SO478 - week 10
« Back to SO478These are my notes from November 28 for SO478 at the London School of Economics for the 2017-2018 school year. I took this module as part of the one-year Inequalities and Social Science MSc program.
The usual disclaimer: all notes are my personal impressions and do not necessarily reflect the view of the lecturer.
Capitalism, inequality and conjugated oppression
Reading
Class Racism by Etienne Balibar
From the 1991 Verso book Race, Nation, Class (PDF) which features various essays written by either Etienne Balibar or Immanuel Wallerstein. Chapter 12. No real takeaways tbh
Conjugated Oppression by Philippe Bourgois
On class and ethnicity among Guaymi and Kuna banana workers.
Ground Down by Growth
A forthcoming Pluto Press book by Alpa Shah (lecturer) and co-authors.
Lecture
This lecture was given by Alpa Shah, Associate Professor of Anthropology at LSE, and Jens Lerche at SOAS. Held at the Behind The Indian Boom exhibition at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS. No seminar.
Focus: on the Dalits (at the bottom of the Hindu caste system) and the Adivasis (indigenous peoples) in India.
- 92% of India’s workforce is in informal employment
- Either informal sector or short-term unprotected work
- In some industries they fire them before a year is up to avoid having to provide (state-legislated) protections
- Q: why are these two groups still at the bottom, despite a putative transition from a caste-based system to a modern economy?
- Stuart Hall argues that capitalism works by exploiting existing ethnic divisions, finds the divisions useful
- These divisions are still extant and pervasive, not just in the old agrarian sector but persisting across employment categories
- Existing social inequalities (of power) being reified through economic relations
- Migrant workers excluded from lots of state resources, classic outsiders (super exploited)
- Usually internal migrants, from different states (not nations) which have different laws
- Managed by contractors who bond them through debt (since they have to take out an advance to work) which gets them working the whole season cus they don’t get paid until the end
- Seasonal bondage (basically slavery)
- Also used to discipline (replace) local workers who go on strike
- Divided by language too
- Different caste groups used against each other to undermine solidarity and prevent organised, united front
- this is all done by global corporations
- Conjugated oppression
- Balibar argues that race was used to divide the good working class and the bad/other/dangerous that deserves oppression (the good: allies)
- Discourse is that certain castes can be and in fact deserve to be treated differently (worse)
- Inherited power inequalities entrenched during economic growth
- Intersectional inequalities (class race gender) intertwined
- Silver lining: people fighting back
- Unionising
- maoists (armed communist insurrection)—they’re heavily repressed by state so you can see why it would seem like the only option
- Unfortunately, caste struggles have not aligned with classic far left (socialist) movements Q: is there solidarity between the Dalits and Adivasis?
- Adivasis are people outside the caste system, who traditionally lived outside mainstream society; they get displaced due to resource extraction
- Dalits are more embedded in caste system and do the unwanted jobs (untouchables) but also landless labourers (proletariat)
- So this prevents them from uniting into one faction—their struggles are different
- Still, recently there is a convergence as Adivasis migrate and have to work the same jobs
- Adivasis are much worse off than Dalits in general, and are sometimes used to discipline Dalit labour.
- We also have to remember there are lots of informal workers who are not members of either caste and who may not ally with the movement
- Caste is not independent of capitalism; it may be used by capitalism now, but it preceded capitalism
- It’s a way of exploiting people that’s separate from capitalism
- Capitalism makes use of existing distinctions
- Rules around caste are changing (more progressive) but that’s not necessarily reflected in what’s happening on the ground, as another oppressive system sweeps in
- So to make things better, both systems would need to be dismantled
- On the role of the state: we can’t see it as a unitary thing
- It’s complex and contradictory
- A mix of progressive measures & socialist rhetoric but not always enforced (like informal labour market)
- But also tied to global capital
- In general, poverty reduction is very slow, very far from China
- This is partly because politicians never really represent ordinarily citizens; instead, they tend to prioritise the interests of the industrial capitalist class