Sentence:  If laborers <WSD>are</WSD> merely commodities competing against each other in a market place like so many bags of wheat and corn ( unsupported , by the way , by any agricultural subsidy ) , then they may be pardoned for reacting with complete antagonism to a system that imposes such status upon them . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)