[PEN-L:11689] "Free labor" as a precondition for capitalism

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Robert Brenner, "The origins of capitalist development: a critique of
neo-Smithian Marxism", (New Left Review, 104, 1977):

"To state the case schematically: 'production for profit via exchange? will
have the systematic effect of accumulation and the development of the
productive forces only when it expresses certain specific social relations
of production, namely a system of free wage labour, where labour power is a
commodity. Only where labour has been separated from possession of the
means of production, and where labourers have been emancipated  from any
direct relation of domination (such as slavery or serfdom), are both
capital and labour power 'free' to make possible their combination at  the
highest level of technology."

====

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 12, 1998 Sunday Final

Using inmates to staff phones rekindles debate. Despite lack of problems,
lawmaker, union concerned

by Sam Martino

When state prisoners started answering telephone queries last month about
the commuter rail service that starts Monday between Milwaukee and
Watertown, the debate about the propriety of inmates being phone pals with
the public was rekindled.

Inmates had already been soliciting pledges for the Leukemia Society,
answering state lottery calls and giving advice on avoiding highway
construction zones.

No problems have arisen and a security system is in place to protect the
public, according to Steve Kronzer, head of Badger State Industries, the
Department of Corrections' prison work program.

"The benefit, as far as the state is concerned, is that the programs are
self-supporting," he said. "It pays for the cost of wages and materials.
You are not drawing on taxpayer money. And you are keeping the inmates
productive. It is critical in a prison system."

But a member of a state clerical workers union in Milwaukee and a state
legislator have another view.

 "Why is it a good thing that the lady down the block can't find a job in
the inner city, but her brother or sister who is in prison has a job doing
state telephone work?" asked Mike Lowrey, of Local 91 of the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. . .

Copyright© 1999, LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights
Reserved.

===

The Ottawa Citizen, August 31, 1999, FINAL

Giants of industry named in suits over Nazi-era slave labour: Sixteen firms
offer compensation

By Hattie Klotz

Large German corporations such as Volkswagen, Daimler-Benz, BASF, Siemens,
Deutsche Bank and Thyssen-Krupp -- to name just a few -- have been named as
defendants in several lawsuits filed by slave labourer victims of the Nazi
war machine.

One class-action suit has been filed in the New York and New Jersey courts
on behalf of former Ukrainian slave labourers still residing in Ukraine.
Many other Ukrainians, Poles, Czechs, Russians and Jews have also filed
lawsuits or are approaching company headquarters in Germany.

During the last week, representatives of the U.S. and German governments
have been locked in talks with negotiators from the companies named in the
suits.

Sixteen German firms that used Nazi-provided forced labourers are involved.
They have agreed to contribute money to a fund to compensate slave
labourers, but questions such as the amount of money to be paid into the
fund and the status of people who will apply are delaying any form of
settlement.

First offers from German industry are around the $1.7 billion U.S. mark,
''but that is not enough,'' said Pyotr Rabinovich, a lawyer bringing one of
the class-action suits in New York. ''There are about 2.3 million surviving
slave labourers worldwide. If you divide up that money between them, it is
about $400 to $500 per person.'' U.S. lawyers acting on behalf of labourers
are looking for as much as $20 billion.

Germany has already paid more than $54 billion in compensation to Holocaust
victims, but until now the plight of the former slave labourers has gone
largely unrecognized, although some former workers here in Canada receive a
very small pension, about $100 a year, from the German government.

One of the issues under discussion concerns the question of previous
compensation for people who suffered under the Nazis. ''We are arguing that
no money received from any German sources should be counted,'' said Mr.
Rabinovich, ''but the Germans only agree partially. They insisted that
earlier payment for forced labour should be counted.''

If German industry wins the day over this point, it is unlikely that any
former slave labourer who received payment at the time of work (however
minimal), or who now receives a pension from the government, will be
eligible to apply. A similar problem faces other Nazi victims who may have
received payment from any other form of compensation fund. However, both
parties have agreed that loss of property should not be compensated in this
settlement and that the fund will protect the corporations from future
lawsuits. . .

Copyright© 1999, LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights
Reserved.



Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)