N.A.C.L.A. that socio-economic region which extends far beyond both sides of the border itself) has been characterized by one of 'the most spectacular migrations of workers in the history of mankind, as the process of capital accumulation and expansion in both countries has demanded the creation of an abundant, ac'êessible supply of cheap labor. While the particular process of capitalist development in the southwestern U.S. has given rise to unique historical variations, the basic phenomenon is the same as that discussed by Marx and Lenin decades ago in their studies of capitalist development in Europe. According to Marx, the process of capital accumula1'ion depended upon an ever-ready supply of labor-power, so that "great masses of men '.' could be thrown "suddenly on the decisive points [of the expanding economy] without. injury to the scale of production in other spheres ", and without raising wages (1). But the "natural increase of population" was· not always sufficient to meet the needs of production under capitalist expansion. CapitaHsm "requires for its free play an incfustrial reserve army independent of those natural limits " (2). The reserve army of labor was created by the very process of capital accumulation itself, as capital became concentrated in large corporations, allowing for the introduction of largè-scale, labor-saving technology. ln England in the 1850s, agricultural wages were rising and prices falling, so the farmers introduced more machinery, undercutting employment opportunities and wages (3). · The advent of monopolistic (as opposed to competitive) capitalism in the late 19th century, and 1its intensified penetration of the entir-e world, brought a new factor into play: mass i_mmigration from the less developed regions helped maintain a surplus population of workers for the economies of Europe. By the late 1800s, workers from Austria, ltaly, Russia, Poland and Spain flocked by the thousands into Germany, France, and the Ur:iited States where the process of capital accumulation increased the demands for labor (4). As in Europe, development of the southwestern United States 1. Karl Marx, Capital, .Vol. 1, Chapter XXV, Section 3, p. 632. International Publishers, New York, 1974. 2. Ibid. p. 635, emphasis added. 3. Ibid. p. 638. 4. 1v. 1. Lenin, lmperia/ism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism, pp. 127-128. Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1970. 82
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