Free Labor Research Articles

Between abolition and opium: civility and force across Asian and Caribbean British imperialisms

ABSTRACT This paper explores the relationship between Britian’s abolition of slavery in its Caribbean colonies in 1838 and its instigation of the First Opium War with China in 1840. In so doing, it works against the occlusion of this relationship in the study of British imperialism despite the centrality of these events to the birth of global systems of free trade and free labour. It draws on the parliamentary debates and correspondence of British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston to analyze Britain’s negotiation of anti-slavery efforts with Haiti and its trade of Indian opium with China. It argues that these negotiations position British masculine civility against less-civilized foreign others in ways that legitimate the use of maritime force. This logic of imperial civility produces contradictory effects by demanding an end to the brutality of African enslavement while condoning the devastation of Asian opium addiction enacted in the name of free trade.

Child Separation and the Stolen Generation of Brazil: Indigenous Peoples’ (Un)Freedom in Amazonia

Abstract This article examines questions pertaining to Indigenous people’s citizenship status, the problematic definition of orphanhood, rule of law, and structural racism in Brazilian society. The definition of orphanhood was articulated in a way that allowed for the extralegal abuse and racialized exploitation of labor to continue long past the legal end of Indigenous slavery (1755). Indigenous persons’ legal status, the definition of orphanhood, and guardianship laws worked together to legitimate the permanence of child separation as a means for wealthier Brazilians to get free child labor. The article uncovers the ambiguities in defining Indigenous people’s legal status, making citizenship status a subjective determination contested on a case-by-case basis. With this foreground understanding, the article presents the practice of child separation and the created discourse to legitimize Indigenous, Black, and mixed-race children as unpaid criadas de casa (housemaids).

Landowner economy in the Kazan province in the first half of the 19th century

The article is devoted to the economic development of landowners in the Kazan province during the era of serfdom. The source base of the study contains published memoirs of representatives of the nobility, statistical publications, pre-revolutionary studies of the state of agriculture in private farms, as well as archival material containing economic descriptions of 12 districts of the province, compiled by local leaders of the nobility and individual landowners based on the questions of the questionnaire of the Free Economic Society in 1802. The author analyzed the natural and geographical factors that influenced economic life on the estates; characterized the working inventory and showed attempts to modernize it; studied the specialization of estates and identified the economy-forming industries; considered the features of the corvee and quitrent systems of peasant exploitation. In addition, the article shows examples of organizing market-oriented agricultural production. A conclusion is made about the subsistence nature of the landowner economy in the Kazan province in the pre-reform period, in which the sale of surplus did not mean the commercial nature of production. The availability of free labor deprived the incentive to introduce improved methods of land cultivation – use modern equipment, improved varieties of crops, as well as develop industries such as livestock and crop production. For citation: Mironova E.V. Landowner economy in the Kazan province in the first half of the 19th century. From History and Culture of Peoples of the Middle Volga Region. 2024, vol.14, no.3, pp.118–136. https://doi.org/10.22378/2410-0765.2024-14-3.118-136 (In Russian)

Дорожное хозяйство Дальнего Востока России в период новой экономической политики (1922–1927 гг.)

The article highlights the work on the establishment of the road works management apparatus, the road works themselves carried out in the Far Eastern region after the Civil War and intervention. There were certain organi-zational difficulties in road construction, which were managed only after the creation of the Far Eastern Railway District. The authors give a brief list of restored and under construction dirt and highway roads of both state and local importance. At the same time, particular attention is paid to the construction of the Amur-Yakutsk highway, the laying of which began during the First World War. The article discusses the main problems of the industry’s development: lack of funds, lack of engineering and technical personnel and road workers. This, in turn, caused the need to use the free labor of the surrounding peasants in the construction of local roads. The first steps in the mechanization of road works in the region are highlighted. When writing the article, the authors relied on methodological principles generally recognized in historical science, the most important of which are the principle of objectivity and the principle of historicism.

Trade, Piecework, and the Liberty Principle

AbstractJohn Stuart Mill does not contradict himself in On Liberty with respect to the issue of piecework, contrary to Dale E. Miller's charge that he does. Miller fails to understand that the liberty principle (LP) limits society's authority to regulate trade in that society has no legitimate authority to prohibit or make unduly expensive a buyer's post-trade use of his purchased product in self-regarding ways. LP gives an employer who has purchased labor under a trade contract in a free and fair competitive labor market a right to conclude a separate mutually consensual self-regarding piecework contract with any skilled worker already in his employ.

Value and Productive Labour in the Era of Digital Technologies

This article revisits the so-called digital labour debate to clarify and problematise the many different positions in this debate. Synthesising the most promising arguments from the different positions in the debate, the article outlines a theory of digital media usage as exploited, value-producing labour. In doing so, the article criticises the Autonomist Marxist tradition and argues for the utility of a value-form theoretical approach to the question of free digital labour. In conclusion, the article argues for more analytical attention to the ways in which technological developments in contemporary capitalism can engender new processes of production and thereby also new types of unpaid value-producing labour.

Empire-builders: Interactions between Convicts and Enslaved, Free, and Military Workers in Bermuda’s Dockyards, 1824–1838

ABSTRACT Convict labourers in Bermuda formed part of a uniquely mixed workforce that challenged racial and class-based divisions of labour in the British Empire. Following the War of 1812, investment poured into Bermuda's royal naval dockyard to secure its strategic position; convicts arrived in 1824, working alongside enslaved people, free black workers, and colonial soldiers. This article reveals the nature of interactions between different types of free and unfree labourers in Bermuda between 1824 – when convicts arrived – and 1838, when a change in governance took place. It examines racial diversity in the dockyards and the arrival of convict labourers, before considering perceived threats of racial intermixing and opposition to convict labour deployment in Caribbean colonies. The final section examines perceptions of convicts – moments where they equated their experiences to slavery, and administrative unease over interactions with white military workers. What the article shows is that although there were concerns over racial intermixing, officials objected most strongly to interactions between white workers of different classes, fearing their alliances would alter the island's power balance. In detailing the coexistence and interactions between contrasting labour types, this article provides a greater sense of the nuances of labour deployment and administrative anxiety in colonial locales.

Use of free labour in the media within the scope of citizen journalism: A case study of the main news bulletin on Show TV

Use of free labour in the media within the scope of citizen journalism: A case study of the main news bulletin on Show TV

Jonathan Connolly. 2024. Worthy of Freedom: Indenture and Free Labor in the Era of Emancipation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 272 pp.

Jonathan Connolly. 2024. Worthy of Freedom: Indenture and Free Labor in the Era of Emancipation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 272 pp.

РАЗВИТИЕ ПРЕДПРИНИМАТЕЛЬСКОЙ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ В РЫБНОЙ ОТРАСЛИ ВОЛГО-КАСПИЙСКОГО БАССЕЙНА КАК ФАКТОР ПРИВЛЕЧЕНИЯ ТРУДОВЫХ МИГРАНТОВ ВО ВТОРОЙ ПОЛОВИНЕ XIX – НАЧАЛЕ ХХ в.

The creation of a free labor market in the post-reform period contributed to the intensification of entrepreneurial activity and the growth of industrial enterprises in all sectors of the economy of the Russian Empire. The development of rich natural resources in the outlying and sparsely populated regions of the country was impossible without a significant number of free labor. In the Volga-Caspian fishing Region, the development of entrepreneurial activity in the post-reform period coincides with the increase in the number of labor migrants who came here for seasonal work and moved to permanent residence. The territorial scope of the study is the Volga-Caspian fishing Region, most of which was administratively part of the Astrakhan Province. The purpose of the study is to analyze entrepreneurial activity in the fishing industry of the Volga-Caspian Region as a factor for attracting labor migrants to the region in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. Achieving the goal includes solving its constituent tasks: to characterize the demographic dynamics in the Astrakhan Province in the post-reform period; to analyze the state package of measures to stimulate small business and its effectiveness; show the development of large capital in the Volga-Caspian fishing Region; to identify the main types of migration flows to the Volga-Caspian fishing Region. The methodological apparatus of the study is represented by the theory of modernization, as well as a complex of special historical and general scientific methods. The paper, based on statistical data and office documentation, shows that the development of entrepreneurial activity in the fishing industry contributed to the growth in the number of migrants from other regions of the country; the contribution of labor migrants to the work of fisheries and the processes of colonization of the outlying region is characterized; shows the difficulties faced by the fishing population in the post-reform period, and the effectiveness of government measures to support it.

Sweatshop Boycotts: Can’t Live with Them, Can’t Live without Them

This article explores the moral permissibility of sweatshop boycotts. We build explicitly on Tomhave and Vopat’s (2018) framework for evaluating the moral permissibility of boycotts in general for the specific case of sweatshop labor. We argue that sweatshop boycotts are more likely to be morally justified when targeting forced labor compared to free labor and we explore the relevant moral tradeoffs associated with boycotts of free labor sweatshops. We analyze the morality of three cases of sweatshop boycotts—Indonesia in the 1990s, Bangladesh following the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster, and the Uyghur region in China—and then discuss how insights from these cases might provide a model to guide activists and business ethicists in analyzing the morality of other sweatshop boycotts.

Environment, Slavery and Agency in Colonial Uruguay, 1750–1810

Abstract In colonial Uruguay black slaves could supervise the work of white creoles and even hold the power to have their wages docked. To most historians this might seem puzzling and almost fictional in the context of the colonial Americas. This article makes sense of the puzzle by examining interactions between the economy and the environment on the Río de la Plata frontier. It argues that the natural world (soils, topography, climate, crops and animals) contributes to explain why this labour system existed, and also why it was efficient, contrary to the historiographical commonplace that enslaved workers would be unable to oversee free labourers effectively. Looking at the experience of both women and men through the lens of gender uncovers the parallels between the authority of these enslaved foremen over free male workers on the open range and their domestic authority over free women, whom they could marry. Their stories invite historians of other places and periods to foreground the environment in the set of structures that can either limit workers’ autonomy or give them strength.

The ‘unpaid’ labour of peer reviewers and the accumulation of capital in the industry of academic publishing

The ‘political economy’ of academic publishing industry has come under scrutiny in recent years, as scholars logically seek to understand how for-profit publishers can earn the exorbitant profits they report year after year. One explanation argues that academic publishers exploit scientists acting as peer reviewers and appropriate their ‘unpaid labour’, and that such ‘free labour’ is a major source of profit for publishing companies. These two assertions form the core tenets of the ‘unpaid academic labour thesis’, as this explanation has been termed. The purpose of this article is to subject the unpaid academic labour thesis to a systematic analysis and critique, aiming to elucidate whether it represents a valid explanation of the political economy of journal publishing. This question is considered in the light of the quantitative and qualitative determinations of surplus value production. The analysis conducted will show that peer review is neither an unpaid activity nor a source of profits (be it large of small) for the academic publishing industry. Moreover, by drawing on the distinction between labour time and production time expounded by Marx in Capital, volume II, the investigation will reveal that peer review represents for academic publishers a barrier to the valorisation of their capitals and, also, an unprofitable expense. Without a proper understanding of how capital accumulation operates in the industry of academic publishing, any political action or strategy against the current system of academic publishing will be powerless and ineffective.

From Docent to Professional to Activist to Critical Race Theorist: A Biomythography of a Black American Museum Professional

ABSTRACT The wisdom of Audre Lorde informs us that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” The origins of many museum collections are that their objects were obtained by colonizers who became the masters of colonized people’s cultural heritage. One of the master’s tools has always been to create and benefit from a system of free labor. Within the museum, the vestiges of the master’s tool of free labor remain, although with different shapes and aims. The system of free labor in the museum is tangential with the presence of the docent corps. This article explores the sensationalism of battles over the fate of docent groups in light of the need to make fundamental shifts in museum praxis.

Why and how to conduct a Scoping Review of literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences? Application to free labour in agriculture

Literature reviews stand as familiar and relevant tools within the research community, as mean to produce a state of knowledge to justify the relevance of a research question. Among the many methods that can be used, systematic approaches are developing in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). These review methodologies employ rigorous techniques in the identification, retrieval, and analysis of data. The overarching objective is to uphold transparency and replicability in research endeavours, elevating the overall quality and credibility of scholarly work in these disciplines. By presenting the two main systematic approaches to literature reviews – Systematic Literature Reviews (SLRs) and Scoping Reviews (SRs) –, we intend to clarify their respective objectives and methods, so that interested researchers can make an informed choice between them. We thus show that an SR aims to characterise the extent (or scope) of research on a subject or field, whereas an SLR aims to answer a specific question with a view to guiding practices. We also show the interest of these approaches for the HSS. We use a case study – free or unpaid labour in agriculture – to illustrate the different stages of a systematic approach to a literature review. We begin by justifying the choice of an SR over an SLR, and then test the former’s methodology through its various stages. The aim is to provide guidelines for researchers wishing to undertake this type of work. We reflect on this methodology, illustrating its advantages and disadvantages in the light of our experience. We show that systematic approaches to literature reviews are non-linear and time-consuming processes which require constant back-and-forth and reflection between the various stages. Nevertheless, their contributions in helping us understand complex subjects, develop expertise and achieve transparency show that they are suitable approaches for the HSS.

Private Property and Labor: Seed of a New Worldview A Textual Interpretation based on the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, young Marx addressed a novel issue: whereas traditional political economists regarded private property as an object opposed to the subject, adopting a metaphysical mode of thinking characterized by subject-object opposition, Adam Smith, referred to by Engels as the Luther of political economy, for the first time connected private property with the subject, thereby breaking away from its previous characterization as an objective, external dimension, implying signs of transcending Feuerbach. However, although Adam Smith and other political economists placed private property within human nature, due to their class limitations, they effectively treated profit-seeking activities as human nature, which is essentially a negation of humanity and diverges from human essence on the level of value. Marx, in critiquing their inherited ideas, not only links labor with private property but also understands labor as genuine, a return to the essence of humanity, as free labor rather than alienated labor, thereby laying the groundwork for the establishment of a scientific understanding of practice.

Discussing systemic racism and racial privilege at a large, academic health center using a modified privilege walk

BackgroundThere is a motivation for organizations to understand race and racism from the perspective of minoritized individuals. Academic health centers (AHC) are ideal organizations to have these conversations as they educate healthcare providers, support research in health disparities, and care for diverse patients.MethodsWe piloted and evaluated a virtual Modified Privilege Walk (MPW) with faculty, staff, and students at an AHC in July 2020 to promote difficult conversations about race/racism, social class, and privilege. Each MPW session was voluntary, held virtually over Zoom, and lasted one hour and thirty minutes. Before attending, participants answered questions based on their race/ethnicity and social class to calculate a “privilege score.” After each session, attendees were asked to complete an evaluation survey.ResultsThere were five virtual MPWs with 132 attendees, and 74 participants completed an evaluation survey (56% response rate). Many respondents were students (n = 29, 39.2%). Most respondents either agreed (n = 36, 48.6%) or strongly agreed (n = 32, 43.2%) that the virtual MPW positively impacted how they will interact with those of a different race/ethnicity. Attendees requested having more virtual MPWs with leadership, incorporating virtual MPWs in various program curricula, and requiring new employees to participate.ConclusionsAmerican organizations, particularly AHCs, should provide safe spaces and support these discussions surrounding race and racism as many were founded, built, or operated during a time of free labor and segregation that exerted power and control over minoritized individuals. Authors provide recommendations to dismantle organizational racism and support minoritized employees, patients, and students.

Does time heal all wounds? The rise, decline, and long-term impact of forced labor in Spanish America

For most of human history, free wage labor was uncommon compared to various coercive institutions based on the threat of force. Latin America was no exception to this general rule. A number of scholars argue that past coercive labor institutions explain regional and national divergence within Latin America long after the institutions themselves have disappeared. A review of the literature, however, shows less agreement than is commonly recognized. There is evidence that forced labor on Spanish American mainland collapsed endogenously under its own weight, in which case it may have left few echoes in the present.

РАЗВИТИЕ СИСТЕМы АДАПТАЦИИ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ НА ФОНЕ НЕДОСТАТКА КВАЛИФИЦИРОВАННых КАДРОВ НА РыНКЕ ТРУДА

The article analyzes the problem of the lack of qualified personnel in the labor market and its impact on the personnel adaptation system. As part of the study, an analysis of the current situation in the labor market, an analysis of the practices of companies in the field of recruitment and selection of personnel, the views of modern business leaders were carried out, and the need for changes in the system of personnel adaptation of Russian organizations was substantiated. The situation of labor shortage that has developed over the past few years has led to changes in the main strategies in the personnel management system, primarily related to the easing of requirements for qualifications, soft skills, age, gender and other characteristics of personnel. This, in turn, required changes in the adaptation system, revision of strategy and the introduction of more complex and modern technologies. From the authors’ point of view, the emphasis from socio-psychological adaptation should be shifted to professional and organizational adaptation, technologies should be refocused on individualizing adaptation programs based on the introduction of digital systems, the use of interactive teaching methods, intensifying the use of the capabilities of self-learning organizations, expanding the scope of adaptation through training of freelancers, free labor on the labor market. Thus, the main results of the situation analysis indicate the need for an integrated approach to adaptation, including changing strategy, using modern technologies and creating conditions for professional growth, taking into account the individual characteristics of personnel.

Sloboda kretanja radnika i Otvoreni Balkan

The concept of Open Balkan emerged four years ago among high-ranking officials of Balkan countries, driven by the aspiration for increased cooperation in economic and other vital areas. The collaboration between Serbia, North Macedonia, and Albania aims to tackle socio-economic challenges, fostering regional cooperation for better state integration and the joint use of resources to combat unemployment and economic issues. This initiative has led to various agreements and acts forming the legal framework, mirroring the European Union’s values of unrestricted movement of people, goods, capital, and services. Key areas include establishing a single market, recognizing diplomas and qualifications, introducing administrative benefits in employment, and streamlining work permits. Facilitating free labor market access reduces emigration and aligns labor supply and demand across sectors. The construction of a unified labor market involves implementing an electronic system for identifying and applying for freelance jobs within the regional Union, serving as a potent tool for migration control and addressing labor shortages in specific professions.