[lbo-talk] corporate rationality

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Wed Oct 14 08:04:57 PDT 2009


c b wrote:
> The nature of necessary conditions is that there can be more than one.
> That alienation and competition divides the working class does not
> contradict that White supremacy divides the working class, and that
> both are necessary conditions of the perpetuation of capitalism.
>

I agree wholeheartedly that white supremacy has been an important component of capitalism throughout its historical development. However, it's pretty easy for me to imagine a world in which capitalism exists without white supremacy. The extraction of surplus value from labor works fine without racial distinctions; there are plenty of other ideological tricks to justify capitalism exploitation (e.g., the myth of the autonomous individual, as you noted). Thus I wonder if white supremacy is indeed a necessary and inescapable precondition for any capitalist society.

Miles



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