Re: (OPE-L) Additional note [on VFT]

From: Paul Zarembka (zarembka@BUFFALO.EDU)
Date: Wed Apr 21 2004 - 20:45:01 EDT


> From: "Jur Bendien" <bendien88@lycos.com>
> Date: Tue, April 20, 2004 9:56 am
>
>
> Paul Zarembka asked about the expansion of capital involving
> non-capitalist modes of production. That is certainly relevant, since
> original accumulation (ursprungliche Akkumulation) which is also
> sometimes called primitive accumulation is a process which occurs all
> the time, i.e. it is a permanent characteristic of capitalism as a mode
> of market expansion.

I disagree.  Original or primitive accumulation should be a concept
reserved for the transition from feudalism to the initial establishment of
capitalism.  I won't repeat what I've written at The Commoner -- see the 8
pages at http://www.commoner.org.uk/debzarembka01.pdf .

> But the specific mode of destruction of
> non-capitalist property relations and their transformation into
> capitalist property relations, through robbery, plunder, looting,
> enslavement, debt, usury etc. is not something we can directly infer
> from the structure of the capitalist mode of production. Many different
> forms of replacing non-capitalist modes of production with capitalist
> ones are possible, and I think they mostly cannot be directly deduced
> from the defining characteristics of capitalism as a mode of production,
> they are historically contingent and depend on historically emergent
> power relations.

I agree, altho after capitalism is established this is itself
'accumulation' (no adjective).  Note that the contingency here must refer
to the characteristics of those non-capitalist societies being penetrated.

Paul z.


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