Abstract
In this chapter, I uncover some of the contradictions that emerge in contemporary rights language when material relations are not sufficiently perceived or acknowledged. For example, I demonstrate how rights language in response to some inequities—particularly instances of serious worker abuse—misleadingly characterizes these cases as aberrations from the “normal” wage relationship in capitalism, arguing, in effect, for a “fair” wage. I also challenge the logic of related oppositions in rights language: the “just” and the “unjust,” the “fair” and the “unfair.” I explore the extent to which rights for workers can be acquired under capitalism, a system necessarily rooted in the economic exploitation of the many by the few. Inevitably, I consider what is meant by the term “exploitation” and what happens when that term is repressed or replaced by the term “oppression.”