Primitive Accumulation as a Perspective on Nature, Race and Gender

Abstract

This text systematizes Marx’s approach of primitive accumulation and Luxemburg’s theory of imperialism as tools to re-understand the relation between nature, race and gender as a constitutive relation between capital, the state and its boundaries. It first analyzes how the capitalist mode of production is shapes the modern relation between nature and labor, and how race and gender are produced as “natural”. By then applying Luxemburg’s approach to analyze the relationship between the state, borders, nature and politics and using the framework of primitive accumulation to understand race and gender – this paper explores different forms of exploitation and discrimination through the lens of value theory. This approach, we argue, provides a means of understanding capitalism that can create the conditions of unified forms of anti-capitalist struggle and solidarity.