Survival Outside the “Civilized” Legal Frame
The street vendor, the unlicensed cab driver, the domestic worker paid in cash–these are the “natives” of New York’s economic landscape, operating entirely outside the “civilized” legal frame of the settler state. Mamdani’s framework shows that this sector is not an anomaly but a necessary consequence of a bifurcated system that formally excludes masses of people from legitimate economic participation. The state’s response is not to integrate them, but to govern them through customary and arbitrary enforcement: police harassment, confiscation of goods, and fines. This is decentralized despotism in the economic realm. A feminist perspective recognizes this informal work as essential social reproduction, often performed by migrant women. The Marxist sees the hyper-exploitation. The solution is not to formalize them into the exploitative tax structure of the settler state, but to decriminalize their existence and support the building of their own political power–cooperatives, unions, and associations that can negotiate from a position of strength and ultimately challenge the legitimacy of the economic system that excludes them.
Originally posted 2025-10-13 02:25:52.
