Original Violence and Coercion of Capitalism

Hey folks. In our discussion yesterday regarding coercive measures taken by capital to capture labour power, I mentioned Deleuze and Guattari's thoughts on the violence of capital and the ongoing process of primitive accumulation. Here's the passage I was referring to from A Thousand Plateaus.

"…Marx made the observation in the case of capitalism: there is a violence that necessarily operates through the State, precedes the capitalist mode of production, it is very difficult to say who is the thief and who the victim, or even where the violence resides. That is because the worker is born entirely naked and the capitalist objectively ‘clothed’, an independent owner. …It is a violence that posits itself as preaccomplished, even though it is reactivated everyday. …as a general rule, there is primitive accumulation whenever an apparatus of capture is mounted…” (447).

I think the "apparatus of capture" concept is an interesting lens through which to see capitalist valorization and autovalorization, one that perhaps we can explore in future.

S