>The slave mode of production was a barrier to the development of
>capitalism, so it was abolished.
>
>Maybe I'm being dim, but I don't see what your difficulty with that
>statement is. Or perhaps you think that the slave mode of production is
>intact?
Your counterposing the slave mode of production to capitalism implicitly denies or at the very least obfuscates the capitalist character of modern plantation slavery. As for the problem of formally unfree labor, it is indeed intact all over the world. The last issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies is devoted to its persistence, achieved through credit relations, in India in particular. Only read the intro by TJ Byres and the theoretical essay by J Mohan Rao. Very dramatic analysis indeed. Hey, if people aren't allowed to extinguish their credit card debts, many modern proletarians in the most advanced proletarian countries may find themselves in de jure, lifetime debt bondage. Monumental changes in personal bankruptcy laws are presently under consideration.
Yours, Rakesh