[Reader-list] GurgaonWorkersNews - Newsletter 24 (April 2010)

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: gurgaon workers news <gurgaon_workers_news at yahoo.co.uk>
> Date: 8 April 2010 12:32:36 PM GMT+05:30
> To: gurgaon_workers_news at yahoo.co.uk
> Subject: GurgaonWorkersNews - Newsletter 24 (April 2010)
>
> GurgaonWorkersNews - Newsletter 24 (April 2010)
> (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  
> proletarianised 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 April 2010 issue you can find:
>
> 1) Proletarian Experiences -
> Daily life stories and reports from a workers' perspective
>
> *** In the Spiral of Inflation / Reports from Gurgaon Metal and  
> Textile Factories  -
> In March 2010 the transport prices on most routes within Gurgaon  
> doubled, milk got more expensive, in April 2010 the government  
> announced that cooking gas and petrol price will increase further.  
> Within the spiral of inflation the pressure to work overtime  
> increases. The 30 per cent minimum wage increase for workers in  
> Delhi is a real wage loss – nevertheless it increases workers’  
> discontent, as a friend from Okhla has told us. Metal and textile  
> workers from Gurgaon told their reports to friends of Faridabad  
> Majdoor Samachar during distribution of the newspaper in February  
> 2010.
>
> *** What Are You/We Doing / Proletarian Autobiography  -
> A 55 years old worker tells about his life-long attempts to escape  
> from field-work drudgery and to avoid 'real subsumption', the  
> direct control of capital. He goes back and forth between village  
> and town, survives on short jobs in factories, business activities  
> like peanut and cigarette selling and self-employed white-washing  
> of other people's brick-walls.
>
> 2) Collective Action -
> Reports on proletarian struggles in the area
>
> ***  First Lock-Out, then Scientological Brain-Wash: Up-Date on  
> Denso Car-Parts Factory  and on Strike at Groz Tool Factory, Gurgaon -
> On 22nd of March 2010 Denso in Manesar announced that it will take  
> 23 out of 36 suspended workers back. The company 'promises' to take  
> the rest back after one month, given a peaceful atmosphere in the  
> factory. All Denso workers will be sent to one week of training in  
> a Brahma Kumaris “World Spiritual University” Ashram near Manesar,  
> to find a "peaceful mind". During the lock-out in Manesar, Denso  
> workers in Poland confronted the company with wage demands. In  
> closer spacial proximity workers at nearby tool manufacturing  
> company Groz also sit outside the factory after suspension of 16  
> workers. (Missed) chances of a proletarian just-in-time solidarity...
>
> 3) According to Plan -
> General information on the development of the region or on certain  
> company policies
>
> *** Warfare against the Huts, Gated Peace for the Palaces / Note on  
> Slum Raids and Fires in Gurgaon -
> In times when land converts into ‘land-banks’ and the price paid to  
> farmers for an acre of agricultural land in Gurgaon/Manesar can be  
> around 4 to 6 crore Rs the question of who can live on it and how  
> becomes a question of life in a mortal atmosphere. Short news on  
> raids of unauthorised colonies in Gurgaon and slum fires in Faridabad.
>
> 4) About the Project -
> Updates on Gurgaon Workers News
>
> *** Organising Workers Collectivities / Proposal by Faridabad  
> Majdoor Samachar -
> Friends of Faridabad Majdoor Samachar (FMS) are opening various  
> places in Faridabad, Okhla and Gurgaon, inviting workers to meet,  
> talk and coordinate practical steps together. They have published a  
> proposal in the current issue of FMS which has been distributed  
> within the industrial areas. Read their proposal in English  
> translation on their web-site.
> www.faridabadmajdoorsamachar.blogspot.com
>
> *** 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
>
>
>

Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net