Towards a New Egalitarian, Non-Exploitative, Sustainable Agro-Industrial Society

Bharat Patankar & K J Joy1

Certain fundamental problems and contradictions have become visible in the capitalist as well as in the statist socialist societies. The last decade or so has also seen various ways and approaches to solve these problems mainly by the capitalist system, statist socialist systems, green and ecology movements, tradi­tional communists/socialists, etc.

Though we are also part of the broad left traditions, we do not agree with the traditional left's understanding of class as the only basis of exploitation. Exploitation also takes place on the basis of caste, gender, re­gion (cities dominating the countryside, developed regions dominating the backward regions-regional imbalances), etc. The exploitation of adivasis as a community also has to be seen in the same context. We feel that all these are also important ques­tions which have to be addressed to in the process of revolutionary social transformation and social change. One of the reasons for the ineffectiveness of the traditional left today is its inability to integrate these issues in its conceptual framework and bring them together into a cohesive political agenda.

The consumerist, high energy input based, fossil material and energy based, centralised com­ponents of the western developmental model (which has risen from monopoly capital) have been adopted uncritically by the left. With this developmental model it is not possible to abolish exploitative relationships mentioned above.

Price rise, unemployment, etc are some of the issues faced directly by the toiling masses in their day-to-day life. Though struggles are also being organised on these issues by the traditional left, they have been more against these symptoms per se and very often these struggles have been short-lived and sterile. The other approach could be, while organising these struggles, to question the developmental model and evolve alternatives. Our perspective as well as programmes, as reflected in Mukti Sangharsh Movement, have been mainly characterised by this approach. That is why Mukti Sangharsh Movement did not remain a 'trade union' of agricultural labourers and Employment Guarantee Scheme workers, not merely demanding distributive justice from the ex­isting developmental model, but took the form of an integrated movement of the various toiling sections of the rural society searching for an alternative development path. The traditional left has never taken seriously the issues arising out of human to nature relationship (ecological issues, etc). We are of the opinion that human to nature relationship also affects human to human relationship in many ways.

However, we also have fun­damental differences with those environmentalists who do not take social relations of produc­tion seriously and who do not take an anti-capitalist and pro-labour position or who do not integrate it into their overall perspective. Very often 'nature' per se is their central concern and humans (or human to hu­man relationship) are pushed to the periphery of their thinking. There is also an 'enlightened capitalist class' which is trying to find solutions to some of the problems within the system. These solutions are also primarily dictated by capital. We take a break from this type of 'elite environmentalism'.

Critique Of the Existing Developmental Model
Developmental model in the capitalist societies and statist socialist societies, for the purpose of this note, is looked at in terms of 1) the particular type (nature) of exploitation, and, 2) the production process (in terms of nature of production; natural resource base of production; conditions of production; and science and technology).

Nature of Exploitation
In the advanced form of capitalism, exploitation is carried out by both the state (in terms of taxes, the industries run by the state, bureaucracy, etc) and the private/individual capitalists. Under this system, reification of the exploitative relationships occurs, illusions of various types are created, the system tries to renew and reproduce itself, and a representative form of democracy exists. Though people never rule or the people do not have any real control over their political life an illusion is created at the social level to the contrary. There is political domination and exploitation at the social organisational levels through hierarchy. However, people can exercise certain limited choices between various contending interests/groups/parties though they function within the overall capitalist framework. The contradictions and conflicts within the ruling classes take place in front of the people and people can exercise their choice through elections or express their dissatisfactions. Even this limited choice is not there for the people under the statist socialist systems.

As capitalism advances, more and more people get thrown out of agriculture. Yet, agriculture has to produce enough surpluses to sustain the growing industrial society and this has to be done with less number of people involved in agriculture. Majority of the people who get thrown out of agriculture join the industrial working class, white collared jobs, service sector, unorganised sector, etc.

Apart from this general process which takes place, the impact of the advancement of capitalism on women, artisans (baluthedars), Dalits, adivasis, etc have to be seen separately in terms of specific forms of exploitation.

Women have been exploited at least since stable/ploughed agriculture began. However, with the advent of capitalism non­wage exploitative labour (in terms of domestic labour) has remained the general character of women's exploitation. In other words, non-wage labour exploitation is a common factor in the case of all toiling women— whether they work as peasants, as agriculture labourers, or in the industrial (unorganised) sector, service sector, etc—besides the specific forms of exploitation that they have to undergo because of the type of role they play in the production system.

Along with this, with the advent of capitalist, external inputs based, mono-cultural cash crop agriculture women have been marginalised and de-skilled. As capitalism and mechanisation progressed, in other spheres too, women have been increasingly deprived of their traditional occupations and been pushed into low paid jobs, unorganised sectors, and occu­pations based on gender segregation.

In countries like ours, artisan/baluthedars have been mainly pushed into agriculture labourer class because their position in the production system has been taken over by industries without their being integrated in the new production system. One of the consequences of this has been that the number of people dependent on agriculture increased and as a result the pressure on land has also increased. This has not only led to a change in the form of their exploitation but also to greater impoverishment.

Dalits mostly became agricultural labourers and industrial workers. The Class IV jobs (like sweepers, toilet cleaning, waste collection/disposal, etc) in cities and towns are mainly with the Dalits.

The subsistence base of the adivasis has been destroyed by snatching away their rights over forests and natural resources and by the systematic control of the forests for commercial and industrial purposes. As a result they became agricultural (landless) labourers, migrant labourers, unskilled labourers in mines, etc. Large scale displace­ment of these people continue to take place because of the con­structions of large dams and other large projects without any share in the benefits.

The absence of a living wage, lack of job security, unhealthy working and living conditions, occupational hazards, industrial accidents, pollution, problems of transportation (in terms of time and energy) because of the long distances between the place of work and place of living, etc have resulted in reduction in the productive years and also reduction in the life expectancy for vast sections of the working class in the cities.

The overall feature/character of the exploitative system has been: 1) the extraction of surplus value from the wage workers in the production process; 2) extraction of surplus from the toiling peasants through market mechanism; 3) extraction of surplus from women's production, including women's domestic work; and 4) exploitation by the state through the maintenance of the bureaucracy and the public sector wage exploitation.

Nature of Production
Conversion of agriculture from mainly use-value production (use-value production to satisfy various needs and enrich human life) to mono-cultural, high external input based, cash crop production. Because of this, even to meet subsistence needs people have to go through commodity market system.

Agriculture comes to depend on infrastructure developed by and the inputs coming from industry. This is reflected in the dependence of agriculture on machinery, energy (electricity, etc), seeds, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, irrigation, etc.

Distancing of processing of agricultural produce from the place of production and destruction of artisan-based production system at the village level.

The tendency to reduce variable capital (cost on labour) by various means such as increase in workload, reduction in real wages, modernisation/automation, etc for the extraction of more and more surplus value.

Natural Resource Base of Production
Production is based (both industrial and agricultural) on non-renewable, fossil-based materials and energy sources.

This type of a production system increasingly necessitates a centralised resource control and hierarchical organisational structure and authority.

Conditions Of Production
Commodification and commer­cialisation of natural and common resources take place.

The nature of production is such that production itself degrades the necessary conditions of production.

Resources like forest, land, water, etc are seen only in terms of their extractive uses and not as healthy conditions of production which are necessary for the sustenance of life itself and the sustainability of production in general. This results in large scale droughts, desertification, floods, water logging and salinisation, decrease in the primary productivity of land and erosion of the subsistence base of vast sections of people.

To Quote Marx:
"Capitalist production, by collecting the population in great centres, and causing an ever-increasing preponderance of town population, on the one hand concentrates the historical motive power of society; on the other hand, it disturbs the circulation of matter between man and soil, i.e., prevents the return to the soil of its elements consumed by man in the form of food and clothing; it therefore violates the conditions necessary to lasting fertility of the soil. By this action it destroys at the same time the health of the town labourer and the intellectual life of the rural labourer. But while upsetting the naturally grown conditions for the maintenance of that circulation of matter, it imperiously calls for its restoration as a system, as a regulating law of social production, and under a form appropriate to the full development of the human race...

Moreover, all progress in capitalistic agriculture is a progress in the art, not only of robbing the labourer, but of robbing the soil; all progress in increasing the fertility of the soil for a given time is a progress towards ruining the lasting sources for that fertility. The more a country starts its development on the foundation of modern industry, like the United States, for example, the more rapid is this process of destruction. Capitalist production, therefore, develops technology, and the combining together of various processes into a social whole, only by sapping the original sources of all wealth -the soil and the labourer". [Capital, Volume I, "Modern Industry and Agriculture"]

Science and Technology
Science has sufficiently brought forward that nature is not a passive substance and that the universe is a single, active, interrelated system in which humans have to co-habit with nature. However, the full implica­tions of this have not even been absorbed by the scientific community and it has had very little impact on the social outlook towards nature.

The social outlook towards nature still sees nature as a passive substance to be acted upon and sees the role of science and technology as one of making it easier for the humans to control, conquer and shape nature according to their whims and fancies. With this outlook it is difficult to make use of science to develop a healthy co-habitation of humans and nature.

Creative production should ensure healthy co-habitation of humans and nature and take humans beyond the realm of mere necessity. If science and technology are to solve the problems faced during this process, they have to develop through an interactive process between abstract thinking and experience and knowledge acquired through production. If such an interaction does not take place then abstract thinking remains alienated from the problems faced in production and like most of science and technology it gets associated with exploitative production. On the other hand, the potential for the development of knowledge that exists in the actual production gets stifled and it remains localised, individual experience.

Statist Socialism
Under statist socialism, the means of production are owned by the state and state carries out overall planning. There is a controlled commodity market and certain social securities are provided by the state.

Initially with the expropriation of capitalist and landlord classes, there was a rapid growth and progress in the field of industry, agriculture, education, health, social security, technology, etc as compared to backward capitalist societies, like Italy.

However, stagnation and crisis overtook the system because of 1) direct producers did not have control over the means of production and production process; 2) no creative participation of the producers in production with the freedom to enrich the collective life; 3) virtual absence of political democracy; 4) adoption of an unsustainable development model based on the use of fossil-based materials and energy, consumerism, centralisation, bureaucratisation, domination of industry over agriculture, unequal relationship between humans and nature, etc.; and 5) the absence of factors which compel the continuous renewal of productive forces under capitalism.

The Alternative
Thus, it is clear that in both systems it has not been possible to achieve 1) liberation from exploitation based on class, caste, gender, race, nationalities, etc; 2) creative participation in production and direct, participatory democracy; and 3) sustainable production based on equal and healthy co-habitation between humans and nature. Thus, there is the need to search for an alternative.

The aim of this alternative would be: 1) liberation from all forms (as mentioned above) of exploitation; 2) to create a society, rich, both in material and socio-cultural aspects (increasing freedom of human beings from compulsive, monotonous, back-breaking and prolonged toil and a creative and productive life with increasing participation in creative arts, science and all other activities which enrich human life; 3) creative participation in production and direct, participatory democracy; and 4) sustainable production based on equal and healthy cohabitation between humans and nature.

It is necessary to have a material base suitable and conducive for the fulfilment of the above-mentioned aims. Right from its initiation the alternative strategy for transformation should have all these aspects, in however embryonic a form, and the activities and programmes at different stages should be able to develop them further.

Production Strategy
Even under the existing system it is becoming increasingly difficult to continue production along the same lines because of problems like global warming, pollution, exhaustion of fossil-based materials and energy sources, etc. Hence there are attempts to find solutions to these problems within the framework of the system. However, these solutions are again centralised and directed by capital. On the other hand, since these are also problems faced by the society at large, there are also efforts from various sections of the society like the environment movements, peasants, workers, women, green movements, and the scientific-technological community to find solutions for these problems. Hence the starting point for our alternative strategy should be based on the problems thrown up by the present system and the various efforts that are being made to find solutions by various sections in the society.

If we have to usher in a society based on the above mentioned principles, then, we have to start from the renewable resources which are still there like forest, agriculture, fishery, etc. Hence, the starting point should be primary production.

Unless the primary production can produce enough to meet the subsistence needs of all, it would be difficult to move to secondary production as part of an integrated alternative. Primary production should produce surplus even to support those who would be involved in the secondary production.

Many of the sectors of today's secondary production are organised in a way that is harmful in terms of sustainability and the other principles of the alternative. So today's secondary production, in its present form, would not be useful for the development of an integrated alternative, though some of the elements can be used in the alternative strategy. New kind of secondary production has to be developed based on the renewable resources created through primary production.

There are two basic components to the production system that is envisaged under this integrated alternative.

The first component is the biomass production. Limited, but assured and strategically utilised water to meet sustainable livelihood needs (food security along with drinking water, fuel and fodder requirements) would be the starting point. The agricultural production also should be able to generate some cash income, over and above the needs met in kind, to meet the cash requirements. Equitable water distribution; access to land in some form or the other; steady biomass inputs to the agricultural area; integration of agricultural and non-agricultural portions; increase in the primary productivity of land; water balance, nutrient balance and energy balance; etc are all important aspects of the primary production.

The second component is the transition from primary production to biomass-based industrial production. This involves development of renewable energy sources; various aspects of energy efficient, local resource and renewable energy (and materials) based technology for infrastructural development like manufacturing of construction components from biomass produced on degraded, waste lands; use of these components like small dimension timber, etc in the construction of houses, schools, dispensaries, community halls, etc; bio-derived products like non-woven fabric and bamboo to be used in the construction of roads, water holding and storage structures and water delivery systems; use of waste materials like stone powder and industrial waste materials like fly-ash; minor minerals like sand; or waste materials like rice husk, sugarcane bagasse, etc which contain colloidal silica for manufacturing various construction, building components like high quality bricks, ferro-cement sheets, etc.

Another aspect of this sub­system is processing, storage and marketing. This is important from various angles like the perishable nature of a significant portion of primary production; market fluctuations; avenues for value adding and employment generation; etc.

The above mentioned descriptions of the two sub-systems indicate the possibilities that exist to evolve a sustainable production system. These two sub-sys­tems are in no way autonomous. Both of them subsist or are parts of one, integrated production system and as such they are inter-dependent and also inter­linked.

The technology that is utilised must be such as to reverse the current trend of environmental degradation and conserve and build up primary productivity; to provide avenues of skill improvement necessary for a transition to modern production methods. It should also be decentralised, developed through a participatory process and renewable energy and materials based.

Today's rural society is a class divided society. Since the process of transformation would start in the area of primary production, then, we also have to fight against the industrial capitalists whose interests today dictate the primary production on one hand and on the other the interests of the capitalist farmers who control resources like land, water, etc. Hence, land and water management and use with emphasis on equitable water distribution leading to land re-distribution could be a weapon in the class struggle.

This type of a primary production implies biomass-based agriculture and for this renewable energy sources like solar, wind, biomass, etc and inputs like compost, earth worm, nurseries, seeds, etc. should be developed under the control and leadership of collective producers comprising of poor peasant labourers, landless labourers, women, Dalits, artisan castes and certain sections of today's industrial working class. At the same time these sections would form the nucleus who would develop and control the new type of secondary production.

Today there is already a working class in the existing secondary production areas. The nature of this secondary production is such that some of the production sectors need to be radically reorganised because in their present form they are either harmful or unnecessary in the context of the integrated alternative. Majority of the pharmaceutical combinations and formulations, pesticides, some of the chemical fertilisers, etc fall in this category. As the social base of production shifts to renewable energy sources and materials the relative importance of fossil fuel and mineral based sectors would gradually decrease. On this background there are certain basic issues regarding the role of the existing working class and the nature of its struggles. The working class needs to widen its struggles to include issues like pollution, healthy living and working conditions, civic amenities, public distribution system, occupational hazards, problems arising out of long distances between place of living and place of work, work load, collective control over production process, and the struggle to reorganise production along alternative lines. At present these aspects of working class struggle are weak, and a collective search for solutions, alternatives and their implementation is needed before we can say how the working class would get gradually assimilated into the integrated alternative.

We have no illusions that the integrated alternative can be generalised within the present system. Today our aim is to popularise alternative demands and the alternative developmental paradigm among the masses through their struggles and involving them in the alternative production processes. This would help the masses to get out of their cynicism and then 'there is no alternative' (TINA) syndrome. These movements could catalyse new political movements leading to the expropriation of the capitalist class and other bases of exploitation, to establish direct, collective control of political power by the people and lay the foundations of a new, egalitarian, non-exploitative, sustainable agro-industrial society.

Footnotes
1 We are thankful to Anant Phadke, Suhas Paranjpe & K R Datye for their help (in terms of critical comments and suggestions) in the prepara­tion of this note.

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