[Reader-list] Gurgaon Workers News - Newsletter 18 - June 2009

[gurgaon_workers_news at yahoo.co.uk]

Gurgaon Workers News - Newsletter 18 - June 2009
(full version: www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com)

Gurgaon in Haryana is presented as the shining India, a symbol of  
capitalist success promising a better life for everyone behind the  
gateway of development. At a first glance the office towers and  
shopping malls reflect this chimera and even the facades of the  
garment factories look like three star hotels. Behind the facade,  
behind the factory walls and in the side streets of the industrial  
areas thousands of workers keep the rat-race going, producing cars and  
scooters for the middle-classes which end up in the traffic jam on the  
new highway between Delhi and Gurgaon. Thousands of young middle class  
people lose time, energy and academic aspirations on night-shifts in  
call centres, selling loan schemes to working-class people in the US  
or pre-paid electricity schemes to the poor in the UK. Next door,  
thousands of rural-migrant workers uprooted by the agrarian crisis  
stitch and sew for export, competing with their angry brothers and  
sisters in Bangladesh or Vietnam. And the rat-race will not stop; on  
the outskirts of Gurgaon, Asia's biggest Special Economic Zone is in  
the making. The following newsletter documents some of the  
developments in and around this miserable boom region. If you want to  
know more about working and struggling in Gurgaon, if you want more  
info about or even contribute to this project, please do so via:

www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com
gurgaon_workers_news at yahoo.co.uk

In the June 2009 issue you can find:

1) Proletarian Experiences -
Daily life stories and reports from a workers' perspective

*** Lakhani Shoes Fire, the Unknown Deads and a Riot -
Some reports from local workers indicate that the official number of  
fifteen dead workers at Lakhani Shoes is untrue, it could be as many  
as 100. In Gurgaon, Udyog Vihar Phase 1, less than a week after the  
Lakhani disaster another factory burnt down: Bhurji Supertech, a  
cooler manufacturing plant full of polystyrenes - officially no one  
came to harm. On the same day in Gujarat workers had enough of fatal  
accidents...

*** Rural-Urban Migration Reversed? -
Short introduction to the National Rural Guarantee Scheme (NREGS),  
reference to a new publication by 'Perspectives' on the Agrarian  
Crisis, followed by a poem on the rural plight. Finally a story of a  
factory worker who became unemployed in Gurgaon and Faridabad  
industrial areas, who decided to apply for a job with the National  
Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) 'back home' in the village,  
and who found out that nothing is guaranteed. Translated from  
Faridabad Majdoor Samaachaar issue 250.

*** One and a half years and a global crisis later... -
Rather subjective snap-shots about changes in and of Gurgaon, after a  
longer absence from the disaster-zone of progress. How did the urban  
land-scape convolute further, what happened to our old neighbour, who  
are the new friends we meet...

*** Short workers' reports from Gurgaon industrial area -
Reports from workers collected during Faridabad Majdoor Samaachaar  
distribution in Gurgaon, May 2009. Workers are employed by following  
companies:

Dhir International
Food Gallery
Laxmi Embroidery
Orchid
Polypack
Rolex
Spark
Taurus Home Furnishing
Viva Global

2) Collective Action -
Reports on proletarian struggles in the area

*** Rebel Voices from Female Worker and Friends at Boni Polymers -
Woman Worker's refusal to be victimised by the crisis in the  
automobile sector. After having been sacked from work in an automobile  
parts manufacturing factory in Faridabad industrial area she and her  
friends fight back and they are fighting fit...

*** Impressions from demonstration for locked-out and jailed Musashi  
workers -
The fate of many traditionally lead workers' struggles in the area:  
first locked out, then locked-up. On 11th of May 2009 around 400  
people- most of them members of the official unions in Gurgaon,  
Manesar area - protested against the lock-out of Muasashi workers and  
against subsequent police repression. Musashi is a gear manufacturer  
for Honda HMSI. Please drop a line of rage at: www.musashi.co.in

3) According to Plan -
General information on the development of the region or on certain  
company policies

*** Babylon will fall eventually: Shaky Grounds of Gurgaon High Rise  
Real Estate -
The real estate sector in Gurgaon is not only shaken in its money- 
form, the weak foundation of its high-rising concrete-steel-glass form  
corresponds to the thin base of its inflated share-holder value.  
Construction companies and real estate developers consciously ignore  
the shaky grounds of their Babylonian towers: falling water levels,  
crispy-sandy-moving soil and increasing earthquake dangers. Short chat  
with two architects.

*** The upper-class is revolting -
Thin air on the top. The first half of 2009 saw various protests of  
the middle class: students at a management college and parents at  
private schools agitating about high fees and other forms of tighter  
selection processes. Not that we can put much hope in these 'revolting  
future managers', but the protest shows the enormous pressure within  
the new formed 'business-class', aggravated by the crisis - a pressure  
which inevitably will be channelled into all kinds of political  
reactions and reactionary dynamics. Or not? Of course we support the  
struggle of students to be able to wear long hair and to hold hands...

4) About the Project -
Updates on Gurgaon Workers News

*** Delhi Film Screening -
We plan to screen a series of workers' documentaries from various  
times and spaces. If you are interested in the screening or getting  
hold of the films (see list below), please get in touch.

*** Glossary -
Updated version of the Glossary: things that you always wanted to  
know, but could never be bothered to google. Now even in alphabetical  
order.


News from the Special Exploitation Zone -
www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com