Industrial Workers of the World

News from India's Special Exploitation Zone - www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com

In the September 2010 issue you can find:

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

*** The isolated social work in the household - Report by a working-class woman about her work in and around the house in the industrial area: caring for husband and children, earning money by doing outsourced embroidery work. The story has been published several years ago in the Hindi workers' newspaper Faridabad Majdoor Samachar. We document it in the wider context of workers' reports, looking at the hidden side of the factory world.

*** The fractured assembly of automobile workers - The distribution of Faridabad Majdoor Samachar has recently been extended to the new industrial area of Manesar, near Gurgaon, an area dominated by the automobile industry. We document short reports from automobile workers, mainly within the fractured cooperation of parts manufacturing. Recent struggles like at Rico, Denso, AG Industries or VXL, workers have not been able to extend their disputes along the arteries of this vast territorial assembly line.

*** The physical attacks of (garment) production - Some workers' reports from mainly garment factories in Gurgaon and Manesar. The reports were collected during times of summer heat, rising inflation and extreme overtime, which saw a lots of workers collapsing under the pressure. The reports are accompanied by a recent and thorough article on increasing mechanisation and Taylorisation of this labour-intensive industry. We also document a short statement from multi-national companies GAP, Next and Marks and Spencer from 8th of August 2010 about 'their concerns' about the workers' conditions in Gurgaon. We add an appeal for solidarity by Viva Global workers who manufacture for Marks and Spencer and who have been locked out and attacked by paid thugs on 21st and 23rd of August 2010.

*** The crisis and the global hunt for calls - Gurgaon is one of the biggest call centre hubs of the globe, having been re-location destination for a lot of US call centre work. Now that the crisis hits the US wage level, calls might be re-routed back up to the global north. A short summary of a recent study and a short workers' report about house-keeping work in an American Express call centre in Gurgaon.

*** Circle of Animal Lovers: a NGO worker reports - A worker employed by a Delhi based NGO reports about how the 'Circle of Animal Lovers' in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) treats working humans and other species. The NGO is entrusted with sterilizing street dogs - a profitable enterprise particularly in times of the prestigious Common Wealth Games.

2) Collective Action - Reports on proletarian struggles in the area *** A Series of wildcat strikes of garment workers to enforce higher wages in Gurgaon and Delhi - We document six short reports by garment workers about seemingly spontaneous strikes to enforce higher wages. The conflicts took place in April 2010. The strikes have two parallels, one in space, the other in time. The strikes correspond with the more violent and widespread mobilisations of garment workers in Bangladesh and they continue the series of previous strikes during the last official increase of the minimum wage. The combination of companies not passing on the wage hike and the current inflation forces workers to react. The workers manufacture, among others, for Marks and Spencer.

*** The Student-Worker? Short glimpse at current disputes at Delhi universities - There are various attacks affecting students and workers on the campuses: fee hikes, introduction of a semester system, entry of international academic FDI in the sector, anti-Maoist witch-hunt. The exam pressure increases with the general pressure on the labour-market. In recent years suicides among students became epidemic. Some short reports about current disputes.

*** A Strike against the Games / Life and struggles of workers building the Common Wealth Games in Delhi - Friends from the journal 'Radicalnotes' documented the living and working conditions of Common Wealth Games construction workers in Delhi. You can find their accounts and photographs on the site. In mid-August some workers went on strike against unpaid wages, supported by Delhi radical student groups. 3) According to Plan - General information on the development of the region or on certain company policies

*** An Ideal Village and the social death of the peasantry / Report after visiting friends in Mandkaula, a village in Haryana - Mandkaula, an one hour train ride south of Faridabad, has been in the heart of Green Revolution in the 1960s and close enough for the rural proletariat to be drawn into the industrial development of Delhi's industrial areas in the 1970s. Mandkaula is an 'Ideal Village', its last generation of peasants and artisans die a social death. A post-visit report and some general news about other unruly villages in Haryana.

*** Short note on real estate business and the private-public land-mafia in Gurgaon - Gurgaon is still an Eldorado for the international real estate business. In August 2010 the Hooda Haryana government was put into a no less dubious public spot-light for getting engaged in shady land-deals in Gurgaon. Farm land was turned into cheap property to build an amusement park. We summarised some news items on the matter.

*** The Social Tsunami Impact / Snap-Shots against Capital-Class-Crisis - This is an attempt to introduce a regular update on general tendencies of crisis development in India - motivated by Greek shock-waves, naked shorts and potential spill-overs. Apart from short glimpses on the macro-level of things we focus on general trends in agriculture and automobile sector: the current demise of the past and the toxicity of the future. This month: growing tension between financial and fiscal managers of capital about rising inflation and trade deficit; planned mass foreclosures against bankrupt farmers in Maharashtra; and increasing debts causing hick-ups in the automobile supply-chain.

4) About the Project - Updates on Gurgaon Workers News

*** 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 India's Special Exploitation Zone - www.gurgaonworkersnews.wordpress.com