Labor As An Agent Of Production And The Differences Of Productive Labor And Unproductive Labor

•    Analyze the changes in the forced labor systems in the Americas from 1450 to 1914 CE.

“Political economy conceals the estrangement inherent in the nature of labor by not considering the direct relationship between the worker (labor) and production” (Pg. 30). According to Marx, human nature is neither fixed nor transcendent; instead, it is alterable and embedded in the productivity of everyday life. The only fixed attribute that we have is our openness. We are different from other animal species in the sense that we are able to adapt to different natural environments by creating a social environment. We recognize what Marx termed us as ‘species being’ when we plan our actions, organize collectively to draw a living from nature, and make sense our experience in the different form of cultures. Generally speaking, estrangement

The structural manifestation of the economy manifested itself in two ways. First, each sector’s contribution to the total income of the nation changed in the course of economic growth. As this happened, the nature of the work that laborers performed was also transformed (Olson 288). The value of agriculture as the principal employer started to diminish. As a result, attention of laborers shifted to the manufacturing sector.

The ensuing conflict, between labor vs. capital, during the late 1800s initiated a struggle of power in the workforce between the rich-industrialists (or corporate leaders) and the middle-class/lower-class workers. The Capitalists had intervened with the protests orchestrated by the workers, ensuring that the power remains with them. The strategies of the industrialists and the unique ways of protesting from the workers, contributes to spur a vigorous argument between the employers and their employees. The workers tried their best to ameliorate their working conditions by forming numerous unions, trying to fix currency (gold to paper) to economically help themselves, refusing to go to work, resorting to violence and non-violence, etc. However, the Corporate leaders kept an upper hand and dissolved the workers’ ambitions by hiring scabs, creating a strong relationship with the military (Pullman strike), controlling and fixing policies at work, hiring immigrants for cheap labor, etc. Throughout the late 1800s, the corporate leaders have been able to successfully prevent workers who had resorted to: forming unions, protests (ex. Pullman strike and Homestead strike), violence (ex. Haymarket Sq. Riot), etc., from achieving a radical solution to the workers issues with the management by using several different strategies including but not limited to: hiring scabs/immigrants in the Homestead strike, using government support in the Pullman strike and keeping the power on their side

Capitalism was the sole purpose for being the cause of an exponential use of slaves in all aspects of production. Notably, it involved an economic system whose basis originates from private ownership of all the means of production as well as the production of goods and services majorly meant for profit. With characteristics such as accumulation of capital, labor, private property ownership, and competitive market. Therefore, there was a great need for means of production hence slavery. However, there is a close relationship between free and slave labor as used in production. The paper uses “Capitalism and Slavery” (William, 1961) as a primary source material to compare the profitability of free labor and slave labor through an in-depth discussion of the role the African slavery played in the development of capitalism in the New World. Free labor and slave labor both have profits in the production process and would be applied differently at various places. For instance, slave labor was profitable in activities in which little skills and versatility in production process were required. It is worth noting that, the use of slave labor to cultivate a fresh soil is more profitable than the use of free men in the cultivation of an exhausted land. However, the use of slave labor was the option at the earlier stages of development of colonies, although slaved labor was unskillful, given reluctantly, and lacks versatility (Eltis, 2000). Moreover, use of slave labor were not moral but

In her book, Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network, Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz describes the lives of ten busboys, she referrs to as the Lions, living and working in the Chicago area. Gomberg-Muñoz provides an insight into the lives of these undocumented Mexican workers. They share their stories of crossing the border, the affects of their absence on family back in Mexico, and the daily struggles of living in a country without the benefits of citizenship. The Lions, as well as other undocumented Mexicans, have to face Americans stereotypes every day. Probably the biggest stereotype the Lions contend with is the belief that all Mexicans are hard workers.

Free and slave labor is different each other based on their characteristic of profitability in many different places. Slave labor gains more revenue from tasks that require less basic skill and flexibility in the production process. For example, if the landlord use slave labor to cultivate fresh land, it is more profitable instead of using free labour to cultivate desolated land. Moreover, the use of slave labor is based on a strict economic situation. Slavery made supplies free labors were not achieved, and the cultivation of crops such as cotton, sugar, and tobacco was possible to achieve by slave labour in the New World because the European population of the 19th century was limited. Free labor has not achieved the supply needed for large farms in the new land and they suited better for small-scale production of crops requiring professional skills which is an absolute fact that using slave labors are more advantageous to do the mass production. Therefore, slave labor was much better to stable because it was easier to control over ensuring proper production of crops (Eltis, 2000).

a constant demand for labor to grow agriculture and the way they treated the labors didn’t

For the American laborer, factory worker, and farmer, the early twentieth century addressed a wide multitude of social and economic issues all across the board. Immigration, World War II and all of its supports and anti-war protests, the strong governmental reinforcement of laws that prohibited alcohol, radical literature, and any behavior that was considered “unpatriotic,” this century was full of revolutionary change. But one of the most notable issues of this time was the public growth of Socialism, an economic theory in which manufactured goods and delivery were governed not by the elite, but by the community as a whole. Between 1915 and 1920 especially, Socialism was beginning to pick up speed, as it had originated from the tense cracks that had begun to grow and fester between the working class and bourgeois. While the elite enjoyed the lavish wealth and ample opportunities that were available to only them alone, working class Americans gradually grew dissatisfied by their unsanitary conditions, 10 to 12 hour dangerous workdays, and very little pay. It was no wonder that during this time, the IWW and the phenomenon known as “strike fever” was born.

Slavery lives on all era in world history till lately, but its life has not constantly had the similar economic trait. Two questions ought to be answered to properly examine any definite cause of slavery: (1) what further systems of labor live in the civilization also to slavery? And (2) what system of labor is leading? In this manner we can make a difference among ancient slavery (e.g., in Greece and Egypt where free farmers live together with slaves, but slavery was leading) and antebellum slavery in the United States (which live together with free farmers, but was conquered by the industrially-based capitalism of the urban North). The past dominance of capitalism in the United States made antebellum slavery the most uncivilized system of slave work. Not

labor when it is apparent he cannot attain what he appropriates. As a result of

With the increase of agriculture, the need for labor increase so that plantations could expand. India needed labor for Cotton textile production and China need labor for silk. All regions labor system benefit their economy. America had different forms of coerced labor such as chattel slavery, indentured servants, and encomienda. Africa had slaves to work in household and had them to export for money. All regions relied heavily on slavery. North America need slaves for sugar plantations and eventually for cotton. Russia’s coerced labor were serfdoms, who had to stay in the land and serve the owner.

Marx on page 327 of his essay estranged labor is describing what to him were

his religion. Marx writes, "The more man puts into God the less he retains in

This brief history of more than 100 years of the modern trade union movement in the United States can only touch the high spots of activity and identify the principal trends of a "century of achievement." In such a condensation of history, episodes of importance and of great human drama must necessarily be discussed far too briefly, or in some cases relegated to a mere mention.