Review from ROAPE Volume 16 Number 45/46
Unfree Labour and its Persistence into the Capitalist Era

The New Helots: Migrants in the International Division of Labour by Robin Cohen; Capitalism and Unfree Labour: Anomaly or Necessity? by Robert Miles. Robin Cohen and Robert Miles have produced extremely important and valuable studies of the use of unfree labour in the capitalist era. Both challenge the idea that the capitalist mode of production is based on the exclusive use of free wage labour. In contrast they suggest that capitalism has historically coexisted with a combination of unfree labour regimes. Whilst both authors adopt a Marxist methodology, they attempt to avoid treating Marx's work as a ‘holy script’ , to use Miles’ words. Instead they outline and attempt to rectify, gaps and deficiencies in Marx's analysis.