What is the specific class position of those operating in the vast informal sector in areas like South Asia/South-East Asia who might be self-employed street vendors/hawkers, waste pickers, etc.? They are not selling their labour power to a capitalist and they are more-or-less micro-businesspeople/entrepreneurs. Despite being formally closer to the petite-bourgeois than the proletariat as a class, it doesn't seem appropriate to categorise them as such considering the social conditions of their impoverishment.
How would people on libcom define the class position of these people in the informal sector? Is there something within Marxian class theory that could be helpful that I'm missing? Are there other theories of class which could instead be helpful or could supplement a Marxian framework?
Much thanks!
"self-employed street vendors/hawkers"
I'm very well acquainted with such people, some are friends, some are in-laws.
I know that the competition is fierce, for the costs of establishing such a business is affordable, so many have tried to sell street-food but prices are too low and profit margins insufficient to support a family and i know that they are constantly going out of business in a fairly short time because they simply don't make ends meet. It is still a hand to mouth existence, a very insecure livelihood.
I am minded how pubs got their name...public houses...and indeed most small businesses here do operate from their home and are thrown open to the public as small eating places. A bit like living over the corner shop used to be in the past.
Urban Peasant might be a description at a wild guess because the link with the countryside and the home village is not broken even in the big cities.
Are they working class?...they work...and i'm sure most identify or have an affinity with other workers in jobs...
What social role do they have? The food is dirt cheap, cheaper than eating at home in most cases, so it keeps the subsistence costs of factory workers and other employees low for the bosses.
I know i haven't really answered the question