(Artist: Archana Ravi, in solidarity with
the striking ASHA workers of Kerala)
has Power
turned the one who once
sprinted through these paths
holding aloft the flag woven from
the threads of our blood,
into a mad brute?
- Desamangalam Ramakrishnan
The ongoing ASHA Workers’ strike has once again put the focus back on workers’ rights, trade unionism and leftism in Kerala. There is a tendency often to hold true to the nature of justice as people often protest when they face injustice. This has to come naturally, a basic foundation to building a world without exploitation. This should be the basic prerogative for anyone living in a liberal socialist system especially one that boasts of having a leftist/communist history. The leftists in Kerala, who are always proud of its leftist heritage, foregrounds a political consciousness that often advertises an 'ideal' image of struggle, revolution and politicking. This leftist consciousness mainly revolves around questions related to how; 1) workers are organized, 2) power is held accountable. In other words, this is about how to fight the good fight! Hence, the protectors of this consciousness believe theirs to be the default launchpad into whatever the future has in store for us (communism or barbarism). In Kerala, this group of protectors mainly fall under the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], and Communist Party of India (CPI). Additionally, the dominant leftist imagination is trapped in the machinations of the Communist parties, themselves slaves to the socially engineered rationalities of power. Today Parliamentary Cretinism is the fundamental attitude that drives the party forward (the tendency to equate purposive political action with the drive to obtain parliamentary power by gaining more seats in representative institutions). They would sometimes openly attack detractors, with their leaders encouraging them with almost the same word for their actions, rakshapravarthanam. The underlying idea is the same here, even when most of the leftists don’t get it (thinking within the consciousness is not allowed). Moreover, the rescuers of this leftist consciousness are ordinary people who’d go to any extent to protect it and its influence in politics and society. This rescue and protection of the leftist consciousness also has its strategies related to food, culture, history, religion and has became more prominent with the entry of Sangh as the political antagonist in Kerala politics.
After 2016, the mainstream
narrative regarding the growth of the Sangh in Kerala is that the leftist
consciousness has been under attack. There might be doubts regarding how
powerful the Sangh is in reality, but there are no doubts regarding how effective
they are in challenging the leftist consciousness. At least that is the mainstream
talking point of the left in Kerala. With this being touted as the challenge, there has been efforts to protect or rescue the leftist consciousness
against Hindutva and its attacks. And this has been more than revelatory. Post-2016,
the leftist consciousness has been thoroughly exposed under the communal narratives
of the Sangh. The inadequacies in workers’ rights, gender issues, labor movements
are all out in the open today and there is no denying that the global
socio-political movements/the internet, has their fair share of influence in this matter.
Thus, this inadequate leftist consciousness that the mainstream communist parties
take pride in, comes off as a repugnant tool of parliamentary cretinism in pursuit of power. And this is exactly
what Marx addresses in his letter to Arnold Ruge: “The reform of
consciousness consists only in making the world aware of its
own consciousness, in awakening it out of its dream about itself, in explaining to
it the meaning of its own actions. Our whole object can only be – as is also
the case in Feuerbach’s criticism of religion – to give religious and
philosophical questions the form corresponding to man who has become conscious
of himself.”
The latest event that has exposed yet another crack in the leftist consciousness is the ongoing Asha Workers’ Strike. The Pinarayi Vijayan government is adamant in ignoring the striking workers and as a result, there is no end to the crisis in sight. Considering how this is a government that takes pride in their pro-poor image, and also believed to be run by a party that calls itself communist/revolutionary, the irony is not lost on the protesting workers. The demand of the Asha Workers “for higher remuneration, commensurate with the enormous hike in the ASHA workers’ workloads over the years”, is clearly legitimate. But the state government clearly seems to have other priorities and their go-to response to the protests has been deflection, mainly involving the union government. Yes, there is a lot the union government can do for the protesting workers, but the immediate relief always has to happen from the side of the state government. Here, even when the state government tries to evade responsibility, the fact that the statements from the left leaders labelling the protest as “politically motivated” or “unnecessary” has a different sense of politics to it. A political reaction from the dominant left consciousness that has to be underscored.
But before getting to that,
there is also a relevant political aspect to the protests explained by J Devika, that
puts the 'Kerala Model' or exceptionalism into question. She writes:
“While the ASHA workers
were on strike in front of the State Secretariat and an ASHA Workers’ mass meet
called by the striking association drew a very large number of such workers to
the capital city, the government was busy holding an investors’ meet. Such a
government cannot be expected to be attentive to the needs and rights of the
workers, perhaps. However, one can hardly forget that the effort to pitch
Kerala as the ideal investor’s destination to global capital continues to rest
on the region’s image as a place where social development has arrived
permanently — where there is a healthy, educated, plentiful workforce
accustomed to the rhythms of capitalist work and docile too. Now, a large part
of this story is possible only and only because underpaid and unrecognized
social development workers — including the ASHAs — have toiled at the grass roots
day and night. Indeed, the second Pinarayi Vijayan government was actually
facilitated not just by the effective PR they did about Covid management —
indeed, that very PR was made possible by the incessant labours of women
‘volunteers’ and ‘community activists’ at the bottom, of which the ASHA workers
are a prominent group.”
The government’s or the party's response to the protest is the dominant leftist consciousness in action. A leftist consciousness that has bought into the neoliberal financial capital betraying the working class or rescuers is no shocking news, but it magnifies the inadequacies in it. Going back to the “politically motivated” allegations, the CPIM considers itself to be the representative of the authentic left in Kerala and this is one reason that the ASHA Workers’ protests are still ongoing. The issue here is similar to what is popularly known as Union busting. The CITU-affiliated ASHA workers’ federation has issues with the SUCI’s (another leftist outfit) Kerala Asha Health Workers’ Association (KAHWA). The ongoing Asha Workers’ strike is led by KAHWA and as a result, CITU alleges that SUCI backed union is trying to sow division among the workers and possibly harm their job prospects. The truth of the matter is that CITU or CPIM considers them as the sole voice of the left in Kerala. Another leftist organization in the likes of SUCI are a challenge to their dominant position as protectors or rescuers of this leftist consciousness. As a result, there were statements from the leaders of CPIM and SUCI addressing the protesting ASHA Workers as “Anarchists”, since they are led by SUCI backed union. Other slurs included “tin-pan collectors”, again showing the disapproval of SUCI’s organizational structure and functioning. Explaining the insults, J Devika writes that the protesting workers clearly maintained that SUCI respects the workers and they never demanded any money from any workers. J Devika interprets this accusation as also an intolerance towards the less restrictive organizational structure of SUCI and their timely interference in issues that matter to the workers. In other words, CPIM is only concerned with maintaining their power in the representative systems, which in turn captures the leftist consciousness. In order to do that, they are willing to even sacrifice real workers’ lives. Some would say, that is more 'communist' than anyone could ever ask for. But in reality, what we need is a ruthless criticism of all that exists inside and outside of this leftist consciousness. The ASHA Workers’ protests will remake and reform the leftist consciousness in the long run, with or without CPIM. That is sure! As Marx would have it, “We do not say to the world: Cease your struggles, they are foolish; we will give you the true slogan of struggle. We merely show the world what it is really fighting for, and consciousness is something that it has to acquire, even if it does not want to.”
(To get regular updates and
analysis on the Asha Workers’ Strike, follow KAFILA Blog!)
-----------------------------
No Other Land won
the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Feature). The news is really shocking in
the sense that the documentary doesn’t even have distribution in the US. This speaks
a lot of the current sensibilities with regards to the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
But what caught my attention was something else. There is a book of essays titled,
Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal by Mohammed el-Kurd and I
recently read the same (great timing!). After No Other Land won the
Oscar, many Palestinian supporters on X shared shots of certain pages of the book
explaining how Palestinians can be perfect victims. The essays are excellent in
the sense that it gives an overarching view into how victims are made out of Palestinians,
good and bad. But the real issue here was No Other Land’s authenticity
of it being Palestinian. The film was produced under an Israeli-Palestinian
collective and this was enough for some people to use Perfect Victims to
discredit No Other Land.
Below is the ‘controversial’
extract from Perfect Victims:
“Take the genre of
Israelis and Palestinians making films together. The Palestinian filmmaker is
chaperoned to the film festival, allowed on stage as their authoritative
cosignatory’s charismatic sidekick. No one—not the producer of the festival,
not the columnist writing a review—seems to care about the content of the film,
whether it is good or garbage. What matters most is that the film was
codirected, a mode that satisfies a libidinal urge in the viewers. They
eavesdrop on a forbidden conversation, a titillating reconciliation between the
slayer and the slain. Discussions about the film, reviews, the way it is
promoted, and our excited elevator pitches to one another all become masturbatory,
reducing the film to the fact that it was a collaboration between an Israeli
and a Palestinian, fulfilling the viewer’s fantasy of a happy ending to an
otherwise miserable story. We turn it into a fetish.”
Here what matters is that
the film is a first-hand narrative of a Palestinian under occupation/martial
law. The events are clearly shot by a Palestinian himself, there is no issues
of the outsider’s gaze here. This is just an obstinate idea that Palestinians
should be seen individually at the world stage, and not in any partnership with
the Israelis. And therefore, for some, No Other Land’s win shouldn’t be reason
for celebration, because films like From Ground Zero are more eligible
than No Other Land since From Ground Zero is exclusively a
Palestinian production without Israeli involvement. To make matters clear, I
understand and support the arguments of Mohammed el-Kurd but there can be no
perfect revolutions, even when there are perfect victims. What matters is how
the Israeli genocide is shown in its full force to the global cinema audience,
and yes, maybe the Israeli Collaboration gave credence to the film but one
shouldn’t forget the fact that only through collaborations and partnerships can
Palestinians be free. Again, this in no way discounts el-Kurd’s arguments but
only explores different ways of imagining futures for people everywhere.
-------------------------
Donald Trump proves that diplomacy is not about mutual respect or political assurances based on problem solving, but rather abuses that protect self-serving business interests of America.
Addendum:
The above post needs expansion on a theoretical level, especially with the formulation of leftist consciousness. But that, I assure, is for the future. Following feedback that this blog post overlooks the nature of trade unionism in Kerala, I have decided to add an addendum for clarification. To begin with, it is important to note that this post primarily deals with the paradox of the dominant narratives of left-wing politics in Kerala. Much of the content on this blog explores how the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPIM], as the predominant leftist force, has marginalized alternative leftist perspectives in the state. In this context, the ASHA protests are not the central focus. Rather, the core of this discussion lies in analysing the responses of CPIM politicians / CITU leaders to the ASHA workers' demonstrations.
[If you are someone who needs a detailed understanding of the ASHA protests in Kerala, read the blog posts by J Devika. She is one person who has been meticulously trying to foreground the labor, gender, and caste politics implicit in the protests through her blog posts and interviews.]
My post primarily examines how protests against exploitation in Kerala often operate under the patronage of the state's dominant leftist forces. My focus is on their hypocrisy and their intolerant responses toward SUCI and the ASHA workers. With that in mind, I would like to address some of the comments:
1) The ASHA Scheme itself is a neoliberal product and Union Government is responsible for its formulations
Again, my intention here is exploring the contradictions within the leftist consciousness. Yes, the union government also has a responsibility to interfere, but has the state done its part? The immediate focus should be on the legitimacy of the demands of the protesting ASHA workers. Here, one should ask the question: How has the "left government" responded to it? A party that continues to celebrate the romantic communist formulations of the past, and at least in theory, strives to establish a "dictatorship of the proletariat" (laughable, but the phrase is still retained in its constitution) stands out for its immature handling of the protesting ASHA workers. My concern here is with both the state's response and the pastoral power exercised by mainstream trade union leaders in shaping these reactions.
2) CITU has been fighting the good fight for ASHA workers. Don't lose sight of that. Also talk about the hypocrisy of INTUC.
Well done, CITU! That said, the real issue here is CITU's high-handedness. The statements made by its leadership reveal their attitude toward the striking ASHA workers as well as the party involved (SUCI). If my post seems to imply that CITU is 'jealous' of SUCI, so be it. The hostile and dismissive remarks directed at SUCI leadership speak for themselves. Yet, since some comrades remain too proud to acknowledge this evident reality, let me reiterate my central point: the dominant leftist consciousness must be dismantled.
3) SUCI agent? INTUC agent?
Once again, this post does not align with any political party or trade union. If supporting the ASHA protests is equated with endorsing SUCI, then, by that logic, the numerous writers and political activists who stand with the ASHA workers must also be considered part of SUCI. My primary focus regarding INTUC is on how CITU leadership has responded, given that both trade unions are theoretically aligned with the Left—brethren, so to speak. Moreover, the absence of INTUC in a discussion about Left consciousness is obvious. Ultimately, what stands out is the shared tendency of both INTUC and CITU to discredit SUCI leadership—a point that deserves emphasis.
In conclusion, the core argument is to reframe our understanding of protests in Kerala. The influence of mainstream political leadership, exercised through pastoral power, has led ordinary workers and individuals to conform to its vision of leftism and protest. The criticism directed at the protesting ASHA workers reinforces the notion that movements operating outside the established political framework inevitably disrupt this dominant nexus, which merely claims to represent leftist ideals. The demands of the ASHA workers are undeniably just. Rather than questioning why SUCI is leading the protests, one should ask why CITU and INTUC are not.
[now, read again from the start]
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