Capitalist Exploitation and Black Labor: Some Conceptual Issues

Abstract

The preceding discussion sets up, on a systematic theoretical basis, the precise analytical meaning of the concept of exploitation. This concept is shown to have meaning with reference to the process of production of surplus value and its appropriation as profits, interest, rent, taxes, etc. within a system of capitalist relations based on free exchange of commodities, including labor power, and dominance of capital over property and production. Exploitation is located within the sphere of the use of labor-power in production and in the context of the capital-labor relation as a specific form of class relation peculiar to capitalism. It is shown to be consistent with market relations of free exchange.