We need democracy

From: rajudas@yorku.ca To: Sachi sachisatpathy@yahoo.com Subject: Re: Mass movement? Yes. Civil society-based/led mass movement? No! Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005

I agree with Mr. Dubey that a mass movement is exactly what is needed. But I am sorry I am less sanguine about the civil society method than Mr Dubey probably is. Civil society is too civil to clear up the 'nastiness' that underlies the problem of Orissa's and India's under-development. We need a mass movement but one that is not necessarily attached to so-called civil society movements, although they can play a role.

The movement has to be one of the poor peasants and landless rural labourers and urban workers. In plain English, the movement has to be a class-based movement where men and women and children of different castes combine together and fight against the sorts of classes Mr. Dubey refers to. They have to fight against the coalition of proprietary classes (both domestic and international) and their intellectual shield dressed up as professors and cultural people and their people in politics. All these people may be very nice as persons but that is immaterial: they do things that they must because of the way they are inserted into the system. A broad, mass democratic movement [and as far as possible, non-violent movement] to decommodify society is what is needed, a society where right to food, education and other necessities outside of the market and to productive and enjoyable work are basic non-negotiable norms, a society where democracy flourishes in all spheres of life including work and family and within the Assembly/Parliament gate.

No matter how much we beat our heart, if this doesnot happen, if a CLASS-based democratic movement does not happen, Orissa and, with it, all parts of the country that are as under-developed as Orissa is will basically remain what they are. And note that this movement will not be and this cannot be led by so-called non-governmental organizations who are supposedly independent of the government inspite of their financial and other kinds of reliance on it and of market inspite of (e.g.) micro-finance and their enthusiastic promotion of penny capitalism and things like that. As long as Orissa and other parts of India are within the grip of NGO-ism, the possibility of empowerment and democracy is an impossible task.

We need democracy, democracy of the poor, direct democracy, the democracy which the beautiful word 'democracy' originally signified. If the root of the problem is in the ways things [food, clothes,medicine, etc.] are produced [and are distributed] and the social relations around these, the solution is that these have to be changed, and these have to be changed by people who produce these things. Those who work to maintain the system have the power to stop working and thus stop the system from continuing. The system that produces India's millionaires is the same system that produces India's poor. By working, the poor produce the wealth as well as their subordination. It is only they who can stop all that. Can others help a little? Can we help a little? That is the crux of the matter. Raju