Marxism After Marx | Super-Exploitation

It is well-understood in Marxist theory that capitalists can extract more value from the labor process by increasing the rate of exploitation. However, a later contribution made by Ruy Mauro Marini explored the possibility of capitalists paying workers less than the amount needed for reproduction. This super-exploitation plays a key role in the contemporary global economy and reflects a stark gap between the Global North and the Global South.
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Narration, script, and editing by M.
Animated intro by Jack, co-host of the Auxiliary Statements podcast @AuxStatements on Twitter.
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References:
Marini, Ruy Mauro (2022). The Dialectics of Dependency. Ed. by Jaime Osorio. Trans. by Amanda Latimer. Monthly Review Press.

Karl, Marx (1993). Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy. Trans. by Martin Nicolaus. Penguin Classics. Penguin Books.

Osorio, James and Cristobal Reyes, eds. (2023). Labour Super-Exploitation, Unequal Exchange and Capital Reproduction: Writings on Marxist Dependency Theory. Vol. 4. Debates and Alternatives for Social Change. Columbia University Press.

Smith, John (2016). Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Super-Exploitation, and Capitalism’s Final Crisis. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press.

Suwandi, Intan (2019). Value chains: the new economic imperialism. Monthly Review Press.
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00:00 - 00:13 Intro
00:14 - 01:58 Rate of Exploitation
01:59 - 04:15 Super-Exploitation
04:16 - 04:37 Global Labor Arbitrage
04:38 - 05:51 Exploitation of Southern Workers
05:52 - 06:29 Labor Aristocracy
06:30 - 07:08 Capital vs. Labor
07:09 - 07:41 International Class Struggle
07:42 - 07:57 Outro

[PC]

John Smith's "Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century" is one of the best books I've ever read

[brolol]

Glory to the Revolution, Comrades! Hello and Thanks from Belarus 🥰😇😚

[hindigente]

I can only commend your channel for such didactic scripts and top-notch graphics/editing, which makes concepts so much easier to understand.

[ilyatsukanov]

In Russia we also have hyper-super-mega exploitation, where migrant workers are not only paid less than the norm, but also may have a part of their salary docked by corrupt businessmen or bureaucrats for tax purposes. For example, the city of Moscow may have a contract to pay a migrant 50000 rubles to work as a street sweeper, but in reality his direct employer pays him 35000 and pockets the rest. On the surface everything seems legitimate, hiding this super-exploitation. It's also one of the reasons employers don't hire Russian citizens, who aren't as easy to exploit using this particular trick. Naturally this all creates a lot of tensions between migrants (who think of Russians as exploiters) and Russians (who think of migrants as someone taking their jobs).

[CarterSimon]

Video on Economic Calculation problem? 🤞🤞🤞

[shifty]

Marini's The Dialectics of Dependency is well worth a read!

[scientificsolace]

thank you for your work, im a total marx newbie but going to begin reading capital so was wondering if theres a specific edition/translation i should look for and if any intro reading would be useful

[SolarEmbrace]

Michael Roberts talks about this and doesn't outright reject the idea of super-exploitation, but offers reasoning that it is not the main source of surplus value. There's several posts on his blog about this specifically and debating John Smith's "Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century". I think its more convincing to say it's a temporary thing that happens, but it either can not be sustained or the value of labor power permanently changes for that nation, becoming normal exploitation.

[dreadwanderer]

Very interesting concept, thank you. I see some parallels with rising consumer prices vs shrinkflation. Instead of increasing the price of a consumer good with a set quantity as it happens in normal inflation - say, a 500 ml carton of milk - what happens is that the price remains the same but the quantity is reduced, with the carton of milk now actually having 450 or 400 ml. The effect is the same of course: bigger profit margins for the capitalist.

[Rrgr]

My critique of the concept of a labour aristocracy is around the idea that Lenin wasn't that serious about it, as it seems he made a generalization about something he noticed but didn't have a better way to explain by that time, that's why he didn't went further into it, if so he would've noticed a similar scenario with minorities in general, which he actually acknowledged about domestic work and the situation of the women in the working class, but not in that regard.

Take into account that I'm from the global south, I'm not defending the north or the reactionary views within part of their working class, but if you consider what a aristocracy means, materialistic speaking isn't possible to be a labour aristocrat, dialectly speaking is not ass sound too, because is too broad to be, in the end the truth is just the same old international division of labor, if you consider the consumption part of it, which some people call it as the "consumerist sphere", a part of the working class dedicated to buy stuff more than produce stuff, so they exist as a way to guarantee the ongoing super exploitation, not by being aristocrats, but rather by being alienated to the point of living towards consumerism.

[yourmanFran]

Incredible video. This channel is doing the work that we need.

[romanotsick]

Do you have a plans for this series to cover some neomarxist and "affiliated" theories such as world-system analyis or "cltural" marxism? Obviously from a marxist prespective.

[wedas]

Thanks for the Video 🙏 BTW Labor aristocracy is a notion introduced not by Lenin but by Hobson of whom Lenin quotes in his Book Brief Imperialism

[Skiamakhos]

Question: If I work for a company in the global North & they year on year refuse to put my salary up in line with inflation such that I end up living on savings to at least in part pay my monthly bills, am I being super-exploited, or just plain old exploited?

[violetagardenia]

Any sources on current international labour action?

[joaoboechat]

Great video comrades, cheers from Brazil

[Glass-vfil]

What the map in this video change at some point. I seem to remember more countries being blue in it originally?

[ilhamrahim]

2:40 higher productivity doesn’t increase the rate of exploitation unless the higher productivity impacts the goods that workers buy with their wages, higher productivity doesn’t increase the rate of exploitation alone

[thastayapongsak]

I don't think Papua New Guinea is in the global North.

[HeavyTFreal]

Okay but seriously who made the map and how high did they have to be to put Papua New Guinea as part of the global north?