The Conditions of the Working Class in 1960s Beirut: Fire and Everyday Struggles in Karantina

Abstract In this paper, I examine the spatial processes of class formation within informal urban spaces. To do so, I consider Karantina in the 1960s, an outgrowth of one of the oldest refugee camps in the world situated in northeastern Beirut, Lebanon. I focus on the struggles of those living in precarious informal shacks, known as tanaké , who repeatedly fought against arson likely instigated by local landowners seeking to evict them. This analysis underscores the decisive role material conditions play in fostering class consciousness among a diverse population, primarily composed of factory and informal workers, as they assert their “right to the city”. I argue that these galvanising confrontations, experienced as recurrent displacement by fire, catalysed a political struggle that transformed this group from a class‐in‐itself into a class‐for‐itself. A socio‐spatial analysis of the material living conditions of the working class, defined by everyday struggles, is essential to understanding political subjectivity.