Primitive Accumulation

1. Primitive Accumulation Capital, Volume I, Part VIII Chapters 26 - 33

2. Structure of Section • Chapter 26 - Overview: Secret of Prim. Accum. • Chapters 27-28 - Formation of Working Class • Chapters 29-31 - Formation of Capitalist Class • Chapter 32 - Logical End to section • Chapter 33 - Wakefield on Colonies

3. Chapter 26: Secret of Primitive Accumulation • Origins of Capitalist Society • Myth: individual achievement vs failure • Marx: class formation via force • Expropriation = formation of working class • Concentration of wealth = formation of capitalist class

4. Chapter 26: Commentary • Myth of Political Economy • Anyone can become a capitalist • Those who are lazy remain workers • Dickens ridicules in Hard Times • Marx was NOT an historical-materialist • His own denial in Russian debate • Capitalism can NOT eliminate the antagonisms and ever renewed alternatives

5. The Rise of the Working Class • Creation was forced, not spontaneous • Chapter 27: Forced from land, tools • Chapter 28: Forced into waged labor

6. Chap27: Expropriation (1st step) • Destruction of Autonomy • Expropriation of land, tools • Marx: examples from England, Scotland • Since: colonialism, on-going process • Resistance: need for force result of fierce resistance • Resistance: reversal of enclosures, land reform

7. Chap27: Commentary • Transition from Feudalism • Tales of Resistance • The World Turned Upside Down • Enclosures of Water • Enclosures in the United States • Enclosure of the Female Body • Struggle for Cultural Diversity

8. Music of Resistance • The Highland Clearances (?????) • The World Turned Upside Down (1649) • The Great Eel Robbery (????) • The Farmer is the Man (1890s) • Rain on the Scarecrow (1985)

9. Chapter 28: Bloody Legislation (2nd step) • Bloody Laws to impose work • Resistance: barbarity of laws result of degree of refusal • Anti-vagrancy laws, anti-migration laws (border controls) • Anti-direct appropriation laws • Spread with primitive accumulation (to US, colonies) • Reappear in response to uncontrolled mobility

10. Chap28: Commentary • Refusal of Factory • Street as an Alternative to Factory • The Nature of the State: • organ of class power • terrain of struggle • Working Class Struggles: Combinations • Vagrancy Laws During Reconstruction • The Wage, its absence & imposition of work

11. Music of Resistance • Roll Down the Line (1890s) • Factory (1978)

12. The Rise of the Capitalist Class • Self-formation • Struggles to replace previous ruling class • Struggles to create working class

13. Overview of Material • Chap29: Rise of Agrarian Capitalists • Chap30: Creation of Home Market • Chap31: Rise of Industrial Capitalists

14. Chap29: Rise of Agrarian Capitalists • Trajectory of formation highly varied • Variation result of different starting points, forces along the way • Baileff, farmer, metayer, farmer proper • Key: rising control over land & labor

15. Chap29: Commentary • Control over land often sought for autonomy • Resistance of farmers to market in US • Third World Parallels • Land Reform Movements • Zapatista revolt response to NAFTA • Use of Inflation in Primitive & Mature Accumulation • rapid inflation to transfer wealth • marginal inflation to keep w = productivity

16. Music of Resistance • Seven Cent Cotton (1927) • Corrido de Delano (1966) • Maggie’s Farm (1965)

17. Chap30: Creation of Home Market • Expropriation means • people no longer meet their own needs • people must BUY what they need • To be able to buy they must sell themselves • So, expansion of home market result of creation of labor market • Resistance: value of homespun, gardening, subordination of market to other values • e.g., Brazilian herbal market

18. Chap30: Commentary • Imposition of Market • Valorization & Disvalorization • Agricultural Development & “productivity”

19. Chap31: Genesis of Industrial Capitalist • Annexation of labor through merchant capital • Concentration of Wealth through FORCE • colonialism: violence & plunder (business + state) • slavery & wage slavery • Monopolization of trade •  control over labor force, e.g., elimination of weavers • Public Debt - then and now • centralization of money • use of centralized money?

20. Chap31: Commentary • Myth of Entrepreneurship • Worker initiative + capital constraint • Capitalist Development & Role of State • From tool of capital to terrain of struggle • Colonialism & Accumulation of Capital • Raw materials, trade, outlet for capital, vs: • internationalization of labor control • Slavery & Child Labor

21. Chap33: Theory of Colonialism • Reading mainstream economics • Apology vs managerial guidelines • Wakefield = “development economist” • Problem: availability of land = worker power to refuse work • Solution: make land less available, make it harder for workers to escape wage slavery

22. Chap32: The Historical Tendency • Logical Culmination of Book • Sweeping Historical Periodization: • Phase I: private property based on labor • ended by “first negation” -violent • Phase II: private property in capitalism • ended by “second negation” -less violent • expropriation of expropriators • Phase III: social property in means of production

23. Dialectics - I • Dialectics = a kind of movement • Heraclitus = restlessness, becoming • Plato/Socrates = dialogos, one kind of logic • Hegel = cosmology, movement of zeitgeist • Marx = movement of capital - class struggle • orthodox Marxism sees “dialectical materialism” • others see critique of capitalism, possibility of non-dialectical future

24. Dialectics - II • Best known element: thesis, antithesis, synthesis • Hegel: being, nothing, becoming • Marx: capital, struggle of skilled workers, fordism and deskilled labor force (incorporates skills in engineering class and machinery) • Other elements: (many, many) • e.g., negation of negation = positive change • e.g., reflexive mediation • e.g., syllogistic mediation

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