Re: >>"It is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened >>the day's toil of any human being." (John Stuart Mill, as quoted by the big >>fella at the head of chapter 15 of *Capital*) >> >>Thanks, Tom! >>Rob. >Since John Stuart Mill wrote this, the average urban workyear in the >industrial core appears to have fallen from around 3000 hours to somewhat >less than 2000. > >Less heavy lifting too... > >Brad DeLong Tom Walker's time-talk comes for me at a very good time. I have been trying to think through the informal sector here as part of capitalism, both as a structural part of accumulation, and an integral part of the mass experience of late capitalism. Re: accumulation: the links are easy enough to theorize; harder to specify quantitatively, given how poor our info/data bases are. There is much that simply can't be known on any general level, and folks will logically eaither lie or not open the door to inquiring gringos ... who may well be the tax man or worse. At present, we figure the informal sector -- about 75% of manufacturing employment here, but probably only about 15% of value of manufactured goods produced -- plays the following role in accumulation: -- people in the "informal" sector work themselves hard for pennines, putting cheap (and pretty poor quality) goods on the market. Access to such cheap goods lowers the cost of labor (costs of reproducing labor power) in general -- the informal sector keeps an enromous reserve army of labor right on hand, in trun keeping labor costs rock bottom (one industrialist here quipped the only way to get people to really work is to eliminate the minimum wage entirely (presently about $60/month; all work at piece rates with no "bottom") -- the mirco-financiers are making a bundle off the informal (commercial and manufacturing) sectors ... the most profitable (though smallish) bank here in Bolivia specializes in such micro-loans. Commercial banks now want a piece of that action, sugesting it is not irrelevant to capital fromation at a more general (national) level In terms of the "end of century capitalist experince" in Bolivia, what can we say about the informal manufacturin sector? Some obvious points: The relation of capital to labor is diffuse, obscure. Shop owners sweat right alongside their laborers, live in conditions not terribly dissimilar, are ethnically of similar (subaltern) origin, etc. The logic of effort is not accumulation/exploitation, but survival, survival, survival. (Example: economies of scale are avoided often, to reduce risk: getting all the materials, people and machines togehter for big batches requires stretching .... better to just go bit by bit.) the shops work togehter to get batches out; once thy are sold, people are paid. So, iff you don't get those 70 pairs of jeans sewn by friday, your uncle will have nothing to send to the Argentine border for sale thorugh intermediaries, and you have no beer money for Saturday. Whadday gonna do, go on strike (and suffer a social death, as well as a beerless weekend)? Re: the time thing: In these shops -- logic of survival usually stronger than any "logic of accumulation"; productivity very low; etc. -- to make ends meet requires incredible hours. Just about all time becomes work time. In similar fashion, as shops are also homes, just about all space becomes the space of production. Public spaces in the neighbohoods are deficient, uninviting, and sometimes dangerous; private spaces are indistinguisable from productive spaces: bolts of cloth and broken machinery in "bedrooms"; workers trapsing through kithchens to carry cut materials to machines; etc. Many "operators" (operarios: salaried, but also usually family) may live elsewhere, but stay over weekday nights to not pay transportation to and from work; they take meals in the shops or just around the corner, etc. Men get out a bit more than women (to drink, play soccer), but still may spend only 10-12 hours out of the shop per week. In sum, the capitalist experience here is one of all time is work time, all space is "factory" space. So Brad, re: >Since John Stuart Mill wrote this, the average urban workyear in the >industrial core appears to have fallen from around 3000 hours to somewhat >less than 2000. .... sure, there's a labor aristocracy here too, but they are ever fewer and in a vary precarious postion. Tom P.S. I have before me a slick brochure from one of the micro-fiance agencies, with infon ont he bank, and some stirring protraits of successful borrowers. In one such depiction of, a woman is held up as a wonderful success: the money has allowed here to open a workshop, where she's working 14-18 hour days. Tom Kruse Casilla 5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia Tel/Fax: (591-4) 248242, 500849 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
