In comments at my blog, I got on a rant about something that had been said elsewhere by someone who is, ostensibly, a leftist with a generally good critique of capitalism. But the analysis of exploitation under capitalism was left by the wayside when the issue of sexual slavery in Thailand was raised. To counter, someone pointed to the recent case of enslaved migrant workers. The response was to say the following:
"My answer would be that with female sexual slavery, it's already about the sex. In order to combat a problem we have to understand it. If we want to work on the problem of migrant farm workers, we need to understand that situation: the agriculture industry, the wage system, the profit margin of the growers, supply and demand for fruit, supply and demand for labor, the situation of the laborers, the illegal immigration issues, the social issues, etc., etc. We could say, let's not make this about the fruit, let's just focus on the general issue of exploitation, but while that sort of high-level thinking has its place, it will probably not help us develop a nuanced understanding of the particular issues in farm migrant labor or come up with a specific action plan.
Of course, I was irritated and wrote the following. I've been asked to publish it in an online zine. How can I improve it?
Here's a little klew. There's nothing high level or abstract about exploitation. Here's how it works. Capitalists are in business to pay you as lttle as possible so they don't have to work. Their goal is to live off the profits of your labor. Their goal, if they're not already doing it (and most are) is to not have to lift a finger or burn a brain cell working: they want to kick back and earn more than anyone can spend in a lifetime, never being forced to labor. And, they are motivated to keep on accumulating: more and more and more. They believe they are justified and entitled to your labor and you believe that too.
You work, say, 1.25 hrs. in a day to reproduce yourself to make the wage you need to live. Every single hour you work after that, your labor pays the overhead and the rest lines the pockets of capital.
That's your dead body lining that guy's pockets, by the way. Yours and 100s, 1000s, maybe miilions more.
That's the body that you could have used to make love, make art, read a book, grow a garden, snuggle with your best friend, or write poetry. But it's dead now. It is gone forever. One more hour, eight more hours, forty more hours, 2000 more hours. Hours of your limited life. Vanished.
You'll never get it back because you worked to line the pockets of some guy who thinks that, because he risks mere money which he risked in the first place to make ever more money and he did not risk his life or his body, then you owe it to him to give up that time of your life.
So, yes, let's ignore that "abstract" context.
Yessiree jimbob.
All the other horsehit is a suggestion that horror of what goes on in the fields is somehow _special_ because of _special_ conditions. Because of course whatever goes on to exploit the labor of a cubicle worker well, that's normal. that's ok. that's complicated. that's high-level.
that's abstract.
my ass.