Primitive Accumulation and the Labor Subsidies to Capitalism

Abstract

It is argued in this paper, following the insights of Rosa Luxemburg and others, that primitive accumulation is a constant and ongoing process integral to capital accumulation. Concentrating on workers who are raised and sustained in times of unemployment by subsistence agriculture or informal income-generating activities by self or family members, often women, it is seen how their labor is commodified. The recurrent migration of parts of this global reserve army of labor, whether internally or transnationally, provides a variety of subsidies to capitalist enterprise.JEL classification: J16, J61, D13