Between Inequality and Injustice: Dignity as a Motive for Mobilization During the Crisis

Abstract

Structural adjustment policies in Europe underscore the lack of sovereignty and responsibility of nation-states towards the well-being of their citizens. As a result, in popular mobilizations arguments of inequality and injustice, expressed in a demand for dignity, are intertwined. The article explores this shift away from older arguments of exploitation and domination. Using ethnographic material from an industrial town in Galicia (Spain), I analyse two apparently different types of mobilization that have emerged after the 2008 crisis, trying to understand what grievances and objectives pull people together. One is the local expression of new social movements; the other is the remaining expression of working-class organization. Each of these models reinterprets a particular historical tradition of struggle while developing a new interpretation of the social objectives and subjectivities of the future. My hypothesis is that a “moral economy” framework has superseded a “political economy” framework in the motivation for struggle.

Keywords:

• Inequality
• Injustice
• Crisis
• Political Economy
• Moral Economy

Acknowledgements

The ICREA Academia Programme of the Generalitat de Catalunya provided a five-year fellowship that enabled me to dedicate more time to research. I want to thank Jane Collins and Sharryn Kasmir for their comments on a first draft of this article. I am grateful to Daniel Knight and Charles Stewart for their interest, trust and comments and I thank as well the anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Susana Narotzky http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7390-7840

Notes

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXp-a0HOYX8.

[2] The Troika is the colloquial term used for the three institutions regulating structural adjustment policies in Southern Europe after the financial crisis and national bailouts: European Commission (EC), European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

[3] http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2015/02/09/galicia/1423506608_781222.html.

[4] The overwhelmingly industrial profile of Ferrol is giving way to a more heterogeneous occupational fabric, with 67.7% occupation in the service sector in 2011 up from 48.14% in 1991 and 16.2% in industry in 2011 down from 19.25% in 1991, although still representing 21% of male employment. Instituto Galego de Estadistica Mercado de Traballo 2005 Información Comarcal. Accessed September 1, 2012. http://www.ige.eu/estatico/pdfs/s3/publicaciones/Mercado_Traballo_2005.pdf and Datos Estadísticos Básicos 2012. Accessed September 1, 2012. http://www.ige.eu/estatico/pdfs/s3/publicaciones/datos_estatisticos_basicos_Galicia_2012.pdf.

[5] It is amazing how close to a feminist understanding this renewed emphasis on the dependencies of care as constituting the core of society is.

[6] Accessed January 20, 2015. http://www.galiciaartabradigital.com/archivos/3235; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TypNn9sig-c&list=PL904B840A07FD6247; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhXzoTDoa4Y&list=PL904B840A07FD6247&index=2 and sequence.

[7] Accessed January 21, 2015. http://www.laregion.es/articulo/galicia/70-000-personas-secundan-manifestaciones-ferrol-sindicatos-y-22-000-policia/20120330175940197129.html.

[8] Accessed January 21, 2015. http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2013/05/30/galicia/1369923763_923614.html; http://www.elcorreogallego.es/galicia/ecg/cuelgan-prendas-ropa-verja-navantia-ferrol-defensa-naval/idEdicion-2013-06-02/idNoticia-809758/; http://www.diariodeferrol.com/articulo/ferrol/llaman-a-todo-ferrol-para-crear-un-monumento-a-la-dignidad-en-la-reja-de-navantia/20130529232259047583.html; http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2013/06/02/galicia/1370184758_672745.html.

[9] Accessed January 20, 2015. http://www.eldiario.es/galicia/comarca-Ferrol-general-exigiendo-soluciones_0_142086328.html.

[10] Accessed January 21, 2015. http://www.eldiario.es/economia/Penas-protestar-sanciones-administrativas-empresas_0_267374097.html; http://www.eldiario.es/economia/encausados-participar-piquetes-rozan_0_305870121.html.

[11] Accessed January 21, 2015. http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/ferrol/2013/06/12/manifestacion-multitudinaria-corona-jornada-huelga-ferrol/00031371040198822914688.htm.

[12] In Spanish an oil spill is a “marea negra”, a black tide. It is significant that the “marea” has become the Galician political alternative left platform in the recent elections.

[13] Accessed January 21, 2015. https://mesaendefensasanidadpublica.wordpress.com/.

[14] Accessed January 21, 2015. https://mesaendefensasanidadpublica.wordpress.com/about/.

[15] Accessed January 21, 2015. http://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/galicia/2013/12/10/miles-personas-manifiestan-galicia-defensa-sanidad-publica/00031386707732646754985.htm.

[16] Participation counts vary from the very low count of the Police, to the very high count of the organizers.

[17] Accessed January 21, 2015. http://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20140322/54403954606/miles-personas-22m-marcha-dignidad.html; http://endirecto.lavanguardia.com/politica/20140322/54403952580/22m-marchas-de-la-dignidad.html; http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2014/03/22/actualidad/1395521928_044887.html; http://marchasdeladignidad.org/22m-dos-millones-de-personas-en-una-demostracion-de-dignidad/.

[18] Accessed January 21, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKoshzBztCc#t=399.

[19] See, for example, the manifesto in which they clearly separate their mobilization on 29 November 2014 with the one called by CCOO and UGT for the same day. Accessed January 20, 2015. http://marchasdeladignidad.org/jornadas-de-lucha-del-24-al-29-de-noviembre-pan-trabajo-techo-dignidad/.

[20] Polanyi (1971) explained capitalist economic history as a double movement. A first push towards market deregulation and free-trade disembedding the economy from society would be followed by a reaction against the destructive consequences of the first movement through regulatory frameworks that re-embedded the economy in society.

[21] Inequality was accepted as linked to merit and to contributions to the common good, but was limited by an ideological enlightenment framework of a shared humanity that had to be respected and enhanced (obviously this was not the case for those that were explicitly produced as not human or barely human, such as women, primitive, black, etc. cf. Engels in Anti-Düring, Chap. X).

[22] But see Balibar and Wallerstein (1988) on the production of difference within the enlightenment Universalist model of human equality.

[23] Constitución Española (1978) “Art. 35. Todos los españoles tienen el deber de trabajar y el derecho al trabajo, a la libre elección de profesión u oficio, a la promoción a través del trabajo y a una remuneración suficiente para satisfacer sus necesidades y las de su familia”.

[24] Constitución Española (1978) “Art.47. Todos los españoles tienen derecho a disfrutar de una vivienda digna y adecuada”.

[25] Constitución Española (1978) “Art. 27. Todos tienen el derecho a la educación”.

[26] Constitución Española (1978) “Art. 43. 1. Se reconoce el derecho a la protección de la salud. 2. Compete a los poderes públicos organizar y tutelar la salud pública a través de medidas preventivas y de las prestaciones y servicios necesarios”.

[27] “Art 10. 1. La dignidad de la persona, los derechos inviolables que le son inherentes, el libre desarrollo de la personalidad, el respeto a la ley y a los derechos de los demás son fundamento del orden político y de la paz social”.

Additional information

Funding

The research on which this article is based has been funded by the European Research Council Advanced Grant “Grassroots Economics: Meaning, Project and Practice in the Pursuit of Livelihood” [GRECO].