Introduction

Capitalisms ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199499717.003.0001 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-32

Author(s):

Kaveh Yazdani ◽

Dilip M. Menon

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Economic Dynamics ◽

Consumer Demands ◽

Historical Capitalism ◽

Labour Power

This introduction emphasizes the importance of global conjunctures and non-European resources, labour power, goods, ideas, institutions, techno-scientific developments, consumer demands, and socio-economic dynamics in the genesis of historical capitalism(s). The contributions to the volume are summarized, highlighting both the internal socio-economic dynamics of a number of regions (that is, parts of Latin America, Eurasia, and Africa), as well as the global interconnections, entangled histories, and intertwined processes that went into the making and co-production of historical capitalism(s).

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Labour as a Commons: The Example of Worker-Recuperated Companies

Critical Sociology ◽

10.1177/0896920516661856 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 44 (4-5) ◽

pp. 763-776 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Dario Azzellini

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Social Change ◽

Social Relations ◽

Social Struggle ◽

New Perspective ◽

Labour Power

This article argues that labour can be understood as a commons, located in the discussion of how commons can advance the transformation of social relations and society. To manage labour as a commons entails a shift away from the perception of labour power as the object of capital’s value practices, towards a notion of labour power as a collectively and sustainably managed resource for the benefit of society. Given that social change is largely a result of social struggle, it is crucial to examine germinal forms of labour as a commons present in society. I focus my analysis on worker-recuperated companies in Latin America and Europe. Worker-recuperated companies are enterprises self-managed by their workers after the owners close them down. Despite operating within the hegemonic capitalist market, they do not adopt capitalist rationality and are proven viable. Worker-recuperated companies offer a new perspective on labour as a commons.

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Coffee and Rural Proletarianization: A Comment on Bergad

Journal of Latin American Studies ◽

10.1017/s0022216x00004077 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 143-152 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Tom Brass

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Puerto Rico ◽

Latin America ◽

Recent Article ◽

Plantation Economy ◽

Sugar Plantation ◽

Wage Labour ◽

The Caribbean ◽

Labour Power

In a recent article in this journal, Dr Bergad argues that the production of coffee for the export economy in nineteenth-century Puerto Rico was accompanied by the emergence of a rural proletariat, and suggests that the latter process in fact predated the development of a sugar plantation economy in the twentieth century, with which capitalist free wage labour is commonly associated. This characterization of the coffee hacienda workforce raises definitional problems on which I would like to comment. This characterization of the coffee hacienda workforce raises definitional problems on which I would like to comment. Illustrating with examples from coffee-producing areas in Latin America and sugar-producing areas in the Caribbean, I shall argue that the increased demand for labour-power arising from the expansion of an export-oriented yet labour-intensive capitalist agriculture in a location where labour is scarce is met not by free wage labour but rather by recourse to unfree labour. In these circumstances, competition for labour-power results paradoxically in the attempt by capitalists to restrict the free movement of labour and the consequent formation of a free labour market.

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The Genesis and Internal Dynamics of El Salvador's People's Revolutionary Army, 1970–1976

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x13009850 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 38 (01) ◽

pp. 102-129

Author(s):

ALBERTO MARTÍN ÁLVAREZ ◽

EUDALD CORTINA ORERO

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

El Salvador ◽

Early Years ◽

Left Wing ◽

Internal Dynamics ◽

Internal Coherence ◽

The 1960S

AbstractUsing interviews with former militants and previously unpublished documents, this article traces the genesis and internal dynamics of the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (People's Revolutionary Army, ERP) in El Salvador during the early years of its existence (1970–6). This period was marked by the inability of the ERP to maintain internal coherence or any consensus on revolutionary strategy, which led to a series of splits and internal fights over control of the organisation. The evidence marshalled in this case study sheds new light on the origins of the armed Salvadorean Left and thus contributes to a wider understanding of the processes of formation and internal dynamics of armed left-wing groups that emerged from the 1960s onwards in Latin America.

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