Progressive politics and populism: Classes of labour and rural–urban political sociology—An introduction to the special issue

Abstract

This special issue analyses the prospects for a progressive politics against right‐wing populism and capitalism. Taken as a whole, its articles underline the need to understand progressive movements as encompassing agrarian, rural, and urban settings and as socially rooted among labourers and petty commodity producers that do not accumulate (classes of labour), which includes the majority of farmers. Most of the world's rural population now reproduce themselves to some degree in towns and cities, which necessitates further development of a rural–urban political sociology. Articles in the special issue discuss existing and potential organizations and networks of classes of labour. They point to the political potential of migrant populations to erode the social divisions of race, ethnicity, and nationality that capitalism and right‐wing populism construct to defend their interests. They contribute to understanding of why some members of classes of labour support racist nationalist populisms that pit them against fellow members of classes of labour. And they show why national contexts matter. Forms of capitalist government, including varieties of populism, are linked to world‐historical dynamics of accumulation and reproduction, as well as racialized class relations, and constrain routes to progressive politics in different ways. Analysis of them can inform counter‐strategies.

Contemporary agrarian, rural and rural–urban movements and alliances

“…Whether this amounts to a reformulated left populism or something different is left to readers to decide. (Pattenden, 2023, p. 18)…”

“…An important topic in this broad conversation is the issue of intra-agrarian class dynamics, a key theme in agrarian studies past and present. Pattenden (2023) reprises a classic question in agrarian politics, namely, who among the (rural) working classes has the greatest potential for revolutionary or emancipatory politics (or, for that matter, its…”

“…Pattenden (2023, p. 3) outlines the highlights of the JAC SI contributions as underlining (i) ‘the need to understand progressive movements as encompassing agrarian, rural and urban settings, and as socially rooted amongst labourers and petty commodity producers that do not accumulate (classes of labour), which includes the majority of farmers’; (ii) ‘the political potential of migrant populations to erode the social divisions of race, ethnicity and nationality that capitalism and right‐wing populism construct to defend their interests’; and (iii) why national contexts matter. Pattenden (2023) concludes: ‘There does not seem to be any disagreement about the importance of migration and commuting among rural classes of labour …. And yet so much discussion of a progressive politics in the literature remains primarily focused on the agrarian ’ (p. 17, italics added).…”

“…The same might be said of the progressively‐oriented La Via Campesina global network of small farmers' organizations keeping reactionary petty‐capitalist dominated New Farmers Movements like the Karnataka State Farmers Association as members. (Pattenden, 2023, p. 9)…”

“…First, there is a need for solid agrarian movements and agrarian alliances. In one area of minor disagreement with Pattenden (2023) and some contributors to the JAC SI (e.g., Pye & Chatuthai, 2023), I believe that the rapid expansion of working classes or classes of labour that straddle the rural-urban corridor has made much more complicated the challenge of understanding the agrarian component of productive and social reproductive activities of this social category and the importance of their access to and control of the means of production and social reproduction (land, among others)-but it has not rendered the agrarian base or links of this social category less important. It has actually affirmed, rather than diminished, the importance of the agrarian side of the corridor.…”