“At the dawn of the era of capitalism, when commodity production remained embedded in feudalism, many merchants established networks of disconnected peasant households desirous of extra incomes and possessing modest handiwork skills. They supplied these networks with raw materials and tools (capital), paid for the work, secured the products, and brought them to market, reaping a profit. This system of “cottage” or “putting out” commodity production was a factor in accumulating capital necessary for the later system of collecting workers under one roof, what we came to know as a manufactory, a more efficient means of commodity production. In turn, primitive manufactory, with the further accumulation of capital and revolutionary changes in the productive forces, gave rise to an even more efficient system of production by joining human labor with machinery and seemingly inexhaustible and ever-available sources of power.”

Thus, US Marxist economics commentator, Zoltan Zigedy, began his description of the essentials of a phenomenon that is taking place in the United States and other developed countries. This begins to emerge as a serious threat to the quality of life of the working class worldwide.

“Just as the modern CEO and his or her corporate courtiers have inherited the role of the early merchant-entrepreneur, today's workers are the offspring of the peasant selling labor to the incipient capitalist. Centuries after the proto-capitalism idea of putting out “jobs” to small, independent producers emerged, it has returned.”

“Twenty-first century capitalism is reviving the idea, thanks to the ubiquitous technology of the smart phone and the computer. Modern entrepreneurs link services from isolated, unrelated providers with customers via the Internet. Arrangements and payments are made through the intermediary of an entrepreneurial organization that risks little and gains much.”

As happened previously with the evolution of the factory system, capitalists today seek to achieve higher rates of profit through higher forms of organization that concentrate services.

In a short time, the new wave of service start-ups organized around a capitalist enterprise have rivaled or surpassed in revenue or usage the long-standing traditionally organized business competitors.

While their services rely upon dissociated, heterogeneous service providers, they are interlocked and dispatched with efficiency only possible with the latest technological advances.

Advances in technology have allowed a US taxi services company to spread its corporate net both nationally and internationally, creating an enterprise much broader and more flexible than existing taxicab or other vehicle livery services.

In a short time, the new wave of service start-ups have rivaled or surpassed in revenue or usage their long-standing traditionally organized business competitors.

These new companies achieve competitive advantages derived from cheaper operational costs because the bulk of their employees are informally employed or have minimalist contracts. These employees were sold the idea that they are independent contractors or corporate magnates.

Thus, these companies side-step labor regulations (historically obtained as a result of huge sacrifices by previous generations of organized labor) and set terms, working and protection conditions unilaterally determined by the capitalists CEO’s.

By using “free-lance” employees and selling the notion that they are independent contractors, “sharing economy” corporate moguls evade labor standards of any kind, depress payments on a whim, and allocate work on a totally capricious basis. As independent contractors, employees have virtually no supplemental workplace rights; the terms and conditions of employment are completely dictated by the boss.

Advocates have dubbed the new enterprises “the sharing economy,” an expression that conjures the image of a utopian New Harmony of idealistic cooperators. That would be a false image, however. The “sharing economy” is nothing more than a new phase of monopoly capitalism in the service sector. The workplace may change due to the advance of productive forces, but the exploitation typical of the capitalist mode of production remains the same.

But at the same time, this phenomenon confirms the characteristic trend of capitalism, which increasingly socializes production and services to such extremes that they become incompatible with the forms of appropriation of the results of the work. This renders essential the socialization of the system, in other words: socialism!

July 4, 2015.

- Manuel E. Yepe http://manuelyepe.wordpress.com/

A CubaNews translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann. http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs4421.html