FREE with Clara Mattei Capitalism & Slavery: The Truth They Don’t Teach You | David McNally & Clara Mattei
Sep 17, 2025
David McNally, a Marxist historian and author of "Slavery and Capitalism," joins Oklahoma legislator Michelle McCane to explore the intertwined fates of slavery and capitalism. They discuss how plantation slavery fueled global capitalism, the concept of 'legal corruption' embedded in governance, and the challenges of austerity on education funding. McNally also highlights the everyday resistance of enslaved people, while McCane sheds light on local political pressures. Together, they emphasize the importance of grassroots struggle in achieving true freedom.
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Slavery Was Integral To Capitalism
- David McNally argues slave plantations were foundational capitalist enterprises that produced global wealth for owners and Europe.
- He concludes capitalism always involves unfree labor and exploitation, not a system of pure freedom.
Wage Labor As A Form Of Unfreedom
- McNally shows capitalism's core is labor exploitation and domination, illustrated by everyday job compulsion and silence for profitability.
- He uses a restaurant-worker thought experiment to show wage labor enforces unfreedom.
Masters' Diaries Reveal Constant Resistance
- McNally recounts plantations' masters constantly complained about slaves slowing work and fleeing to forests.
- He explains enslaved people repeatedly withdrew labor, fled, and organized to reclaim time and life-making.
