Is International solidarity work important? A question many of us ask ourselves often- especially when we are locked in what seems to be an eternal battle right here in our own plants. I believe I have taken part, personally, in an experience, which brings me closer to the answer to this question. As part of a delegation funded in part by Grassroots for Global Justice, I attended the fourth World Social Forum held in Mumbai India January 12th through the 23rd.
After entering the Erie airport for the trip to India and 30 hours later arriving in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) to participate in the World Social Forum I can only relate an eye-opening, uplifting experience of a lifetime. The World Social Forum was conceived as an alternative to the World Economic Forum. The WEF brings the top capitalists from developed nations together each year in Dravos, Switzerland to determine the best practices for expansion of globalization without regard to the impact on the economies and social issues of the all nations and their peoples. The World Social Forum brings together individuals and organizations that believe there is another world possible (the theme of the Forum) by including and discussing alternatives to globalization without accountability.
The first thing I should do is create a mental picture for you of the surroundings in which the Forum was held. Picture landing in a city 169 square miles large and a population of 16 million people. Compare this to the entire state of Pennsylvania that has over 11 million people but over 44,000 square miles. This is more people living in less than one-tenth the space. I was part of the Grassroots for Global Justice delegation and there were around one hundred of us. The entire registered delegation for the forum was over 130,000 from 152 countries. They say that on any given day during the forum there were approximately 500,000 participants. The Forum itself was held on the grounds of an old textile mill. All the buildings were still there but the machinery was removed a long time ago as textile mills from India moved to China. The facilities were huge!
The first two days were orientations; this was done to give our delegation an appreciation as to the enormity of the country and the issues we were going to be dealing with during the forum. Day one we broke into groups and toured the five slums in and around Mumbai. In this city of 16 million people approximately 8 million (50%) live in slums and no amount of pictures could ever describe the conditions. While there we met with women leaders of the slum who explained the fights they have endured to better the conditions they live in. Those fights were with the government and often their own people. After several victories the struggles were seen as necessary and gained much better acceptance and organizing became easier. The determination of these people was fantastic and would inspire anyone of us, given the tremendous obstacles they face compared to ours.
Day two we were bused to Yusuf Meherally Centre and met with the Shoshit Jan Andolan a federation of groups which represent oppressed peoples of India in their fight for civic issues such as public distribution systems, water electricity and health issues. Our hosts explained the difficulties in organizing so many different groups together when the issues each face are at times so different and the geographic and language barriers present additional problems. Our large group broke into several smaller groups to discuss ways in which we could assist each other to better understand what globalization has done and means to the other. As our facilitator summed up for our small group she pointedly stated she can understand why India is having the difficulties in organizing and improving their situation given the 80% illiteracy rate and language and caste barriers. She also said she cannot understand why we in the developed nations, particularly the US, are not having more success in getting a better resolve to our problems given the high literacy rate and the ease with which educating and mass media exist here. I thought that was a great analysis and a question we should all be asking ourselves. Everyone agreed that creating ties, sharing of ideas and collective struggle among all peoples no matter the country would benefit those who are victims and those who will become victims of globalization without accountability.
Day three we had panel discussions with labor and civic leaders on a wide variety of subjects like organizing, political realities, social issues and the role they felt having the WSF held in India would play in their struggles. The common theme of the speakers, although globalization brings jobs to the undeveloped nations the corporations are not raising the standards of the workers, they are simply exploiting cheap labor and more often than not completely ignore any social responsibility that comes with globalization. Governments are coerced or intimidated not to intervene under the threat of halting growth or moving the work to the next cheap labor market. In partnership with multinationals the World Bank demands the dismantling of social programs and the privatization of services.
On behalf of the UE, I presented gifts to M. Subbu head of the largest construction union in the country. The gifts included a copy of Labor’s Untold Story - an historic reading of US labor's history.
The evening of January 16th was opening ceremonies of the WSF and the next four days was a whirlwind, nonstop education on why globalization is not responding to the needs of the world’s civilizations. There were major panel discussions held every day in buildings, which held 10,000 to 20,000 people. Additionally there were over 300 workshops covering every imaginable social issue. I was a panelist on two workshops, "Strategies of Struggle in Closed Industries" and "Organizing against Multinational vs. Domestic Corporations". Both workshops were great and as the panelists shared the experiences of dealing with companies like GE we realized the similarities we have. Our local’s recent fight to save jobs and bring in new work was of particular interest to delegates.
While attending the Forum several side meetings were arranged. One of these meetings was with locked out GE workers from India as well as a meeting with GE workers Union reps from the US, Mexico, Brazil, France and India.
Our meeting with the Hosur, India GE workers started at the plant gate then moved to a larger indoor location. We sat down with the entire workforce and listened to very emotional testimony of the struggle they are in and the disrespect GE has shown not just for the workers but the laws of India as well. These GE workers have manned the picket lines for months after being locked out by GE. The plant manufactures circuit breakers and its part of GE Industrial Systems. Both a domestic company previously owned the plant and a European company it was then purchased by GE and ever since the sale they have faced one backward demand after another from GE. The company even has gone as far as firing workers for participating in a press conference the purpose of which was to explain their fight to the public. While visiting them we held a press conference of our own and demanded GE stop their unfair treatment of the workers and stop the lockout and begin to negotiate in good faith. We took up a collection from our delegates and promised we would seek financial support from member’s back home and use what means we could to publicize their fight.
Another important meeting brought GE workers who were in attendance at the Forum together for a general discussion on how to build alliances of GE workers across the globe. Representatives of workers from five continents attended the meeting and came away agreeing to establish formal ties and also agreed on a list of progressive steps to ensure the new alliances would have accountability.
I also had the opportunity to visit the IT (Information Technology) center of India (Bangalore) where most major corporations have a facility. The IT center is located in a huge!!! Industrial park. This is where companies like GE have set up their call centers and their software and design operations. The buildings compare to any new facility here in the States with one huge difference they hire people at one tenth the wages of US workers and the problem is only growing on a massive scale. A recent publication by President Bush’s economic advisors state the US can expect to export or outsource 3.3 million high tech jobs over the next 10 years. Further the advisors believe this will benefit the economy here because it improves the profitability of the corporations. The study makes no reference to what the workers who loose their jobs as a result of the lost jobs will do. Keep in mind this comes from an administration that has the best job "exporting" record of any previous administration and the "worst" job creation record of any previous administration. In India alone they are laying 50 million feet of fiber optic cable every year. As I pulled up to the gates of the huge GE facility (The Jack Welch Technology Center), one of two facilities, a guard rushed out to stop me from taking pictures. I explained to him that I was a GE worker from the US here on a visit. After showing him my GE identification badge I was allowed to take the pictures. The thing we have to remember here is these high tech jobs going to overseas locations are those jobs that corporations and politicians said were the jobs of the future for American workers. Another lie, imagine that.