Unfree Labor

Abstract

The persistence and reproduction of unfree labor challenge our understanding of labor relations under capitalism. Some of those concerned with this phenomenon label it “new slavery,” but this implies that it had ended and has since returned. An analysis which instead takes into account different mechanisms by which unfreedom can be imposed in labor relations reveals otherwise. Unfreedom in labor relations, understood as an exercise of power, has taken a variety of forms that vary over time and space. This entry discusses the definitions of unfree labor, forced labor, new slavery, and trafficking. It reviews debates around each of these within policy‐oriented literature, the new slavery school of thought, Marxian perspectives, and a new critical studies of unfree labor school of thought. It notes that there is room for labor geography to bring additional insights to the study of unfree labor and unfreedom in labor relations.

“Completely Free”: How a Subsumption of Labour and Nature Framework Explains the Surprising Expressions of “Freedom” by Immigrant Worm pickers in Ontario

“…Instead, “freedom” in the workplace exists on a continuum where labour regimes can be characterised as being more or less free (Lerche 2011; Rogaly 2008). Indeed all labour forms—be they paid or unpaid—“can be subject to scrutiny in terms of the extent and types of (un)freedom that characterizes them and how it structures the negotiation over conditions of work” (McGrath 2017). Other scholars have pushed beyond this “continuum approach” to see how “multifaceted modalities” or “axes” (LeBaron 2015) or “varieties of unfreedoms” (Barrientos et al.…”

“… 3 3 Whether such “unfree” labour regimes such as “modern slavery” (Bales 2016) are historical holdovers slowly dissolving away, an aberration of functioning markets, or endemic to global capitalism and surplus value production, have generated much discussion (Banaji 2003; Brass 1994; LeBaron 2015; McGrath 2017; Strauss and McGrath 2017). …”