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Revealed: Secrets of Silicon Valley

Ashwath Rao

"It is called new economy but what you find in it are the old labor standards," says Raj Jayadev, one of the two union leaders profiled in the documentary, Secrets of Silicon Valley.

The exploitation of workers ("high temp slaves," according to Jayadev) continues as if time has stood still for decades, he says, in hundreds of high tech sweatshops.

The 26-year-old union activist is eager to discuss the "digital divide" in the Silicon Valley -- and his efforts in building awareness not only among temporary tech workers but also among workers at Hewlett-Packard's printing unit. He was fired by HP for "stirring trouble", he says, explaining what he was doing was create safer working conditions. A Labor Commission ruled that he was fired unlawfully.

Jayadev is not back at Hewlett-Packard. He writes commentary for the Pacific News Service on labor issues -- and edits an occasional newsletter focusing on, as he says, debugging Silicon Valley myths. He also conducts workshops empowering marginalized workers.

Jayadev, who has a political science degree from University of California at Los Angeles, is featured in the hour-long documentary along with Magda Escobar who runs a computer training center for indigent people in East Palo Alto, a low income community just a few miles from Stanford University and scores of high-tech firms.

Jayadev and Escobar's young political careers caught the attention of Alan Snitow and his partner Deborah Kaufman.

Their documentary attempts to shed light on the lives of Silicon Valley's less-written about, ordinary people without the comfort of stock option cushioning and shiny new BMWs to transport their egos.

"Immigrants from India and Pakistan have played a very important role as innovators and engineers in the growth of the computer industry," Jayadev noted recently, "and many have enjoyed considerable rewards."

"But a far less prominent image of South Asians is beginning to make itself known as a force to be reckoned with," he noted in the commentary for Pacific News Service last year. He talked about unionization efforts and how a significant number of South Asian cabbies are getting vocal about their rights. He applauds people like Hina Shah, an attorney at the Asian Law Caucus, who says while it is exciting to see high achieving Indian Americans, "it is also important to acknowledge that Indian Americans are organizing on the grassroots level."

In Secrets of Silicon Valley, one such desi grassroots organizer is represented.

"The film is not just thought provoking and urging people to act," Jayadev says. "It is funny, too."

Snitow and Kaufman produced and directed Blacks and Jews which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997

Screenings of Secrets of Silicon Valley:

April 5 to 11, 7:30 pm: Fine Arts Cinema, Berkeley, California

April 18, 7 pm: Rafael Film Center, San Rafael, California, with film-makers in person

April 24 to April 26, 7 & 9 pm: Towne Theatre, San Jose, California

April 26, 8 pm: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, film-makers in person

April 28, 7 pm: Park Plaza Hotel, Boston, film-makers in person

May 19, 7:30 pm: Seattle Arts Museum, Seattle, Washington

Contact: Snitow-Kaufman Productions 2600 10th St.#253 Berkeley CA 94710 Tel: 510-841-1068 Fax: 510-841-9141

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