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

From: Howard Engelskirchen (howarde@TWCNY.RR.COM)
Date: Thu Apr 22 2004 - 02:43:25 EDT


Hi Paul,

David Harvey in the book I mentioned the other day, The New Imperialism, is
very far from agreeing with your point on primitive accumulation.  He has a
section on Accumulation by Dispossession and considers its consequences an
important feature in social resistance today.

Howard




----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Zarembka" <zarembka@BUFFALO.EDU>
To: <OPE-L@SUS.CSUCHICO.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 8:45 PM
Subject: Re: [OPE-L] (OPE-L) Additional note [on VFT]


> > 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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