7. Poverty

Global poverty is one of the major issues facing humanity. As such, along with climate change, it is one of the main areas of concern for the political Left. Like climate change, poverty is a symptom of capitalism; its existence reveals a point of failure within the global capitalist imaginary. Discursively, the major difference between the two symptoms is that where Green ideology is increasingly impacting upon global society, global poverty does not have the same ubiquitous influence. This is not to suggest that the existence of poverty is ignored or repressed; the statistical evidence is overwhelming. Rather, because those in the western world are divorced from the extremes of third world poverty, poverty is able to be constructed, and accessed, in a manner and time of our choosing. This means that instead of having to cope with the constant return of the symptom, discourses of global capital and development are able to effectively disavowal the presence of poverty as that upon which the capitalist production of wealth (and ‘freedom’) is produced.

7.1 Defining Poverty

Poverty is a term with multiple interpretations. The most common divide is between relative and absolute poverty. Relative poverty is a statistical definition, normally based on a nominal level below the median average income within an economy. Because of its political definition, relative poverty is a controversial measure. Indeed, the New Zealand Ministry of Social Development does not measure ‘poverty’, rather ‘low-incomes’ based on three-level scale; 40, 50 and 60% of median family income (The Social Report, 2005). However, those who are considered in poverty in New Zealand may have an income that would place them amongst the wealthy in a third world economy. Absolute poverty, on the other hand, is measured in relation to a total lack of resources to continue living and is still often symbolised in monetary terms. Less than US$1 a day is a regular measurement point for absolute poverty. Such measurements of poverty, however, are an attempt to name the Real, particularly in the case of absolute poverty. These arbitrary measurement points are in themselves political and contribute to the domestication of poverty as a symptom. Rather, it is better to let the meaning of poverty continue to be in a state of tension, never quite definitively conceptualised. In this way it continues to have a Real effect. For those who experience absolute poverty, definitions are fairly irrelevant, particularly to those who are facing the immediacy of death via poverty. It is this type of poverty that we shall be referring to within this chapter.

Following on from the analysis of Green ideology, this chapter seeks to examine the manner in which discourses within capitalism deal with the symptom of poverty. Because poverty, as a symptom, does not impact on the universal imaginary of capital as often as Green ideology, it is difficult to find a coherent body of thought that could be labelled ‘poverty ideology’. Rather, poverty exists as a symptom amongst numerous differing discourses, centring on the theme of global development. These discourses include global development itself, human rights, charity, health and trade, amongst others. Recently though strong discursive efforts to ‘eliminate’ poverty have developed. These efforts have reached the western world under the guise of the ‘Make Poverty History’ and ‘ONE’ campaigns. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the United Nations as part of their Millennium Declaration are in the same category as these campaigns; indeed, the MDGs may be their precursor. The prominence of these discourses - which have also forced other responses, critical or otherwise - suggests the future possibility of an ideology of poverty developing- that is, a system of discourses around the term poverty.

At the moment, however, no such body of thought exists. Instead, in this chapter, we shall examine the discursive responses to the symptom of poverty, both as it is presented in the most recent campaigns against poverty, and as the result of the concrete universal which is absolute poverty. The most prominent theoretical text representing the recent campaigns to eliminate poverty is Jeffery Sach’s The End of Poverty (2005). Sachs both describes poverty through his notion of the global development ladder, and sets forward a prescription for end poverty ‘in our time’. Sach’s discourse is particularly interesting because it does not deny the existence of poverty to any extent. Rather, he proposes a ‘developmental ladder’ upon which all nations lie. Sach’s main interest is getting those in absolute poverty onto this ladder. As such, in terms of discursive strategy for the symptom, The End of Poverty is an ideological acknowledgement of the symptom, contending that poverty is not necessary, but rather ‘development’ is possible for all.

7.2 Absolute Poverty as the Concrete Universal

Here, Sachs falls into a parallax of ontological difference. He describes in specific terms the existence and experience of extreme poverty; indeed he produces a theory of the ‘poverty trap’ that keeps people in poverty. However, Sachs cannot link the actual existence of poverty with his notion of the global economy; there is no common ground between the concrete universal - absolute poverty- and the universal horizon of ‘global development’. This is an example of the operation of an ontological parallax par excellence. This parallax is often in operation within discourses of poverty. The World Bank series on the ‘voices’ of poverty also describes the experiences of the poor from the perspective of the poor through participative research (Narayan, Chambers, Shah, & Petesch, 2000; Narayan, Patel, Schafft, Rademacher, & Koch-Schulte, 2000; Narayan & Petesch, 2002). Yet, like The End of Poverty, this series does not, or cannot, make a link between these conditions of poverty and the global economy. On the other side of the parallax, the World Bank publishes, and makes regular interventions into the global economy. Yet it cannot seem to bring the two perspectives together, accept under suturing empty signifiers, such as development.

Development is at the centre of Sach’s discourse. Inequality is inherent to all notions of development, whether economic or otherwise. Classical economists such as Adam Smith and David Riccardo have long considered some degree of inequality as necessary in capitalism. Within the global economy, inequality is patently unjust; the life-chances of the poorest, to enter into capitalist discourse, are incomparable to that of the elite. Inequality was an excepted part of the discourse, because it had been assumed to be just; to each according to their efforts and merits. Because of the dislocating edge to global inequality, it is largely disavowed within contemporary capialist discourse. Thus, Sach’s work contrasts to horizons of other capitalist discourses, in that Sach’s restores inequality as a necessary factor within capitalism. Therefore, ‘sweatshops’ are largely considered a positive entity, although they are often considered a symptom of capitalist wealth (Sachs, 2005,p.11). This broadening of the universal horizon has the effect of domesticating this symptom, although it acts to further highlight poverty in its absolute form. As has been noted in previous chapters, the symptom is developed as an excess to the abstract universal, an excess which reveals the failure of that universal. Therefore the content of the symptom depends upon the discursive context in which it is formed; the symptoms of Sach’s development ladder are vitally different to a pure free-market approach to global economics. In the latter sweatshops can be considered a symptom, particularly in contrast to the highly symbolic consumption-orientated capitalism of the west, as highlighted by Naomi Klein in No Logo (2001).

In contrast, the symptoms of Sach’s approach to development lie in two separate areas. The first is the symptom that Sachs acknowledges (although not as a symptom), those who are ‘caught in a poverty trap’ and cannot make it onto the global development ladder. Secondly, there are symptoms of the parallax by which Sach’s work is inflicted; the incommensurability between global economics and the ground level analysis of poverty. This chapter examines both the manner in which symptoms have been constructed by Sachs and others amongst the ‘make poverty history’ discourses, as well as the discursive strategies that contain the symptoms produced by the ontological parallax of these constructions of poverty. Certainly there is a strong link between the construction of symptoms and their discursive domestication, which we shall turn to shortly. However, what is not subject only to symbolic construction is the concrete universal, from which the symptom stems.

The concrete universal is the constitutive necessity of the symptom; the concrete universal takes on the singular exception to the abstract universal, in this case poverty, and exceeds the universal apparatus; that poverty is necessary for the continued existence of capitalism. For Jeffery Sachs the symptom is those who are not on the ladder, the 1/6th of the world population who live on less than $1 a day (Sachs, 2005, p.18-9). In this thesis it is argued that this symptom is a constitutive element of capital; the concrete universal. That is, the occurrence of this absolute poverty is necessary for the continued progress of global capitalism. The basic logic of capitalism is the need to continously produce profits. Profit, in its rawest form is produced through the gap between production costs and selling price. This gap has been maintained through an over supply of raw materials, both human and natural. The excess of supply has kept the price of these production costs down. When it comes to natural inputs such as primary commodities, this process is increasingly complex, dealing with subsidies and tariffs. With labour though, the situation is less complicated. The excess supply of labour keeps labour prices at a minimum. In Sach’s developmental ladder this is acceptable. What Sachs ignores, however, is that for labour prices to be kept at this price, there has to be a reserve army of workers willing to work for that price. When wages are already dangerously low, for those who remain in reserve, unemployment often means death.

Thus death via poverty is both an exception to the capitalist imaginary and a requirement of the system; a concrete universal. The ultimate reserves are those outside of the manufacturing sector, who live on subsistence existence, within, but essentially outside the capitalist economy. Arguments of this sort enter into the Marxist territory of theories of miltary imperialism and the construction of economic empires (see Arrighi, 2005a, 2005b). Such a realm of argumentation is not the desired positioning of this thesis, although the insights of this area of Marxism are not denied. Instead, what I seek to establish is the necessary link between the capitalist production of extreme wealth and the equally capitalist production of extreme and absolute poverty.

Ultimately, the link between absolute poverty and capitalist wealth is repressed, or at least disavowed. This missing link is the key to the parallax in operation in the discursive construction of poverty. However, while the concrete universal cannot be accessed through the terms of the universal horizon, its symptoms do appear. This chapter will now move the analysis of the discursive strategies used to domesticate the Real effect of the symptom. The analysis will follow the methodology laid out in Chapter 5 and applied to Green ideology in the previous chapter. There are several similarities between the domestication of symptoms in Green ideology and in terms of poverty, although the nature of the symptoms is quite different. Poverty is easier to ignore than climate change or environmental degradation and as such is more often repressed, or at least disavowed. The most common strategy though is super-ego demand - we ought to eliminate poverty; the super-ego is the most common technique, used by charities such as World Vision, as well as the Make Poverty History campaign. However, there are also opportunities for disrupting capitalism through poverty as a symptom and the concrete universal. Unlike Green ideology, the concrete universal can exist in its own terms as a discourse. Through this discursive existence, the concrete universal can apply dislocating pressure to the universal horizon. Before we return to this possibility, however, we must first review the discursive strategies for the domestication of the symptom in order to maintain the capitalist universal horizon. We shall start with repression.

7. 3 Discursive Strategies; Repression

All hegemonic discourses operate with an element of repression; that of the concrete universal upon which they are based. Poverty is no exception. The link between an abstract universal within capitalism, especially those that emphasise capital’s ability to generate wealth, and the concrete universal of absolute poverty is an impossible one. This impossibility generates the operation of repression. Repression occurs so the subject avoids the horrific exposure to the Real. In this case, as well as the parallax Real, the concrete universal is linked to the real Real, the hard kernel of horror. However, as has been noted, true repression of symptoms generally only occurs when they cannot be included within the universal horizon without a dislocation. This may be the case if capitalist subjects were regularly exposed to the true horror of absolute poverty and the concrete universal. But this is not the case. Rather poverty is able to be constructed through fantasy so as to be domesticated. Therefore there are few discourses which actively repress poverty as a symptom; the statistical evidence is overwhelmingly strong.

What is more common is the disavowal of the symptom. Within disavowal, the subject acknowledges the existence of the symptom, but simultaneously ignores it. Indeed, absolute poverty provides the disavowed foundation of capitalism, certainly when one considers the impact of colonial empires and slavery. In terms of repression, it is not the content of the symptom that is repressed in the disavowal of poverty; rather it is the relationship between poverty and wealth that is repressed. Many repress the possibility that capitalism may cause poverty as well as wealth, again we see the limitations of formalist logic. This kind of repression is seen in the work of anarcho-capitalist economist, David Friedman (son of Nobel-prize winning economist Milton Freidman) who writes;“Few people believe that capitalism leads inexorably to the impoverishment of the masses; the evidence against this thesis is too overwhelming” (Friedman, 1978:26).

In terms of the discursive strategies used to domesticate absolute poverty, we shall include this particular type of disavowal in the category of repression. Disavowals are only able to operate because the existence of a fetish. The most powerful fetished object in these discourses is that capitalism is the only feasible economic option. It is theorised that because capital has brought strong economic growth and a correspondent increase in living standards to the western world, than there is no reason that this cannot be applied to the rest of the world. This is an argument often used by Jeffery Sachs (2005, p.18-9). Sachs, and others, often cite the example of South-East Asia, where many people have been brought out of extreme poverty through economic growth bought on by the rapid expansion of the manufacturing sector through cheap labour. As Don Brash contends in relation to global poverty; “we need to continue with further growth and development. I cannot see any solution to the problems of the many desperately poor people in the Asia Pacific region that does not require a continuation of sustained economic growth” (2006).

Very similar to the kind of solutions proposed by Friedman and Brash, Ken Shirley, a former MP for the neo-liberal ACT party in New Zealand states that to eliminate poverty, capitalism has to go further than it has, to be truer to itself and remove all trade barriers. Shirley argues that once trade barriers have been removed, and capital is enabled to move freely without government interference, wealth can finally be shared globally. Shirley asserts; “I am appalled at the hypocrisy of some parties who rail against global trade and free trade agreements on the one hand and yet simultaneously argue that a greater commitment is required for overseas development assistance” (Shirley, 2005).

This kind of discursive method could well be defined as acknowledgement of the symptom, mediated by the positing of an external antagonism, rather than repression. The most powerful device for the repression of poverty as a symptom is the assertion that capital is the only possible option, or alternatively the formalist logic that because capital has brought wealth to some, it can bring wealth to all. However, despite the growing wealth of the world, for at least 1/6th of the global population, poverty is still an extreme reality. Therefore it is becoming increasingly obvious to many that something ought to be done about this excess. This acknowledgement of the symptom occurs through several different devices, to which we shall now turn.

7. 4 Acknowledgement of the Symptom

An acknowledgement of the existence of poverty, outside of the realm of repression or disavowal, is a production of fantasy. That is, because poverty does not ‘naturally’ exist within the universal horizon of most discourses of global capital, the discourse is able to construct poverty in a manner which is non-disruptive and that still maintains the consistency of the social. However, once the symptom has been acknowledged, the sheer scale of it means that it cannot be contained in fantasy, there is always an excess that needs further taming. The construction of the symptom and the domestication of its excess are the function of several factors, introduced in chapter 5. The predominant element is ideological fantasy, which maintains the consistency of the social, or at least the prospect of such consistency. The driver of this process is jouissance, specifically the unconscious drive around the idea of a return to a time of Jouissance. Thus symptoms like poverty are required to be domesticated, but paradoxically they are essential for the smooth functioning of the abstract universal, such is the impossibility of Jouissance.

7.4.i Ideological Fantasy and Antagonisms

Therefore ideological fantasy operates by reproducing the encounter with the symptom, but in a manner that is more manageable for the universal imaginary. In reproducing the symptom via fantasy, the Real element of the symptom is removed. This Real element is removed because fantasy presents the symptom as divorced from the concrete universal; it is not a constitutive exception, but rather a contingent failure or an alien intruder. This domestication occurs in poverty discourse. The predominant discursive conception of poverty in contemporary society, outside of the techniques of repression and disavowal detailed above, is the Make Poverty History campaign or the United Nations MDGs. Here poverty is constructed as something that can be fixed, it is within our control. Not that poverty is considered to be caused by capital, in that poverty is required by capital to produce wealth. Rather, it is posited that mistakes have been made in the past because the wrong version of capital has been used. Therefore, rather than capitalism being at fault for poverty, the application of capitalism has been wrong (Sachs, 2005,p.81-2).

This kind of strategy invokes an external antagonism. External antagonisms are the ‘straw’ enemies generated by a universal horizon. The main purpose for the production of these antagonisms is that it gives a visible reason for the failure of the abstract universal. Therefore while the universal orientates itself towards the removal of the antagonism, antagonisms are actually required for the maintenance of the universal; they provide jouissance for the subject. There are two predominant types of antagonism that are in operation within poverty discourse. The first type is posited to have occurred in the past, as Žižek details as one of his seven veils of fantasy in The Plague of Fantasies (Žižek, 1997,p.13-6). It does not matter whether this antagonism has actually occurred or not, what is important is that it is discursively represented. This past failure is postulated as a cause of contemporary failure. This form of antagonism is a strong feature of Sach’s work, where he details the reasons why some nations are in poverty and some are not (Sachs, 2005,p.74,79.249, 300-14). These causes range from the development of colonial empires, geographic conditions and incorrect structural adjustments previously made in the name of global development. This past failure gives a cause for the failures of the present and future. Rather than seeing the fault within the current universal horizon, this fault is attributed to previous events. As such, these past events become a point of jouissance. These antagonisms tend to lie on the abstract universal side of the parallax view.

The second type of external antagonism lies on the concrete universal side of the parallax. As I have noted, the key distinguishing feature of the parallax in terms of poverty is that the actual occurrence of poverty (the concrete universal) cannot be linked to the global economy that causes it. These antagonisms, which occur in the present, give reason for poverty in terms of the concrete universal. As such, they generally relate to the circumstances of those in poverty themselves. These range from blaming the victims of poverty, such as the common positioning of poverty as an effect of corrupt government or lazy/ignorant workers, to Sach’s more generous ‘poverty trap’, which features factors such as physical geography and societal demographics (Sachs, 2005, p.56-66). The main effect of these antagonisms is that they suggest a possible alternative cause to the concrete universal outside of its relationship with the universal imaginary within the ontological parallax; poverty is not caused by the wealth produced in the global economy, but rather an effect of a variety of external antagonisms. As has been noted, the accuracy of these antagonisms is often unimportant. While deeming Third World workers to be ‘ignorant’ or uneducated seems overwhelmingly unfair, in terms of the maintenance of the fantasmatic supplement supporting the abstract universal, it has the same effect as Sach’s poverty trap. Both these modes of antagonism mediate between the subject and the true horror of absolute poverty; they alleviate responsibility from the capitalist subject.

The positing of antagonisms is a core element of ideological fantasy; it removes the Real effect from the symptom. Contemporary hegemonic discourses on poverty have rotated around the fantasmatic construction of poverty, which domesticates its dislocating potential. Indeed, the very construction of the United Nations MDGs is a domestication of the Real in poverty. The symptom exists both as the Real, in that it represents the failure of the abstract universal via the presence of the parallax gap and also as a symbolic entity. The effect of naming the symptom largely domesticates the presence of the Real, although an excess still remains. This is the case with the Millennium Development Goals. Through the construction of poverty in this manner (the elimination of poverty is one of the central goals), the symptom enters into the discourse, and unconscious supplement, of the authority of the United Nations. Therefore the symptom no longer presses on the abstract universal; it has been domesticated by entering into the fantasmatic core of the United Nations. In terms of the construction of poverty, the act of symbolising poverty removes poverty from view. It is no longer a Real force threatening the universal horizon, but rather part of the existing symbolic framework. It is for this reason that governments can appear so eager to establish frameworks like the MDGs, but have no motivation to carry them out. This effect allows poverty to be continually disavowed; the idea of fixing the symptom is sufficient to achieve the domestication of the symptom.
7.4.ii Super-ego

Conversely, this domestication is never complete. Once the symptom enters into the discursive arena, either as a symbolic entity or as an effect of the Real, any symbolisation leaves an excess. This excess can be dealt with through one of three separate strategies. The first has already been outlined external antagonisms. The failure of something like the MDG’s can be explained by citing antagonisms, like the failure of western governments to comply, or the mismanagement of funds by nations receiving the assistance. The second has also been noted, the disavowal of the symptom. We shall further expand on these discursive strategies shortly. However, perhaps the most common discursive method for dealing with the excess in the symptom of poverty is super-ego demand. The construction of poverty is a super-ego construction; we ‘ought’ to do something about poverty (Sachs, 2005; Shirley, 2005). As such super-ego demand pervades most discourses on poverty and has led to the establishment of strong super-ego discourses, such as those of charities like World Vision.

The super-ego establishes guilt in the subject about the failure of the symbolic fabric. This guilt presses the subject to act upon the content of the failure. However, such an action does not remove the effect of the super-ego. Instead, the more the subject submits, the guiltier they feel. This is the main appeal of charitable organisations that operate around poverty. Organisations like World Vision or Tear Fund use images of malnourished small children and slogans such as “A child is waiting” (World Vision: A Child is Waiting, 2006). As has been previously detailed, super-ego demand is not an effective strategy for achieving change. Rather, it leaves the existing fantasmatic core intact, although it may make some small changes along the way. Normally, the subject seeks to find a way out of the super-ego cycle. Often the mediating affect of paying money, like in the sponsorship of a third-world child, allows the subject to divorce themselves of the responsibility for poverty and into an ideological edifice, such as the MDG’s, or into a state of disavowal.

The Make Poverty History campaign appears to have been aware of this effect. Rather than ask for donations, the campaign instead posited demands that could not be solved by the individual. At the same time it developed the dislocatory effect of the symptom. This strategy had the effect of not enabling the subject to have any easy way out of the super-ego cycle. Additionally, white wrist bands were sold and worn as a constant reminder of the super-ego demand of poverty. The suggested way out of this cycle was for citzens to demand that their governments do something about the conditions of poverty. Unfortunately, while this demand did occur, governments have been able to domesticate the dislocatory pressure by simply promising to do something.

This kind of super-ego demand has an additionally harmful effect. Instead of placing poverty in its properly political realm, charitable organisations and campaigns tend to present poverty as a humanitarian problem, a failure of human rights rather than political economy. This discursive positioning takes away the responsibility from both the subject and the capitalist mode of production (Žižek, 2005). Therefore poverty as a humanitarian project, as it is presented by Sachs, again reveals the parallax that is in operation. The demand of the super-ego is not linked to reducing our wealth, or radically altering our economic system, but rather of providing funding and support for “On-the-ground solutions for ending poverty” (Sachs, 2005,p.226-243).

7.4.iii Disavowal

The final discursive strategy for acknowledging, but domesticating the symptom has already been covered within this chapter; disavowal. However, we shall briefly return to it because of its importance in the operation of poverty discourse. What allows the disavowal of poverty to operate so effectively - that is, the acknowledgement of the existence of poverty, but a general ignorance towards it - are two separate factors. The first, which has already been discussed, is that poverty, as a symptom, does not regularly impact on the abstract universal imaginary of capital. It is nowhere near as all-pervading as symptoms like climate change.

The second reason was also in operation in Green ideology; commodity fetishism. In commodity fetishism, a commodity stands in for objet a, as the fantasised object to fulfill the lack in the Other. Simply put, the subject receives too much jouissance from the fetishised commodity involved in consumption to be dislocated by poverty. They may know very well that the clothing being purchased was made in a sweatshop in Bangladesh, a fact to which the subject may be personally opposed. However, the jouissance involved in the consumption is too strong for the former ideal to become a salient factor. Conversely, there is often an excess involved in consumption, in that the symptom is never completely pacified. This excess has generated new initiatives, such as the growing popularity of ‘ethical’ or ‘fair-trade’ consumption. In most cases though, the fetishising of commodities through consumption based capitalism is too strong for the existence of poverty to have a dislocating effect on the western world as it currently stands. However, there are still possible opportunities for dislocation that exist through discourses of poverty. It is these possibilities which we shall now focus on.

7. 5 Discourses of the Symptom

The shift from discourses which acknowledge the symptom to discourses of the symptom, is accomplished via a short-circuit discursive reading. Through the short-circuit analysis, both sides of the parallax view become visible. Rather than constructing the symptom as a failure of the universal, in the short-circuit view the symptom becomes constitutive; evidence of the concrete universal and the parallax gap. However, the vital difference is not interpretative. Rather it comes from the detachment of the symptom from the fantasmatic jouissance in which it was previously constructed. Therefore, the short-circuit reading achieves a Žižekian ‘traversal of the fantasy’. The displacement of fantasy allows a reconstruction of the status of the symptom, a very powerful force for socio-political analysis. However, as has been noted previously, discourses of the symptom have a limited dislocatory effect as they are still articulated within the terms of the universal horizon, therefore they have only a partial Real effect. Conversely, by opening up a gap within the abstract universal, by denying the suture of the parallax view, discourses of the symptom become part of a strong dislocatory effect when combined with the concrete universal itself.

As with Green ideology, discourses of the symptom have to be carefully distinguished from external discourses. External discourses are outside of the parallax view and the moment of universality. As such they offer little prospect of producing radical change, but more of a chance of sedimenting the hegemonic universal imaginary. This sedimentation occurs because, as Laclau contends, discourses establish limits by excluding a radical otherness. Laclau terms this exclusion the ‘constitutive outside’, because it is only the definition of the outside which allows the formulation of an interior. In discourses of poverty, we see this operation between forms of Islam and the capitalist West, particularly the United States. Militant Islam groups, such as Al-Qaeda often attract the poor and powerless, although they are often controlled by a rich elite. Militant Islam gives the powerless an identity via an antagonism; the capitalist West. This strategy, although often damaging to capitalist interests, is very unlikely to cause the downfall of capitalism. As we have seen with the actions of the Bush administration of the United States, militant Islam has only entrenched the fantasmatic core of capitalism, resulting in military conflict.

Instead, discourses of the symptom challenge the unconscious fantasmatic support of the unconscious universal. In terms of poverty, Marxism is the discourse which presently fills this role. Marxism, as has been noted previously, has moved from a discourse of the concrete universal (to which we shall soon turn) to a discourse of the symptom. Where Marxism was once a discourse of the proletariat, it has increasingly become a dissident voice distant from the now global working class. This is not to suggest that Marxism only recognises the workers of the western world. Rather, as a discourse of the symptom, Marxist discourse is often able to view capitalism awry, taking in both the global capitalism and the poverty it produces. Indeed, many Marxists, such as Samir Amin declare the western workers and unions are the enemies of the global proletariat both because they draw attention away from global poverty and because they have implicitly submitted to the capitalist system.

By being able to conceptualise the parallax gap, discourses of the symptom like Marxism have a unique, but productive role. This role involves attempting to deconstruct the universal horizon by displacing the symptom from its fantasmatic bonds. To accomplish this task, Marxism does not have to take on a positive imaginary such as the fantasmatic postulating of an alternative economic system. Rather, its role is to play on the symptom, revealing the excess in the universalist fantasy. By doing so, it is theorized that a space can be opened up within the universal imaginary that can be exploited by a discourse of the concrete universal. This has proved, however, to be a particularly difficult task, such is the fantasmatic closure inherent in global capital. It is difficult, if not impossible, to find an example of this kind of discursive strategy in mainstream media, although these discourses do exist in the academic world (see Arn, 1994; Limqueco & McFarlane, 1983). Often Marxism falls victim to the same parallax as capitalist discourse, focusing only on exploitation within economic relations in the Third World (Ercel, 2006). However, this is the task to which Marxism must apply itself to help achieve a radical structural global economic shift.
7.6 Discourses of the Concrete Universal

In the case of poverty, discourses of the concrete universal are generated in the terms of those experiencing poverty. On the other hand, these discourses are not limited to the concrete universal side of the parallax. That is, they are not constructed purely in terms of the experience of poverty, such as the Voices of the Poor series produced by the World Bank. Rather, as in all concrete universals, these discourses take on the singular exception to the universal horizon, absolute poverty, yet exceed the existing hegemonic imaginary. By doing so absolute poverty is not presented as a singular experience, but rather as a constitutive feature of capitalism. As has been detailed previously, the relationship between the abstract universal and the concrete universal is an impossible one; there are no terms available to establish a link. Therefore the presence of the concrete universal in the abstract universal produces a radical dislocation of the hegemonic imaginary. Capitalism, for example, is constructed around a fundamental horizon of justice in the production of wealth through the invisible hand that guides the market. There is no room for exploitation or constitutive poverty, at least in the abstracted capitalist imaginary. Therefore the impossible combination of the concrete universal of absolute poverty with the capitalist imaginary should bring a dislocation of the latter.

But what are the possibilities for achieving this task via poverty? The primary advantage (in terms of discursive strategy) that poverty has over climate change is that in poverty the concrete universal can become a discursive force. The concrete universal still remains a Real element because of the parallax gap. The parallax gap prevents a translation of terms between the abstract and concrete universal. Because of this gap, the concrete universal goes unsymbolised amongst the hegemonic; it is the impossible Real. From the alternative perspective, however, the Real is symbolised. The advantage here is that the concrete universal can be controlled; it can reproduce various discursive strategies. In contrast, the natural, as the concrete universal within Green ideology, operates largely outside of the direct control of human symbolic intervention.

The potential therefore exists for a movement from the concrete universal. Such a movement would involve the people of poverty, disavowed by capital, coming together under a united discourse. We can perhaps see this process in the use of the term ‘Majority World’ rather than Third World, to refer the idea that those in poverty are not simply an excess of capitalism, but rather constitutive the core population of the world. The key is the form of this unity. It is not effective if the discourse becomes an alternative imaginary to the hegemonic horizon. This - Laclauian inspired - strategy risks becoming an external discourse, a constitute outside rather than concrete universal. Alternatively, the discourse could fight a ‘war of position’ for the empty signifier which attempts to suture the parallax gap. Examples of these empty signifiers include ‘development’ and ‘progress’.

Conversely, such a strategy is likely to simply be pacified by the dominant discourse because it enters, but does not disturb, the unconscious supplement of the abstract universal. Rather, the key position is the presentation of the unity of poverty as a concrete universal; that is, as the constitutive exception of capitalism, a necessary requirement. This is not to suggest that this concrete universal holds a better normative or economic position that capitalism, but it holds a high possibility of dislocating capital, provided that it is able to place enough pressure on the fantasmatic unconscious supplement that supports the capitalist imaginary. The central message here is to practice concrete universality; to evoke the anxiety that is caused by exposing that which is necessarily disavowed for the continued functioning of the universal horizon. We shall now turn to the concluding chapter of this thesis, which examines the possibilities for practicing concrete universality, particularly in regard to global capital. In addition, the viability of this strategy (as well as the methodological approach to understanding the symptom) as a political method is discussed in detail.