free movement for whom?

"Illegal hawkers are not entitled to any protection." That's the word from the Bombay High Court, The Times of India reports. A two-judge panel ordered Central and Western railways to remove all vendors from platforms and footbridges at stations across the city. The oral directive came in a suit brought by six street sellers who are resisting the railroad's efforts to push them out. "The land [occupied by the hawkers] is required for ensuring free movement of the commuters," the lawyer for the Railway Authority told the court.

where selling your own music is a crime

Manchester England has won its case against a local rap musician who was prosecuted for selling his CDs on the street, the Lancashire Evening Post reports. Elavi Dowie, 31, must pay an £80 fine and £220 costs for selling his CDs in a shopping street in Manchester.

"Because of the way the music industry is at the moment, especially for urban music. People are selling their music on the streets in the absence of a record deal. We aren't harming anyone," Dowie told the paper. "The council has this initiative to promote black and ethnic minority music but on the other hand are trying to destroy someone like me."

The article also reports this ominous fact: "Various councils throughout the country are pursuing a private Bill through Parliament, aimed at cracking down on illegal street traders."

Why are these communities so afraid of street traders? Can anybody enlighten me here?

growing against the current

An economist tells The Jakarta Globe that small and medium sized enterprises in Indonesia will likely do well in current global economic conditions because of their flexibility as part of the nation’s huge informal economy, which accounts for about 80 percent of the country's total economy. One-quarter of those businesses, according to a recent survey, are planning for growth and will invest in their businesses this year.

I make much the same point, in a recent Q&A with New American Media.

the stupidest thing ever....

...well, not ever, but...
The Swindon Council in the UK is trying to evict a donut seller from the roost where he has done business for a dozen years because, as a police official put it, street traders bring with them "very low level antisocial behaviour." This Is Wiltshire has details. The local Labour Council Member, who is supporting the donut man, offered this revealing comment: "The real hypocrisy is that when they bring in a French market or a farmers’ market all the complaints they seem to have ... go out of the window."

the union of scavengers

In Pune, India, the Waste Collectors' Union organizes 2/3 of the waste pickers in the city. The vast majority of these informal workers are women. Union members get official approval to conduct their work and qualify for health insurance, and the premiums are paid by the city. The union is trying to negotiate more benefits, and is working with the scavengers to create a more profitable business model. Scoop has details.

shoes for industry

The Abassa Alakoro Market in Lagos, Nigeria. If Max Weber was right that "the 'city' is a market place," then Lagos is the absolute definition of a city--and the informal economy is what made it that way.

These shoe merchants were selling in the open air before they seized this space underneath the Eko Bridge on Lagos Island. "Nobody was coming to this place before we came," says Chuzzy Gabriel, vice president of the market association. "We are the people who made this place like it is."

no room at the dump

A group of garbage pickers in Msunduzi, South Africa (about 45 minutes from Durban) marched on City Hall today to demand that the government let them do their recycling work without harassment. The Witness details the dump pickers' charges that they have been beaten and harassed simply for going through the garbage to find material they can sell.

Ntombi Luthili, who supports a family of 17 from her recycling work at the local garbage dump, had this to say to public officials: "If they prevent us from going to the site what kind of Christmas do they want us to celebrate without money? How are we going to send our children back to school next year? They are rich and they can afford (what they need), so they should allow us to make a living.".