Capitalism and Unfree Labour

WAGE labour is a distinctive feature of capitalism but not necessarily all wage labour can be considered as ‘free labour’, neither is it true that capitalism is inimical to unfree labour. Marx sarcastically mentioned that a worker is doubly free in the sense s/he is free to sell labour power as her/his own commodity and also free of all means of production by which s/he could have valorised her/his own labour.

Patriarchy Subsidises Capitalism

THE uninterrupted supply of labour in capitalism is ensured by a socio-cultural arrangement of producing the ‘worker’ within family and household. This is not a capitalist site of production where goods and services are produced as commodities by engaging wage labour. Instead the worker as an able-bodied subject is produced within the family by involving unpaid labour.While discussing about primary accumulation of capital, Marx did refer to a process of alienating direct producers from the means of production and this has been done by the use of coercion.

Annual PLFS Report: Increased Vulnerability and Erosion of Rights

THE latest annual report of Periodic Labour Force Survey, 2021-22 published by NSSO, Government of India draws attention to many perennial problems that India seems to be facing in the employment front. True indeed that the annual unemployment rate has marginally declined compared to the pandemic period but the structural concerns such as high rates of youth unemployment, high unemployment rates within the educated, increased vulnerability due to rising self-employment and erosion of rights of regular salaried workers, continue to remain as dark spots in India’s labour market.

…And A World to Win!

THE Communist Manifesto begins with the profound observation that the history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles indicating history in the making through class contestations. Capitalism has undergone different regimes of accumulation coordinated through institutions and regulations conducive for particular regimes.

Workers and the Poor under Neoliberalism

THESE days talking about rights of people as individuals or as groups defined by specific identities, marginalised due to cultural and reasons other than that related to work is acceptable and seems fashionable but raising issues of workers is something which is considered to be dangerous! All oppressed people can legitimately raise their voice for their right and dignity but not workers who are exploited by capital, an impersonal systemic class rule.

Cronyism and the Optical Illusion of ‘National Interest’

THE impact of the short seller Hindenburg report on Adani’s share values and the consequent political response of the government reveals some of the worrying trends that the Indian economy seems to be witnessing at the moment. It is not so surprising that the Indian State came forward in defense of big capital which in any case it had been doing for the past couple of decades and also ‘cronyism’ is not a new trait in India’s history of State-business relationship.

Budget 2023-24: Hoax of ‘Populist’ Relief

THE first advance estimates released by the NSO on January 6, estimates the nominal GDP of India for the current financial year 2022-23 to be Rs 273 lakh crores and in this backdrop the budget proposed by the finance minister projects a 10.5 per cent nominal growth leading to a nominal GDP of 301 lakh crores for the financial year 2023-24. The Economic Survey 2022-23 estimates a real growth rate for the year 2023-24 to be 6.5 per cent as the baseline figure which indicates an implicit inflation to the tune of 4 per cent for the financial year 2023-24.

Productivity Slowdown: Capitalism Caught in its Own Trap

BESIDES gloomy global macroeconomic environment infested by high food and energy inflation leading to cost of living crisis together with rising costs of input and corporate credit because of higher interest rate triggered by inflation targeting monetary stance across countries, the crisis of capitalism is also manifested in a deeper manner by slowing down of aggregate productivity growth.Productivity in its different measures is a ratio of economic output to economic inputs.

Freebies and Lollipops to the Corporates

CUTTING down expenditures that impact upon the poor while bailing out the corporates has been the hallmark of neoliberal policies. Profit making by any means and favouring the rich by way of offering subsidies from state exchequer to the big corporates is being legitimised as pro-market and development enhancing strategies. Hardly any issues are being raised by the mainstream media on these sops while subsidies to farmers or to the middle class in terms of provisioning of electricity, water, education or health services has been termed as ‘freebies’ granted from tax payers money.

Emerging Conflicts in Capital’s Control on Labour

CONTROL on the labour process has been the key to capital relations. It is important because the origin and reproduction of capital relations depends on the alienation of labour from the process of production. One of the important means to exercise control by capital over labour is to separate the mental and physical labour through a hierarchical structure. It is meant for a division of labour which is curated to distinguish people who would be thinking and those who would be mindlessly executing instructions given by planners within the factory.

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Peoples Democracy

economic policy & Labour