further weaken them because of clientelist relationships. Class, or even group,
consciousness is difficult to create as a basis for political organization.
The poor are also in competition with each other, rather than sharing
a common experience that can form a basis for a common sense of identity
and exploitation (Wolfe, 1968; Harris, 1970, p. 20). The experience of
poverty, far from acting to unify people, intensifies the competition for
scarce resources – rights to land occupancy, land purchase or rent, employ-
ment, loans, and access to grazing, water and implements. The members of
the informal sector are in competition for cheap items with which to trade.
Such experiences do not lead to solidarity among such people. Solidarity is
further undermined for those who have exchanged rural for urban poverty
by the precariousness of their existence in shantytowns and the constant
threat of eviction. Tribal attachments, encouraged by the competitiveness of
urban life and employment, have been a major source of conflict among the
rural and urban poor in Africa. Competition for jobs has been an especially
potent force in exacerbating ethnic rivalries, and ethnic associations have
been one way of providing mutual support and protection for immigrants
into the urban areas (Post, 1972, p. 248).
The daily grind of hard manual labour leaves little opportunity to take
part in political activity. The intensity of this problem is especially great
for women. Poor women in Third World societies have heavy domestic
chores in addition to cultivating, marketing, and engaging in wage labour.
This may include carrying large quantities of water long distances to serv-
ice the home. With energy consumed at such a rate and inadequately replen-
ished by a poor diet, it is not easy to persuade people to spend what little
free time they have travelling by foot to and from political meetings.
The physical effort and malnourishment experienced by the poor cannot
sustain political activism.
There are also great risks for the poor in political participation, especially
alienating the people upon whom one is dependent – landlord, employer,
money-lender, and people of higher status (Migdal, 1974, p. 233). These are
all participants in the local political process whose interests may be threat-
ened by successful political agitation by the poor. Relations of dependency
support the poor through systems of reciprocal obligations within the tradi-
tional framework of the local community. Kinsmen will help in times of
need and adversity. Kinship networks consist of rich and poor, making it
difficult for poor people to engage in political activism which appears
threatening to their own kin. Similarly political action may be seen as put-
ting other members of the kinship group at risk, even though the objective is
the improvement of conditions for people of that class. Kinship ties cut
Instability and Revolution 225