In sum, the war brought about an unprecedented degree of state control over labor. In setting the price of labor, disciplining it, and controlling its supply, the Italian and British governments had exposed the profoundly political nature of the capitalist economy. No longer was surplus extraction a matter of mere economic coercion executed by the impersonal laws of the market; exploitation was now enforced by state intervention. Th is meant that surplus extraction became explicitly political, emblematically represented by the fact that Italian workers who refused to sell their labor power would be condemned to prison or to the front. Th e basis was set for those who were living through these changes to gain awareness of the link between economic power and political power. Th e full consequences were cropping up: if economic power is political, it means there is nothing natural about economic power, and the systems by which it is distributed can be changed through struggle.

Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, loc. 186