Original Accumulation, War and Difference

Abstract

Original accumulation created the conditions of possibility and existence of capitalism. According to Marx's original formulation it consists of “the historical process of the separation of producer and means of production”. The result of this process, for him, is the emergence of masses of dispossessed workers on one side and capitalists organised as a class on the other. Marx also sees war as a mobilising and producing element of social relations.

            On this basis, a broader reading of this process will be made. It is implied that if it generates the conditions of existence of capitalism for the first time, these conditions cannot fail to reproduce themselves. It is thus pertinent to speak of continuous original accumulation. Similarly, it will be shown how an expanded reading of the original accumulation reveals that the domination of the wage labourer is not the only fundamental and constitutive one of capitalism. Sexism and racism are equally so. Under this interpretative matrix, we will approach the work of authors like Federici, Scholz, Mbembe, Said or Lazzarato. Their arguments will help us to discuss a richer concept of class than that of classical Marxism, which recognises differences as sex and race as part of class.