In 1994 there was a strike at the (Govt. owned) Bhilai Steel Plant in India. Production went up. Why? because persistent absentees realized this was the one day they had to show up for work or have their pay docked.
How does this relate to Gramsci or Polanyi? I still don't know though I've just read a highly entertaining essay by Prof. Jonathan Parry, of the LSE, titled 'Sociological Marxism' in Central India- Gramsci, Polanyi and the case of the Unions' from which I was able to glean the handy little tip for raising productivity in the Public Sector mentioned in the last paragraph.
Of course, as an LSE alumni myself, I need hardly add that I perfectly understand why Prof. Parry mentions, in the title of his essay, two silly arses- Gramsci and Polanyi (not the chemist but his idiot brother)- whose shite is an essential component of a truly sustainable and authentic Indian bahishkrit samaj (socially excluded) activist lifestyle.
This is because Gramsci's tatti has proven hygienic properties and is used
1) to clean and disinfect the floor of the dwellings of engaged Professors and Social Entrepreneurs
2) when made into cakes and dried in the sun, Gramscian dung is an inexpensive kitchen fuel and lends a unique flavour and aroma to roti (Indian flat bread).cooked upon it.
3) Gramscian anal slurry has thermal insulating properties and is mixed with mud for use as a building material for huts
4) Gramscian 'gobar gas' (methane) generates electricity for laptop, iPhone, vibrator, etc.
Polanyi's urine, on the other hand, also has some marvellous properties. This is because he took the piss out of English history (his analysis of the Speenhamland system is hilarious) something rotten. However, Prof. Parry has just thrown his name in out of a sense of mischief because Polanyi worship is not mandated by Civil Society for hegemonic use of subaltern alterity for sustainable Gender and Development within a secular, scientific, socialist framework regulated by the twin principles of sarvodaya and mamata bannerjee.
Mind it, kindly!
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