Martin Schiller:
What about in non-capitalist cultures? Like huntergather intertribal
warfare where slaves are taken? Do you define slavery by (the name of)
the culture that contains that activity? Or is slavery a continuous
evolving thread of human activity that deserves consideration in that
sense? And wages are part of the evolution of slavery?
LP: There was slavery in Ethiopia in the 20th century. It
was typically feudal. No commodity production was involved.
It involved curious relationships in which a slave (usually
from the south of the country) carried the rifle of his
master nobleman who rode on a horse in front of him. Slavery
in the new world was involved in commodity production
for exports. Capitalism was always a world system, just as
socialism must be.
