From: michael a. lebowitz (mlebowit@SFU.CA)
Date: Sun Dec 12 2004 - 21:45:04 EST
At 21:04 12/12/2004, you wrote:
> > I think those definitional criteria below are the easy ones.
>
>Michael L,
>
>Right. I was just trying to determine what we agree on.
>
> > How
> > about people working in the sphere of circulation within the circuit of
> > capital who would choose to be wage-labourers if that option were present
> > but who are compelled to function as retail workers who must bear a risk
> > because they have no alternative?
I don't think you responded to the case I gave you. We can explore
exploiters within the informal sector subsequently.
in solidarity,
michael
>What people are we talking about? For example, consider some informal
>sector cases mentioned by Drakakis-Smith (_The Third World City_) in
>which there are owners of pedicabs which are rented out daily to others
>who then operate the pedicabs to earn money or there is the case in which
>money is regularly advanced for itinerant food hawkers to make purchases at
>wholesale markets so that these peddlers can purchase the food that they
>will then cook and sell. Drakakis-Smith thinks that these constitute
>exploitive relationships even though the exploiter is not a capitalist in
>the traditional sense and indeed is poor and needs to do this this or
>otherwise take on a different role within the informal sector in order to
>survive. But, the point I am making is that there is frequently
>exploitation _within_ the sector by the poor 'entrepreneurs' and the
>laborers. Are they _all_ part of the working class? I don't think so.
>Are they _all_ part of the petty-bourgeoisie? I don't think so -- although
>the 'entrepreneurs' in the above cases who rent out means of production
>or advance money in exchange for more money are (very) petty-bourgeois,
>imo. What I object to is a tendency among some Marxists, it seems to me,
>to say that people are either capitalists or members of the working class.
>The reality of capitalist society and the degree of class stratification is
>more complex than that. In any event, if one were to say that the poor
>who rent out pedicabs which are used as means of production or who
>borrow funds to purchase means of production are not part of the working
>class, does not imply that we should not support their struggles and build
>alliances with them.
>
>In solidarity, Jerry
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Currently based in Venezuela. Can be reached at
Residencias Anauco Suites
Departamento 601
Parque Central, Zona Postal 1010, Oficina 1
Caracas, Venezuela
(58-212) 573-4111
fax: (58-212) 573-7724
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