Poor working class rural women in the city

Capitalism in its expansionist phase, regarded the colonies as a source of raw materials which once processed could be unloaded on the European market. After a phase of capital accumulation, capitalism has now modified its notion of profitability. The colonies have become the market (Fanon 1965, pg. 26). This creation of mini capitalisms existing as part of a larger capitalism has wreaked havoc on our society. In terms of gender we have a hierarchy that places people on the lowest rung based on a number of aspects of themselves. Also interesting is the fact that cities are emblems of that settled life which began with permanent agriculture (Mumford, 1989) and now in contemporary times there is no place for agriculture and very little space made for retail of fresh produce.

 “The dependency of the urban upon the rural for survival. The rural provides raw material that the urban processes for export/domestic consumption. The urban is not self-sufficient. What separates differentiates the urban from the rural is structure and supporting infrastructure. The city is a place where the society is organised and compartmentalized for easy navigation.” (Mumford, 1989)

Rural women interact with the city as an outsider. Based on conversations hand most women are part of a husband wife team and their husbands are at home working the land or securing produce from other farmers for retail and they are the ones that come to the city to sell. Their ties to the city do not go beyond income generation space and consumerism. Thus after the money is made and spent they go home to develop their home, so in terms of the city being a closed loop cycle there is a lot lost to the home environment of the rural migrants. We then have to ask ourselves the skills and investment of the rural working class women into systems of communal labour in local and regional agricultural practices and exchanges are not valued in the neoliberal capitalist city anyway. This goes beyond economics of living in the city and living in rural areas but the cultures are quite different and based on the rural to urban vis-a-vis daily exodus it would seem that the rural workers would be uncomfortable dwelling in the city that they work in. Poor folks have poor ways so when the rural women come to the city and attempt entrepreneurship that are marginalised and not accepted by the city because city folk have urban ways of commerce branding and marketing products, (people) and service. These differences provide ample ammunition for the evil to then attack society by coercing urban dwellers to reproduce these divisions and discriminations in the way the rural originals are treated by law enforcement, municipal authorities and by their fellow urban entrepreneurs.

Like our education system or urban landscapes are producing monsters. This neoliberal capitalism industrial complex is dehumanising our population, while we continue to expect the dehumanised beings to act like humans. The space that we exist in need to be changed in order to rectify the social issues that have resulted, reform of the city means fixing civilization (Mumford, 1989). The living expression of the nation is the collective consciousness in motion of the entire people. It is the enlightened and coherent praxis of the men and women (Fanon, 1964).

References

Fanon, Frantz. 1963. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press.

Mumford, L. 1938. The Culture of Cities. Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York.