Unfree Labour under Capitalism: A Contradiction in (Useful) Terms

Abstract

Is free labour under capitalism a contradiction in terms? Two aspects of this long-debated question are considered. One is the divide between the libertarian insistence on individual freedom and the socialist contention of proletarian class unfreedom. Is there a viewpoint free of judgments or valuations as to what is or is not interesting or valuable about any given view of freedom? We argue that the Rawlsian original position defines a value-free benchmark of maximal freedom from which the degree of unfreedom under any set of social rules can be assessed. While negative individual freedom and class unfreedom are not incompatible, ‘free labour under capitalism’ has got to be a contradiction in terms. But capitalism classically defined is production by doubly ‘free’ labour which sharply distinguishes it from forms of ‘unfree’ labour that constitute its pre-history. This raises both conceptual and substantive empirical questions defining the second divide we consider, between Marx’s view linking capitalism and free labour and its detractors. Our contention is that keeping capitalism and unfree labour properly apart is a practical imperative of the continued use of these historically fruitful categories even if, as a corollary, ‘unfree labour under capitalism’ must seem a contradiction in terms.