By

Swasthika Arulingam

USAID funding was abruptly withdrawn from several countries including Sri Lanka. As a result many workers working for NGOs in Sri Lanka lost their jobs without salaries. Smaller organisations specifically have come under stress due to staff terminations.

Hence while in other countries USAID was funding essential food, medicine and infrastructure in Sri Lanka it was layoffs of perhaps a 1000 or so NGO workers.

The USSAID like most other donors do not fund out of a bleeding heart. In the early days when every aspect of our lives was not digitalised and surveillance had to be done manually, USAID projects through their attendance sheets and ‘milestones’ and pictures were used for data collection and surveillance.

However in the past decade or so USAID funding like most other large donor funding have been used to ‘manage’ politics and prevent actual resistance from emerging. So for instance, in 2017 USAID was actively involved in funding the Sri Lankan Government to draft labour laws which were anti-labour but at the same time it was funding labour NGOs to supposedly fight for labour rights of workers.

With the USAID funding coming to an end, it can be a moment for those of us engaging in the politics of resistance to think about the harm which donor funding has done to movements specifically labour movements.

I have attended workers meeting with hall full of workers only to find out that the workers have been ‘compensated’ for attending meetings. When I asked an NGO worker why they were paying workers on a Sunday, she said they won’t come unless they are paid.

Labour organisations started focusing on attendance and social media pictures in order to send donor happy reports so that they would get their next round of funding. Nothing changes on the ground.

And when the funding runs out workers refuse to attend these ‘organising meetings’ because workers are only used to attending these meetings because they are compensated for their wages.

When the donor funding runs out, workers do not see the point in attending meetings because they have become used to a labour rights culture which buys them and uses them in order to complete ‘milestones’.

I hope the end of the USAID funding becomes a learning lesson for all of us engaged in mass politics. Yes, its easier when money is available in bulk to organise the logistics of a meeting or a campaign.

I am not an outsider to movements to sit in an armchair and preach. But as an insider and an active member of being part of resistance movements I hope we change our strategies for finding funds and building movements.

In the short run we may appear weak however in the long run this is what will build the resistance which we so badly need in Sri Lanka and across the world.

*********************************************************************