The longue durée of primitive accumulation: From depeasantization to deproletarianization

Abstract

Examined here is how and why Marxism connects the violence/coercion of primitive accumulation to the reserve army and unfree labour-power, and then to populism and the class struggle. It is argued that, as such features are now encountered in modern capitalism, those associated with primitive accumulation cannot be confined simply to its historical beginnings. Unlike the current tendency that a return to a benign capitalism is still possible, the trajectory followed by primitive accumulation suggests much rather an underlying consistency in methods and objectives. Hence features characteristic of primitive accumulation appear twice, but each time with different purposes, aimed at specific kinds of property. Once in the form of depeasantization, at the onset of capitalist development, and then as deproletarianization, when capitalism is mature.