[Fsf-friends] IT sector

[CK Raju]

On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 9:05 PM, Mani A <a.mani.cms at gmail.com> >>> All
of the non-left State Governments in India and the Central Govt
>>> are essentially being run by the big business and apart from the usual
>>
>> .. could have been true at some point of time in history, Mani,
>> definitely not now.
>>
>> Its pointless to blame other governments, because they don't declare
>> themselves to be followers of any particular ideology. There is no
>> common concern in outlook of most such governments.
>
>
> They certainly determine, most of what seems to exist and does not seem to.

My point was that left governments today are never far off from
non-left governments. In certain cases, it had been left which had
blundered, allowing non-left govts to push harder on similar lines.
Microsoft, Pepsi, Cola etc all got their foothold in respectable
positions because of shady dealings of left governments, in states
like Kerala and Bengal. Left had lost much of its moral positions
because of such indulgences, at highest levels of democracy which it
enjoyed (one must acknowledge that at lower layers of governance,
things are pretty different - there are far too many sincere people
around).

>
>> Most people would be silent if, for instance, left-front rechristens
>> itself to "neo-liberal revolutionary front for individuals" - because
> The Left has never really been in a position to implement 'truly
> leftist' policies. They do admit that and their essential policy is

But they were really in a position to implement extreme "right-ist"
policies - whenever they got an opportunity to deal with big
corporates. SEZs are living testimony to this - an area where markets
enjoy unbridled freedom and unrestrained mobility to act and function
on its own. A trade minister in Kerala recently said he's implementing
SEZs primarily because he wants the world to know that the left is no
longer against SEZs. How can any sensible person decode it differently
?

> one of minimizing  damage in the present circumstances... beginning
> from accepting to play democracy in a capitalist democracy and right
> up to the hilarious 'we will prefer manufacturing units of corporates
> to global money lenders'. Yes of course there is plenty of room for
> debate. Marx did say that ideology must be flexible enough to deal
> with the circumstances in question.  (You can see a forum like Pragoti
> for debates on such issues. They had a long debate on unions for IT
> employees and policy recently)

Debates are good, but are those in power ever involved in such
debates? Sensible people debate, lesser sensible ones
decide-and-implement discreetly - why do they need to debate, when
they already have freedom and power to do anything without it ?

One recalls the earlier era of human civilisation where large sections
of people were involved in enchanting the world, with a view to
control the powers of the universe. This era continued till people and
scientists came forward to establish that universe had its own laws
and is thoroughly purposeless and directionless. May be a renaissance
is round the corner now, to convince the people in governance who are
increasingly indulging in such *enchanting of the development mantra*
to convince them that citizens of the entire world are united against
their assault-moves.

Free Software, in that sense, shows a unhindered way of participation
by those willing and in a direction that is tended to be away from
corporate-culture - one driven by selfish interest, greed and
profit-motive.

CK Raju