Frankfurt Leaving India and reflecting on my most recent days in Mumbai, I was struck by some of the small, but poignant things that I found in some ways quietly moving, because they spoke to the “universals” of organizing and the work. I was struck by simple things. Watching Cheryl Deutsch and Bilip …
Category: Personal Writings
Livelihoods vs. Modernity
Mumbai Around the table were our key leaders from the Federation of Associations of Maharashtra (FAM), the huge traders organization that had been with us since the beginning of the India FDI Watch Campaign, the leader of the Congress of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) in Mumbai, the head of the hawkers and the mathadi …
Creating an Employer for Mathadi Workers
Navi Mumbai Mathadi workers are the head loaders, bearers, and stackers on shipping docks and in trucks all over the country. They work in gangs of usually three workers with their grappling hook to tote and balance the sacks on their heads and in the piles on warehouses and lorries. They were usually informal …