Industrial Colonialism and Surpluses of Population

Abstract

In discussing poverty, it is important to focus on what the causes are of the over-supply of labor. This chapter discusses the origins and manifested forms of surplus population in Latin America. It argues that the ultimate cause of a far larger than necessary industrial reserve army, surplus population, is in fact industrial colonialism and the ensuing underdevelopment that it spawns. The chapter briefs about some attempts to explain surplus population by using the Marxist theory of accumulation as our theoretical framework. The category of consolidated surplus population was elaborated by Marx to designate a logical result of development of capitalism at level of essential relations of production. The relative overpopulation in Marx is the essential human material for future capital, that is, for the capital that will become such after expansion of existing industrial branches, insofar as this expansion requires it, or in the creation of new industries.Keywords: capitalism; industrial colonialism; labor; Latin America; Marxist theory; poverty; surplus population