Swadeshi-Manch and USA knee jerkers

Date: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 11:35 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Narayan D Keshvan and his cohorts want to form a coalition of American
and Indian corporations to bribe our Congress behind closed doors. They
are worried that too many USA people are turning into knee-jerk
protectionists that hate globalization. At the end of the article they
ranted about the Swadeshi-Manch forces in India.

I didn't know who or what the Swadeshi-Manch are so I did a web search,
and sure enough I discovered that these Indians sound like they are on
the right side of the globalism issue. I included an article about
their protest against the WTO following the first article. Their
website is at http://www.swadeshi.org so I decided to include them on
this newsletter.

This statement seems to be a tough one to compromise on, until it's
read carefully:

if American multinationals could invest in the country
without any restrictions, the Indians should be allowed
free entry into the USA so that they could sell their skills.

Here is the compromise I propose to the Swadeshi Manch: We make it
illegal for Bill Gates to come to India so that they can use Linux,
and they make it illegal for TATA to come to the USA so we can have our
jobs back.

Perhaps the exploited workers of the world can unite together to fight
the globalist oligarchs that strive to enslave the masses!

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?artid=37150443

(This same article appears at
http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/feb/11bpo.htm with a discussion
thread.)

US legislators, unions demand end to offshore outsourcing

PTI[ TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2003 11:55:27 AM ]
NEW YORK: As unemployment rises and US economy fails to show signs of
early revival, offshore outsourcing by American corporations, including
from India, is coming under close scrutiny with legislators, trade
unions and workers demanding an end to it.

With election due next year and process of picking up candidates by
parties due to begin later this year, some of the state legislators are
advocating protectionist legislations which, they believe, would bring
jobs back to their constituencies and would be popular among the
constituents.

New Jersey first mooted the legislation that would affect the call
centers of US firms in other countries, including India.

The bill, which is yet to be approved, would not ban outsourcing as
such but would force government contractors to pay American wages to
wherever the call centers be. That, in effect, would take away
incentive for outsourcing.

The minimum wage in the United States at present is slightly less than
six dollars per hour. But outsourcing costs much less as they pay local
wages.

Now several other states including Connecticut, Missouri, Maryland and
Wisconsin are thinking in terms of legislations to restrict
outsourcing.

The Indian sources here do not consider this as a major threat at
present and say even if government contractors are barred, corporations
would continue to outsource their business to remain competitive.

However, Executive Director of Indian American Forum for Political
to spread unless Corporate India, in conjunction with Corporate
America, launches a "quiet but robust behind-the-scene lobby efforts -
first in Washington, and the various state capitals which should later
be followed up by grassroots work at various city town halls."

"Indian corporates, in my view, have been sanguine and not pro-active
in countering this growing phenomenon of legislative protectionism to
serve populist sentiments although they make no economic sense,"
Keshavan said.

Lobbying and grassroots advocacy is the answer to the growing
anti-outsourcing sentiments, he said.

"This is a bread and butter issue for American politicians and their
constituencies and just as India has the knee-jerk Swadeshi-Manch
forces, the US too has its own variety of knee-jerk protectionist
forces who care two hoots for globalization and general good," Keshavan
said.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20000215/himachal.htm#1

WTO pact: Swadeshi Manch plans protest
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Feb 14 The Swadeshi Jagaran Manch will announce on March 3 its
action plan to effectively oppose the clauses in the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) agreement which hurt the economic interests of the
country.

Stating this at a press conference here today Mr Muralidhar Rao,
Organising Secretary of the Manch, said the Manch had already raised
issues like intellectual property rights, labour standards and
environmental norms which would put the domestic industries to a
disadvantage in the ongoing globalisation of trade.

It would like the government to take a firm stand on these issues to
protect the Swadeshi industry, particularly the small scale and
cottage sectors, which contributed the maximum to the national income
after agriculture. However, he warned, that in case the government
accepted terms and conditions detrimental to the growth of local
economy, it would not hesitate to launch a countrywide agitation. It
wanted the government to stick to the line adopted at the Jamaica
conference by the Prime Minister.

He said the WTO in the present format was loaded against India. The
previous government neither did the necessary homework before signing
the agreement nor took the people, particularly industrialists and
farmers who were to be directly affected, into confidence while doing
so. Consequently, problems like patenting of area specific crop like
basmati and processes which were part of traditional Indian knowledge,
were cropping up time and again.

Mr Rao said the government would face a litmus test on the issue of
labour and environmental standards, which the Manch felt, it should not
accept in any eventuality. He said that the Manch believed in two-way
globalisation and not the one which gave great advantage to developed
countries.

For instance, he said, if American multinationals could invest in the
country without any restrictions, the Indians should be allowed free
entry into the USA so that they could sell their skills. However, the
USA was not agreeing to relax the immigration rules.

Of late, he said, there was increasing realisation at all levels that
forces which stood for localisation could not be ignored while going in
for globalisation. The latest UNDP report on human development and the
World Bank report on globalisation versus localisation clearly
indicated this. It was for the first time that such a view had been
accepted, he added.

Besides opposing wrong policies, the Manch was also making efforts to
help Swadeshi industries in marketing and technology upgradation. It
was organising Swadeshi Melas (trade fairs) in major towns for the
purpose.

Mr Rao met the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, and apprised him
of Manchs plan for the economic development of hills. It was decided
at the meeting that a Swadeshi Mela would be held at Shimla from
September 27 to October 3 at which the main focus would be on providing
marketing outlets to local artisans, particularly tribals, and products
based on local resources.

Simultaneously, a seminar would also be organised to draw up a
comprehensive plan for the economic development of the entire Himgiri
region. The plan to be prepared after interaction with grassroots
people and conducting various studies, would focus on income generation
along with employment, he added.

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