Unfree Labour Beyond Binaries

Abstract

Departing from liberal accounts that understand 'modern-day slavery' and unfree labour in isolation from markets and shifting global networks of production and reproduction, this article highlights the need to investigate how far and in what ways the deepening and extension of neoliberal capitalism has given rise to the contemporary spectrum of unfree labour relations. Building on feminist political economy frameworks, the article argues that the neoliberal resurgence of unfree labour has been rooted in fundamental shifts in power, production and social reproduction whereby capital's security has increasingly come to rely upon the deepening of labour market insecurity for certain sections of the population. It highlights the need to understand unfree labour within the context of broader relations of inequality and hierarchical social relations, particularly along the lines of race, gender and citizenship, arguing that broader and more systemic evaluations of labour and unfreedom are essential to understanding the variegated power relations that underpin the most severe forms of exploitation.---

Fishing for export: calo, recruiters, informality, and debt in international supply chains

“…A more sophisticated and persuasive analysis situates the exploitation of fishers as being driven by an increased global demand for fish and the rapid growth of industrial fishing fleets, as well as the over-exploitation of several fish stocks (ILO 2013). This analysis echoes critiques of modern slavery which view free/unfree labour as arising out of the political economy of transnational capitalist modes of production (e.g., Fudge 2017, LeBaron 2015, Strauss & Fudge 2013. Falling productivity arising out of intensification of fishing methods and the consequent depletion of fish stocks induces vessel owners to cut operating costs to maintain or increase profits.…”

Capital espacial entre los trabajadores agrícolas mexicanos en contextos de trabajo no libre en Canadá

“…A pesar de las expectativas, las relaciones de trabajo no libre continuaban siendo frecuentes en países "tercermundistas". Se pensaba que se trataba de "una anomalía en el modo de producción capitalista" (Basok, 2002, p. 14) o más bien de aspectos residuales de épocas anteriores o que se debían a un desarrollo insuficiente del capitalismo (Lebaron, 2015;Sharma, 1995). Tales razonamientos ocultaban que aquellas formas eran (y son) compatibles e inherentes con la expansión del capitalismo, tanto en los países desarrollados, como en todo el mundo (Brass, 2011;De Vito & Sundevall, 2017;Strauss, 2014).…”

Laos’s Peripheral Centrality in Southeast Asia

“…While many workers are integrated through typical wage labour arrangements, there is also evidence of multiple forms of labour extraction, as well as the blurring of the boundaries of "free" and "unfree" labour. 107 In Bokeo province, northwest Laos, Chinese-invested banana plantations have used migrant workers from other provinces as the main crop tenders. Rather than wage labour, they are contracted to be paid by a lump sum determined by the weight of bananas harvested from their allocated plot at the end of the 7-10 month-long season.…”