Free and Unfree Labour: The Debate ContinuesTom Brass, Marcel van der Linden Historically, capitalism has always integrated various forms of unfree labour, including chattel slavery, convict labour and debt bondage. Contrary to purported wisdom, these forms of exploitation have not disappeared during the twentieth century. Fascist and Stalinist dictatorships used forced labour on a massive scale, while unfree labour has been increasing in several parts of the world in recent years. Labour historians have traditionally somewhat neglected the problem of coerced labour. Focusing on so-called «free» wage labourers, their living conditions, cultures and struggles, they implicitly supposed a more or less unilinear development from unfree to «free» labour to have taken place under the influence of emerging capitalism, gradually encompassing the globe. The present collection of 24 essays attempts to rethink these issues. The volume is divided into two sections: the first deals with theories about unfree labour while the second consists of case studies examining its presence or absence in particular historical contexts in the «first», «second» and «third» world. The authors use various Marxist or neoclassical approaches and disagree on four substantive points: the market, labour scarcity, gender and state intervention. These crucial differences are explored and clarified. The debate continues. |
Contents
Acknowledgements | 9 |
Why Slavery? | 77 |
Wage Labour and Despotism in Modernity | 91 |
Copyright | |
18 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
abolition Agrarian agribusiness agricultural American apartheid areas argued artisans Australian bonded labour British Buenos Aires California capital capitalist coerced coercion coercive colonial concentration camp context contract convicts Cuba debt bondage debt peonage economic El Imparcial employers employment encomienda ex-slaves example existence exploitation factors farm workers FLCs forced labour free and unfree free labour free wage labour free workers freedom GULag Ibid immigrants important increased indentured Indian industrial Kanakas kangany labor force labour market labour power labour process labour trade land landlord legislation marxist Melanesian migration neoclassical Nieboer nineteenth century organization owners Pacific Islanders peasants peonage peons period plantation planters political prisoners production proletarianization Queensland railway recruitment region relations relationship right to strike rural sector Sharecropping Shlomowitz slavery slaves social society South Southern Soviet Spanish structure struggle tenant tion Travancore unfree labour unfreedom wage labour workforce