The struggle for development

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Preface and Acknowledgements The Big Lie Introduction Global capitalism and human impoverishment From labour-centred to labour-led development Class analysis The global labouring class: an introduction The rationale and organisation of this book Notes Capitalism and Poverty Introduction Global poverty analysis as doublethink Capitalism, exploitation and poverty Conclusions Notes Poverty Chains and the World Economy Introduction The global manufacturing system Global poverty chains: three case studies Conclusions Notes Deepening Exploitation: Capital-Centred Development Introduction Capital-centred development theory: elite subjects, subordinate objects Labour as an object of development Conclusions Notes Resisting Exploitation: Labour-Led Development Introduction A theory of labour-led development Labour-led development: contemporary examples Conclusions Notes Beyond Exploitation: Democratic Development Introduction Contested reproduction and intermittent revolution Reabsorption of the state by society Redistribution: reclaiming social wealth A ten-point plan for democratic development Conclusions Notes References Index End User License Agreement Dedication For Mjriam The Struggle for Development Benjamin Selwyn polity Copyright © Benjamin Selwyn 2017 The right of Benjamin Selwyn to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 First published in 2017 by Polity Press Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK Polity Press 350 Main Street Malden, MA 02148, USA All rights reserved Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-1282-9 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Selwyn, Ben, author Title: The struggle for development / Ben Selwyn Description: Cambridge, UK ; Malden, MA : Polity Press, 2017 | Includes bibliographical references and index Identifiers: LCCN 2017004330 (print) | LCCN 2017020101 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509512812 (Mobi) | ISBN 9781509512829 (Epub) | ISBN 9781509512782 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509512799 (pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: Economic development Classification: LCC HD82 (ebook) | LCC HD82 S428 2017 (print) | DDC 338.9 dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017004330 The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com Preface and Acknowledgements This book contributes to development thinking, policy and practice in two ways The vast majority of development literature and policy analyses are based upon elitist conceptions of social change, where states and corporations are identified as primary development actors This book, by contrast, views social change from the bottom up Its first contribution is to conceptualise development from the perspective of labouring classes Doing so provides an answer to the puzzle of expanding (and highly concentrated) wealth in a sea of global poverty Secondly, it contends that collective actions by labouring classes, far from undermining development, which is how elite conceptions of social change portray them, generate real human development Once this two-part argument is grasped, then the project of seeking to engender human development assumes a new perspective Some of the chapters in this book draw upon and develop arguments previously published Part of chapter was published as a Centre for Global Political Economy working paper (no 10, 2016) Parts of chapters and were published in Third World Quarterly (both vol 7, 2016) In writing this book I have incurred many intellectual debts First and foremost, my colleagues in the Historical Materialism World Development Research Seminar (HMWDRS) continue to provide the most stimulating forum within which to collectively understand and apply Marxist political economy to contemporary capitalism Over the years HMWDRS has included Liam Campling, Satoshi Miyamura, Jon Pattenden, Gavin Capps, Elena Baglioni, Owen Miller, Alessandra Mezzadri, Sam Ashman, Helena Pérez Niño, Demet Dinler, Jeff Webber, Penny Howard and Kristian Lasslett Many people have read parts of this book and/or discussed it with me and in the process have suggested improvements They include Tom Selwyn, Andy Sumner, Thomas Pogge, David Woodward, Luke Martell, Adam Fishwick, Felipe Antunes, Lucia Pradella, Ray Kiely, Mary Mellor, Siobhán McGrath, John Minns, Leslie Sklair, Peter Newell, Tom Marois, David Ockwell, Julian Germann, Sam Knafo, Earl Gammon, Andreas Bieler, Kalpana Wilson, Feyzi Ismail, Haroon Akram-Lodhi, Carlos Oya, Tony Norfield, Paul Cammack and Juanita Elias I am truly lucky to work alongside wonderful colleagues in the Department of International Relations and in the Centre for Global Political Economy (CGPE) at the University of Sussex Rorden Wilkinson and Andrea Cornwall, as head of department and head of school respectively, deserve special thanks as they have worked extra hard to generate creative time and space for colleagues to pursue their research Students at Sussex, at undergraduate, MA and PhD level, are simply marvellous and have, over the years, provided much critical stimulation to my thinking about global development I am deeply indebted to four brilliant thinkers who, knowingly or not, helped me construct my intellectual foundations These are Henry Bernstein, Chris Harman, Ellen Meiksins Wood and Michael Lebowitz I am very grateful to John Minns, director of the Australian National Centre for Latin American Studies (ANCLAS) at the Australian National University, who made it possible for me to spend six fantastic weeks conducting research and writing at the centre in late 2015 I thank Louise Knight, Nekane Tanaka Galdos, Clare Ansell, Caroline Richmond and David Held at Polity for supporting this project Our daughter Valentina has provided continuous entertainment over the last three years Most profoundly, I thank my wife Mjriam, who supported me all the way through this and previous labours, and who has always pushed me to explain my ideas with more clarity To her I dedicate this book ‘The great are only great because we are on our knees Let us rise up.’ Louis-Marie Prudhomme, Révolutions de Paris minimum/living wage manufacturing system global North–South divisions Marikana mine Martinez-Alier, Joan Marx, Karl capitalists as ‘hostile brothers’ class exploitation common battles maintaining a working class political economy of labour property and production on ‘robbing the soil’ surplus value of labour theory of exploitation uprooting class rule Marxism capital-centred development theory exploitation of labour in global age labour-led development modernisation ‘productivist’ Mason, Paul Mazzucato, Mariana media doublethink Mexico agricultural exports high-tech super-exploitation motor manufacturing wages textile wages wages and productivity Meyer, L Mezzadri, Alessandra migrant labour Chinese huku system Milanović, Branco Milberg, William Millennium Development Goals poverty line and mine/metalworkers, South Africa labour-led development modernisation Rostow’s theory Moldova minimum/living wage motor manufacturing wages and productivity Mozambique worker revolts Muñoz, Alicia N National Institute of Colonisation and Agrarian Reform, Brazil National Rural and Indigenous Women’s Association National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa nature, commodification of Ndikumana, L Negri, Antonio Empire (with Hardt) neoliberalism exploitation of labour ‘social’ statist political economy and Ness, Immanuel Nicaragua agricultural exports 1984 (Orwell) Nolan, Peter Norfield, Tony O oppression forms of mass dispossessions Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) global value chain and Orwell, George on Barcelona doublethink 1984 Overseas Development Institute (ODI) pro-poor and decent work P Park Chung-hee, General/President Pattenden, John Pegatron high-tech workers Peru agricultural exports Pew Center Pickles, John Piketty, Thomas Pinochet, Augusto Piqueteros movement, Argentina planning participatory Pogge, Thomas on IPL poverty lines and World Bank poverty analysis political activism gender difference and politics democratic foreign policy Ponte, S Post-Washington Consensus fairness–repression dualism shift from WC Stiglitz and poverty alleviation by redistribution capitalist view of cause distribution of wealth and elite subject-subordinate object (ES-SO) empowerment and exploitation and immiseration intrinsic to capitalism low wages and productivity natural disasters and pro-poor development ranges of needs in rising middle class and self-perception of South African shack dwellers subsidising wages universal basic income poverty measurement APCC and consensus minimises as doublethink ethical poverty line hunger trends and international poverty lines living wage calculation money-metric population percentages and purchasing power parity (PPP) redistribution and social approach socially defined World Bank power labouring class and Pradella, Lucia prices, food and Pritchett, Lant production contested reproduction labour-led ‘productivist’ Marxism separation of producers from social ownership of two circuits of wages and productivity productivity exploiting drives profits democratic development global hierarchy global value chain and property defence of rights land production and social ownership see also wealth purchasing power parity (PPP) World Bank and R race and ethnicity capitalist social forces and democratic development and discrimination imperialism and indigenous peoples and oppression and Ravallion, Martin poverty measurement and rising middle class Reclaiming Development (Chang and Grabel) Reddy, Sanjay poverty lines and World Bank poverty analysis redistribution of wealth democratic development and Reinert, Erik Ricardo, David comparative advantage statist political economy Rodrik, Dani Rogers, Deborah Romania minimum/living wage Rostow, W E modernisation theory The Stages of Economic Growth Russia counter-revolution labour-driven development Stalinism and workers’ revolution S Sachs, Jeffrey Schumpeter, Joseph Sen, Amartya Sender, John sexuality, oppression and shack dwellers’ movements Shenton, Roger slavery and serfdom pre-capitalist Slovakia minimum/living wage Smith, Adam Smith, Sheila social care universal basic income and social justice capitalist doublethink and social neoliberalism social relations capital and labour capitalist social factory class and racism reproduction costs social reproduction theory socialism state capitalism society absorption of the state by communal need/purposes solidarity racism and Solow, Robert South Africa 1995 Freedom Charter anti-eviction movement mine/metalworkers platinum mine workers shack dwellers’ movements student struggles worker revolts South Korea Apple and protests against Park Guen-hye statist political economy Sri Lanka minimum/living wage The Stages of Economic Growth (Rostow) Stalin, Joseph Starrs, Sean state leaders doublethink states capital–labour relations and decent work concept democratic development and economic foreign policy liberal versus interventionist political foreign policy reabsorbed by society rejection of model for social policy and poverty statist political economy statist theory exploitation of labour Stédile, João Pedro Stiglitz, Joseph APCC and Making Globalization Work Post-Washington Consensus Sumner, Andy Supplier Responsibility 2014 Progress Report (Apple) Sustainable Development Goals poverty line and sweatshops T Taiwan Apple and technology agriculture effect on labour global high-tech labour transnational corporations Tesco textile industry global poverty chains T-shirt price analysis wages and productivity women and Thailand textile wages ‘Third Way’ Thompson, E P trade Ricardo’s comparative advantage trade unions see labour organisation Trainer, Ted transnational corporations (TNCs) global wealth–poverty hierarchy strategy revolution Trotsky, Leon Trump, Donald Turkey minimum/living wage textile workers U Ukraine minimum/living wage Unemployed Workers’ Movement, Argentina United Kingdom Department for International Development poverty measurement welfare benefits and wages United Nations Anti-Poverty Consensus doublethink United States grocery retailers impact of offshore labour melon import analysis motor manufacturing wages poverty measurement textile wages transnational corporations wages and productivity V Viterna, Jocelyn S roles of women women’s labour W Wade, Robert APCC and bus drivers wages global hierarchies and global productivity and immiseration labour-led development living wage reduction of relative value subsidising wages WalMart Warren, Bill Imperialism Washington Consensus labour inflexibilities structural adjustment wealth capitalist development and concentration of distribution of exploitation and limited redistribution of natural redistribution see also land and property Weber, Max Welch, Jack performance management Whalen, Charles reducing labour costs Why Globalization Works (Wolf) Wilson, Kalpana Wolf, Martin productivity and wages Why Globalization Works Wolford, Wendy women agricultural labour Asian miracle and Bihar workers caste system and domestic labour food production global poverty chains high-tech industry non-traditional agriculture oppression textile industry Wood, Ellen Meiksins Woodward, David workplace conditions Cambodian textile workers extreme strictness intensification of Marikana mine working hours World Bank Anti-Poverty Consensus on Asian miracle doublethink East Asian Miracle report four steps of analysis integration into GVCs poverty measurement pro-poor and decent work rising middle class statist political economy World Development Report establishes poverty lines World People’s Conference on Climate Change Y Yue Yuen factory strike Z Zanón tile factory Zeilig, L Zikode, S’bu Zimbabwe worker revolts Zorzoli, L POLITY END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT Go to www.politybooks.com/eula to access Polity’s ebook EULA ... collective actions: The identification of the leading role of the unwaged in the struggles of the 1960s in Italy, and the extension of the concept to the peasantry, provided a theoretical framework... human developmental price The sixth mega-trend, however, represents the potential source for a transformation of these conditions Even before the onset of the current global economic crisis, the. .. having to pay for them, perhaps because they have their own plot of land to grow food, the value of these goods can be calculated to establish the value of their daily consumption The Bank’s primary