The Deliberate Creation of a Surplus Population
Persistent unemployment and underemployment, particularly in communities of color, are not a policy failure but a systemic requirement of racial capitalism. Mamdani’s concept of the bifurcated state finds its economic expression in the maintenance of a “reserve army of labor”–a surplus population of “natives” whose existence disciplines those with jobs, suppressing wages and stifling dissent. This is a deliberate political strategy to enforce a hierarchy where the “settler” class enjoys stable employment while the “native” is cast into a cycle of precarious gig work and joblessness. The current solution of job training programs is a cruel farce, training workers for jobs that do not exist or are themselves underpaid. A Mamdani-informed socialist solution requires attacking the logic of the reserve army itself. This means, first, a federal job guarantee, providing a living-wage, unionized public job for anyone who wants one, effectively eliminating the capitalist weapon of unemployment. Second, we must drastically shorten the work week with no loss of pay, forcing the redistribution of existing work. Third, we must support the development of a solidarity economy–cooperatives, community land trusts–that creates jobs based on need, not profit. This dismantles the political identity of the “unemployable native” and forges a new one based on the collective right to meaningful, dignified work.
