Mediations of the Super-Exploitation of Labor in the Thought of Ruy Mauro Marini

Abstract

The super-exploitation of labor is the key category of the Marxist Theory of Dependency. However, its essential role is difficult to grasp at first glance. The hypothesis we propose in this paper is that its understanding and treatment require mediations in function of the dialectical totality that constitute the category of the super-exploitation of labor itself—that is, an analysis of the unity of the multiple relations, conditions, and determinations that constitute and explain it as a phenomenon. Only in this way can the super-exploitation of labor be understood as a category that is both determining and determined by mediations in which not only economic but also social and political dimensions intervene.