Over the last couple of months, as the rhetoric has become shriller this election season, many in the USA who have lost their jobs owing to outsourcing have blamed the Indians for their pain.

I grew up in India, work in the USA and have not been through the pain of losing my job. However, I know people – in India and in the USA – who have lost their means of livelihood.

I want to tell the citizens in the USA that I sincerely commiserate with those who have lost their jobs. I understand the tough times that the economy in this country is going through. I understand the frustrations of single mothers trying to eke a life for their families. I understand the helplessness when, in the absence of access to appropriate health care, you are not able to take care of your families I understand the frustration of decreasing help from the state as you attempt to build your families, your future. I empathize with your exasperation as the government continues to take away money from education, cuts down schools and programs and continues to find ways to shirk its responsibilities.

I cannot say that I know what you are going through; however I empathize with you and since I am a neighbor, I continue to find ways in which I can volunteer with organizations that help to build infrastructures that can help you, alternatives that you might find useful during times when usual solutions seem inaccessible. I continue to work on issues of health and education with communities in the USA.

I have visited farming communities in Northern Minnesota and am aware of your struggles in the Dakotas as you work hard for your living. I believe that you work hard and are justified in demanding that employment opportunities and livelihood opportunities continue to stay in the US. I think you are right in demanding that the steel industry protect the jobs of steel workers, and that the government ensures that jobs are not lost or they are not moved to other places in other parts of the world in the name of less expensive labor. I lend my tiny voice in support of yours as you ask that the government protect the livelihood of fishing communities from the south – livelihoods that would be threatened by opening the local fish market to foreign companies.

At the same time, I humbly request you to also consider the loss of livelihoods of farmers across the third world owing to policies of the US government. Having grown up in India, I know more about the conditions there – however, it is even worse in many other countries. In the absence of any social network – such as medicare or welfare – these farmers have no alternative once their livelihood is lost. Hundreds of small farmers have committed suicide in India owing to the policies of the US government. While the US government continues to protect your local market through tariffs on foreign products and subsidies to local farmers (most of which, unfortunately, go to corporate farms), it continues to twist the arms of third world countries to open up their markets. The United States government has increased the subsidies it was granting to specific commodities, after the WTO was established in 1995. Wheat, rice, corn and soybeans were some of the commodities in which subsidies were increased quite considerably. In case of rice, subsidies increased from close to US $ 12 million to more than US $ 700 million between 1995 and 2001, while for soybeans, the increase was from US $ 16 million to more than US $ 3.6 billion during the same period. Since the Indian government, under US pressure, is unable to protect its local markets, its farmers have not been able to sell their own products in the local markets resulting in loss of livelihood. Tens of thousands of locksmiths have lost their jobs. Thousands of small and medium sized establishments – those involved in repairing cars on the side of streets to those making small accessories like springs, nuts and bolts – have been thrown out of business owing to the opening up of these markets. And yet, your secretary Colin Powell visited India last month and demanded that government of India open up its markets even further.

The rights of the labor unions have been diluted. Conditions of release have been made more favorable to the company and packages for layoffs have become smaller. Health care and other forms of compensation have also been reduced. In nations where social support is rather insignificant, and where liability of companies is minimal these measures have hit families hard.

In other nations around the world, the situation is even grimmer. In Jamaica, the entire dairy industry stands largely destroyed. Local cattle owners have lost their livelihood. The same holds true for fruit growers, coffee growers, farmers, and small vendors who work hard – as hard as you do – to eke out a meal a day, if they are lucky.

It is under these conditions that I request you that as you demand that your government respect local jobs here and as you demand that it recognizes your right to earn a decent livelihood with dignity, it also begins to recognize the right of people living in other parts of the world. I humbly request that you empathize with millions of people around the world who are trying hard to make enough so that their children can have one meal before they go to bed. I plead that you demand that the government of the USA – your government – not twist the arms of nations who are not as strong as the USA and allow these nations to protect the right of its citizens to keep their livelihoods and earn with dignity.

Sincerely
Sanat Mohanty