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January 30, 2005
How Not to Build Bridges
[Zeynep here]
I went to many panels about outsourcing. Some speakers were very informative but there was very few suggested practical and strategic responses. I will blog more about this crucial issue in the future, but I wanted to take this break between panels to write about a very telling moment.
During the comment section of one of these panels, a man got up and identified himself as a post office worker from France and said that outsourcing was a real problem for them, and that jobs were being sent off to the mostly Arab and African French-speaking countries. And then, without even seeming to take note of the irony that those countries spoke French because of France's past colonial practices, pretty brutal ones at that, he said that wanted to draw attention to how call center workers in Morocco were being told to adopt French pseudonyms at the workplace, and how this was depriving them of their identity.
It is with great restraint that I did not get up and exclaim "très horrible!" Being deprived of their identity? How gracious of you to be so concerned! And only coincidentally when your first world living standards might be on the line!
To this day, the state of France continues to wage a war on the identity of Muslims living in France, and is refusing the right of education to young women who wear the veil. (This is not wishing that women wear the veil; this is simply recognizing that shutting them out of public spaces, especially education, can only further disempowerment and constitutes blatant discrimination and stigmatization.) I hope, Mr. Post Office Worker, you are marching with the sans papiers, undocumented immigrants and refugees in France, mostly from former Arab and African French colonies, who get rounded up, tied, drugged and deported even when they have lived in France most of their lives. I hope you are showing the same concern for the rights of Muslim women in France. I hope you are part of a movement that supports reparations for all former colonies of France, where crushing of the native identity was part and parcel of the military strategy of the occupation. And not that long ago.
Alas, I couldn't see him at the end of the panel. He seemed to have registered his concern for Moroccan call center workers' identity and left. Perhaps he really is a genuine internationalist. Perhaps he does support reparations by France. Perhaps he just cut to the chase in his comments. Still, he did not inspire feelings of international worker solidarity in me.
Unfortunately, there aren't too many direct representatives of such workers from India, Africa or Arab North Africa here at the WSF. Only some trade union officials have come, while there are some rank and file workers from the Global North. It creates an imbalance because the trade union representatives from the Global South speak relatively diplomatically -- and even they are few and far between. (With the exception of Latin America: due to its location, the WSF is teeming with people from South America.)
I wish there were a way to subsidize such travel, which is clearly constrained by costs and visas. Such human interaction is clearly desperately needed.
Of course, loss of jobs and livelihood is a serious issue. First world workers also deserve a livelihood that can support their families. The trauma of being unemployed, being redundant as it were, is a great human tragedy no matter where in the global economic food chain one might be standing.
But any serious united struggle against global capital must begin with a sense of justice and equity, including the recognition that the colonial past is very much a current issue, and that there is more to discuss than how to keep good jobs in rich countries.
Posted by zeynep at January 30, 2005 11:42 AM
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Comments
I was in France for the first time last month--6 days in Paris. One thing that struck me was that sub Saharan Africans seemed much better integrated in French culture than North Africans. From what I could tell, French approach to assimilation demands immigrants to carry out cultural suicide and then they can affect French identity as equals. The affair of the scarves could have remained a storm in a demitasse, but it's probably symbolic of the "repressive tolerance" practised there.
Interesting that in the jobs lost debate, outsourcing is an easy bete noir (no pun intended, altho most jobs are being lost to black & dark skinned folks!), but automation, which has done away with far more jobs is hardly ever denounced with any feeling.
Posted by: sk at January 30, 2005 07:49 PM
you have to be carefull when discussing the relationship between "outsourcing" and the "loss" of jobs.
first, while good paying manufacturing jobs are being lost in the imperialist core, they're not going to Third World workers. the latter are not getting high paying jobs. we know how international production chains exploit Third World workers.
second, outsourcing isn't simply transfering jobs to the Third World. It causes occupational restructuring in the First World. in other words, new jobs are being create in the First World. They're crappy, but it isn't fair to say that we're "losing" jobs to the Third World. we need to understand this restructuring in the context of capitalist imperialism.
third, we need to recognize how FDI and "outsourcing" CREATE unemployment in the Third World. they do so by introducing capitalist relations in non-capitalist areas and by consequently introducing CAPITALIST unemployment in those areas.
it's important to get this analysis clear so that we can counter the nationalist ideas of unions, workers and poor people and create solidarity across borders.
Posted by: ludo at January 30, 2005 09:21 PM
It IS rather horrible that people who staff call centers are asked to give up their identities in order to retain their jobs. Not just their names; people in Indian call centers are encouraged to dress and shop and act like Americans and Brits, so they can better understand (and thus better serve) their customer base. Regardless of how you feel about outsourcing, there's something not quite right about that.
Posted by: saurabh at February 2, 2005 11:29 AM
I do agree it's horrible that they pretend to be Americans and dress and shop like their customers... It just seemed like a disingenious comment at that moment.
Posted by: Zeynep at February 5, 2005 09:28 AM