[lbo-talk] corporate rationality

[c b]

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

^^^^^
CB: Respectfully,  this is, as you say an imagining. So far, in fact,
five hundred years of capitalism have not existed without white
supremacy. Based on the empirical evidence, and the theory of great
divider of the world working class, I conclude as I say.

On the extraction of surplus value,  again, I think it is important to
consider capitalism as a world system, so that the extraction of
surplus value anywhere in the world is made possible by the world
division of the working class, ( including sometimes specially in
single countries like the US) by racism.

But since we are imagining, it seems possible  that as it whithers
away on its way out, capitalism and wage labor may persist for a while
some places, as white supremacy drastically abates.