Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 51)

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Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation (ص 51)

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that the living and working conditions of this class were continuously
changing along with changes in the wider economy (Lenin,1960:177-8).
Referring to the economic functions of migrant labour, Lenin
rejects the idea that this class, in the long run, remains necessary
for capitalism. The "big capitalist", according to Lenin, cannot
afford to employ the migrant labourer and pay him low wages, since
the latter can leave at any time in order to migrate to a higher
paying job (Lenin,1960). Elaborating on this point Lenin adds:
As with under developed capitalism anywhere, so
here, we see that the worker is particularly
oppressed by small capital. The big employer is
forced by sheer commercial considerations to
abstain from petty oppression, which is of little
advantage and is fraught with considerable loss
should disputes arise. That is why the big
employers, for example... try to keep their workers
from leaving at the end of the week, and themselves
fix prices according to the demand for labor;... A
small employer, on the contrary, sticks at nothing.
The farmsteaders and German colonists carefully
*“choose' their workers and pay them 15, or 20 pre-
cent more; but the amount of work they squeeze out
of them is 50 per cent more. (Lenin, 1960; pp. 245-
246)
Moreover, the functionalist logic adopted by this school of neo-
marxists calls into question the status of the process of transition
and casts serious doubts around the nature of the relationship between
the modes of production involved. Of particular importance in this
regard is the statement that, "...the mode of operation of capitalist
enterprises...{is] conditioned by the process of the formation of the
average rate of profit and the effects of this upon the forms of
capitalist calculation." (Wolpe,1980:40) This assertion is shared by
most articulationists. Thus, Burawoy's criticism of Wolpe's
explanation of the process of transition was not directed against the
functionalist approach per. se; instead, Burawoy suggested that
37
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Colonial Capitalism and Rural Class Formation

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Nahla Abdo-Zubi

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