ABSTRACT
Lenin’s Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, Bukharin’s Imperialism and World Economy that were both published in 1917 as well as Rosa Luxemburg’s 1913 work The Accumulation of Capital spoke of capitalism as imperialism. It was a time of strikes for pay rises, Henry Ford’s invention of the first assembly line that laid the foundations for Fordism, World War I, trusts and monopolies, antitrust laws, the October Revolution, the Mexican Revolution, the failed German Revolution, etc. It was a time of the extension and deepening of as well as of challenges to capitalism.
This chapter first reviews the notion of the role of the international division of labour in classical concepts of imperialism. It then uses these foundations for discussing the role of the international division of labour in the production of information and information technology today and introduces in this context the notion of the international division of digital labour. The overall task is to illuminate the relationship of digital labour and imperialism.
