Class Politics in the Era of Neoliberalism: The Case of Karachi, Pakistan Ayyaz Mallick A Major Paper submitted to the Faculty of Environmental Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Environmental Studies York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada July 23, 2014 ______________________________ Ayyaz Mallick, MES Candidate ______________________________ Dr. Stefan Kipfer, Major Paper Supervisor Table of Contents Acknowledgements................................................................................................... 3 Abstract ..................................................................................................................... 5 Foreword: Relationship of Paper to the Plan of Study ........................................ 6 Maps .......................................................................................................................... 8 Glossary ...................................................................................................................10 Introduction ............................................................................................................14 Methodology and Structure........................................................................................................... 19 Marxist Urbanism and the Third World .............................................................25 Capital and Urban Space.............................................................................................................. 25 Class and Third World Urbanism ................................................................................................. 28 Situating Karachi and Pakistan ............................................................................38 Some Theoretical Perspectives on the Pakistani State and Polity ................................................ 39 Historical Overview of Karachi and Pakistan .............................................................................. 44 Politics in the Workplace: W(h)ither the Working Class? ................................62 Background to Labour Movement in Pakistan ............................................................................. 62 Structural Adjustment, Informalisation and the Intermediate Classes ......................................... 67 The Over-developing State and Labour Unions ........................................................................... 73 Ethnicity, Religion and Class ........................................................................................................ 75 Pocket Unions and Coercive Power ............................................................................................. 79 The Dialectic Between Workplace and Residential Space ........................................................... 84 Politics in Residential Areas: A Post-Ideological Moment? ..............................89 Neoliberal Urbanism and the Politics of Forgetting .................................................................... 90 Urban Planning, Class and Ethnicity ........................................................................................... 97 Localisation, Territory and the Politics of Service Delivery ...................................................... 103 Imperialism and Militarisation ................................................................................................... 113 Conclusion: What Hope is Left? .........................................................................123 List of Formal Interviewees ................................................................................132 Bibliography .........................................................................................................133 2 Acknowledgements This paper emerges out of my experiences growing up in Karachi and a desire to understand the city and its residents in a manner which contributes towards a long-term political project of substantive socio-economic transformation. As such, even though the fieldwork this is based upon was of a duration of two and a half months, the paper as a whole is the culmination of a long process of interactions and conversations with a large number of people. In this regard it is imperative to mention at least a few people without whose encouragement and patience, I would not have been able to complete this task and to whom I remain forever indebted. First and foremost among these are two of my close friends and comrades Syed Azeem and Ali Jan. It is they who seriously encouraged and helped me in making the transition from the natural to social sciences. Both Azeem and Ali have been integral to every part of this paper: from the very conception of the research question to long (and fruitful) discussions on various aspects of the research. My parents and siblings have also supported me completely in this effort. While in Pakistan, the assistance provided by Rahim Ahmadani, Nasir Mansoor, Zehra Khan and Gul Rehman was integral. My cousin Haris Muzaffar was invaluable in helping set up the visit and interviews at the Pakistan Cables factory in SITE, Karachi. In addition, I would also like to sincerely thank the many ordinary workers and left activists who shared their experiences and observations with me. It is their strength, courage and perseverance which provides me with the inspiration for progressive politics and scholarship. It is also pertinent to mention here my interactions with other friends and comrades from the emerging group of left activists and scholars in Pakistan. In this regard, I would especially like to mention Saadia Toor, Noaman Ali 3 and Umair Javed, conversations with whom never fail to provide new insights for research and political practice. I am extremely thankful to my thesis supervisor and advisor at York, Dr. Stefan Kipfer. Since the day I came to the FES, Stefan has guided me expertly through the transition from a science background into the social sciences. His patience, (always pertinent) advice and dedication in giving feedback on all the reading material I sent has been invaluable. Moreover, I am extremely grateful to my partner Tayyaba Jiwani who, despite herself dealing with all the pressures of being a full-time graduate student, has provided me with the emotional, moral and intellectual support required for this task. Last, and perhaps most importantly, I would here like to remember my late grandfather whose influence on my personality and politics cannot be overstated. His dedication to the marginalised and empathy for those left on the waysides by the machinations of state and capital energises me every day. He is terribly missed and it is to him that this paper is dedicated. 4 Abstract In one of the fastest growing cities in the world, and the biggest city in Pakistan, Karachi, the question of political praxis has seldom been addressed in academic literature beyond the received wisdom of various 'primordial' identities. Politics in the city, which until at least the 1980s had a vibrant trade/labour union movement, has become increasingly fragmented along ethnic and religious sectarian identities. This paper examines the various contours of neoliberal urbanism as it manifests itself in the context of Karachi and the political praxis it generates. The approach draws upon a Gramscian spatial historicism to look at the constitution of 'historical situations as a confluence of multiple, spatially mediated temporal rhythms' (Kipfer, 2012: 86). In doing so, it will look at the combined effects of neoliberal praxis, formal neo-imperialism and Pakistan's continually evolving post-colonial state, on the emergence (or lack thereof) of working class politics in Karachi. Thus, the historically and geographically specific ensemble of forces at multiple scales (local, national and international) which act to impede and, in several cases, co-opt any forms of horizontal political praxis in the city will be elaborated upon. Light will also be shed upon the unresolved dialectic between residential and working spaces for Marxist praxis in urban areas. Thus, through local level analyses of the multi-scalar workings of state and capital, the paper argues that a dialectic of coercion and patronage animates - and restricts - the political choices made by Karachi's working class subjects. In doing so, the paper also advocates for an understanding of class (and the process of class formation) being as much an objective category as a subjective, lived phenomenon which operates over multiple spaces (i.e. both residential and working spaces) and is necessarily shaped by forces operating over multiple scales. The paper will draw upon the author's fieldwork in one residential and one industrial area of Karachi while combining insights from existing literature on class-based political praxis in other urban areas (especially in global South contexts) and current literature on Pakistan and its 'over-developing' state. 5 Foreword: Relationship of Paper to the Plan of Study The Areas of Concentration in my Plan of Study are Urban Politics and Development Studies. This includes developing insights into the various theories which are used in characterising ongoing processes of change in developing countries, looking at the interplay of state and capital in shaping urban space and delineating the role of various movements in shaping the urban space and wider socio-political processes. The Learning Objectives outlined in the Plan of Study are as follows: Learning Objective 1.1: