I would echo David Dodman's comments. Hillary, you may also be interested to know that there was nothing 'primitive' about the shackles that bound enslaved people during the Middle Passage or in the Americas (at least in a technological sense). Although the exact technologies associated with Atlantic slavery changed in the course of the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, the Caribbean especially was at the leading edge of early modern capitalism and had the objects to match - including sail ships, steam engines and industrially-manufactured shackles.
David Lambert
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Dodman
Sent: 05 March 2007 23:43
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Abolition 1807-2007
Whatever the theoretical difficulties of "separating free and unfree labour
in capitalism", I would hope that members of this forum would recognise a
qualitative difference between having to do a job we don't really like
because we need cash or the "need" to drive cars (presumably what Hillary is
referring to) and the Atlantic slave trade. In addition, and in the least
antagonistic way possible, I find the comparison between the middle passage
and driving down the M4 somewhere between distasteful and nauseating.
David
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dr Hillary Shaw" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 6:20 PM
Subject: Fwd: Abolition 1807-2007
And we've been successfully persuaded to chain ourselves to 1-tonne lumps
of
metal without which many of us cannot acess food, shops, work, school for
our
chldren, our families, post offices, hospitals, and much else. And to run these lumps of metal we pay taxes through the nose to government and rely
for
our very lives on big global corporations and far off possibly unstable governments. Best of all these lumps of metal all come with a digitally-recognisable number on the back and front and we have to register
where we live each
year because of them (and pay £100-£200 as we do so). Far more intrusive monitoring possibilties than were offered by those primitive 18th century
shackles,
and best of all we willingly did all the shackling ourselves, as we chose
to
abandon local shops and public transport, and live miles from work, family, and friends.
Don't worry, these are far more comfortable shackles than the slaves wore
on
their way across the Atlantic, they come with air-con, sat-nav, full stereo and air bags, we don't even see or feel them - and we won't, not till the
oil
stops coming into UK ports, or maybe some idiot / clever guy / Al Q
operative
works out how to dope a large slice of the UK petrol supplies with an engine-stopper like silicone. (sorry, fantasising here, that'd never
happen, would
it?)
Hillary Shaw, Newport, Shropshire (2.7 miles from work, 120 miles from
family)
In a message dated 05/03/2007 19:24:33 GMT Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes:
I don't find it very easy to separate free and unfree labour in capitalism. When I sell my labour, I don't think of it so much as a 'right', but something I have to do to survive in a capitalist economy. If my labour
were 'free',
I would be giving it away because my needs were being met and I was
choosing
to contribute to projects which I valued and which contributed to the
benefit
of community/ecology rather than to profit or other relations of domination ( e.g., housework and patriarchy).
As is the case for most of us, I imagine, I've chosen to do things for
money
that I really didn't like doing and would not have done had I not needed
the
cash. How free is that?
Jamie
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