Industrial Workers of the World

GurgaonWorkersNews - Newsletter 22 (January 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 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@yahoo.co.uk

In the January 2010 issue you can find:

1) Proletarian Experiences - Daily life stories and reports from a workers' perspective *** Garment Export Workers' Reports and Escapist Hopes of the Export Regime - These reports were told by workers during the distribution of Faridabad Mazdoor Samachar in autumn 2009. Most of the workers are employed in textile factories - some of them working for major companies such as H&M, GAP or Calvin Klein. The textile export companies announced in December 2009 that the market is back on track and that exports to the US and Europe are growing again: an upswing in orders, but also an even greater pressure on prices.

2) Collective Action - Reports on proletarian struggles in the area *** Rico-Strike and the Aftermath: When Capital wants to 'De-Risk'... - We start with a report given by a permanent worker employed at Rico, published in Faridabad Majdoor Samachar. This is followed by a general summary of the disputes' aftermath, e.g. the announcement of Rico company to 'de-risk' their position in the global supply chain by opening additional production capacities.

* Never Mind the Aftermath, here is the Prelude: Unofficial Action at Napino Auto and Electronics Ltd - This wildcat action happened shortly after the Rico dispute was officially finished in mid-November 2009: workers of parts manufacturer for Hero Honda and Suzuki react to managements' bullying by strike action and raising demands - the strike spreads from Manesar to Gurgaon and Haridwar plants.

* Anger on the backdrop of a boom: Short Reports of Workers employed by Automobile Suppliers - The Indian car industry is hit by an over-stretched supply-chain and a shortage of parts endangering the current holy boom - or at least the temporary upswing. Suzuki announces it will add further capacities to the main assembly plants in Gurgaon. We publish four short reports by workers employed at different Suzuki suppliers - voices from the bottom of the boom, voices of the future risk.

*** Hell's Bells: Call Centre and Workers in Global Movement - It seems that with the crisis a final push of global re-location of call centre and IT related services is taking place. IBM announces thousands of job cuts in the global north while adding 5,000 jobs to its India centres.

* Struggle at Wipro in Romania - After Alcatel in Timisoara (Romania) threatened to shift a third of the work-force to the Indian company Wipro, workers started to get agitated. Wipro is one of the major call centre employers in Gurgaon.

* Interview with Convergys Call Centre Workers in Late Summer 2009 - Short chai chat with workers employed by Convergys in Gurgaon, talking about impacts of work and crisis on life and physical health.

* From BPO to Riot - Proletarian Students in NOIDA clash with Police - A faked BPO company took money for employment from some students in NOIDA, a neighbouring satellite-town of Gurgaon. When the students noticed the scam they did not allow the company owners to move out of the building until the outstanding money was paid - and the student-workers were attacked by the cops.

3) According to Plan - General information on the development of the region or on certain company policies *** The Real Estate of Urban Wasteland - The financial crash in autumn 2008 and the more recent payment crisis in Dubai sent shockwaves affecting not only the housing market, but also the financial fundaments of many industrial and urban infrastructure projects.

* Public-Private Tsunami from Dubai to Gurgaon - The real estate sector is an indicator for the wider economy: house prices have crashed since 2008, but despite the low mortgage interest rates the sales are in no way sufficient to pull the sector back on track, stocks of empty concrete are piling up - what does that mean in a semi-private city like Gurgaon where infrastructure is part of the deal? We have a look at empty spaces and de-railed private metro projects.

* Accumulative Axis of Evil: Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor - The actual necessity for the Indian export plans to build a freight rail connection between the automobile/textile factories in Delhi and the Mumbai sea port turned into a project of wish/harmful megalomaniac thinking: the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. We give a short presentation of 1,500 km of "high impact/market driven nodes" and "transparent and investment-friendly facility regimes".

* Mariginal Living, Marginal Deads - Slum demolition and National Highway - Sad news about victims who lose homes or even life on the altar of speed, on the highways towards social impasse.

4) About the Project - Updates on Gurgaon Workers News *** After 30 years of hardcopy now soft-version online: Faridabad Majdoor Samachar - You can find an English translation of the Hindi monthly workers' newspaper from Faridabad: http://faridabadmajdoorsamachar.blogspot.com/

Some of their older texts have now been published online: http://libcom.org/library/questions-alternatives

*** 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

UK Tory Leader David Cameron poster AIRBRUSHED FOR CHANGE http://mydavidcameron.com/