Katie freeter7/27/2023 ![]() ![]() In India, pressures reminiscent of the 1968 rebellions are stirring in the cities as the situation of single youths runs up against conservative values (Chakravarthy 2007). One might in other circumstances say that this group is the main constituency of the Afghan and Pakistani (neo-)Taleban (Giustozzi 2007) and of Islamism in Egypt (Slackman 2008). In Iran, there is an entire dissident counterculture emerging from a similarly situated stratum of young people (Zanganeth ed 2006). It is one of the most common constituencies of radical and insurgent political movements across the spectrum, and its peculiar situation – slipping outside the segmentary linear functioning of identity-narratives of paid work, consumer affluence and (nuclear) family – places it at the forefront of historical transformation. Whatever its name, this stratum is politically important. Similarly, “precariat” and “precarity” have emerged as terms in the discourse in Europe, signifying marginal workers and non-workers as distinct from full-time, well-paid workers. In post-autonomism, "emarginati" has some similar connotations, though it refers mainly to those within the group who have (marginal) work. The term "neet" is sometimes used in English, meaning “not in employment or education” in Blairite-neoliberal rhetoric, “neet” are viewed as a problem. ![]() Such a person is caught in a kind of social limbo between social statuses, and appear discursively and socially as perennial agents of revolt – “youths” form the backbone of most protests, the footsoldiers of political parties, the recruits for resistance and opposition movements, etc. In Africa, the term “youth” is often extended to members of a similar category – young people (especially but not exclusively men) who are too old to be classified as children who are expected to have potential support, but who have not entered into the socially-recognised categories of adulthood by getting a well-paid job. Many of those participating in similar protests in European countries doubtless come from a similar social position. In Japan, the Freeters General Union is a political body with a broadly autonomist and anti-neoliberal perspective, which organizes initiatives such as Mayday demonstrations and anti-government protests (see ). This is the stratum which provides most of the participants in autonomous activism throughout the global North. The Japanese are unusual in giving it a name. Although the Japanese have coined a term for the group, they exist all over the world, and are a social force of underestimated and growing importance. "A Freeter (“a Japanese expression for people between the age of 15 and 34 who lack full time employment or are unemployed, excluding homemakers and students” – Wikipedia). ![]()
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