ndency, unequal exchange and ground rent. Theoretical reflexions form Argentina’s experience

FÉLIZ, MARIANO

Conferencia; 19th Annual Conference of Historical Materialism; 2022

Latin America’s dependency has always been tied to its place in the international division of labour. This position has created a structural ratio of unequal exchange with the core, imperialist capitalist economies. Marxian dependency theory (MDT) has explained how this process produces and reproduces super-exploitation of labour as the bases for the continual reproduction of dependency.In recent years, there has been a renewed debate as to the articulation between dependency (in the marxian sense) and the production and appropriation of ground rent from common goods and reproductive&care work. Within MDT there have been efforts to produce a new sinthesis with marxian ecology and marxian feminist economics.This article will try to present the debate in an attempt to unravel some of these issues, making theoretical arguments to be illustrated by what’s happening in Argentina in recent years. We will show how unequal exchange and ground rent are tied with the processes of super-exploitation of (paid) labour but also the super-exploitation of common goods (usually understood as ‘plundering’ or ‘saqueo’) and of unpaid labour (work in reproductive and care work). We will show how dependency is reproduced at a greater scale on these bases, and how dependency cannot be fully understood without these concepts and processes. Besides, we will explain how current tendencies in transnationalization of capital and labour are transforming the nature and form of multiple super-exploitation.