Colonialism and Capitalist Production: A Conclusion

The term ‘labour process’ refers to the way in which work is organised in particular circumstances or processes of production. It includes both patterns of work division and characteristic forms of payment for work done. In a related way, some remain fascinated by the notion that the labour force in capitalist society is a free, waged-labour force. This is sometimes taken to mean that the ability to work is sold without being constrained by any other than economic forces. The capitalist mode of production has as its central defining characteristic the extraction of surplus value and its consumption in a process of capital accumulation, that is, in reinvestment in some process of expanded capitalist production. The differing character of the products and the labour processes through which they are produced engenders much of the variety and most of the confusion in the attempt to analyse the mode of production created as a result of the colonial process.