Disposable Workers Today’s Reserve Army of Labor FRED MAGDOFF & HARRY MAGDOFF But if a surplus labouring population is a necessary product of accumula- tion or of the development of wealth on a capitalist basis, this surplus- population becomes, conversely, the lever of capitalistic accumulation, nay, a condition of existence of the capitalist mode of production. It forms a disposable industrial reserve army, that belongs to capital quite as abso- lutely as if the latter had bred it at its own cost. —Karl Marx, Capital, vol. 1 These are difficult times for workers. In the wealthy countries of cap- italism’s center, labor is struggling to maintain existing wages and bene- fits against a combined assault by corporations and governments, while conditions of workers in the periphery are even more difficult. The widespread acceptance and adoption of capital’s agenda—“free trade,” “free markets,” greater “flexibility” regarding labor, and reduced social welfare assistance—has led to one group of real winners. Transnational corporations (and their owners and top managers) now have more free- dom to produce where labor and other costs are cheap, have their patents protected, and move capital in and out of countries at will. Many work- ers, unfortunately, are finding that their situation has become more ten- uous. Many changes in the U.S. economy—including those leading to increased pressure on labor—can be traced to the period of the late 1970s and early 1980s (see “The New Face of Capitalism: Slow Growth, Excess Capital, and a Mountain of Debt,” April 2002 Monthly Review). These changes embody capital’s response to the stagnation that developed in the economies of the center following a period of rapid growth after the Second World War. In the absence of sufficient economic stimulation 1 Fred Magdoff is professor of plant and soil science at the University of Vermont in Burlington. He is author of numerous scientific articles; coauthor with Harold van Es of Building Soils for Better Crops (Sustainable Agricultural Network, 2000); and coeditor with John Bellamy Foster and Frederick H. Buttel of Hungry for Profit: The Agribusiness Threat to Farmers, Food, and the Environment (Monthly Review Press, 2000). Harry Magdoff is an editor of Monthly Review and author of Imperialism Without Colonies (Monthly Review Press, 2003). Magdoff2.qxd 3/2/2004 4:42 PM Page 1