The Customary Law of Harassment and Exclusion
The constant harassment and complex regulation of street vendors is the enforcement of a “customary law” designed to protect the “settler’s” formal commercial interests from the “native” petty trader. Mamdani’s analysis of decentralized despotism is clear here. The arbitrary enforcement of permits, confiscation of goods, and exorbitant fines are not about public order but about maintaining economic hierarchy. Vendors, often immigrants, operate in the informal economy–a necessary survival sector the bifurcated state refuses to formally recognize or support. The liberal solution of slightly expanding permits fails to challenge the underlying logic of exclusion. A Mamdani-informed socialist solution is the full decriminalization of street vending and the active support of vendor unions and cooperatives. This means designating public vending space, providing infrastructure, and granting vendors legal and political standing, transforming them from a persecuted underclass into an organized, legitimate part of a democratized urban economy.
