Special Address by Arun Maira at the inaugural of the L20 in Amritsar, in the India G20 Presidency
India is hosting the G20 this year in the spirit of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: One Earth; One Family; One Future.
India wants peace in the world. We want all the world’s citizens to live in harmony. And to live in harmony with the animals and the trees with whom we share our One Earth.
We have big questions to discuss about our economies and our societies.
For Indians, one question is, how large will India’s economy become? Five trillion dollars, ten trillion dollars, and when?
The second, and more fundamental question for all citizens of the world, including us in India, is: What kind of society do we want to live in?
Human beings connect with the economy with the work they do. The ILO has marked its centenary with a multi-year project researching the Future of Work. We must reflect on what sort of work human beings do. We must also discuss how their work is valued in the Economy, on one hand; and in Society on the other.
We must reflect on the history of human work, and we must honor those whose work has nurtured us throughout our history. Because if we will not value their work any longer, we will not survive much longer.
In the economy, the only work that is considered valuable is work done to earn money. Because its value can be measured; and added to the GDP.
Ever since human beings came to live on the Earth, our mothers have worked to bring us into the world. They have worked to nurture us without being paid to do it. They have done this work because it was natural human work for them, and it fulfilled them too. The work of our mothers and other caregivers has brought goodness to society, even though it has added nothing to GDP measured in rupees and dollars.
For centuries, farmers working with their own hands have grown the food that has fed us. For centuries too, masons using their skills have built the homes we live in. They have also built the magnificent monuments that we show off to remember our own cultures, and to show off to the whole world with pride. Like the exquisite Golden Temple in Amritsar.
While we do not pay mothers for the work they do, we do pay farmers for the food they grow, and we also pay workers for what they build. But how much monetary value do we attach to their work? Who determines the monetary value of their work? How is its price fixed in the economy?
Prices of the work done by farmers’ and by workers is fixed in the trade between them and those who buy their produce. One side has its labor, skills, and its time to give. The other side has the money to pay. Those who have money can wait for a better time to pay: money can be stored in a vault. Those who work cannot wait to be paid. Their work does not have a shelf life. In an economy, the bargaining power of those who control the money is always greater. As the Honorable Minister said last night: “Workers must be paid before their sweat dries”. And farmers must be paid before their produce rots.
The time has come to bring back the spirit of family into the economy to make the world feel more like one family in the spirit of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: One World, One Family.
The real difference between a “capitalist” country and a “socialist” country is not whether the government or the private sector runs the country’s economic enterprises. The difference is in how much human beings are valued in the economy, and how much respect they are given.
In capitalism, money is valued much more, and money runs the country, even when a country holds elections regularly. Look at the USA, for example. In capitalism, the needs of workers can be a nuisance, and therefore unions are considered as obstacles to the growth of capital and the economy.
I will pose two questions to all economists, whether they consider themselves as capitalists or socialists. The first is about the value economists attach to the work women perform in society.
There is a world-wide drive to get more women into the workforce. Economists say too few women in India are working for money. If many more did, the economy would grow much faster, they say. They seem to forget that hundreds of millions of Indian women go out of their homes to work and earn every day—as women farmers, as wage laborers, as domestic workers, care givers, sanitation workers, etc.
Their work is not given much value in the economy. And because they don’t earn as much money as men do, they are not respected as much as men. Economists would much rather that these women were employed in formal enterprises where they would learn to do the work that men do.
Which leads me to my second question. Capitalists do not value human beings much. They would much rather replace humans with automated machines who do not form unions to demand higher wages.
Technology is advancing rapidly. Machines can now do almost everything that human hands were required for. Artificial intelligence is even replacing the need for human minds in enterprises. Therefore, employment of humans in formal enterprises is reducing, even in wealthy countries. The question is, how many of masses of Indian youth and Indian women—the largest workforce in the world—can be employed in formal enterprises in future?
In capitalist economics, Nature is only a source of inputs for capitalist production machines. Humans are only a resource for capital to produce more capital. With technological advancement capital does not need human beings for production. It needs them only as consumers to buy what machines will produce. The problem is, where will human beings get the money to pay for what they consume, if they are not earning somehow, nor earning enough?
Economists see people as numbers in their statistical equations. Economists with socialist mind-sets and economists with capitalist mind-sets debate each other with their numbers, of how many people are poor, and how many people are employed. Economists try to influence policies with their numbers.
The time has come for all economists, and policy makers too, to listen to the real people. They must hear the voices of those they consider less important merely because they do not have as much money as others, and who they consider less wise because they are poor.
There are many communities who are concerned about their future well-being in the economy and in society. These include women, youth, farmers, factory workers, self-employed workers, and tiny enterprises. All of them must be listened to now.
I hope that during India’s G20 Presidency all these communities, who are separately organized into L20 for labor, Y20 for youth, W20 for women, and scattered into other groups too, will also listen to each other. They must combine their voices to demand more respect for those who work in the informal sector of the economy, and for all those working in society to maintain our families and communities, who are not even counted in the economy.
I wish the L20 convened in Amritsar under the India G20 Presidency great success. We had a great beginning last evening, when the Bhangra dancers of the Punjab got our friends from Russia, China, Brazil, Oman, Nepal, and other countries to dance together in the spirit of One World, One Family.
I conclude with my best wishes for workers all over the world. The workers of the world can bring the world together in the spirit of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: One Earth, One Family, One Future. Let our thoughts dance together in the L20 this year, and make the world dance with us.
Amritsar, 19th March 2023