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Race, Surplus Population and the Marxist Theory of Imperialism
Author(s) -
McIntyre Michael
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
antipode
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.177
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 1467-8330
pISSN - 0066-4812
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2011.00898.x
Subject(s) - capitalism , surplus value , population , marxist philosophy , capital (architecture) , economics , neoclassical economics , race (biology) , argument (complex analysis) , sociology , political science , law , gender studies , politics , history , biology , demography , biochemistry , archaeology
This paper argues that capitalist accumulation requires imperialist expansion, and that this expansion creates a “raced” surplus laboring population. The argument proceeds in seven parts: that Marx's assertion in chapter 25 of Capital that capitalism produces an ever‐increasing relative surplus population is tenable in all but the longest of time frames; that imperial expansion played an important role in the transition to capitalism, though not for the reasons traditionally given; that overinvestment rather than the increasing organic composition of capital best explains imperial expansion in the capitalist era; that the uneven development of capitalism produces at the same time an uneven development of the surplus laboring population; that race has served as a mark of membership in the surplus laboring population; that by intertwining itself with the surplus laboring population, race serves to perpetuate itself despite its contradictions; and that despite this resilience, the contradictions of race also set in process conflicts that make it possible to overcome imperialism.