Harvey the Body

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The body as anaccumulation strategyCHAPTER 6

[I]t is crystal clear to me that the body is an accumulation strategy in thedeepest sense.Capital circulates, as it were, through the body of the laborer as variablecapital and thereby turns the laborer into a mere appendage of thecirculation of capital itself. (David Harvey, The Limits t0 Caital,1982, 157)In fact the two processes - the accumulation of men and the accumulationof capital - cannot be separated.(Michel Foucault, Dcipline and Punish' 1975119951,221)

Why focus on these citations? In part the answer rests on the extraordinaryefflorescence ofinterest in'the body'as a grounding for all sorts oftheo-retical enquiries over the last two decades or so. But why this efflorescence?The short answer is that a contemporary loss of confidence in previouslyestablishedcategories1_o_y_o e_{_T:tlt"19_ h.f L"_9y"$f'1edpiblebasis for understanding (cf. Chaptei-l and Lowe, 1995, l4). But viewing thebdy as t; i-rreuSFlocus for the determination of all values, meanings'and significations is not new. It was fundamental to many strains of pre-Socratic philosophy and the idea that'man'or 'the body'is'the measure ofall things' has had a long and interesting history. For the ancient Greeks' forexample, 'measure' went far beyond the idea of comparison with someexternal standard. It was regarded as'a form ofinsight into the essence ofeverything' perceived through the senses and the mind. Such insight intoir,rr.i -"nittgt ".,1a proportionalities was considered fundamental inachieving a clear perception ofthe overall realities ofthe world and, hence,fundamental to living a harmonious and well-ordered life. Our modernviews, as Bohm (1983) points out, have lost this subtlety and becomerelatively gross and mechanical, although some of our terminology (e.9. thenotion of 'measure' in music and art) indicates a broader meaning.The resurrection of interest in the body in contemporary debates doesprovide, then, a welcome opportunity o reglryE tlgsJg-Qprslgrnglg-g:l T4_"ff"g g"l)_ "{ all forms of enq_uiry. Feminists and queer

(Donna Haraway, Society and Space,l995, 510)


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98theorists have pioneered the way as they have sought to unravel issues ofgender and sexuality in theory and political practices. And the question ofhow measure lost its connexion to bodily well-being has come back intofocus as an epistemological problem of some significance (Poovey, 1998).The thesis I want to pursue here is that the manner of this return to .thebody as the measure of all things' ilmeanings are to be constructed anreturn to a broader relational meaning of the bdy as 'the measure of allthings' and fropose a more dilectical wa1 of undestanding r5-6 rEatcan better connect discourses on the body with that other discursive shiftthat has p 'globliit;orr' at rhe cenrer of deba-te.

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I begin with two fundamental propositions. The first, drawn from writersas diverse as Marx (1964 edition), Elias (1978), Gramsci (1971 edition),Bourdieu (1984), Stafford (1991), Lefebvre (1991), Haraway (1991),Butler (1993), Grosz (1994), and Martin (1994), is that the bod1,- is anunfinishedproject'historicallyandgeographicall@ways. It is not, of course, infinitely or even easill,malleabletnrta-n--ofits inherent ('natural' or biologically inherited) qualities cannot be erased.But the_body continues to evolve and change in ways that reflect both ani nternal tran sformati ve_ d,r4,41 9 _(qften the focus @and the effect of external processes (mosr ofr-in-voked i" o-ciI"-structionist approaches).The second proposition, broadly consisrenr with (if not implicitlycontained in) the first, is that the body is not a closed and sealed entity,but a relational 'thing' thi isireated, bounded, r.rrt"i.red, .rfti.n"t.lydissolved in a spatiotemporal flux of multiple processes. This entails arelational-dialectical view in which the body (construed as a rhing-likeentit)') internalizes the effects of the processes that create, support,sustain, and dissolve it. The body which we inhabit and which is for usthe irreducible measure of all things is_qg itself irreducible. This makesthe body problematic, particularly as 'the measure of all things.,The body is internaily conrradicrory byiirtu Fihe ."uftiple socio-ecologicfiesses that converge upon it. For example, the metabolicprocesses that sustain a body entail exchanges with its environment. If theprocesses change, then the body either transforms and adapts or ceases toexist. Similarly the mix of performative activiries available to rhe body in agiven place and time are not independent of the technological, physical,social, and economic environment in which that body has its being. Andthe representltloTl_p.11_._r]ces rhat operare in soc,iety likewise shape the

I Bodily processes

.I'FIE.BODY S A\ A(]CU\{ULTION STRA'TEGY 99body (and in the forms of dress and postures propose all manner ofadditional symbolic meanings). This means thar any challenges to adominant system of representation of the body (e.g. those mounted byfeminists and queer theorists in recent years) b-gqqe dqql cLlqqgqlobodily practices. The net effect is to say'that difl.ry"Lpto-e-sss (physicallnd ioialf produce' (both materially and representationally) radicallydifferent kinds of bodies. Class, racial, gender, and all manner of otherdistinctions aie maiked uon th-numai body by uirtue of th dffeientso?iilecolsral processes that do their work upon that body.-Tlf tfe matter this way is not to view the body as a passive productof exrernal processes. What is remarkable about living entities is the waymation flows and assemble them intoCl.tilg order out _of_ chaos is, asnt out,--i taf-propeitl of biologiCalsystems. As a'desiring machine'capable of creating order not only withinitlf Uut also in its environs, the human body is active and transforma-tive in relation to the processes that produce, sustain, and dissolve it.Thus, bodily persons e{owed with qg41oqc-4pacrties -aq{-rn-o-ral willmake their bodies foundational elements in what we have long called 'theul4y-p"ijTo concepru alize the body (the individual and the self) as p_orous inrelation to te__e_nvironm-ent framgs 'self-other' relations (including therelation to ,.r"i.rt.) in a particular way. If, for example, we understand thebody to internalize all there is (a strong doctrine ofinternal relations ofthesort I have outlined elsewhere ' see Harvey, 1996, Chapter 2) then thereverse proposition also holds. If the self internalizes all things then theself can be 'the measure of all things.' This idea goes back to Protagorasand the Greeks. It allows the individual to be viewed as some kind ofdecentered center of the cosmos) or, as Munn (1985, 14, l7), in herm[=ntf"t """li,sir of ro6il-pr"ctices on the Melanesian island of Gawa,prefers to put it,'bodily spacetime serves as a condensed sign of the widerspacetime of which it isopgn aqq_lolous te ,qh_ett_y"y. It is not how thStrathern (1988, 135) underlines the problem:

The socialized, internalll'' controlled Western Person must emerge as amicrocosm of the domesticating rocess by which natural resources are put tocultural use . . The only internal relation here is the way a person's parts,belong' to him or herself. other relationships bear in from outside. Aperson's attributes are thus modified by external pressure, as are theattributes of things, but they remain intrinsic to his or her identity'


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r00But in the Melanesian case:

[The] person is a living commemoration of the actions which produced it . . .persons are the objectified form ofrelationships, and it is not survival oftheself that is at issue but the survival or termination of relations. Eating doesnot necessarily imply nurture; it is not an intrinsically beneficiary act, as it istaken to be in the Western commodity view that regards the self as therebyperpetuating its own existence. Rather, eating exposes the Melanesianperson to all the hzrds of the relationships of which helshe is com-posed . . . Growth in social terms is not a reflex of nourishment; rather, inbeig a proper receptacle for nourishment, the nourished person bearswitness to the effectiveness of a relationship with the mother, father, sister'shusband or whoever is doing the feeding . . . Consumption is not a simplematter of self-replacement, then, but the recognition and monitoring ofrelationships . T self as individual.subject-exls-ls ... in his or hercapacity to transfori-ilations. ast.artern,l9s8-, 30

This relational conception of the body, of self, individual, and, conse-quently, of political identity is captured in the Western tradition only indialectical modes of argumentatio\ Traces of it can also be found in thecontemporary work of deep ecoldgists (cf. Naess and Rothenberg, 1989)and the view is now widespread in literary and feminist theory. It con-stitutes a rejection of the world view traditionally ascribed to Descartes,Newton, and Locke, which grounds the ideal of the 'civilized' and'individualized' body (construed as an entity in absolute space and timeand as a site of inalienable and bounded property rights) in much ofW'estern thought.It then follows that the manner of production of spacetime is inex-tricably connected with the production of the body. 'With the advent ofCartesian logic,' Lefebvre ([99], l) complains, 'space had entered therealm of the absolute . . . space came to dominate, by containing them, allsenses and all bodies.' Lefebvre and Foucault (particularly in Disciplinend Punish) here make common cause: the liberation of the senses and thehuman body from the absolutism of that produced world of Newtonian./Cartesian space and time becomes central to their emancipatory strategies.And that means challenging the mechanistic and absolute view by meansof which the body is contained and disciplined. But by what bodilypractices was this Cartesian/Newtonian conception of spacetime pro-ducedl And how can such conceptions be subverted?We here encounter a peculiar conundrum. On the one hand, to return tothe human body as the fount of all experience (including that of space andtime) is presently regarded as a means (now increasingly privileged) tochallenge the whole network of abstractions (scientific, social, political-economic) through which social relations, power relations, institutions,

SPACES OF HOPEand material practices get defined, represented, and regulated. But on theother hand, no human body is outside of social processes of determination'

THE.BODY AS AN ACCU\'IULATION STRATEGY IOI

To return to it is, therefore, to instantiate the social prgge_ses bgingI-f, for example, workis ar ffansformed,nto appendJges of capital in both the workplace and the consumption sphere (or, as Foucault prefers it' bodies aremade over into docile bodiesby the rise of a powerful disciplinary apparatus'from the eighteenth century onwards) dies be ameasure, sign, or receiver of anything o f c1[ilawe measure anything outside of that deadly embrace of the mah-ille asextnoi f our own body nd body as extension of the machine? .of a nPe authenqic (epistemo-heoretical absqac-1g4tr4t ves may be iustifed, JU9 91"cnnot- i" a of itself guarantee anythin-g-e-{-ept the p9dct19l 9{ an-arciiiistic slf-refeitiliiy- H"r"*"y (1991, 190) sees the difficulty..Obj*aitit' she declares, 'turns out to be about particular and specificembodiment and definitely not about the false vision promising transcen-dence of all limits and responsibility.' qg_y\oJgbody is it thalis to be theand what is itwe will perfor, howevei, wistanding of how bodies are socially produced.

2 The theory of the bodily subiect in MarxLet us suppose that Marx's c4tegories are not dismissed as 'thoroughlydestabilised.' I do not defend that supposition, though I note that from theEconomic and, Philosophica,l Mnuscripts onwards Marx (1964 edition, 143)qrgq1_de{hls stemological arguments on real sensualbodily i_nte1,1c :eds froms and ofis it true

sclence.Marx also elaborated a philosophy of internalgl"tigry "q4-of di,at scOnlistent wiit ttt" relational- nctn-l the body outlined above(p"-.tic"l"tly by Strathern). T-ntempo-rary rui-to ieiurn to the body


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102as the irreducible basis of all argument is, therefore, a rush to return to thepoint where Marx, among many others, began.ightP dilyS circ

A preparatory step is to broaden somewhat the conventional Marxiandefinition of 'class' (or, more exactl of 'class relation') under capitalismto mear(povtionlity in reltion to caital circulation and ccumuliloMarx often fixed this relation in terms of property rights over the means

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ofproduction (including, in the laborer's case, property rights to his or herown body), but I want ro argue that this definition is too narrow to capturethe content even of Marx's o\ryn analyses (Marx, recall, avoided any formalsociological definitions of class throughout his works). Armed with such a

worr,.consumg sav-e,-gf f:"::i';:"ff;#ffi

THE BoDy AS AN Accu\{uLATroN sTRATEGy 103(the extraction of labor power and surplus value) have on the bodies'-


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r04[L]arge scale industry, by its very nature, necessitates variation of labour,fluidity offunctions, and mobility of the worker in all directions. But on theother hand, in its capitalist form it reproduces the old division of labourwith ossified particularities. We have seen how this absolute contradictiondoes away with all repose, all fixity and all security as far as the worker's lifesitutation is concerned . . . But if, at present, variation of labour imposesitself after the manner of an overpowering natural law, and with the blindlydestructive action of a natural law that meets with obstacles everywhere,large scale industr through its very catastrophes, makes the recognition ofvariation of labour and hence of the fitness of the worker for the maximumnumber of different kinds of labour into a question of life and death.

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(Marx, 1976 edition, 617)Marx sees these contradictions being worked out historically and dialec-tically (largely though not solely through the use of coercive force andactive struggle). But part ofwhat the creative history ofcapitalism has beenabout is discovering new ways (and potentialities) in which the humanbody can be put to use as the bearer of the capacity to labor. Marx observes(1976 edition, 617), for example, that 'technology discovered the fewgrand fundamental forms of motion which, despite all the diversity of theinstruments used, apply necessarily to every productive action of thehuman body.' Older caacities of the human body are reinvented, newcapacities revealed. The dvelopment of capitalist production entails aradical transformation in what the working body is about. The unfinishedproject of the human body is pushed in a particular set of contradictorydirections. And a whole host of sciences for engineering and exploring thelimits of the human body as a productive machine, as a fluid organism, hasbeen established to explore these possibilities. Gramsci (1971 edition),among others, thus emphasizqs again and again how capitalism is preciselyabout the production ofa new kind oflaboring body.

prffictive body' of the labor force is broken downinto hierarchies of skill, of authorit of mental and manual functions, etc.in such a way to render the Yheterogeneous. And this heteroge gthat ccurs within the piiii me-oTrofficti ensures that require-ments, definitions of skill, systems of authorit divisions of labor, etc. arenever stabilized or long. So while the collective laborer will be fragmen-ted and segmented, the definitions of and relations between the segmentswill be unstable and the movements of individual laborers within andbetween segments ioiresponisly comp-lex. Ii;oth to see that in

II

THE BODY AS AN ACCUMUI-ATION STRATEGY 105the face of these contradictions and multiple instabilities' capitalism will

rycaf qug-s_aware that5-oer--ariffi irntiida-d-mkedbydifferentphysicalproductivecapacities and qualities according to histor geography, culture' and trad-ition. He is also aware that signs of r49er-9,t19ityr4,er ald gender are usedas extinJ me-asures--f wi. *titil-l -d--q{-l-1ore q ,apable of orp.ilitt.a to aofft.-i"-.poration of women and children into the circu-ir, oruftaUle capital in nineteenth-century Britain occurred for certaindistinctive reasons that Marx is at pains to elaborate upon' This in turnprovoked distinctive effecrs, one of which was to turn the struggle over thei..rgth of the working day and the regulation of factory employment into adisnctive struggle ,o pio,.., women and children fr9ry the-lmpaqts--ofcap itali sm's' wrew olf u.t g;rToi l,uiqtu -ull,t : Ttr1Plgrylgj*-.tt" rrirain 4s-.Yp..g oirs, fuiihimoie, not onlv provided 'a".* ffiarf"ith. i"lion "uor' (Marx, 1976,615), it also posed@na cntnues ro pose) a funlamentl.h"llettge lo many traditional con-.@"q "f te family and of gender roles:

Howeverterribleanddisgustingthedissolutionoftheoldfamilytieswithinthe capitalist system may appear' large scale industry, by assigning ani*po.nt part in socially organized Processes of production' outside the,ph"r. of the domestic economy, to women, young persons and children ofboth rexes, does nevertheless create a new economic foundation for a higherform of the family and ofrelations between the sexes . . . It is also obvious thatthe fact that the collective working group is composed of individuals ofbothsexesandallagesmustundertheappropriateconditionsturnintoasourceofhumane development, although in its spontaneousiy developed' brutal'capitalist form, the system works in the opposite direction' and becomes apestiferous source of corruption andthe proces


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106I"jl4.__o_gver5 _gglg"tltq, a1d lTmigrants (e.9. the Irish intoB_.@_,_l4ef x make s cle ar that con structi-. 919-,ol race an d Iifi -likewise implicated in the circulation process of variable capital. Insofar asg*d.., race, and ethnicity are all understood as social construCtsiat-therih"n ", essentialist categories, so the effect of thr i"stnioffici?culation of variable capital (including-positioning ;ithi" ti"td;ieterogeneity of collective labor and, hence, witbig-the divisio-ffiland th class systm) has to be seen as a powerful force reconstructingthem in distinciively capitalist ways.There are a number of corollaries. Firstly, the productiveness of a persongets reduced to the ability to produce surplus value. To be a productiveworker, Marx (1976, 644) ironically notes, 'is therefore not a piece ofluck but a misfortune;' the only value that the laborer can have is notdetermined in terms of work done and useful social effect but through 'aspecifically social relation of production . . . which stamps the worker ascapital's direct means of valorization.' The gap between what the laborer asperson might desire and what is demanded of the commodity labor powerextracted from his or her body is the nexus oflienation. And while woiElrsas persons may value themselyes in a variety of *yi.p.nding upon howthey understand their productivity, usefulness and value to others, themore restricted social valuation given by their capacity to produce surplusvalue for capital necessarily remains central to their lives (as even highlyeducated middle-level managers find out when they, too, are laid off).Exactly what that value is, however, depends on conditions external to thelabor process, hinging, therefore, upon the question ofexchange.Secondly, lack of productivit, sickness (or of any kind of pathology)gets defined within this circulation process as inability to go to work,inability to perform adequately within the circulation of variable capital (toproduce surplus value) or to abide by its disciplinary rules (the institu-tional effects elaborated on by Rothman [971] and Foucault [1995] in theconstruction of asylums and prisons are already strongly registered inMarx's chapters on 'The Vorking Day' and the 'So-Called PrimitiveAccumulation'). Those who cannot (for physical, psychic, or socialreasons) continue to function as variable capital, furthermore, fall eitherinto the 'hospital' of the industrial reserve army (sickness is defined undercapitalism broadly as inbility to work) or else into that undisciplinedinferno of the lumpenproletariat (read 'underclass') for whom Marxregrettably had so little sympathy. The circulation of variable capital,being so central to how capitalism operates as a social system, defnes rolesof employed 'insiders' and unemployed 'outsiders' (often victimized andstigmatized) that have ramifications for society as a whole. This brings usback to the,ryT:lt of 'exchange.' .,

SPACES OF- HOPE -I'HF, BODY AS AN ACCUMUI-ATION STRATEGY IO7Exchnge of ariable cPitlThe commodity which the laborer (qua person) exchanges with the cap-italist is The basicconditio he right towhateve determine

the labor process, and have free use of the capacity to labor during thehours and at the rate of remuneration stipulated in the contract. Therights of capital are frequently contested and it is interesting to see on

'l he laborer as person snoulo navland should always enter the labor mac@ \1976, 27r-t) otes, a worker is 'free in thed"bG sensemr as a free individual he can dispose of his labour-power ashis own commodity, and that, on the other hand, tr- ryagh1:gm-moditv for sale. i.e. he is rid of them, he is free of all the obiects ".lg9g g.llbrer asperson and laborth isk, for examPle, andworking practices that do so are open to challenge' This principle carriesover even into the realm of the cultural and bodily capital (as Bourdieudefines them): hence much of the resistance to de-skilling, redefinitions ofskill, etc. Of course, these legalities are continually violated under,cap-italism and situations frequently do arise in vhich the body and person ofthe laborer is taken over under conditions akin to slavery. But Marx's

po*e. tral fuiiher implications. The capitalist has not

Dolnt rs that Dreservatlon or Lrlc urLEBrrLy rru rur;;; ";,1 h;., .with'in the circrtltion nrocess ofint is thatperson and body withinlcrum upon which contestation aqd---c91-lggggle--botlt Ylhtl-11d

thalc-omFoditl--- ---

how capital is produced through surplus value extraction). But Marx yeundersrood that these conditions are never fixed but depend on physical

.gut,r* Aa*,g.n" pree'_s- f l"ir t. ciit, l': 4:tion of the integrity "n fullttess of the laboring


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108

his chapter on 'The Working DaY': I

and social.

abstracl laboi as their datum.Abstract labor - value - is measured through exchange of commodities

SPACES OF HOP] sy{9 q4 fq i-lggl (cendgr and racial disparities in remuneration- com-p'"_-iu.*rt i weil documented) and by mobilization of an industrial;.*t* army (either in situ or thiough the migratory movements of bothcapital and iabor seartring for'better' contractual conditions)'it is exactly at this poinithat the connectio"-b-t.t*E:Lry Y l9yl4- rto as.s1o5fitio' (srie chafei +)-and the body bcomesxli.i,,.PY,i;;fri"-f ** U.ifro"gi "bout? Marx depicts the circulation of variablec"pit"l as a 'commcidity for comrnodity' exchange: the worker exchangesth. rrre u"lrre@alue of the commodities that canbe bought for the -ot.y wage. Exchanges of this sort are usually highlyIocalized and place-specific. The worker must take his or her body to workeach day (even undir conditions of telecommuting)' But labor.power isinserted as a commodity into a Money-Commodity-MoneY circulationDrocess which easily espes the $-atiGmporal restrinti oll[]-ormarr..-* arid whih- r""ti for capital ccumulation on the world sta-ge';-i;r--;...1.t.i trr""*r *. (ii shortens working periods,circulation times, etc.) while simultaneously annihilating space

throughtime while prese.uing .ertain territorialities (of the factory and the nationstate) as dmains of surveillance and social control. Sp.atiolemporalitydefned ar one scale (that of q.4l4il9l eld all iL.- as-s.og-i4gd m1{lj)rffi f"".ti,o" al--?. rgggb .r^rlqg- .lgqliled- cllg:T-rasttlolacroslspatlolmporlge;Cg"qPliqLqdUyltrgtltgl-," UCg e'19-+, pro--c-qq-s''ong of wh9h 1'ffi-ri.-"ffi i,"i'.1ii99ggq 'J-qf -91pit4:'9:T"li"-Pwlile ;l---l"tf-tqyction of.thlf"Uorine btn "r -;t. reltrited pa. ltris leads to some sefiousAl.r*iiA*, of ii,. sort thar Hareven (1982) identifies in her analysis ofFimrly Tirni and' Ind,ustrial Time'Bitas Hareven goes on to show' theset*o s"p"tiotemporal systems, though qualitatively {{el:lt from each; qlgY' -I e6'iffir. i.t-sL*ittt h other. Thus do linksbetween the 'local' and the 'global'-b-eco*9-t-19 -t1q liftte"t dili*l--.fr--"es t uaiin (in9 -5s ih lesree of respect for thebodily integrity ""a affi;iTi,-m*u" ffi -u'l-el'|t lt9q ihtcrc u lti n;r;" d-ilY-Prgtlee -ds*dtti.s gry-o-{,t e-{9[rynsfetureir-clasil"a-ry1-c'{I-9qPl4ig99l-:p.rcr,-r.4-teg .dltet"t;"tytrms,itrecre"tionof unemploymentthrough do*rr-Iri"irrg, the redefinitions of skills and remunerations forskills,-the intensification of labor processes and of autocratic systems ofsurveillance, the increasing despotism oforchestrated detailed divisions of

IH.E BODY AS AN ACCUT'fULATION STRATEGY 109


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ll0labor, the insertion'of immigrants (or, what amounts to the same thing,the migration of capital to alternative labor sources), and the "o..""1ompetitive struggle berween different bodily practices and modes of

tion between the designer shirts we wear upon our backs, the Nike shoeswe sport, and the oriental carpets upon which we walk, and the grosslyexploited labor of tens of thousands of women and children in central. America, Indonesia, and Pakistan (iust to name a few of the points of' production of such commodities).The morn)ent of consumption

It is the worker himself who converts the money into whatever use-valueshe desires; it is he who buys c{mmodities as he wishes and, as the oner ofmone , as the buyer of goods, he stands in precisely the same relationship tothe sellers of goods as any other buyer. of course, the conditions of hisexistence - and the limited amount of money he can earn - compel him tomake his purchases from a fairly restricted selection of goods. But some

This is an example ofMarx's tacit appear to 'positionality in relationship tocapital accumulation' as a practical definition of class relations. As thefocus shifts so does the meaning of crass positionality. The laborer has

SPACES OF HOPE THE BoDY AS AN ACCU\,TULATIoN STRATEGY 11Ilook at the circulation of variable capital as a whole, that what is true for theindividual laborer is rather more limited when looked at from the'gtqgg"f,e":'Fyr*-"-----_

The capitalist class is constantly giving to the working css drafts, in theform of money, on a portion of the product roduced 6y the latter andappropriated by the former. The workers give these drafts back just asconstantly to the capitalists, and thereby withdraw from the latter theirallotted share of their ow'n product . . . The individual consumption of thew-orker, whether it occurs inside or outside the workshop, inside or outsidethe labour process, remains an aspect ofthe production and reproduction ofcapital .... iety, then, the working class, evenlrvhen it sta process, is just,as much an append- |age of capi s of labour are. I(Marx, 1976,713,719)Deeper consideration of what amounts to a 'company store' relationbetween capital and labor is instructive. The disposable income of thelaborers forms an i-qrtt"Igls9f eff9c(this is the relation that Marx exploresCapital). Accumulation for accumulation's sake points towards eithqr anincreasing mass of laborers to whom necessities can be sold or a chahgingstandard of living of the laborers (it usually means both). The production ofnew needs, the opening up of entirely new product lines that definedifferent lifestyles and consumer habits, is introduced as an importantmeans of crisis avoidance and crisis resolution. We can then see more clearlyhow it is that variable capital has to be construed as a circulation process'(rather than as a single causal arrow) for it is through the payment of wagesthat the disposable income to buy the product of the capitalists is partiallyassured.But all of thij presumes 'rational consumption' on the_gr-rt-of thelqgler - rationi]thf frm ih-tt""dp"t"r "f ."pital accumln(Marx, 1978 edition, 591). The organization, mobilization, and channel-ing of human desires, the active political engagement with tactics ofpersuasion, surveillance, and coercion, become part of the consumptuaryapparatus of capitalism, in turn f pressures on thebody as a site of and a pefom co"suiptio"tfotfurter accirmu@on -(f. Hry Fortibsision with training socialworkers to monitor the budgets of his workers).

But the terms of 'rational consumption' are by no means fixed, inpart because of the inevitable destabilizing effects of perpetual revolutionsin capitalist technologies and products (revolutions which affect thehousehold economy as well as the factory), but also because, given the


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n2discretionary element in the worker's use of disposable income, there is asmuch potential for social struggle over lifestyle and associared bodilypractices as there is in the realm of production itself. Struggles over thesocial wage - over, for example, the extent, direction, and distributionaleffects of state expenditures - have become critical in establishing thebaseline of what might be meant by a proper standar of living in a'civilized' country. struggles over the relation between 'housework' and*'labor in the market' and the gender allocation of tasks within domesticlsettings also enter into the picture (cf. Marx,s i976 edition,5l8, com-i mentary on how the importance of domestic labor gets 'concealed byofficial political economy' and the revived debare in the 1970s on the role-of housework in relation to the circulation of variable capital).This moment in the circulation of variable capi ,4 rIb9 gh_ gr lggab"i in Mirx'l acount, is ,,ot strr,gy emphasii. withihJU.,it.dStates (and, presumabl much of the "u"n.. capitalst world) in mind,Lowe (1995, 67) now argues thar:

f_S$ylg5g.:9gyl relations of consumption in lare capitalism, as distinctfrom class as the-soclal relations'of production. The uizur .ri[t" rnpresentation of self in terms of consumptio relations has by now over-shadorved the class relarions of production in the rvoikl _.fCons--llgl| p itself dynamically developed by the dslgn an-tioducrion-changing product .h-g".t..t.t Lrh., l"l,"poS rrg" o _ *tg; -g" i"festti;d form"t. il th. *g-entation of .orrru-., markers.This suggests (double conrradictio\within rhe advanced capitarist world(and a nascent c-ontradiction within-developing countries). First, b1 sub-mitting unquestioningly and without significant struggle to the dictates ofcapital in production (or by channeling strugle solely to the end ofincreasing disposable income), workers may open for themselves widerterrains of differentiating clioice (social or individual) with respecr tolifestl''le, structures of feeling, household organization, reproductive activ-ities, expressions of desire, pursuit of pleasures, etc. within the moment ofconsumption. This does not automatically deliver greater happiness andsatisfaction. As Marx (195 edition, 33) notes:

[A]lthough the pleasures of the labourer have increased, the social grati-fication *'hich the1,- afford has fallen in comparison rvith the increasedpleasures of the capitalist. our '\ants and pleasures have their origin insociet].'; rve therefore measure them in relation to society; we do not measurethem in relation to the objects'r,hich serve for their gratification. since theyare of a social nature, thev are of a relatlve nature.conversely, by locking *ork..r' into certain conceptions of rifestl,'le,consumer habits, and desire, capitalists can more easily secure compliance

SPACES OF HOPD THE BODY AS.{N -\C.CU\tULrrl-ION STRATEGY l13within the labor process while capturing distinctive and proliferatingmarket niches for their sales.Strugg .9L-ercise th Y toil consumptin for sus-e such conflictP but no Par-

into his frameriork. Plainll,

l]' "ltim"tely to be dissoived (even in the face-of con-nce) by ih. ,"-. p.o..tt.s ihat l1d 1o therr igitla fgt-ry1ti,on. ihe recent history of deindustrialization is full of examples of this'7. wide range of bodily' practices and cultural choices with respect to

.rrirr-.t choices or even of consumer culture, though it certainl.v works

19- P94-9Jth'ernal relations-'-the one with the other.

The circulation of cariable caital as a Pholeconsider, then, the figure of the laborer caught within the rules ofcirculation of variable capital as a whole. Tttt-glp-lg 94-Yqll 'gg

vident instbilities within ththe different windows onproduction, erchange, and


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lt4gtllg_body largely a.l_ g rye_rcy of a whole series of forces outside of anyon. irrdiuidral's control. lt ls in ihi, ,..,r. that th labo.i" viibseen as an internal relationf the historically and geographicallychevllprocesses of capital circulation.When, however, we consider the accumulation process as a whole, wealso see that of rthe workiqglg1remains a nec of pital-'Ihe *ork-ing class is. in effect, held captive within a 'company stoi' relation tocapital accumulation that renders it an appendage of capital at all mo-ments of its existence. The capitalist, in short, 'produces the worker as-wage laborer.' Marx (1973 edition, 717-18) conrinues:

The capital given in return for labour-pou.er is converted into means ofsubsistence which have to be consumed to reproduce the muscles, nerves,bones and brains of existing rvorkers, and to bring nerv workers intoexistence. Within the limits of what is absolutely necessarv, therefore, theindividual consumption of the rvorking class is the reconversion of thei means of subsistence given b1.. capital in return for labour-power into freshlabour porver rvhich capital is then again able to exploit. k is the productionand reproduction of the capitalist's most indispensable means of produc-tion: the rvorker.

a'The issue of reproduction/s then immediately posed. Marx was less thanfo-lt-cominn-thi qusrion leaving it, as the capitalisr does, 'ro rheworker's drives for self preservation and propagation.' f[onluproposes is that the laboring family, denied access to the means ofrodution, would strive in tirnes of prosperity as-" &prln,-toaccumulate the only form of 'property' it possessed: labr power itse-lf.Hence arises a connexion between expanded accumulatioh nd'm;xu,n-glowih of population - of living rlabor capacities' (Maii, I97Tedn81But it is also clear that as laborers acquire property on their ownaccount or move to acquire cultural as well as 'human capital' in the formof skills, that this equation will likely change and generare differentreproductive strategies, togetsion through class struggleFurthermore, lVlarx's occasional commentaries on 'th fmiir;l;; --_-constructed unit of reproduction (coupled with Engelsit tr."iiiJtiffiiof the Family, Prixate Propertr and the S with its emphasis upon divi-sion oflabor between the sexes and propagation ofthe species) indicares amaterial point at which quesrions of sexuality and gendering iniersect-r r.- ---.r.--uith political economr'.-Ela5ratlgns 6y scialist feminist-in recenr ],earshere assume great importance. If the circulation of variable capital as awhole is about the reproductionittre-wor


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I16of the production of the laboring body and of individual and collectivesubjectivities. Thqe is much that is lacking (or only ligh4glgg4 rpqlin Marx's schema, including the sexual and erotic, the gendering andraial identifications of bodies, the psychoanalytic an reple_q@;41the linguistic and the rhetorical, the imaginary and the ry)lh-igdllq Errg_just a few of the obvious absences). The roles of gender within the spatialand social divisions of labor have been the focus, for example, of aconsiderable range of studies in recent years (see, e.g., Hanson and Pratt,1994) and the question of race relations or ethnic/religious discrimina-tions within segmented labor markets has likewise been brought under themicroscope (see, e.g., Goldberg, 1993) in ways that have given muchgreater depth and purpose to Marx's (1976 edition, 414) observation that'labour in a white skin cannot emancipate itself where it is branded in ablack skin.' So there are plent.v of other processes metabolic, ecological,political, social, and psychological - that play ke1' roles in relation tobodili'' practices and possibilities.But these absences cannot be cured b1,an erasure ofeither the methodor substance of Marx's approach. The latter is something to build uponrather than to negate. The human body is a battleground within whichand around which conflicting socio-ecological forces of valuation andrepresentation are perpetualll'- at play. Marx provides a rich conceptualapparatus td understand processes ofbodily production and agency undercapitalism. J1s1 as important, he provides an appropriate epistemolog-v(historical-geographical as well as dialectical) to approach the question ofhw boies gei produced, how thel'become the sign figr_q_a_trerentsf-meanin gs, an d how internaliZed bod il y' practices mlgq ifr_ u+lo jt.,1processes of their selproduction under contemporar.v conditions ofcapitalistic alobalization. ,

SP,l CES OF HOP[,

Body politics and the strugglefor a living wageCHAPTER 7

Bodies embedded in a social process such as the circulatipn of variablecitIeever tq bnstrued ai docile or passive. It is, after all, onlythrough the 'form-giving fire' of the capciy to labor that capital isr the domination of .capital i,s con-thonditions and instruments of itsown domination (as much in the realm of consumption and exch.ng. "r inproduction itself), the transformative and creative capacities of the laboreralwavs carry the poten-titli (h-wever nimaginable in the present cir-cumstanes) to fashion an alternative mode of production, exchange, ando $nqpllgnJhose transformative and creative capacities can never beerased. This poses acute pr_blems lq_f qh r{nt914n_9g_ql J4p4gl_rqr_r'sauthority while providing multiple opportunities for laborers to asserttIr age-ncl'4-nd -yTl. It ilno aCdent. therefore, that larx attaches theappellation 'living' to the labor embedded in the circulation of variablecapital to emphasize not only- its fundamental qualities of d,vnamism andcreativity brlt also to indicate where the life-force and the subversivepower for change resides.An analy-sis of the circulation of variable capital shows that 'bod1'politics' looks different from the standpoints of production, exchange,and consumption. Trade-offs plainly exist between how laborers submit toor struggle with the dictates of capital at one moment to enhance theirpowers at another. Abject submission to the dictates of capital withinproduction, for example, mav for some be a reasonable price to bear foradequate pleasures and fulfillment of desires (presuming such are possiblegiven the multiple fetishisms of the market) in the realm of consumption.But what dictates whether that price it jq4gg4._qq _igh? The working bodl' mii-anust mef as finlliam Gib" - irprragingly refers to it inhis d1.'stopian novel lVeuromancer and laborers are more than just 'hands'(presuming they have neither head nor belly as Charles Dickens mockingly-observes n Hard Times). h9 _cg19ept_{f}oay is here in danger of

I The political body in the body politic


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118_1nq its political purchase because it cannor provide g trlo q.fine thedirection as opposed to the locus of political actign. Th"* (lit'e F"*""Irand Butler) who appeal to the body as a foundational concept consequentlyexperience intense difficulty in elaborating a politics that focuses onanvthing other than sexuality. Concern for the broader issues of whathapp g_1p_t_o bo di es in_serte{ intodisappears in such accounts (apaiirs t point out the connections between body. politics and politicaleconomic questions). Y-et a concept of variable capital which posits thelaborerasthepuresub- j-oT-captra-taccumltioncannohlp_s_lEproblem either. 'Bod1- politics' in this narrow reductionist sense thenbecomes just as disempowering ois-a'-ais capital accumulation as the ideaof globalizatio". 9grrrtrhjALq -q-e- U tgqbodv as 'meat' for accumulation to theTtre bodl'' cannot be construed as the loc of plitic-aGctil wiiE-anotion of what it is that 'individuals,' 'persons,' or social movementsmight want or be able to do in the world. Concepts such as person,fu4lstdqs , ylf ryl.identit1,: rich with political tEougEt an-dissib'fiEes,emerge phoenix-like out of the ashes of body reductionism to take theirplaces within the firmament of concepts to guide political action. Marxhas this in mind as he contrasts the deadly passivit,r' of the concept ofIvariable capital with the concept of 'living labor' or, more broadlv, of 'classfor itsell struggling to redefine the historical and geographical conditionsof its own embeddedness within capital accumulation. It is the laborer as1)ers0n who is the bearer of the commodity labor power and that person isthe bearer of ideals and aspittions concerning, for example, the dignity oflabor and the desire to be treated with respect and consideration as aivhole living being, and to treat others likewise.Some may be tempted at/this point to abandon the relational view for,as Eagleton (1997,22) complains, 'to dissolve human beings to nexuses ofprocesses may be useful if y-ou had previously thought of them as solitaryatoms, but unhelpful when you want to insist on their moral autonom\..'Marx (1973 edition, 84) demurs:

[T]he more deepll, u,e go back into hisrorv, rhe more does the individual,and hence also the producing individual, appear as dependent, as belongingto a greater rvhole . . . Only in the eighteenth cenrurv, in 'civil society.', dothe various forms of social connectedness confront the inclividual as.a meremeans touards his private purposes, as external necessitv. But the epochthat produces this standpoint, rhat of the isolated individual, is alsopreciselv that of the hitherlo mosr developed social (from this standpoint,general ) re lati ons. Th e h u m an bejg_is a e- nqq 1tery_[ jg$gdpg]lgg3lanimall, not merelv igr"gJ.ioui rni-J, bui rn ".,i-.1 rhar can individuate

SP.{CES OF- HOPI]Production by an outside individualrdity as is the development of languagervithout individuals livtng together and talking to each other.

Marx here builds on Aristotle's view that human beings are both social andpolitical animals needing intimate relations with others and thatsuch formsof social relating constitute and sustain civil society. How human beingshave gone about this task has varied historically and geographically'-. Thesense of self and of personhood is relational and socially constructed (andMarx here anticipates Strathern's formulation cited above) in exactly thesame way as the pt that the forces at work (andit is no acciden his parallel) 3re sjgnj ?nt]idifferent. The notion of individuals possessed of moral autonomy,' forn ih- ightenth cntury'inEurop asumlation became more generalized.

liti,t' i" M11x's vfew, is to seek transformtions offull recognition that the starting point of politicalagtlon _rests upon achieved historical-geographical conditions-We here encounter a reflexive point from which to critique certainversions ofthat'return to the body'that has been so strongly evidenced inthl the bodyan alternativefor associativeccets (such as th-s-oT,rson" 'self, and 'individual') there is anequI-a"ngif iconstituting the liberal eighteenth-century ideal of the,i.r-iuidl' endowed with 'moral utonomy' as the basis for politicalth-eori-and political action. We have to find a path between 'body reduc-ti@t-o"he one hand and .reti falling back into what Benton (1993,144) calls 'the liberal illusion' about political rights propagated with suchdevasiating effects through the crude association of capitalism and bour-geois democracy on the other:

In societies governed by deep inequalities of political power, economicu.ealth, social standing and cultural accomplishments, the promise of equalrights is delusory' rvith the consequence that for the maiority, gblgg

BODY POLITICS 119

T''sr i::ih;*T":fiiifl.:'"'l;,Jlal lll l l6ur4llu u,v lrrL-{qrlt' lulform ofmhsffidividuals o be\'eryconditionsofdependen-ce--a@ich it purports to offer emancipation.The need for the relational view does not disappear but deepens. For whileBenron has one side of the picture he loses siTht of the ways in which


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14/18

122at a more local level have in recent years broken out across the UnitedStates. One of the pioneers in this movement exists in m.v home town ofBaltimore. I provide, then, an account of this local struggle as anillustrationwork in constsff. epter 5t -- r

The circumstances regulating wages and living conditions in Baltimoreunderwent significant alterations from the late 1960s orwards (see Chapter8). Severe deindustrializarion of the economy (connected with processes ofglobalization) meant some radical shifts in the circulation of variablecapital within the metropolitan region. In addition to widespread struc-tural unemployment (and the production of a so-called and much stigma-tized 'underclass') the effect was to move employment away from the bluecollar (largely white male and unionized) industrial sector and into a widearra1,' of service activities, articularly those connected to the so-called'hospitality' sector' (hotels, tourism, conventions, museums) that under-pinned the redevelopment effort in Baltimore. The result (in line withmuch of the US economy - see, e.'g.,'Wilson, 1996, and Kasarda, 1995) waswidespread long-term structural unemploy'ment and a shift towards non-unionized and female emplolment in low-paying'unskilled' jobs. Low-income job opportunitiq arose in areas such as cleaning, janitorial,parking, and securitl' services. Paying,onll' minimum wages and oftenresting on temporary work which yielded even less on a weekly-basis (withno health, securitl., or pension benefits) the growth of this form ofemplol,'ment produced an'inreasing number of 'working poor' - indivi-duals or families fulll' emplol'ed'whose incomes were often well below theofficial poverty line (a recent report Sut the number of children of theworking poor in the United States at 5.6 million in 1994 as opposed to 3.4million in 1974 - see Holmes, 1996. African-American \ryomen, drawnfrom the impoverished zones of the inner city, became the main source ofthis kind of labor in Baltimore, indicating a discursive and largell,' racist-sexist construction of the inherent'value' of that kind of labor power fromtltat kind of place. This stereotvping was automaticall,v reinforced andframed rvithin a circulation process of variable capital and capital accu-mulation that insisted that this was the kind of labor power that wasessential to its own valorization.These broad econonlic trends were paralleled by a nation-wide politicalattack upon working-class institutions and government supports (see, e.g.,Edsall, 1984) and a general shift b1' a whole range of public and privateinstitutions towards political-ectromic practices that emphasized capitalaccumulation. One effect was spiraling social inequalities of the sort sym-bolized b1' the declining value of the minimum wage in real value terms.

SPACES ON HOPEA particular instance of this political economic shift is worth recording'In 1984, the Johns Hopkins universit.v and the Johns Hopkins Hospital(both non-profit and educational institutions) in Baltimore formed a for-profit wholi.v-owned subsidiary called Dome Corporation, which providessecu.it,v, parking, cleaning, and janitorial services through another sub-sidiary cailed B.oadway Services Inc. This firm does some of the cleaning

and janitorial work in the Johns Hopkins System as well as in a number ofcit-v schools, downtown offces, and the like. Most of the employees arewomen and African-American, drawn from the impoverished zones ofBaltimore Cit1,'. Most were paid at or slightly above the then-prevailingminimum wage of $4.25 (raised to $4.75 in 1996 and then $5.15 in 1997).Full-time emplo.vees paid circa $5 per week for minimal health insurance,but a significant portion of the work was done by temporary workers with.,o benefits. The Johns Hopkins System has by this strategy achieved

BODY POLITICS

cost-savings on its cleaning bills and a healthy rate of return (circa 10o/o)on its invesrmenr (debt plus equity). It has since been cited by otheruniversities as a s,uccessful model of how to cut costs by guq.sourclng ltscleantng work whtle also maklng a pr- i-ra;*.-Tis-tirample of how sliiftsi-t? circulation of variable capital canoccur. Such shifts have radical effects upon bodill'- conditions and prac-tices. Everl'one recognizes that $4.75 an hour is insuffici'ent to live on. Tobring a family of four above the official poverty line would require apermanent job at a mimimum of $7.70 per hour (1996 values) plus benefits,in Baltimore. The lack of health benefits and elementary care translatesinro a chronic epidemiological condition for many inner-city neighbor-hoods (and the sad paradox of cleaners unable to use th services of thehospital the,v clean). The need to hold down two iobs to survive translatesirrto " .orrdition of permanenr physical et[raustion from a twelve-hourworking da1' plus travel time on unreliable public transport between iobsites and residences. when two jobs could not be had, the effect was toforce some of the employ-ed to live in shelters rather than regular housingand eat at charit,v soup kitchens rather than at Roy Rogers or Burger Kings(the more usual places of consumption that offered cheap minimal nutri-tion). The demands of the labor process (oftln late and eratic hours) inrelation to restricted locational choices for living (given rents, housingaffordabilit-v, public transport availabilitl'' - car ownership is not feasible,and the like) reinforced geographical segregation. The insertion of racially-

t23

s prf -

marked and sendered bodies into this sy'stem t++l"tttt. .-."itosp.cts "s 1s..'-e -lgl:s"\="-F;r"*;-Kellv, 1994;mo t,r99+)'It is hard to do justice to the appalling effects of such conditions at allpoints in this particular process of circulation variable capital. Lack of

(

Kellv, 1994; mor t,199+)'lsnecl zurrtr \scs


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124respect and dignity in the workplace, negligible bargaining power in thelabor market, minimal and health-threatening forms of consumption andterrible conditions of child-rearing are characteristic. The marks of all thisviolence upon individual bodies are not hard to read. Systematic studiesagain and again emphasize the stark impacts of inequalities upon lifechances. Baltimore city has the lowesr life expectrincy of almost any orhercomparable jurisdiction in the United States (and comparable ro manyimpoverished and undeveloped countries). 'In the groups we srudied,'write Geronimus et al. (1996,1555-6), after a comparative study of similarzones of Detroit, New York City, Los Angeles, and Alabama, 'the numberofvears oflife lost generally-increased with the percentage ofpeople in thegroup who were living in poverty, with the poverty rare accounting formore than half the racial differences in morralitv.' The data tell anappalling story: (the probability- that a 15 year old girl in Harlem wouldsurvive to the age of 45 was the same as the probability that a rypical whitegirl anywhere in the United States would survive ro the age of 65.'Whileit would be wrong ro argue that lack of a living wage is the onlv factor arwork here, the associations are far'too strong to deny an active connection.A campaign for a 'liviirg wage,' organized by Baltimoreans United inLeadership Development (BIJILD) seeks ro change all, this. BUILD wasfounded in 1978, through the coming together of the Interfaith MinisterialAlliance (predominantll,' though b1,' no means exclusivelv African-Amer-ican) that had been an important church-based force for civil rights withthe Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF, a Chicago-based Saul Alinsky st1,'lecommunin'empowerment oqganization). BUILD became an activist voicefor social change and economc development in the city dedicated to theimproved well-being of impoverishled and marginalized populations. Itplayed an important role in struggles to regenerate failing neighborhoodsand it initialll,' joined wholeheaitedlf in the city and corporate-led strategvto generate emplol,'ment through public investments and subsidies tobusiness (as, e.g., in the Inner Harbor renewal, the construction of aconvention center) a new ballpark, etc., all in the downtown core).In the early 1990s, BUILD recognized that its strategies were toolimited. Revitalized neighborhoods lacking adequare employment slippedback into decal-. The public investment and subsidies to corporations wereproducing below-poverty- jobs. The corporate-backed revitalization ofdowntown had not deliveled on its promises and was increasingly viewedby BUILD as a 'great betray-al.' The churches that formed the basis of

BUILD found themselves pushed to deliver more and more in the way ofsocial services (soup kitchens, dlothing, social assistance) to a populationfor whom Groucho Man's witticism -'Look at me, I've made my way upfrom nothing to a state of extrlme poverty' - was cruel as well as a joke.

SPAC[,S OI.- HOPNconsistent with its religious roots, BUILD decided to launch a cam-paign i betterment, for aaliuirrg public subsidies,should into the ideal of a

most recent piece of living wage legislation in San Jose, California, set thelevel at $10.75).Like all such struggles, as Marx observed (1976 edition, 409), the role of'allies in those social layers not directly interested in the question' is ofconsiderable significance. The impetus for the campaign came from thechurches. This set the tone concerning the definition of moral andcivilized behavior that alwa,vs enters into the determination of the valueof labor po*.i. What BUILD in effect says is that the market valuation oflabor power aS it now occurs in Baltimore is unacceptable as a 'moral'datum for a 'civilized' country. The focus on iobs connected immediatelyto the institutions of labor. A new form of labor organizing was needed

lines the strategy as follows:Organizing is a relational activity, it takes place in a place among people, andit is not totally mobile like capital. ultimatel-v you are not organizingworkplaces and factories you are organizing people so " ' the industrial- model does not make total sense. So you've got to hgure out how to

following in theii cunrent workplace or when they move into their new one.It means you have to target those industries and corporations where yourabilit, to rvithhold labor isn't the only strength you have, that you have othersorts of rva-vs of getting leverage to try and reach recognition and accom-modation . . . This is an experiment to try to figure out u'hether within a

BODY POLITICS r25


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t26certain labor market if you merge, if you ally working people with otherkinds ofdecency and power and you carefully target instirutions that are nottotally mobile, that cannot iust run away with their capital, can workers gerthemselves on a more equal footing? And if you do that enough . . . can youbegin to reallv raise the basis, the floor of wages in a city?

I

The strategy is, then, two pronged. First, build a cadre of workers who cancarrv their leadership skills and porentialities with them. some workers -mostly ned up to leada Solid tto ,ClimbingJacob's push hard tocreate a powerful alliance offorces to change the baseline for the circulationof variable capital. Initially,, BUILD's srrength lay in the churches. But thefact that it was mainly women and African-American women who were

none' ought to be brought into question when the qualit potentiality, anddignitv of available labor proceses was taken into account.The campaign won 1995. City Hall nowmandates that all city s with the city shouldhonor the 'living-wage' initially resisted on thegrounds of keeping Baltimore copperitive in the face of ,globalization,' henow claims the effort is cost-eff'ctive (when the reduced cost of socialservices to the impoverished poor i factored in). The world rrade

the supply-demand equation when it comes to labor - cf. Marx's argu-ment, 1976 edition, 752).To dhis end a campaign began early in 1996 topersuade theJohns Hopkins system to accept the living wage as part of itsown contractual practices.The search for allies within the johns Hopkins sysrem became crucial.The Graduate Representative organization together with some facultyand, ultimately, the Black stude.rd u.tion and some representatives of the

SP,{CES OF HOPEstudent council took up the question. Initially there was also a surprisingdegree of indifference, even on the part of campus groups that ought tohave been immediately interested in the question. Some economists in theUniversity argued (rather predictably) against any interference in free-market forces, on the grounds 'that most people earning the presentminimum wage are worth just that' (Hanke, 1996). Plainl the outcomeofthe struggle depended (and continues to depend) not only on the capa-cities of the Solidarity Sponsoring Committee (SSC) (with AFSCME'shelp) to organize and the po\Mers of moral suasion of BUILD but also upontheabilitytocreateapowerfulalliance*ithi@by a recalcitrant administration. By 1999, the latter, in response to bothinternal and external pressures (both financial and moral), had tardilyrecognized its responsibilities towards the appalling conditions of impov-erishment and ill-health that predominated in its shadow. It also finallyacknowledged that its o*n *"g. policies might have so-. ,olel-iEIsffiins. It -noind it would tbecorne ilexGit

BODY POLITICS

amon g ttrq ""lr:rri tre s jnl:he_] I v I n g w1g9_t s"9 3n 9 9_19_tlryg9 _9y9ry9ne-ur (the 1996 livins waee) by 2002.s-(s le9 viss-Yq-v2 qliving wage (which is currently beingreplicated in some thirty or so other cities as well as at the state levelelsewhere - see Pollin and Luce, 1998) offers a rather special set of open-ings to change the politics of'how bodies are constructed/destroyedwithin the city. Its basis in the churches, the community, the unions,the universities, as well as among those social layers 'not immediatelyconcerned with the question,' starts to frame bbdy politics in a ratherspecial way, by-passing some of the more conventional binaries of capital/labor, white /black, male/female, and nature/culture. Radical social con-structionists should presumably relish rather than frown upon this con-fusion of terms. If, for example, Butler's (1993, 9) argument for 'a returnto the notion of matter, not as site or surface, but as a process of materi-

t27

standing the body in a situation of t -re li siitf_mtam pi sinary. Anl BIIIIDi gneral se[tlwn-empowrment as a politicaliZtion as well as the empowerment of the low-income population itt'


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128seeks to serve. Yet these are not reasons to abjure the living-wageobjective. In practice many different interests (some secular as well asreligious) now support the common goal of a decent living wage foreveryone who works in Baltimore.The 'living-wage' issue is fundamentally a class issue thal'has ramifica-tions across the moments of production, exchange, an{ consumption. Ithas the power, therefore, to define what the 'work' side of currentproposals for 'workfare' welfare reform might be about. Unfortunately,this potential relationship is now being inverted as the city is forced toabsorb several thousand (possibly as many as 14,000) workfare recipientsinto its labor force (the total employment in all categories downtown isaround 100,000). Both the city and Johns Hopkins began to employworkfare recipients at $1.50 an hour (as'trainees'), and in the first rushthis meant some displacement of minirnum wage workers. The effect wasto create an even lower datum than that set by the legal minimum wage forthe circulation of variable capital within the city. A political struggleorganized by BUILD citywide and a coalition of forces within JohnsHopkins led to the commitment by dhe Governor and by the President ofthe Johns Hopkins that there would be no displacement of existingworkers by workfare trainees.This is not an easy political battle to win more generally and itsunfolding is illustrative of ho'w clas struggle gets waged from thecapitalist side. Burger King, for example, has one of its most profitablefranchises in Baltimore. Located in an 'empowerment zone' it is eligiblefor government subsidies and it can employ workers offthe welfare rolls as'trainees' at a cost far below the nlinimum, let alone the living, wage. YetBurger King gets cited by President lintop in his 1997 State of the UnionAddress as one of the large companies willing to hire people offthe welfarerolls, and the President promisdd to press for special tax credits forcompanies that did this. Later, however, under strong pressure fromorganized labor and many community groups around the country, thePresident agreed (against intense Republican opposition) to bring allworkfare employment within the framework of labor laws (allowingorganizing of workfare workers and protection from the grosser formsof direct exploitation). Thus does the accumulation of capital proceed,with state assistance mainly going to capital, as class struggle unfoldsaround one ofthe most contested and fraught social issues ofthe 1990s inthe United States.The living-wage campaign integrates race, gender, and class concernsat the level of the 'city' as a whqle. In particular, it opens up potentialleadership roles for African-American women to alter bodily practices andclaim basic economic rights. The campaign furthermore proposes a

SPACES OF HOPE

iotriUil.r ior social tinsirmation are blocked. Marx (1967 edition,Volume 3, 320), recognizing the dilemma, put it this way in a remarkablepassage that deserves some thought:

BODY POLITICS t29

energy and under conditions most favourable to, and worthy of, theirhuman nature. But it nonetheless still remains a realm of necessity' Beyondit begins that development of human bnergy which is an end in itself, thetrue realm of freedom, which, however, can blossom forth only with therealm of necessity as its basis. The shortening of the working day is its basicprerequlslte.


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130To that remarkable passage with its startlingly reformist last sentence wecan also add: 'an adequate living wage is likewise a basic prerequisite.' Thestruggle for a living wage within the space of Baltimore has its place in amore universal struggle for rights, for justice, dignity, and,decency in allthe interstices of a globalizing capiralism. Its particulaiities make itpeculiar, give it strengths and weaknesses, but they ar not irrelevant tothe achievement of a more universalizing politics. And while the numbersof people so far affected are small, the manner gf these campaignsillustrates how frustration of politics at one scale can potentially be metby a shift to a different scale of political acrion.

3 Bodies in space and timeThe body that is to be the 'measure of all things' is itself a site ofcontestation for the forces that create ir. The body (like the person andthe self) is an internal relation and therefor. op." ""a po.o"r t"ttre world.Unfortunately the relational conception of the ban idealist turn, parricularly in academic politi.r.nor does it floatfreely in some ether of culture, discourses, arid rgEenta-tions, however important these may be in materiaH2oS-tiUftt.

which the ossibilities for emancipatory politics can be approached. Whilethere are some remarkable insightful writings on that theme available to us,it is worthwhile remembering the ilital insights to be had from Marx'sunderstanding of how bodily materializations occur within the circulationof capital under capitalist social riations. The body may be 'an accumula-

SPACES OF- IIOP]

tion strategy in the deepest sense' but it is also the locus of politicalrstnce given direction, as the example of BUIL:D--sm-ignG;Iiving wage in Baltimore illustrates, by the basic fact thai we are,Gmost literal sense, political animals rendered capable of moral argumentand thereby endowed with the capacity ro transform the social relationsand institutions thar lie at the heart of any civil society. Laborers are, inshort, positioned to claim rights consistenr with notions of dignity, need,and contribution to the comnlon good. If those claims are unrealizablewithin the circulation of variable capital tei, r.s, rt* r.rol"r*ydemand to escape such constraints is a fundamentll_erp:-iol$t-6-oEpolitics must be about. We shall heed to consider it.

THE UTOPIAN MOMENTPART 3

Documents

Harvey the Body