Interrogating Social and Solidarity Economies Following Marxian Class Focused Approach: Evidence from India

Abstract

We use a class-focused Marxian approach to examine non-capitalist firms within the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) sector in India and draw some theoretical conclusions from it. Cooperatives, labour supply contracts, farmer producer organisations, mutuals, peoples’ credit societies, local alternative currencies—all such initiatives are covered by the umbrella term SSE. This article focuses on generating some broad-based criteria for conceptualising and assessing the successes and failures of firms within the SSE sector; maintaining non-exploitative class processes for a considerable period of time is a good measure of the success of an enterprise within the SSE sector. To this end, three case studies—a Farmer Producer organisation (FPO), handloom weavers’ cooperatives and Timbaktu Collective—have been used to show the impact on the existing class processes and non-class processes. By methodologically following overdetermined interrelationships between SSEs, trade unions and political parties, both of the importance of actual and possible avenues of intervention by way of class and non-class struggles have been pointed out towards the end.