Werner Bonefeld: Primitive Accumulation and Capitalist Accumulation (2013) [LEC, ENG]

Primitive accumulation is not just the historical starting point of capitalism, but, qua coercive proletarianisation, central to its essence. The separation of labour from the means of existence holds sway in the concept of capital. Primitive accumulation is therefore not just a historical past from which capitalist social relations emerged; rather, it is fundamental to the concept of capital. Marx’s critique of political economy expounds economic categories as social categories founded on and subsisting th