constantly nag us to fulfill production quotas and 
maintain quality. They perpetually hassle us to ensure a minimal 
rejection of products. Raw material utilization is another never-ending 
bone of contention." *

*"We never tell supervisors what is in our hearts. No supervisors can 
know what we are thinking and planning. They are actually in constant 
fear of us." *

*"Routinely we engage in slowdowns, quality slackening, wastage, 
breakage and clogging. Breakage and clogging are what we all do, all the 
time - but never talk about it, even with each other. We never even 
voice our appreciation or acknowledgment of what someone has done … its 
an open secret." *

*"Whenever the discontent on the shopfloor becomes very sharp and the 
atmosphere surcharged, supervisors lose their voice." *


*Routine Lead-ry*

*"Leaders are from amongst us. We have an ambivalent relationship with 
them." *

*"Because they are from amongst us, leaders know a lot about us, about 
our inclinations and our thoughts. Leaders do not work themselves. They 
tell us to ensure that production does not fall and promise to take care 
of the rest as they claim to be our watchdogs (pahredar)." *

*"Leaders have financial clout. This is not just from union dues & other 
collections. A lot of money comes from cuts & commissions in the 
purchase of uniforms, shoes, festival sweets, festival gifts like 
blankets, almirahs, suitcases, watches and kitchenware. Cuts from 
canteen contractors and scrap-dealers. Lumpsums from managements for 
long term agreements. Control of cooperative societies and welfare 
funds." *

*"Contenders for leadership spend a lot of money during elections (in 
the factory). Because leadership means financial clout." *

*"Being a leader entails no work in the factory and much money. This is 
enough to sway a lot of workers." *


*On small benefit networks*

*"Leaders, ex-leaders and potential leaders create and maintain 
intricate networks spread throughout the factory through incentives like 
advances, loans, lighter jobs, preferable shifts, employment to kith & 
kin, gate passes, tours, better food from the canteen without any 
payment, grants from welfare, first preference." *

*"Networking by leaders also uses caste and regional identities." *

*"Leaders and ex-leaders are often found ensconced in the offices of the 
personnel manager or some other official. Persons with close links to 
this or that managerial faction can provide facilities to their close 
followers (laguea-bhaguea). Leaders and their camp-followers makeup ten 
to fifteen percent of the factory's workers." *

*"Those who constitute the networks are articulate in various ways _ 
from muscle power to slippery tongues." *

*"These networks which are constituted on the basis of material 
incentives and favours are very intricate. They make a "tantra" and 
"jaal" (apparatus and mesh) to keep constant tabs on, as well as affect 
the weather and temperature on the shopfloor." *

*"Those who constitute the networks are conduits for the circulation of 
rumours, baits, airy-fairy promises, and even lies. These networks make 
constant efforts to justify and valorize leaders and their powerful 
social & political links." *

*"Leaders are basically middle-persons. And like all middle-persons they 
sometimes get small things done for us on an individual basis." *

*"We have everyday fears of disciplinary actions, chargesheets, 
suspensions and physical attacks. Leaders' networks routinely highlight, 
heighten and exaggerate these fears to keep us pacified." *


*During shopfloor confrontations*

*"Supervisors run away from the shopfloor whenever worker discontent 
grows and workers take an openly confrontationist stance. In such cases 
management refuses to talk to workers directly. It sends leaders to the 
shopfloor." *

*"Most of us weigh the situation again and again, and hesitatingly take 
steps back and forth on contentious issues. Leaders' networks try to 
pacify us by exaggerating our fears. Meanwhile, the networks of 
ex-leaders and potential leaders try and instigate us to an openly 
confrontationist stance in an attempt to establish their leaderships." *

*"Leaders' pet rant to pacify us is that 'you start the work, we'll take 
care of the matter'. When workers refuse to listen and open 
confrontation continues, selective suspensions and dismissals begin." *

*"In such situations, suspensions and dismissals force workers to talk 
to the leaders. The leaders then scold workers for having taken steps 
without their advice. They present the suspensions and dismissals as a 
consequence of not heeding them." *

*"The issues of contention are effectively sidelined by the leaders. 
They shift the focus to suspensions and dismissals." *

*"Routinely, when workers demand small relief on individual or group 
basis, the management does not act. When leaders say the same thing, the 
management acts. This increases the power of the leaders." *


*Some conclusions*

*"We used to give union dues on the understanding that we would get 
benefits in exchange. Wages will increase and our jobs will be safe. But 
during the past twenty years things have been just the opposite." *

*"For twenty-eight years I have been witnessing a reduction in the 
number of workers and an increase in production." *

*"Earlier we used to give union dues but now the management deducts 
union dues from our salary." *

*"Trapped by one assurance or another, we contribute union dues. It is 
only later that we find that all these assurances were hollow." *

*Lead-ry: department of conflict management Lead-ry is an art and a 
science, mastered only by a few, and used to sit on our heads. It 
requires: *

*· Sharp skills in discontent measurement and the ability to arrive at 
swift quantitative solutions i.e. 'at what' and 'at how much' will the 
workers accept the disagreeable. This involves a wide spectrum of 
activities ranging from passing on sums of money to slapping a 
supervisor's face. *

*· Highly developed rhetorical skills, which are used to sway, to create 
prejudice and to convince. *

*· Organising skills, which are used to build and sustain well-oiled 
networks at minimal cost. These skills involve astute psychological 
reading of individuals and groups of individuals. They also require a 
down to earth grasp of identity politics and maneuvers. *

*Managements' regime of work, productivity and discipline is routinely 
confronted and opposed by wage-workers. Routine activity of lead-ry is 
to coax, cajole and threaten wage-workers into accepting these regimes. *

*Lead-ry routinely negotiates agreements with management and attempts to 
implement them by overcoming wage-workers' opposition. "Whenever a new 
machine or fixture is brought workers refuse to work on them. Leaders 
are the main instruments to implement these changes. Placation, 
suspension and fear are used by l eaders for this." *

*The main activity of lead-ry is to actively discourage the routine 
self-activity of wage-workers. Individually and in small groups, workers 
are always taking steps on their own that disrupt the work-routine. 
These seemingly minor irritants are a major threat to production and 
discipline. Leaders and their networks, i.e. lead-ry, is constantly 
engaged in hindering, devaluing and hijacking the self-activity of 
wage-workers. *

*To put it bluntly: higher management makes strategies, leaders & 
personnel managers act as tacticians, and supervisors & leaders' 
networks execute these strategies. *


*Self-activities of wage-workers*

*Perhaps not universal, it is still true that most people have the 
capacity as well as the ability to act and participate as "NOT AS 
UNEQUALS" in small informal groups. The layering of experience, the 
excitement and the unpredictability associated with what takes place 
each day is not because we participate as 'equals'. Instead, it is 
because each of us carries our individuality and is able to express it 
freely in such groups. *

*This participation as "NOT AS UNEQUALS" is spread over various facets 
of life and an individual is often a participant in more than one 
informal group at most times. *

*The wider implications of these informal groups of "NOT AS UNEQUALS" 
stand out clearly when we look at their play in some detail in 
institutional structures, whether factories, offices, banks or the media. *

*The moment of entry into a factory is the moment of entry into the 
disciplinary grid of work & productivity, as well as a jungle of 
informal groups. Strict entry schedules set up by managements are 
transformed into stretchable entry times. The act of punching-in is 
often put into disarray by proxy-punching or transformed by kicks that 
literalize the machine into a punching bag. *

* 'Entry time' is made distinct from 'commencement of work' by long 
handshakes - backslaps - chitchat. It is often that work commences after 
9 o'clock tea in an 8 A.M. shift. *

*Management strategies like changing the placement of the 'punch-in' 
from factory gate to departments, the imposition of fines, like a 
fifteen minute wage-cut for being late by one minute, are visible signs 
of managerial desperation. *

*Proxy-punching in the Goodyear Tyre factory has forced the management 
to issue identity cards containing computer floppies, even though it has 
meant an increase in cost. Workers' kicks in the Bata Shoe factory 
repeatedly dysfunctional ized the punching machine and forced the 
management to appoint an attendance clerk to go to each department and 
mark workers' attendance. *

*Using lead-ry networks, management conducts time studies to work out 
grids of intensification. These are the periods when the wink of an eye 
and the utterance of a phrase put into practice well thought-out schemes 
involving co-ordinated steps by small affinity groups of seven-eight 
workers. And, whether they are premised on time studies or on agreements 
with leaders, the biggest stumbling block to increases in the workload 
are the informal groups of workers. *

*Keeping the immediate supervisor in check is a task that all workers 
have to take up. It is a very common sight to find five-six workers 
heckling a supervisor when s/he is trying to boss over some worker. 
Immediate supervisors are often nervous, tense and anxious despite the 
brave face they put up. In a hand tools factory, a supervisor who 
bullied and humiliated workers was lucky to survive. On a cold winter 
night shift, the machines lay idle because of shortage of material and 
the supervisor went to sleep in his cabin with a coal fire to keep him 
warm. Workers slept on as a factory ghost locked the supervisor's cabin 
door. It was the routine round of security personnel that led to the 
breaking open of the door and the saving of the supervisor's life. *

*Helping one-another does not remain confined to affairs dealing with 
the company. Discussions of events in one-another's residential 
locality, schools, hospitals, etc. are very common amongst groups of 
workers during breaks which are often extended, to the constant chagrin 
of managements. Intricate inter-linking amongst workers coagulates them 
into entities where a member is never alone. This plays a major role in 
keeping the bossism of management or the goonery of lead-ry in check, 
whether in the factory, on the road or in residential localities. Anyone 
mistaking an individual to be only an individual is immediately shown 
the real side of things. In fact, the affinity groups in factories are a 
continuation of affinity groups at large in society. *

# *Innumerable actions, immense diversity and an extremely high 
unpredictability of affinity groups keep management and leaders in 
check. A phrase often floating in management-lead-ry negotiations is 
"Will the workers accept this?" *

*Rules and regulations are easily made. Agreements can easily be signed. 
Workers not accepting or fulfilling given production targets can have 
their services terminated. Given the universal co-option of unions and 
leaders by managements, there seems to be nothing stopping managements 
from doing what they want. Then, why the ever-present, ever-troubling 
question "Will the workers accept this?" *

*In a factory manufacturing wires, management stream-rolled workers from 
one job to another. Anyone saying 'NO' was shown the gate. The coolness 
and quietness with which small groups of workers accepted this and 
interchanged operations, from acid to water to oil back to water, oil 
and acid, only infuriated the management when they discovered that 
ninety tonnes of wire was sent back by a consignee as being defective. 
Arbitrary job changes came to an abrupt end. *

*To counter the delay in wage-payment, a handful of workers working for 
a contractor in a textile factory simply went to the canteen and sat 
there. The workers' silence in response to the haranguing of the chief 
executive completely unnerved the management. *

*A management of a tractor factory increased production quotas using 
agreements with the union. Workers operating computerised machines 
responded by changing around the tapes that governed work sequences. The 
management had to very quickly replace the machines. *

*Anyone blowing the whistle is shown his or her place. In a hand 
tool-manufacturing factory, new machinery even further cut down the time 
between two operations. In order to obtain some breathing space, two 
cranes were made to move from opposite sides, clash and cause a 
breakdown. A maintenance worker complained to the management. One day, 
cranes were in operation but were said to be not working. The 
maintenance worker was called for repair. He climbed a crane and when he 
was checking it, the other crane began moving towards his crane. His 
shouts for mercy braked the other crane, but they proved to be a brake 
for management schemes as well. *

*And then, things like not greeting a boss. The management of a factory 
stopped overtime payments to pay clerks. The five pay clerks responded 
to this loss of dues by moving like automatons whenever they came across 
their boss. The silence of the clerks got on his nerves and the 
management had a nervous breakdown. Overtime dues were restarted. *

# *It is these constant innumerable, insidious, unpredictable activities 
by small groups of workers that underlie the stress that managements 
give to representation - articulation - long term agreements. *

*Representation - articulation - unity - long-term agreements versus 
wage-workers' silences - mumbling - incoherence - constantly nagging 
non-unitary demands are expressions of the functioning of a large number 
of small informal groups in an institution. They are the signs of 
expressions of the individualities of workers. *

*In a factory, workers in small groups would often go to the general 
manager to put up their grievances or seek relief. The harassed manager 
met this self-expression of workers by posting a guard in front of his 
office and issuing explicit instructions that workers would not to be 
allowed to enter his office in groups and only one worker would be 
allowed to go in along with a leader. In this way, not only was his 
paternal mask shattered but also the upkeep of his position demanded new 
costs. *

*Management responds to the adamancy of these small groups of workers by 
harping on the threat to harmonious industrial relations. Lead-ry 
denounces the actions and demands of these small groups as a selfishness 
that poses a threat to workers' unity. Sixteen hot chamber workers in a 
factory left their place of work on a hot summer day complaining of 
excessive heat. Operations involving five hundred workers came to a 
standstill. Hot chamber workers had been demand ing relief during 
summers through a lowering of temperature, but the management was not 
willing to agree, as this would lessen the pace of drying and therefore 
slow down the chain of work. Assurances had been aplenty and many a 
long-term agreement had completed its tenure. This step of the hot 
chamber workers was met by the leaders with such epithets: "All these 
years they did not feel the heat, it is only today that they have 
acquired this delicacy. They want to spoil our relation with the 
management. Wheat advance is around the corner - now the management will 
refuse to give it. They only look at themselves. Their selfishness is 
harming all the other workers. The management listens to us because we 
represent you. But if small groups do not listen to us and take steps on 
their own, then why will the management talk to us? It is only our unity 
that is holding back the management, otherwise it will do whatever it 
wants. These hot chamber workers are harming our unity, and if tomorrow 
the management takes action against anyone we will not be responsible." *

*In the Escorts Yamaha motorcycle manufacturing factory, disenchantment 
with and denunciation of leaders was similar to innumerable other 
places. In a confrontation with the management, 300 workers on the 
assembly line refused to have anything to do with leaders and jammed the 
assembly line on their own. Leaders denounced these workers and 
reciprocated by saying that they would not intervene on their behalf - 
this would teach them a lesson. Workers in other departments did not lay 
down their tools in sympathy with the assembly line workers. Instead, 
what was observed was that management and leaders were conspiring for a 
lockout/strike to launch a major attack on the workers. There are two 
thousand five hundred workers in the factory. All the workers 
side-stepped the leaders and decided to continue production in other 
departments while the assembly line workers would keep the line jammed. 
Meanwhile, money would be collected department-wise to compensate their 
financial loss. As the assembly of a motorcycle per two minutes stood 
still, management and leaders bid their time, confident that the past 
would repeat itself and workers would have to accept the mediation of 
leaders. A week after the jam, overtime payments of the previous month 
were made. One hundred rupees was contributed by each worker, and 
collected in a rota department-wise. It was decided that a like amount 
would be contributed when monthly wages were to be paid. This step of 
the workers unnerved the management as well as the lead-ry. Leaders on 
their own started holding talks with the management and an ex-partie 
agreement fulfilling the assembly line workers' demands was made to get 
the assembly line moving. *


*Refusals*

*Self-activities of wage-workers also encompass layers and layers of 
routine refusals. A few such refusals are: *

* *" Never make a complaint against a co-worker to a supervisor or
to a manager." *
* *" Never to give evidence in favour of management against a
co-worker." *
* *" Not to get entangled in competition. To give more production in
competition with co-workers is unacceptable." *
* *" Refuse to be carried away by managerial appreciation &
recognition to give more production." *
* *" Even the shadow of money is unacceptable in inter-personal
relations." *


*Seismic lead-ry*

*It is not un-often that competitiveness in the market demands sharp 
rise in productivity. This entails a major attack on wage-workers. Major 
attack means large-scale retrenchment, big increase in work intensity, 
sharp cuts in wages besides other cost cutting and efficiency drives. *

*In these conditions managements plan new strategies and lead-ry adopts 
new tactics. The unfolding of events is very intricate. To discern the 
intricate web of strategy and tactics we take as an illustration the 
unfolding of events in Gedore Hand Tools, Faridabad in 1982-1984 of 
which we have a first hand experience. *


*Background*

*Gedore Hand Tools, headquartered in Germany, had three plants in 
Faridabad exploiting 3500 wage-workers. U.S.A was a major market for its 
produce. Hand tools enterprises located in China and South Korea were 
Gedore's market competitors. Shrinkage of production in the auto and 
engineering industries in the early 1980s sharpened the competition in 
the hand tools market. In this scenario, in order to maintain its 
competitiveness, Gedore management planned a major int ensification of 
work through automation and large-scale retrenchment. For installation 
of an automatic plating plant Gedore management took a loan of Rs. 2.5 
crores (~ $2.5 millions) from the Industrial Development Bank of India, 
a government of India enterprise. *


*The unfolding of events*

*In the beginning of 1982 incidents of chargesheeting, suspensions, 
transfers from one department to another, shifting workers from one job 
to another, wage-delays, downgradation in canteen quality, insistence on 
quality in production, strictness about production targets, time 
strictness, no rest during shift hours etc. increased noticeably. *

*In a gate meeting on June 7, 1982 union leaders spoke at length about 
capitalism, global crisis, company in crisis, and then asked the workers 
to make sacrifices in the larger interest. They put forward three 
alternatives to choose from: *

*- 25% reduction in wages. *

*- Go on special leave for six months at half wages. *

*- Retrenchment of 600 workers. *

*Workers rejected outright all these options put forth by the leaders. 
At this rejection, managements' escalated their strong-arm tactics and 
instigation. Leaders and ex-leaders oiled their networks and accelerated 
mobilisations around caste and regional identities. *

*Workers disenchantment with leaders increased rapidly. Their 
self-activity became more pronounced. Large number of workers stopped 
paying union dues, attending union meetings, side-stepping leaders in 
day to day activity and began to deal directly with management 
individually and in small groups. Graffiti inside the plants increased. *

*A group of workers belonging to, or influenced by, the fringe left 
posed inconvenient questions in a signed handbill on June 12, 1982. The 
handbill read "… management says that it does not have money even to buy 
raw materials - then where are the crores of rupees (millions of 
dollars) for automation coming from? Is it not because of automation 
that 600 workers are being told to resign? Soon, will you not talk of 
the need to retrench a thousand workers? Instead of struggling against 
it, haven't union leaders become advocates of the management?" *

*The confidence of the leaders was shaken. Management was put on the 
defensive. Uneasy questions in the workers' minds became points of 
widespread discussion. The tactic deployed by leaders and management - 
of announcing their attack in the gate meeting - had turned out to be a 
blunder. For damage control, the leaders adopted silence and the 
management took steps - show cause and advice l etters were issued to 
the signatories of the handbill. *

*Through a circular, management warned workers to beware of disruptive 
forces. It said that automation was for the health of the workers. The 
management claimed that it had never had any intention of retrenching 
workers who would be made surplus by automation. If the management had 
wanted, it could have retrenched half the workers as it had been paying 
full wages to idle workers for one and half years. The circular ended 
with a rhetorical flourish: "Increase produc tion OR perish!" *

*A twisted version of the management slogan: "Increase production AND 
perish!" became popular amongst the workers. *

*The sequence of events at this point is as follows : there are 
prolonged delays in the payment of wages, machinery for automation 
reaches the plants, leaders maintain a strict silence, and ex-leaders 
attempt to form a rival union. There are physical attacks, by leaders 
and their network, on workers who still try to focus discussion on the 
looming retrenchment. To silence these voices, management uses 
suspensions. Besides the delay in wages, the issue of the annual bonus 
is used as another diversionary entanglement. Further on, the management 
goes for work suspension at half wages for three days and says that this 
may continue for quite some time. *

*Leaders complement these steps taken by the management for an open 
confrontation by ordering a tool down strike on February 12, 1983. Fiery 
speeches at gate meetings became a regular feature. Dissenting workers 
who have been trying to focus attention on looming retrenchment are 
denounced as disruptive elements and attacked. On February 21, 1983 
leaders announce at a gate meeting that they have reached an agreement 
with the management. In the agreement it is agreed that no further work 
suspensions would take place but wages of January'83 would be paid in 
January'84. The workers reject this agreement. The management then 
tries, unsuccessfully, to instigate violent confrontations amongst 
workers through ex-leaders. *

*The same agreement is again put for approval at the gate meeting of 
February 28, 1983 after a number of thundering speeches challenging the 
management to lockout the factory if it wanted. The workers again reject 
the agreement. *

*After the second rejection, the leaders announce that the way now is to 
go for an 'open struggle'. A meeting of factory delegates (who had been 
elected in 1980) and other militant workers is called and suggestions 
asked for. Leaders then reject the suggestion for demonstrations on the 
plea that the conflict was with the Gedore management and not with the 
government. However, as soon as t he question of steps against the 
management comes into focus, the leaders somersault and announce a 
demonstration & a sit-down at the district administration chief's office 
to be organised on Mar, 21. *

*On March 20, leaders call another gate meeting. Besides members of 
their network in the three plants, leaders bring their supporters from 
other factories and spread them out strategically. The same agreement is 
announced yet again. It is immediately hailed by the strategically 
placed supporters! And before the workers can react, leaders and their 
henchmen jump the factory gate and rush in to the plant to switch on the 
machines. *

*The leaders had here used a time tested and most effective strategy. By 
switching on machines and restarting the plants, the workers would now 
be split into confronting groups, where one section would demand a 
continuation of the tool down strike while the other would be in favour 
of resuming work. This clash amongst the workers, and the concomitant 
unfolding of violence, would then facilitate large-scale retrenchment. *

*But in this case this strategy failed miserably. Enraged, the 3500 
workers rush into the plant, shut down the machines and then beat up the 
leaders who are forced to run away. The President of the union who was 
also beaten and had to turn tail, had been the president of the union 
for ten years and was also the President of CITU, Faridabad district 
unit of the central trade union of Communist Party of India (Marxist). *

*Production does not resume. There is now massive police deployment. 
Leaders again try to start the machines at night. They are again forced 
to retreat. Tool down continues. *

*Some workers belonging to the fringe left call a general body meeting 
on 23rd March, the weekly rest day. All the workers attend it. A 
committee proposed by militant, articulate workers and ex-leaders to 
obtain the resignation of leaders is not opposed. In view of the 
mounting discontent of workers, the leaders have to resign. After the 
resignations, the struggle committee, however, does not materialize and 
the ex-leaders take over. *

*Tool down continues till April 14, 1983. The workers reluctantly accept 
the agreement that they had rejected earlier. *

*Stalemate. The issue of retrenchment has got bogged down. *

*The cycle of shopfloor instigation and wage-delays reemerges as a part 
of renewed attempts to retrench workers. Police are now posted inside 
one of the plants. Mobilisations being made on the basis of region and 
caste come to the fore. There is now a delay in the payment of wages to 
supervisory and clerical staff. *

*The management obtains government approval for retrenchment of 300 
workers. Leaders hide the list and deny that there is any retrenchment 
on the cards. They start talking about a new long-term agreement and 
preparation of a demand charter for it. *

*At this juncture, management steps up attempts at violent 
confrontations amongst workers. Old leaders form a committee with the 
claim that they will negotiate a good agreement with the management. 
Mobilisation by the two lead-ry networks on the basis of caste, region 
and plant identity became frantic. The management flames the fire by 
locking out the third Gedore plant in February 1984. Enraged workers 
attack the existing leaders and the committee of old leaders uses this 
opportunity to take over leadership. Lockout in the third plant is 
lifted. *


*The finishing off*

*And then began joint action by the management, leaders, police, state 
administration and the media, to retrench workers in Gedore Hand Tools. 
A gang of 15 to 20 leaders and their musclemen freely roam the three 
plants. They pick workers from their machines, take them to the plant 
time-office and force them, through physical violence and threats, to 
sign resignation letters. In this way, up to 50 workers are forced to 
resign in a single day. Workers coming to factory for work and those 
leaving after shift hours are attacked on the roads and forced to 
resign. Workers are threatened at their homes and forced to resign. 
Workers who had lodged complaints with the police find that the police 
have framed cases against them. Government administration merely files 
away the complaints made at the District Administration office. 
Newspapers do not print any news of these events. Not even letters about 
a fellow worker who committed suicide on the rail tracks after he was 
forced to resign. *

*In these circumstances hundreds of workers sought shelter in their 
villages for months. *

*And the environment at Gedore? Armed police in tents inside the 
factory, armed police in trucks making rounds of the three plants. *

*This is how the stalemate was broken and retrenchment implemented. Even 
then, it took one more year to retrench 1500 workers out of the 3500 in 
Gedore Hand Tools, Faridabad. *


*Fallout*

*The inability of the management, lead-ry and state administration to 
entrap wage-workers in time tested snares, forced them to divest 
themselves of their constitutional garbs as well as leader militancy. 
They had to resort to brute force to implement their policies. This 
repression, however, could not bring with it the myth of "glorious 
defeat" with its martyrs and heroes as well as the attendant mortgaging 
of wage-workers' critical evaluation. *

*But not getting trapped was not sufficient for the workers and they 
were disabled by the methodical repression of the management. This could 
happen, fundamentally, because management repression did not create 
sufficient ripples and repercussions amongst other wage-workers. 
Workers' self-activities had remained disjointed, unlinked and 
uncoordinated even within the enterprise. A dynamic expansion of 
wage-workers' self-activities is critical for linking wage-workers of 
one enterprise with those of other enterprises. But the unfolding of 
workers' self-activity was impeded by their not questioning of 
representation & delegation. *


*Seismic lead-ry - at a higher level*

*The frequency of extensive area-wide, region-wide, nation-wide attacks 
on wage-workers, compressed in ever-shortening periods of time is 
increasing. The attacks entail huge wage-cuts, enormous increase in 
work-load and mass scale retrenchments. And they are implemented, 
primarily, in two ways. *

*One: through instigation to mass violence by playing the politics of 
identity, and *

*Two: through the foisting of credible, militant leaders. *

*In Indonesia, 1997-98, through the massive attacks on wage-workers, one 
can see these strategies being played out: *

*I. Media highlighted riots between 'ethnic Indonesians' and 'migrant 
Chinese'; *

*II. "Confirmed reports say that the US has been pressuring Jakarta to 
release one of the top political dissenters from imprisonment. 'The US 
move is to enable Jakarta to cool the rising temperature down to some 
extent', say sources". [HT, Delhi 29 March 1998] *


*Activities of a fringe left *

*The fringe left that was a participant in the events in Gedore Hand 
Tools in 1982-84 existed around a monthly workers newspaper. Some 
workers of Gedore were members of this fringe left and we have emerged 
from this background.The activities of this fringe left had been geared: *

*- to unmask the collaboration of leaders with managements. *

*- to keep in focus the issues that managements and leaders seek to hide. *

*- to unmask formal and phoney steps like one-day token strikes, token 
demonstrations and formal mass meetings that are organised by leaders. *

*- to create and establish an effective alternate leadership to be 
constituted by militant, credible leaders from amongst the workers. *

*- to unify workers around this alternate leadership. *

*- to launch organised, conscious struggles under this alternate 
leadership. *

*- to push for demonstrations, mass meetings & strikes. *


*A critique of a fringe left*

* The process of unmasking management-leader collaborations brought into 
focus contentious issues that management and leaders seek to hide. This 
centre-staging of otherwise hidden agendas helped unleash the 
self-activity of wage-workers. Management notices and leaders rhetoric, 
demand charters and agreements, all came under constant scrutiny by 
wage-workers. "What to do?" and "How to do? " became topics of routine 
discussion. Routine self-activity of workers as individuals and in small 
groups increased. *

*The medium of circulation of information around these activities was 
through a regular monthly newspaper, frequent handbills, wall-letters 
and conversations. These simple acts created considerable hurdles in the 
implementation of the retrenchment policy at Gedore Tools. *

* But it is the alternative proposed by fringe left that is problematic, 
in fact, fatal. The mobilisation of wage-workers envisaged by the fringe 
left, in fact, is premised on the erasure of the self expressions and 
self-activities of wage-workers at large. *


*The problem of militant & credible leaders*

*In the latter half of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 
20th century, fierce polemics raged on the question of real and phoney 
representations/ representatives of the interests of wage-workers. The 
polemics spanned ideology, strategy and tactics. 'Reform or Revolution' 
was often the high point of the debate. The reality that has unfolded 
since has, however, made the very premises of this debate redundant. *

*Towards the last quarter of the 19th century, requirements of 
production enterprises for accumulated labour reached such dimensions 
that individual ownership of production enterprises became unfeasible. 
to to as the major source of funding for production enterprises are what 
has unfolded in these one hundred years. Individuals as owners/ part 
owners of production enterprises have increasingly become insignificant. 
Acts forcing bankruptcies of individual owners have lost their cutting 
edge. Enterprises have acquired institutional forms. With enterprises 
becoming monoliths of massive amounts of accumulated labour, head-on 
collisions of living labour with these institutional monsters are 
counter productive for living labour, whether in the form of an 
individual wage-worker, a group of wage-workers or a mass of 
wage-workers. And, working for head-on collisions is the raison d'etre 
of the fringe left. *

*In this scenario, the blurred boundaries between phoney, formal and 
real struggles have melted, become indistinguishable, giving way to a 
continuum. Formal-token, phoney-instigated-provoked, militant struggles, 
despite some differences of form, have in essence become 
indistinguishable. It is through repeated experiences that large numbers 
of wage-workers have learnt that these are harmful for them. It is this 
that underlies the unwillingness of workers to struggle - the word 
'struggle' is here being used in the sense of the dominant meaning s 
that it has come to have. And it is this that underlies the fringe 
left's activities to 'agitate workers' in order to overcome what it 
decries as the apathy and passivity of wage-workers. It is in this 
context that the fringe left creates the polemics of militant & credible 
leaders. *

*In general, the alternate leadership, the militant & credible leaders 
for whose creation the fringe left is geared, is a fringe phenomenon 
like itself. It is only in the event of major attacks on wage-workers 
that the alternate leadership of militant & credible leaders can and 
often does acquire leverage amongst large numbers of workers. And it is 
only then that the 'dead-endness' of militancy, and the fact that it 
actually causes serious damage, becomes obvious. *

*Unity and unifocality are the mantras of state and proto-state 
apparatuses. Even those fringe left groups that are explicitly 
anti-state have as their axis activities that are geared to unity and 
unifocal forms. This is what makes even such fringe left groups 
proto-states. *

*In fact, it must be stated that it is very doubtful if representation 
was at any time in the interest of wage-workers. A hundred years compel 
us to engage in a critical retrospective analysis. With all that 
wage-workers have experienced in this time, history proves that any and 
every representation is counter-productive for wage-workers. *

*Demonstrations, mass meetings and strikes are all events premised on 
unity and unifocality, and implicit in them are both representation and 
delegation. The logic for these events is that these are shows of 
strength and thus in the interest of wage-workers. Facts, however, point 
to the contrary. *


*Demonstrations*

*Demonstrations involve an elaborate plan of date, time, route, 
destination, pace, slogans, demands, those to lead, those to maintain 
order, those to address and those to talk 'on behalf'. Organisational 
infrastructure is a prerequisite for a demonstration. Ninety-five 
percent of wage-workers cannot organise demonstrations themselves, they 
can only join in as followers. For a worker to become a part of a 
demonstration, the worker has to in effect erase any idea of 
self-activity and self-expression, or, has to deceive him or herself by 
parroting the pre-written script as self-expression. *

*Demonstrations are means and occasions for displaying the strength of 
organisations and leaders. The index of strength is numbers and the 
index of militancy is the number & intensity of skirmishes with the 
police, which range from charges by mounted police, water cannon 
charges, tear gas shelling, arrests, and firing. The success of a 
demonstration is measured by the grandiosity of the spectacle it 
provides to the media. What are erased are the injuries and the long 
court cases inflicted on wage-workers. Those who are killed are made 
into martyrs and transformed into icons to shackle any criticism or 
questioning. *

*Workers, by and large, are aware that demonstrations make them easy 
targets for police attacks besides gagging their self-expression. This 
is evident from the distance that workers maintain from demonstrations. 
In fact demonstrations often have to be organised during shift hours 
with the connivance of managements. *


*Mass meetings*

*Most frequently, mass meetings that wage-workers have to encounter are 
gate meetings at the factory and office. Gate meetings are held by 
leaders. The rule is that only leaders will speak in the gate meetings. 
The logic put forward is that any other vocalization will show disunity 
amongst workers to the management and weaken bargaining power. To see to 
it that the rule is implemented, lead-ry musclemen are strategically 
placed in gate meetings in order to summarily deal with any worker who 
tries to speak. Recognition of a new leadership hap pens with the 
successful holding of a gate meeting, because holding a gate meeting 
constitutes a challenge to the existing leadership. *

*The most encountered mass meetings, i.e. gate-meetings, exclude 
wage-workers self-expression both by logic and force. *

*The fringe left often called for general body meetings (GBM) away from 
the factory premises in order to overcome the prohibition of any 
expression of dissent at gate-meetings. However, an elaborate 
organisational apparatus is also a prerequisite for holding general body 
meetings. These are occasions that require venues, agendas, stages, 
stage-managers, order keepers and elaborate time management. By their 
very nature, general body meetings are arenas for fights between 
leaders, ex-leaders and potential leaders with their lists of articulate 
speakers and cheer groups. *

*General body meetings demand from wage-workers time bound (two to three 
minutes) coherent presentations on specific agenda. These presentations 
have to be speeches to audiences of hundreds or thousands. This demand 
on the workers by itself excludes most workers from expressing 
themselves in general body meetings. Those who are not thus excluded 
have to filter through the lists of speakers of contending lead-ry 
networks. *

*Workers have seen through general body meetings for what they are. Now 
the norm is that out of a thousand workers, approximately 150 will 
attend them. *

*There are other kinds of mass meetings that play on higher scales of 
representation. An illustrative example: >From 1977 to 1979 in 
Faridabad, there were sporadic multi-nodal outbursts of workers 
discontent in hundreds of factories. In October 1979 unions jointly 
called a mass meeting. Around 100,000 workers assembled and the 
atmosphere was very charged. The huge number of workers spilled out of 
the meeting ground and road and rail traffic was forced to halt. 
Well-prepared police and paramilitary forces then began indiscriminate 
firing. Factories functioned normally from the next day. This incident 
ensured a smoother functioning in the industrial b elt for the next few 
years. And a martyrs' column was duly erected. *


*Strikes *

*This fringe left's activity regarding strikes was on two planes. One - 
phoney strikes called by leaders for the implementation of management 
policies and formal strikes to make their presence felt, were denounced. 
Two - The call was given for real strikes, and for militancy in real 
strikes. *

*Denunciation of phoney and formal strikes opens greater possibilities 
for workers self-activity as questions regarding what to do, what not to 
do, how to do, how not to do are unleashed. However, calling for real, 
militant strikes has disastrous consequences for wage-workers. *

*Vis-a-vis management, work stoppage at either factory or larger levels 
is no longer a powerful weapon of wage-workers. On the contrary, 
lockouts by managements and strikes by leaders are powerful instruments 
used to launch major attacks on wage-workers. In the last twenty years 
we have not come across any strikes, anywhere in the world, that have 
not resulted in large-scale wage cuts, retrenchments, work 
intensification or closures. *

*A few illustrative examples: *

*Bombay Textile Strike of 1982-83 in 60 textile mills. 250,000 workers 
unified under a militant leadership on a charter of demands. Management 
policy was to retrench 90,000 workers and close down old mills & sell 
the premium land. Under normal circumstances, such large-scale 
retrenchment would have taken more than ten years. Through the strike, 
however, this policy was implemented in one year. *

*East India Cotton Mills, Faridabad, 1979. Automation was to be 
implemented. Management needed to retrench 3000 out of 6000 workers. A 
strike was called by the union for a one-percent increase in bonus. 
Militant strike, and a lot of violence. Three thousand workers dismissed. *

*Lakhani Shoes, Faridabad, 1983,1988,1996. Three major strikes by three 
different unions. Each time there is violence and militancy. Each time 
all workers are dismissed. Lakhani Shoes has registered a very fast 
growth rate in output. Number of factories of the company has increased 
from 3 in 1983 to 22 in 1997. *


*Requirements of a strike*

*The requirements of a strike are factory-wide issues and an elaborate 
organisational structure. Also, mobilisation of workers through 
persuasions, deceptions, hopes and threats. *

*The activity of fringe groups during strikes that are not organised by 
them is geared to make the strikes increasingly militant. In factories 
where they have a physical presence and they are able to get an echo 
they may be able to take over the leadership of the strike by forming 
struggle committees of militant workers. What are the courses open to 
these struggle committees? *

*Prolongation of the strike does not help. Rather, the longer the strike 
is stretched, the weaker becomes the strength of the workers vis-a-vis 
management. Such being the reality, struggle committees are forced to 
resort to: *

*· Direct confrontations with state administration to pressurize the 
state-apparatus to act on the management. The steps are big and 
volatile, be they demonstrations, mass meetings, road jams and railway 
stoppage. These steps provide easy and visible targets to repressive 
organs of the state-apparatus. Given past experience, workers rarely 
follow those advocating these steps. *

*· Mobilisation of media, artists, stars, influential persons, other 
representatives, parliamentarians, grass-root activists to persuade 
state administrations to act on management. *

*Wage-workers are initially hopeful spectators to these performances and 
then slowly disperse as disenchantment sets in. *

*Both these action-courses lead to an immobilization and dispersion of 
workers and ensure an implementation of management policy. *

*Unified militant struggles, whether in the form of demonstrations, mass 
meetings or strikes, are akin to military operations with their 
generals, captains, sergeants and, of course, foot soldiers. 
Organisations linked to the management or organisations that are 
proto-states are alone capable of running such operations. *


*A Preliminary Sum-up*

*In general, when wage-workers resistances, refusals and steps of change 
are discussed, the imagery that crop up is that of mass demonstrations, 
mass meetings, strikes, pitched battles, insurrections. The corollaries 
to these are the non-mundane qualities of heroism, sacrifice, bravery, 
martyrdom, courage, wisdom, articulation, discipline and unity. By these 
very definitions, the self-activities of most wage-workers are excluded. 
This imagery inherently posits a spectacular arena for lead-ry to 
deprive the wage-workers of their voices. *

*More painful still is that big, mass, spectacular movements make easy 
targets of wage-workers for managerial apparatuses to control, manage 
and, if necessary, crush. *

*Big implies mobilisation on a mass scale. Conducting and directing 
committees are intrinsic to such events. Seemingly a large number of 
people become active, but actually it is representatives and leaders who 
think, decide and issue orders whereas numbers at large have to march to 
the tunes trumpeted. Mobilisations by representatives are for 
representatives. *

*Defeats are camouflaged as victories in order to legitimize the 
re-creations of these representational forms. Repeated experiences with 
'big' have led wage-workers at large to keep aloof from them. This is 
often characterized as passivity and apathy of wage-workers. *

*When wage-workers daily routine oppositions become too much for a 
management or when a management has to go in for a major restructuring, 
retrenchment, wage-cut or intensification, it often resorts to 
spectacular work stoppage. Since production enterprise is no longer the 
private property of individuals (i.e. capitalist), prolonged stoppage of 
production is no longer a question of life and death for a management as 
it was for a capitalist. When necessary, managements resort to strikes, 
lockouts, work suspensions, suspension of operations by creating big 
factory-wide, area-wide issues with the help of representatives.With 
strikes becoming the weapon of managements, those attempting to 
genuinely represent wage-workers' interests are crushed. Furthermore, 
individuals have become so insignificant vis-a-vis institutional 
structures that commitments or personalities hardly make any difference. *

*For all of us self-activity of wage-workers is of paramount importance. 
It is this area that we want to open out for discussion and debate. *

*As wage-workers we know that all of us, everyday and at everyplace, 
have to contend with oppressive and exploitative conditions around us. 
Individually and in small groups we take steps on our own. In small 
groups, we interact with each other 'not as unequals' ensuring the 
self-expression and self-activity of each one of us. *

*Confining ourselves to workplace experiences we can say that each one 
of us has an affinity group of half a dozen or so amongst whom all 
participate 'not as unequals'. In these affinity groups a lot of 
premeditation and co-ordination takes place. The activities of affinity 
groups span from mutual help to routine resistances against productivity 
and discipline, along with refusals and steps of change that question 
and challenge hierarchy, competition, money relations and wage slavery. *

*The problems as we see them are: *

*I. The importance of self-activity as reflected in these steps taken by 
affinity groups is denied. The steps by themselves are small and thus 
belittled. When they are talked about, they are derisively characterized 
as insignificant workplace skirmishes, or merely survival calisthenics. *

*II. Constant attempts are made by managements to suppress these 
self-activities through representation. *

*III. Wage-workers often do not give much importance to their self 
activity because of the invisibility of the social effects of the small 
steps engendered by their self-activities. *

*IV. There is a tremendous lack of linkages between affinity groups 
(which can only be horizontal and multi-nodal). This lack makes 
wage-workers vulnerable to getting coagulated into a mass whenever wider 
level issues are forced or arise. This coagulation if not created by 
representatives (which is ofttn the case), then in itself engenders 
representation. *

*V. More importantly, co-ordination between affinity groups is hampered 
by a lack of discussion on experiences of affinity groups. *

*Lest we be misunderstood, we would like to make it clear that we are 
not for small steps per se but our concern, rather, is for 
self-activity. Self-activity in terms of routine resistances, refusals 
and steps of change by wage-workers at large on a sustained, extended 
and expansive scale, encompassing a multifaceted global reality. *


*SELF-ACTIVITY OF WAGE-WORKERS AGAINST POLITICS OF CLOSURE*

* *


*DEFINING CLOSURE *

*A viable enterprise means that enough surplus is being extracted and 
realised in order to be appropriated as taxes, interest payments, cuts & 
commissions, managerial life-style and dividends. *

*For financial institutions, management & state apparatus, a company 
becomes non-viable & sick when the extracted and realised surplus is not 
sufficient to meet the existing levels of taxes, interest rates, cuts & 
commissions, managerial life-style and dividends. *

*It is not uncommon to find that state apparatuses, financial 
institutions and management are sometimes forced to reduce their amounts 
of surplus appropriation to keep an enterprise running. But the 
overriding tendency, of course, remains one of perpetually increasing 
the amounts that are appropriated, resulting in increasing "sickness" 
and "unviability". The dominant propaganda and media, however, all the 
while speaks of "sickness" and "closure" in terms of either 
mismanagement or lack of profitability (i.e. inability to pay 
dividends). This screens the fact that the major portion of extraction 
from wage-workers is appropriated as taxes, interest payments, cuts & 
commissions and managerial lifestyle. *


*POLITICS OF CLOSURE*

*The common interests of management, financial institutions and state 
apparatus dictate the survival, running and growth of an enterprise. In 
their common interest, they collaborate to increase intensity of work & 
workload, decrease wages, retrench workers and create techniques to 
counter wage-workers' self-activity. *

*Despite all the cunning and guile, force and deception used to keep an 
enterprise viable, when an enterprise "becomes unviable", then it is in 
the management's interest to swindle as much as it possibly can of the 
company's assets. When a goose no longer lays golden eggs, wisdom 
advises - 'Cut and Eat the Goose'. *

*There is a well-tried out management method to grab as much as is 
possible of wage-workers' legal dues before the closure of a factory. 
Along with the months of outstanding wages, years of provident funds/ 
pension funds, gratuity/ retirement benefits, years of bonus and leave 
travel allowances, etc. are also not paid. Company properties are then 
sold off with the management taking large cuts & commissions. *

*This has been a routine exercise in a large number of factories which 
have been closed in Faridabad and other places. The dominant schema is : *

# *When a factory "becomes sick", and closure has been decided, 
management - through union leaders - instigates strikes, and/or violent 
incidents to create conditions for lockouts. This facilitates the 
dispersal of workers. In these situations, management stops coming to 
the factory and wage workers are channelised into long drawn out civil 
and criminal court cases - fifteen years is very common. During all 
this, closure is very actively camouflaged. In the rare cases where the 
court cases are finally decided in favour of the workers, and the 
workers are at hand to take their legal dues, there is no property in 
the company's name to pay. Banks' and state apparatuses' dues (taxes and 
other bills) gulp most of the little that remains.*


*A BREACH IN THE POLITICS OF CLOSURE*

*This is the scenario that is being tried out in Jhalani Tools Limited, 
Faridabad. But the wage-workers in Jhalani Tools are actively countering 
this management-leaders-state administration schema to gobble-up workers 
dues through various modes of self-activity. These steps of 
self-activity, in our opinion, have wider ramifications for wage-workers. *

*Management of Jhalani Tools stopped paying wages to workers from Mar'96. *

*The past experiences of wage-workers in Faridabad and specifically in 
Jhalani Tools, have thoroughly discredited leaders amongst wage-workers. 
Through silence and passivity, the 2,000 workers countered leaders' and 
management's methods of instigation around tangential issues. No heed 
was paid to grand agreements, identity politics, change of union 
affiliation, change of leaders, provocat ion by transfers, instigation 
to violence etc. Four groups of leaders have come (have been brought) 
and gone, banging their heads against this wall of 'dull and dumb' 
silence. *

*With mounting legal dues and increasing hardships, workers had 
hesitatingly started looking for alternative courses of action. 
Initially a small group of workers in Sept.'96 had on their own demanded 
back wages from the state labour department officers. Slowly, in 
affinity groups of 5-8, workers complaints to the state officials 
increased. And very soon the working of the labour department and 
district administration was almost jammed when 300 small groups of 
workers separately started approaching the officers. Legal obligations 
of separate dates and hearings were done away with, but then talking to 
hundreds of workers at the same time was another impossibility. Like the 
management, the district officials desperately tried to foist leaders on 
workers, but failed. Faced by this stubborn refusal to accept anyone as 
leaders, district officials then tried their best toinstigate workers to 
violence. They failed again. *

*Another facet of this incident is that collecting a crowd by giving a 
single date to 300 affinity groups facilitates the spread and 
legitimization of the ageless rhetoric of unity and delegation (for 
negotiation with management and administration). This was attempted by 
the district administration. But an interesting metaphor to counter this 
arose from within the crowd outside the administration office. A worker 
responded to the call for "unity and delegation" by calling out that - 
"Bees united in a hive can easily be smoked off and their honey taken 
away. But if affinity groups of bees swarm about, no one dares to touch 
their honey". *

*Then the management tried to create leaders and instigate strikes 
through summary dismissals of workers. But even when the number of 
dismissals reached a hundred, the workers neither made leaders nor took 
to violence. *

*With this stepping up of pressure by management, leaders and state 
officials, the workers of Jhalani Tools in August'97 started taking very 
simple steps to take their predicament to more than 300,000 co-workers 
in Faridabad & Delhi. Overcoming hesitation, fear & shame, some workers 
in small groups of 8-10 started standing along various roads during 
morning and evening shift hours with hand written placards. This was 
done to engage in discussions with workers of other factories without 
any intermediaries. They have been doing this daily since Aug'97. *

*On the placards is written: *

*"We are from the 2000 workers who have not been paid their wages for 
(so many) months"; *

*"What is to be done when management does not pay wages?"; *

*"We have changed leaders four times and union flags three times, but 
each time it has been from the frying pan into the fire"; *

*"We have made many complaints to govt. officials and ministers but 
conditions have gone from bad to worse"; *

*"Metal Box, Delta Tools, Electronics Ltd. and now Jhalani Tools 
workers. Whose turn tomorrow?"; etc. *

*Everyday they space themselves along a different road. Along each route 
that they stand on, workers from hundreds of factories pass by. The 
response of workers at large has been tremendous. Dispersed, multi-nodal 
conversations without intermediaries are emerging about the urgent need 
for new modes of self-activity of workers. Over this period of eleven 
months, more than 200,000 workers have read these placards and thousands 
of workers have stopped to have extensive conversations with them. In 
almost all factories of Faridabad (and large number of factories & 
offices in Delhi) questions posed by these workers are being debated. 
What is being discussed by an ever-increasing number of wage-workers is 
how to act on their own strength against the triumvirate of state, 
management and representatives. It is a constant process of 
conversation, argument and counter-argument as to the 'Whats' and 'Hows' 
of steps of self-activity. There is awareness that the charted out paths 
and networks of representatives, leaders and their organisations are all 
geared to subvert this process. *

*Management, leaders and state officials are finding it difficult to 
instill fear in workers at large as they can find no appropriate targets 
for their terror tactics. More difficult than the small numbers of 
workers on the roads, is the problem that the straight and silent faces 
of workers are posing for the bosses. An additional difficulty for the 
bosses is the workers' refusal to go to court despite all the advice 
that the specialists have been doling out wholesale. *

*More and deeper discussions have been taking place amongst Jhalani Tool 
factory workers. These have found visible expression in forms like wall 
letters and graffiti, but a truly significant fallout has been that 
workers have innumerable and extended conversations within and outside 
the factory premises and with co-workers as well as workers from all 
other factories. From being a problem of one fac tory, it has now become 
a problem of all workers. *

*To counter the increasing self-activity of wage-workers, the provincial 
government organised elections, in Oct' 97 in order to establish a new 
leadership in the factory. From Dec' 97 the management started paying 
wages. However, these steps failed to put a brake on the workers' 
self-activity. Neither the issue of back wages & other dues could be 
side tracked, nor could the management sell the IIIrd plant of the 
factory, nor could it make leadership credible amongst workers. *

*In this situation, in Apr' 98, the management resorted to massive 
wage-cuts in order to instigate workers. Failing again, the management 
then created an atmosphere of fear & violence and threw out the elected 
leaders - replacing them with its hand picked works committee in the 
first week of June'98. This hand picked committee has resorted to direct 
physical attack and identity politics. But the continuous rise in 
workers' self-activity has put a hold on this. *

*Small groups of workers with placards standing on the roads have 
increased and are increasing in number and so are the workers in 
conversations with them. Thereby not only creating problems for Jhalani 
Tools management, which has not been able to close the factory, but also 
for managements of thousands of factories.*


KK / Collectivities, June, 1998.


Majdoor Library, Autopin Jhuggi, N.I.T. Faridabad, 121001, India


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