The Necromancy of Derivative Violence: Finance Capitalism, Planetary Pandemics, and Speculative Wagers on Death in the Anthropocene

Abstract

In this chapter, I introduce the concept of “derivative violence”. Building on Marx’s variable-constant capital calculus, I argue that finance capitalism profits from the premature death of workers. Entraining risk into the mathematics of profit-seeking creates a new and macabre calculus of value. The specter that haunts finance capitalism is not the vampire but the necromancer—a figure of sorcery that summons profits by calculating on the probability of the death of living labor. I begin with an overview of derivatives and how these operate as a form of violence. I next theorize how derivative thinking operates in ways that alienate the subject of insurance from the value it holds in life and death. Third, I explore how the insurance industry plays on the risks associated with meat processing and packing sites and how managers calculate on the probabilities of workers’ deaths. I conclude with a discussion of the HEAL Food Alliance and how this collective represents a new way of labor organizing that offers a path toward exorcizing the capitalist necromancer. I suggest that grassroots movements such as the HEAL Food Alliance herald efforts to de-fetishize the spellbinding effects of finance capitalism through relationalities of care and healing.